|
|
Police detain Sharif’s
wife, ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: The ruling military put the wife of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif under house arrest and detained scores of his party .....more
Bill Gates senior happy LONDON, Oct 12: A child who is hooked on computers, who sneaks out in the dead of night to go to the .....more Antibody firms latching LONDON, Oct 12: Monoclonal antibodies, invented 25 years ago by two researchers in Cambridge ......more |
|
Indiscriminate
use of LONDON, Oct 12: The indiscriminate post-operative use of a particularly powerful antibiotic could result in the emergence of super-bacteria, an English medical specialist said in an article in the new scientist journal.....more Clinton, Albright WASHINGTON, Oct 12: US President Bill Clinton has said that he or Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "might go" to the Middle East to find a solution to the ongoing crisis between Israel and Palestine.......more US has great expectations of ties with India: Inderfurth WASHINGTON, Oct 12: The United States has said it has "great expectations" from its closer and qualitatively new relationship with India which will take its rightful place among American foreign policy priorities in the years ahead....more North Korea, US SEOUL, Oct 12: North Korea and the United States today released a historic statement vowing to end decades of hostility and organise a visit by President Bill Clinton to the Communist State. The two sides committed themselves to intensive talks to end disputes over nuclear weapons........more |
 |
 |
Police detain Sharif’s wife, workers to prevent protests ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: The ruling military put the wife of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif under house arrest and detained scores of his party faithful to stifle protests that were to be held today to mark the one-year anniversary of army rule in Pakistan. Kulsoom Sharif was arrested late yesterday and today her spokesman, Rashid Latif, said army soldiers and police had confined her to the home of a party official in neighbouring Rawalpindi. "They want to stop us from our right to a peaceful protest because they are afraid of the people," said Rashid Latif, a spokesman for Kulsoom. In Eastern Punjab province police and troops swept through Multan and Bahawalpur areas throughout the night arresting about 65 workers of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League. Police officials in Eastern Multan said that most of the men who were arrested were members of the youth wing of Sharif’s party and would be released either tomorrow or Saturday. They said the arrests were to prevent protests. Last march the Military Government banned public protests and political meetings saying it would destabilize the country and hamper army attempts to reform the economy, electoral process and clean up the endemic corruption. But human rights groups in Pakistan and abroad have been sharply critical of the military’s approach calling it heavy handed. In a report released this week, the New York-based human rights watch accused the military of widespread human rights abuses. Much of the criticism was reserved for the military’s arrest of former politicians and officials without laying charges. Sharif and several of his closest colleagues have been in jail since the coup. Earlier this year Sharif was found guilty of hijacking and terrorism and sentenced to two concurrent life in prison terms. The prosecution is currently appealing the prison terms seeking the death sentence instead. Sharif has denied the charges that stemmed from an incident on the day of the coup, when he allegedly denied permission for a aircraft returning Army Chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf to Pakistan permission to land. The aircraft was allowed to land after the army took control but by then it had barely seven minutes of fuel remaining. Sharif’s former interior minister Shujaat Hussein, in an interview in the English-language daily newspaper The News today, said Sharif triggered the coup when he fired Musharraf and tried to replace him with a more junior general. Hussein said Sharif had been misled by his closest associates into believing that Musharraf was planning to overthrow him. (AP) |
|
Bill Gates senior happy to spend son’s cash LONDON, Oct 12: A child who is hooked on computers, who sneaks out in the dead of night to go to the computer centre and gets in with a gang who live and breathe computers, might normally be a worry to his parents. But when you are Bill Gates — and your son is Bill Gates —things work out in the end. Bill gates senior, father to the richest man in the world, says he is enormously happy in his retirement. At the age of 73 the former lawyer now dedicates much of his time to spending his son’s vast wealth in the form of donations to health and education programmes around the world. In Britain yesterday to announce a 210 million dollar scholarship fund for the Elite Cambridge University, Gates told Reuters of his memories of his son’s passion for doing "unusual things" as a child. "He had a room in the basement of the house," Gates said in an interview. "He would get up at night and leave and go to the computer centre. We didn’t know that until some years later." He describes how the young Bill Gates became fascinated with a "very, very old teletype sort of computer". "He and some of his friends used to do unusual things with it, they did the school’s schedule on it and things of that kind. These were not typical things for a kid in high school." "There was a group of his peers who were very much into — almost addicted to — using the computer. To say addiction does not go too far I don’t think. And to be honest I don’t think we were conscious at the time of how bad it was." Thirty years on, bad is hardly the word. The school schedule that Gates junior worked out on the old computer at his exclusive Seattle High School became his first commercial venture. He sold a scheduling software programme for 4,200 dollars when he was just 17. And Gates junior has left behind his childhood basement for a 20-bedroom mansion on the shores of lake Washington, complete with a 100-person dining room and its own trout stream. It cost him 50 million dollars, but that’s nothing to a man whose fortune is up to 100 billion dollars. Gates’ father says there were a few signs that his son might be above average, but no clue of what the future might hold. "There were a lot of bright kids in his class, and he was probably not the brightest. He probably got into less trouble than average for his age, but he was a pretty normal kid." "It became evident fairly early that he was surprisingly independent about things. His personal style, his convictions, the things he wrote in papers at school, indicated that he was was thinking very independently." That independence led Gates to drop out of Harvard — one of the United States’ most prestigious universities — in favour of his beloved computers. He dedicated his time to software programmes, established Microsoft in 1975 and by 1986 had become the youngest ever self-made billionaire at the age of 31. But his father insists the money has not gone to his son’s head. He lists the array of good causes to which gates, now 44, wants to offer some of his hard-earned cash. Gates senior says his son is acutely aware of the "enormous disparity in the medical treatment and prevention for disease available in the poorer world as against the development and the injustice of that. It made an impression on him," he says. As a result, Gates and his wife set up the bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, now one of the world’s richest funds, to help pay for medical research work across the world, improve health services in less developed countries and fund education scholarships like the one at cambridge. "I think what he’s doing is totally genuine. He’s getting a huge kick out of. He is enormously involved in trying to understand some of the problems that we’re trying to live with, particularly health problems," Gates father said of his son. "His motivation in doing it is quite natural. He’s very wealthy and it’s very easy for him to be able to devote resources to these kinds of thing." The father’s view of the son’s achievements — financial, charitable and personal — is simple. "Of course I am proud of him. Immensely proud." (REUTERS) |
|
Antibody firms latching on to investors: Analysis LONDON, Oct 12: Monoclonal antibodies, invented 25 years ago by two researchers in Cambridge, England, are finally coming of age. When Cesar Milstein and Georges Koehler found a way to clone a single line of antibodies — protein molecules which act as the body’s primary defence against disease — it was viewed as a curiosity. Today, it is a multi-billion dollar market and disease treatment has pushed early diagnostic uses, including pregnancy testing kits, into the shade. With genomics opening up thousands of new biological targets, eager investors are anticipating a wave of new products to treat cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease and other serious conditions. And Eager company executives are lining up to sell them their stories. Denmark’s Genmab was the latest to tap the market yesterday, raising 183 million dollars- a European biotech record — with its initial public offering. Following close behind is Dutch-based Crucell which aims to raise 150 million euros via an offer later this month to help fund its own antibody technology business. Choppy markets mean such issues may not get an easy ride. Genmab’s IPO was priced at the bottom of the indicated price range and later slipped below the issue price on the unoffical "grey" market. But the issues are going ahead when IPOs in other sectors are being pulled. Andrew Clark, fund manager at Finsbury Life Sciences in London, argues antibodies — which have been dubbed "magic bullets" for their ability to bind to highly specific cell sites — will be a cornerstone of the biotech industry this decade. "We are seeing a more sustainable biotech market today and a large part of that is due to antibodies...These things have demonstrated they can work and there are a number in late stage development that look very interesting," he said. Sales of the dozen or so existing therapeutic antibodies, including Genentech’s herceptin for breast cancer and Eli Lilly’s anti-clotting drug reopro, topped 1.3 billion dollars last year and are expected to reach 2 billion dollars in 2000. Sam Williams, a biotechnology analyst with Robertson Stephens in London, believes revenues from existing products will reach 5 billion dollars by 2005. Analysts at Ubs Warburg — sponsor to the Genmab issue —are even more bullish, predicting sales of established mabs will hit 6.2 billion dollars in five years time. But what is really exciting analysts and investors is the flood of new antibody drugs moving down the pipeline and the potential for the industry to quickly develop new mabs as gene research uncovers new targets for drug intervention. Clark thinks mabs — with their ability to target a particular biochemical mechanism far more accurately than conventional drugs — could get to market very fast. "We’re not going to see the development of traditional small-molecule drugs from genes for around ten years but we might see antibodies in five," he said. Ubs Warburg believes antibodies now account for 25 per cent of all biotech products in development and says within five years another 80 products could reach the market. Peter Allen, finance director at Celltech, thinks the dawn of the first 1 billion dollars antibody product is not far away. "Some of fastest growing drugs in the world in the last few years have been antibody products," he said. "Reopro, Remicade, Herceptin, Rituxan, Synagis are all looking to be 300 million dollars to 1 billion dollars drugs in terms of annual sales." Antibody drug optimists have been here before. In the early 1990s high hopes for the technology sent stocks soaring only for a series of setbacks — most notably in the treatment of septic shock — to bring them crashing back down. This time, however, it may be different thanks to improvements in "humanising" antibodies. First-generation mabs, derived from mouse tissue, caused adverse reactions. Today, it is possible to produce fully human antibodies using genetically engineered mice whose genes for producing mouse antibodies have been shut down and replaced with human ones. Antibody shares have been among the hottest properties on both sides of the atlantic in 2000 — although Nasdaq’s setback has taken the wind out of the market this week. Britain’s Cambridge antibody technology is up nearly sixfold this year while Celltech group is worth 2-1/2 times more than in January. U.S. Firms Medarex and Abgenix have gained 165 and 130 per cent in the year to date. (REUTERS) |
|
Indiscriminate use of
super- antibiotic could LONDON, Oct 12: The indiscriminate post-operative use of a particularly powerful antibiotic could result in the emergence of super-bacteria, an English medical specialist said in an article in the new scientist journal. "It’s a potential problem. A lot of microbiologists are concerned that vancomycin usage is like firing your last remaining bullet," David Jenkins, a clinical microbiologist at Leicester Royal Infirmary, said yesterday. "It is active against a wide range of bacteria, and until now has been regarded as one antibiotic you can rely on, but in the last three years or so there has been a growing number of reports worldwide of particular strains of bacteria that are becoming less sensitive to vancomycin," he said. Jenkins fears the prophylactic use of vancomycin could result in the emergence of deadly superbugs against which there is no defence. If a life-threatening microbe like Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) became fully resistant to vancomycin, it would prove virtually untreatable, according to Jenkins. MRSA is already a major problem in hospitals. It is resistant to methicillin and many other antibiotics, but can be defeated with vancomycin. A major difficulty was that no-one knew how many hospitals used vancomycin as a post-operative prophylactic, but it was probable that many did, Jenkins said. Three years ago MRSA bugs partly resistant to vancomycin emerged in Japan, although it is still possible to treat these microbes with the drug. Jenkins said it was wrong to assume that an antibiotic as powerful as vancomycin was necessary to protect against hospital infections. (DPA) |
|
Clinton, Albright "might go" to Middle East WASHINGTON, Oct 12: US President Bill Clinton has said that he or Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "might go" to the Middle East to find a solution to the ongoing crisis between Israel and Palestine. While speaking about the possibility of one of them visiting the Middle East, Clinton told reporters here yesterday that "maybe, in time, we will both go." He, however, said that "just another meeting" was not the key to restoring calm and reviving Isreali-Palestinian peace talks. Clinton acknowledged that the Middle East summit he hoped to hold quickly had fallen through and said "I wouldn’t overread the fact that there won’t in Egypt." He said that everything his country does should be designed towards trying to restore the peace process. "We should only focus on putting an end to the violence, keeping people alive, calming things down and getting back to the negotiating table." Stating that he had a long talk with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan about the crisis, Clinton said "we have been working together in an attempt to make sure we have got a substantial calm there." "We have to reach an agreement on this fact-finding effort to determine what happened and how to keep it from happening again, and I think we can do that," Clinton added. About his peacemaking efforts, he said: "We are in this for the long haul. We have been from the beginning, and we will stay." (PTI) |
|
US has great expectations of ties with India: Inderfurth WASHINGTON, Oct 12: The United States has said it has "great expectations" from its closer and qualitatively new relationship with India which will take its rightful place among American foreign policy priorities in the years ahead. "India and the US, as two great democracies, have always had the potential to be, in Mr A B Vajpayee’s words, `Natural Allies.’ What is new is that, both Governments are now acting to fulfil that potential," US Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth said. "India is today an emerging economic and political player on the world stage... It promises to take its rightful place high on the scale of American foreign policy priorities in the years ahead," he wrote in an article in the Baltimore Sun newspaper. This change in the Indo-US relationship, said Inderfurth, "is a significant part of redefining our overall foreign policy for the 21st century." He said this change was in the larger national interests of the US and enjoyed broad support across the political spectrum in both countries. Inderfurth described India as an increasingly important partner for the US on a whole range of crucial issues — from cutting edge technological cooperation to common cause against the age-old ills of disease and poverty or the new scourges of international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Inderfurth said the exchange of two visits by US President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee over six months had helped to institutionalise the new partnership in ways that will help paying valuable diviends over the long-term. "Some of the progress in Indo-US relations is spearheaded, as it should be, "not by our Governments but by our private sectors and by the thriving Indian-American community," he said. He noted that for the first time, Indian and American experts were teaming up to counter threats from international terrorism. And "our senior officials are discussing India’s major contribution to international peacekeeping, to keep today’s trouble spots from becoming tomorrow’s crises." He reiterated the US policy of urging both pakistan and India to observe the "four R’s" (restraint, respect for the Line of Control in Kashmir, rejection of violence and renewal of dialogue) articulated by clinton during his visits to India and Pakistan. "We will continue working to ease tensions and reduce the nuclear threat in this vital part of the world, and we will continue looking for opportunities, as our common interests and values suggest, to strengthen our ties with every nation in the region," he said. In short, in Asia, as elsewhere, the US pursued its relationship with each country based on its own merits, he added. (PTI) |
|
North Korea, US vow to end hostility SEOUL, Oct 12: North Korea and the United States today released a historic statement vowing to end decades of hostility and organise a visit by President Bill Clinton to the Communist State. The two sides committed themselves to intensive talks to end disputes over nuclear weapons, terrorism and security that have made the Korean peninsula the world’s last cold war frontier. It was the most important declaration since they fought each other in the 1950-53 Korean war which has never been officially ended. The United States still has 37,000 troops based in South Korea to guard against any new invasion. The joint statement was reported by North Korea’s state media today ahead of its release in Washington, where a top North Korean envoy has held talks this week with Clinton and other top US officials. The two sides agreed that improved relations were needed to ensure peace between North and South Korea and in the Asia-pacific region, said a version of the statement reported by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). "As the first important step both sides declared that any of the two Governments entertains no hostile intention toward the other and affirmed the commitment to make all efforts to establish new relations free from past antagonism," said the KCNA version of the statement. "Both sides agreed to strive to preserve the atmosphere helpful to removing distrust, achieving mutual confidence and handling in a constructive manner issues of primary concern," it added. The rivals agreed to work to find ways to formally end the 1950-53 Korean war with a full peace treaty. Moves toward a treaty have also been made by South Korea since a historic Korean summit in June, which has dramatically improved the atmosphere on the peninsula. US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has already announced she will visit Pyongyang to meet the North’s supreme leader Kim Jong-Il. The other surprise from the statement was that she will organise a Clinton trip. "It was agreed that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will visit the DPRK (North Korea) in the near future in order to directly convey President Bill Clinton’s views to Kim Jong-Il, chairman of the National Defense Commission of DPRK, and make arrangements for the President’s visit," said the statement. (AFP) |
|
|
|
