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Clinton promises to WASHINGTON, Oct 20: Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that US President Bill Clinton promised her of expediting the issue of .....more Study - Indoor allergen LONDON, Oct 20: Early exposure to indoor mite and cat allergens does not cause asthma in children but they can trigger an asthma attack in people .....more Gene found that makes WASHINGTON, Oct 20: A single gene makes the malaria parasite resistant to the preferred drug used to treat it, researchers said — a finding that could....more |
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MQM slams Musharraf ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: MQM mummed the military regime for terming utterances by its leaders abroad as an "act of treachery" and said the outfit.....more India asks nuclear states UNITED NATIONS, Oct 20: India has asked the nuclear weapon states to take "immediate and urgent" steps to ......more South Asia puts women ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: A United Nations-sponsored report on social development......more |
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Clinton promises to expedite extradition of Mujibur’s killers WASHINGTON, Oct 20: Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that US President Bill Clinton promised her of expediting the issue of extradition of three killers wanted in Bangladesh in connection with the murder of her father and former Premier Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others. During a 45-minute meeting here yesterday, Clinton reiterated his sympathy for the victims, she told reporters. The three men are convicted killers and they should face justice in Bangladesh, Hasina said. The wanted men are said to be three retired Bangladeshi military officers — Col Rashid Choudhary and Majors Mohiuddin and Ahmed Sariful Hossain. Senior US officials said at least two of them came to the US when the then Bangladeshi Parliament gave them an amnesty. This was withdrawn subsequently after Hasina became Premier. The issue is now with US courts, they said. Meanwhile, a joint statement said Clinton pointed to the settlement of the Chittagong hill tracts conflict and Ganges water sharing agreement as excellent examples of the peacekeeping and dispute resolution in South Asia. He hailed Bangladesh as an important partner in regional security and peacekeeping, and noted that under Hasina’s leadership, some tensions are being eased in the region. Clinton also expressed sympathy for flood victims in Bangladesh and announced an immediate contribution of a million dollars for flood relief. (PTI) |
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Study - Indoor allergen exposure not asthma cause LONDON, Oct 20: Early exposure to indoor mite and cat allergens does not cause asthma in children but they can trigger an asthma attack in people with the disease. New research by German scientists reported in the Lancet Medical Journal found no evidence of a link between the allergens and the development of the disease. The incidence of asthma has increased by more than 50 percent in some developed countries in the last 25 years. "Exposure to environmental allergens alone probably influences the specific sensitisation but not the development of asthma," Dr Susanne Lau, of University Children’s Hospital in Berlin, said in a telephone interview. The researchers followed more than 1,314 newborns born in German cities in 1990 to determine whether exposure to indoor allergens caused the disease. They measured allergic reactions to food and inhaled allergens at regular intervals in the children’s lives and the prevalence of wheezing, a common asthma symptom. Carpet dust was also collected and analysed and family histories of allergies were also taken. By the end of the study, doctors had diagnosed 6.1 per cent of the children with asthma. Lau said that exposure to the allergens may have been an influence but it was not the major cause of the disease. "The development of asthma was not related to cat and mite allergen exposure in the first year of life or to cat ownership," Lau explained. In a commentary on the research in the lancet, Dr Roni Grad of the University of Alabama in Birmingham in the United States, said the German Research seemed to put to rest the idea that the onset of asthma is due to exposure to one or two allergens early in life. "The search must go on for answers to the important questions of what causes asthma and why the prevalence of the disease has increased so substantially," he said. Asthma is a chronic disease that causes wheezing and difficulty breathing. It affects the small tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs, which become inflamed by triggers such as colds, exercise, animals, pollen and dust mites. About 150 million people worldwide and between five and 10 percent of the population in Britain and the United States suffer from asthma. It is prevalent in industrialised countries and relatively rare in parts of China, Africa, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. (REUTERS) |
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Gene found that makes malaria resist quinine WASHINGTON, Oct 20: A single gene makes the malaria parasite resistant to the preferred drug used to treat it, researchers said — a finding that could make it easier to develop drugs to treat the infection. The discovery could also make it possible to bring back chloroquine — a cheap and effective drug that has eventually become useless in many regions around the world because of the mutated parasite. Malaria infects between 300 million and 500 million people worldwide each year and more than a million people — most of them young children — die from it each year. It is caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes. The drug chloroquine, based on the same tree-bark compound that is used in quinine, was developed as part of a crash treatment programme in the 1940s. But the parasite gradually developed resistance, and the mutant form has spread to all continents affected by malaria. "Chloroquine resistance didn’t arise until the 1950s," Dr. Thomas Wellems, chief of the malaria genetics section at the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID), said in a telephone interview. "It took a long time. That long time means it was a complicated genetic process." chloroquine-resistant malaria did not reach Africa until the 1970s, he said. Scientists thought that must mean that many different genes must be involved, and that chloroquine resistance would be a tough nut to crack. Writing in the october 20 issue of the journal molecular cell, Wellems’ team said their finding meant it might be possible to rework Chloroquine’s formula a bit so that it will work against the mutant parasite. "We know there are certain reversal agents out there that can be administered with chloroquine to give it a new lease on life," Wellems said. "A good working hypothesis is we can eventually move ahead and alter the drug chloroquine in specific ways and those may be active against specific strains." The knowledge might make it easier for doctors and researchers to pick out resistant strains in the field, as well, Wellems said. "The Department of Defence has these hand-held Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR devices, these fantastic devices that can detect anthrax in the field and so on," Wellems said. The devices use PCR to quickly grow and identify DNA — the best way of identifying a strain of bacteria, virus or parasite. "The same method can be used in drug resistance," Wellems added. "Now with this knowledge and knowing that mutations in this one gene are the core player, we can devise methods to detect chloroquine-resistant strains in the field." In place of chloroquine, doctors recommend mefloquine, sold in the U.S. under the brand name Lariam by Swiss Drugmaker Roche Roczg.S . But complaints are mounting that Lariam can cause strange psychiatric side-effects such as bizarre dreams and sleep disturbances. (REUTERS) |
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MQM slams Musharraf regime,
says there ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: MQM mummed the military regime for terming utterances by its leaders abroad as an "act of treachery" and said the outfit was peacefully protesting the "oppression" against the Mohajirs. MQM delegations recently visited several countries, including India, where the military regime says its leaders made anti-Pakistan statements. The military regime’s cabinet on Wednesday took note of MQM’s statements at different platforms. Islamabad has also sought reports from its High Commission in New Delhi about an MQM team’s official visit to the country early this month. "But when we protest against this naked oppression it is termed terrorism," English daily `Dawn’ quoted him as saying in the letter. Recalling the sacrifices of Mohajirs for the creation of Pakistan, Hussain wondered as to why their peaceful struggle for rights was labelled as treachery. He dilated upon the reasons for writing a letter to the Indian Muslims acquainting them of the hardships faced by the Mohajirs, the discriminatory stance towards them and the details of the continuing state operation against the community. Hussain, currently living in exile in Britain, warned that patience of the Mohajirs not be tested further. "There is a limit to the level of endurance," he added. (PTI) |
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India asks nuclear states
to reduce the risk UNITED NATIONS, Oct 20: India has asked the nuclear weapon states to take "immediate and urgent" steps to reduce the risk of "unintentional and accidental" use of atomic arms. "There is no justification for thousands of nuclear weapons being maintained at "hair-trigger alert", creating "unacceptable" risks, Indian Ambassador to the Geneva-based Conference on disarmament, Rakesh Sood, said. Introducing a resolution on "reducing nuclear danger" in the disarmament and International Security Committee of the Untied Nations General Assembly yesterday, he warned that keeping such weapons on hair-trigger alert could have "catastrophic consequences" for the humankind. Acknowledging that there are technical complexities involved in implementing the resolution, a ground on which nuclear weapon states and their allies oppose it, Sood said, "we believe that these can be overcome through the necessary political will." "It is accepted that the elimination of nuclear weapons under a non-discriminatory and multilaterally verifiable treaty requires complex negotiations. However, this is no justification for thousands of nuclear weapons to be maintained in a state of hair-trigger alert," he told the committee. It is imperative, he said, that "even as we work in developing requisite political will, in the interim, the international community accepts the need for urgent practical steps that will diminish the nuclear dangers." It is a fact that there have been several instances of near accidental launch, often triggered by incomplete or inaccurate assessment of available information, Sood stressed. These events demonstrate the error prone character of maintaining large arsenal in a state of high alert, he said, seeking support for the resolution. India had moved a similar resolution last year too, which received overwhelming support from the member states. This year’s resolution is co-sponsored by Bhutan, Costa Rica, Fiji, Kenya, Mauritius, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It calls on the nuclear weapons states to review their nuclear doctrines and take immediate and urgent steps to reduce the risks of unintentional and accidental use of nuclear weapons. It also calls on the member states to take necessary measures to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in all its aspects and to promote nuclear disarmament with the ultimate objective of eliminating nuclear weapons. The resolution urges the UN Secretary General to seek inputs from the Advisory Board on disarmament matters regarding specific measures that would significantly reduce the risk of nuclear war. The resolution will be discussed by the committee, which is expected to recommend it to the general assembly to adopt it. All member states are represented on the committee. (PTI) |
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South Asia puts women into
leadership but ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: A United Nations-sponsored report on social development in South Asia has highlighted how the region was contradicting itself in treating women: putting them in leadership positions although it has the world’s worst record on women’s rights and conditions. The human development in South Asia report noted that the region has produced the highest number of women leaders in the world, but that discrimination against the female gender begins "at, or even before birth". "Their (women’s) access to health, education, and other facilities lags behind that of men," pointed out the report, launched annually as an index on social development in South Asia by the Islamabad- based Non-Governmental Human Development Centre yesterday. This year’s report - launched by Dr. Nafis Sadiq, the United Nations Population Fund’s (UMPF) executive director - focussed on the status of women in the region. Last year, South Asia’s education, poverty and defence spending by countries in the region were analysed. South Asian women make up 21 per cent of the world’s female population but 44 per cent of the globe’s illiterate women live here, the report recorded. In South Asia, women have ruled in four countries: Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto as prime ministers of India and Pakistan respectively Khalida Zia in Bangladesh, where Sheikh Hasina Wajid is the incumbent president, and Chandrika Kumaratunga as president in Sri Lanka. In parts of Pakistan’s backward and conservative Southern Sindh province, a dead women is carried to her grave after dusk to avoid her being seen in public because of the tradition of Purdah or seclusion for women. In Afghanistan women have been banned from education and school by the country’s fundamentalist Taliban rulers. In the Maldives girls are 51 per cent more likely to die than boys before reaching the fifth year of their lives. In addition, the report noted discrimination against women’s right to inheritance, a wide gap in their level of literacy compared to men and a low profile in general social participation. Unless, the report warned, women are given participation, development will not come. (DPA) |
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