Australia seeks medicines breakthrough from flies

SYDNEY, Oct 1 : If flies are happy gorging on dung and rotting flesh, they must surely have powerful inbuilt resistance to infection.

Following this theory, a team of Australian scientists is working to produce revolutionary new antibiotics, made from flies and other creepy crawlies, to replace the antibiotics that infections are rapidly developing resistance against.

"We ask the question, ‘where would antimicrobials have evolved naturally’?" Macquarie University Professor Andy Beattie told media. "We’re looking at something totally different."

This is the first time flies had been specifically targeted for pharmaceutical products, said beattie, whose work is even drawing support from competitors.

Macquarie University’s work was scientifically "perfectly valid", said Dr Stephen Trowell, chief scientific officer of Entocosm Pty Ltd.

Entocosm, recently established by the Australian Government-backed Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to produce a wide range of therapeutic drugs from the virtually untapped source of insects, was also producing "some very exciting results", he said.

Harvesting antibiotics from flies is one of many possibilities suggested by Beattie’s targeted research approach.

He thought that insects which live in highly organised societies, like humans, might have stronger defence mechanisms.

Research proved him right. He now has a patent on antibiotics from bull ants, a large aggressive Australian ant.

On similar reasoning, spider webs, pieces of pure protein dangling in the air, may contain super defences, he said.

So might nectar, which plants have to defend against contamination so they can attract pollinators.

"There’s some evidence for that too," Beattie said.

Beattie is still waiting for a commercial go-ahead for his bull ant antibiotic. Whether it might be targeted against specific diseases or used as a general antiseptic would depend on drug companies, he said. One of the great strengths of the research on flies was that it focused on entirely novel molecules, Beattie said.

"The problem with most of the antibiotics on the market is they’re chemically related. Evolution of resistance to one means the evolution of cross-resistance," he said.

Entocosm says four million species of insects are a virtually untouched potential source of antibiotics, anti-cancer agents, blood thinners, and other therapeutic substances.

Beattie said it was too early to say if the research team, led by Joanne Clarke and financially backed by drug giant Glaxo Smith Kline, would lead to a patent on antibiotics extracted from the flies using solvents.

"(But) we certainly get a lot of antimicrobial activity." commercial production of fly antibiotics could be 10 years away because of drawn-out drug company procedures, Beattie said.

But preliminary work had shown the compounds produced by flies were active against bacteria including the deadly "superbug" golden staph, which is infesting hospitals around the world, and the common gut bug, e coli.

Clarke’s work has shown the antibiotics are produced by the flies during their larval and adult stages, when they live and eat in dirty environments. But they are not produced during the middle stage, as pupae, when they have a protective casing.

Australia was at the forefront of scientific work on producing antibiotics from insects because of the huge diversity of insects in the country, Trowell said. (AGENCIES)

Israelis, Palestinians target children-amnesty

LONDON, Oct 1: Children are bearing the brunt of violence in the West Asia where both Israel’s military and Palestinian armed groups have killed children with impunity, Amnesty International has said in a report.

The report by the London-based Eights Watchdog also urged both sides to punish those responsible.

"Children are increasingly bearing the brunt of this conflict. Both the Israeli defence force (IDF) and Palestinian armed groups show an utter disregard for the lives of children and other civilians," it said yesterday.

The report said the Israeli army had failed to punish soldiers who responded to stone-throwing children with "unlawful and excessive use of lethal force" at demonstrations.

More than 250 Palestinian children have been killed in the current uprising which began in September 2000, including 80 in the first three months alone, it said.

Palestinian leaders had also failed to rein in militant groups who deliberately kill children and other civilians, Amnesty said. More than 70 Israeli children have died, most of them killed by Palestinian suicide bombers.

"Both the Israeli Government and the Palestinian authority must act swiftly and firmly to investigate the killing of each and every child and ensure that all those responsible for such crimes are brought to justice," Amnesty said.

It also called for international observers in the region, saying their presence might "have saved the lives of Israeli and Palestinian children as well as other civilians".

Israel rejects the need for international observers. Acting Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat told media he "fully put the blame on the tragic death of Palestinian and Israeli children on the Israeli occupation...Which is evil in itself."

"We hope that the international community will listen to Amnesty’s calls to provide international monitors. They are the key to security in the region."

Israeli officials said it was wrong to compare the behaviour of their army, using force to quell demonstrations, with bombers who deliberately target civilians.

"We are under attack, and we are defending ourselves, and it is unavoidable that people get killed in self-defence. We are very sorry about that," Cabinet Minister Yitzhak Levy said on Israeli television.

"But there is no comparing the morality of the Israeli army to the immorality of the terrorist groups."

Levy said military prosecutors were investigating reports of excessive force by the army, but had not found evidence that rules were broken.

"I think that the army prosecutor’s office is addressing this issue. I do not think it is being ignored. True, we have not heard of anyone being prosecuted, and perhaps no one has been found guilty. But we are hearing how the army prosecutor’s office is always investigating incidents," he said. (AGENCIES)

Musharraf asks foreign poll monitors to confine their task

ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: Piqued by observations by EU poll monitors questioning the credibility of Pakistan’s general elections, President Pervez Musharraf has asked the observers to restrict their role to monitoring the elections and avoid making remarks on the political environment.

Taking a serious view of the reported EU observations questioning the legality of barring former Premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from contesting polls, Musharraf said they should confine themselves to monitoring polls and refrain from making political comments.

"They did not know about the political culture of the country and see Pakistani political culture from the eyes of the British system," he was quoted as telling reporters in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) yesterday.

He said the Government has extended full assistance to international observers during their visit to any polling station throughout the country. "We have assured them of security on election day and the army would also be involved in their security so that they could visit the polling station anywhere in the country."

Musharraf said besides poll monitors from EU, Commonwealth and other countries, the Japanese Premier has also shown interest to send a team of observers for monitoring the elections.

"The Japanese team is likely to arrive before the election and we will also provide them with all assistance to monitor the elections throughout the country," he said. Meanwhile, the EU observers team headed by John Cushnahan has clarified that what was published in the Pakistan media two days was not an interim report but part of "briefing".

In a statement here last night the EU delegation said "it is part of the ongoing briefing of the EU Commission in Brussels in which we convey the concerns that have been expressed to us during the course of our observation.

"At this stage, the EU election observers mission has not come to any conclusions on these issues. Our conclusions will not be finalised until we have had the opportunity to carry out a full de-briefing of our entire observer team, following the completion of the poll count," it said.

Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Commonwealth observer group, Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Tan Sri Dato Maso Bin Hitam said Commonwealth could use their report on Pakistan polls as a feedback to decide about readmitting Islamabad back to the grouping.

Asked whether the Government had provided them security and if they were satisfied with the arrangement, he said "we have hired the services of a private security firm for our security. We will be only observing and not interfering in the poll process... But since we have come we have been looked after pretty well."

On why the Commonwealth chose to ignore the monitoring of elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Hitam said the Pakistan Government had invited them. "We only go where we are invited. Support of all political parties is an important ingredient in this regard." (PTI)

US discusses Iraq draft with non-permanent members of UNSC

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 1: While asking UN inspectors to put on hold their mission to Iraq until the UN Security Council completed its deliberations on the new inspection regime, the US and Britain extensively briefed, for the first time, ten non-permanent members of UNSC on their resolution that would give them virtually a free hand to attack Iraq.

US envoy James Cunningham and British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock yesterday briefed the ten non-permanent members who could play a major role if other permanent members decided to abstain when the resolution was put to vote.

However, diplomats said today the briefing left many unconvinced who questioned the provisions which in effect would give USA and UK the power to decide when Iraq has violated the Council resolutions and go ahead with the military action.

While it is unclear as to when the resolution would be actually introduced in the Council and the draft has not been officially released its main elements are known.

The main objection of the opponents to the resolution is to the provision which authorizes any member to use "all necessary means" - euphemism for use of force - to enforce its provision.

That, diplomats said, means that once the resolution is adopted, the US could decide any time that Iraq is not complying and take military action.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the UN inspectors, discussing the arms inspection with the Iraqis in Vienna, should "wait and see" the deliberations on the proposed inspection4 km from here, is the headquarters of the Buddhist Karma Kagyu sect headed by the Karmapa. It is a tourist spot frequented by domestic and foreign tourists.

The minister claimed that the Government had sanctioned money for carpeting, widening and drainage of the Rumtek road long ago but for it could not be completed on time.

Commenting on the first day talks between the Iraqi side and UN inspection team in Vienna, Powell told a TV channel, "chief UN chief inspector has done a very good job in pulling together a team of inspectors ready to go to Iraq.

"But I think he will have to wait and see whether or not the UNSC comes up with a new guidance or additional resolutions require him to modify his plan," Powell said late last night.

Significantly, US’ proposed resolution on Iraq does not talk about ‘regime change’ - toppling of President Saddam Hussein - but American diplomats said that could be factored in at a later stage.

It proposes a seven-day deadline for Iraq to accept the resolution and 30-day deadline to declare all its weapons of mass destruction.

It lays down that any of the five permanent members could seek inspection of a site and be represented on the inspection team. Besides, it would provide security guards protect inspectors at their base.

The US and UK also began discussions with Russia, France and China to discuss the draft in a bid to make them fall in line for smooth passage of the resolution.

France, which advocates a two-resolutions approach, is also said to have prepared its own draft but has not yet circulated it and its contents are not known.

But diplomats said France wants the first draft to demand that Iraq comply with all security council resolutions and warn it that the council would consider all measures to force baghdad comply with them if inspectors report non-compliance.

The second resolution would authorize military action if

The briefing to the ten, who unlike the permanent members do not have veto, came amidst vocal complaints by them that they are being ignored by the United States and Britain.

Their diplomats said they came to know about the contents of the resolution from media reports rather than from USA and UK as should have been the case.

The ten non-permanent members could play a major role if France, Russia or China or any of them decided to abstain.

The US will need a minimum of nine votes to get the resolution through the 15-member council.

The ten include Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Guinea, Ireland, Mauritius, Mexico, Norway, Singapore and Syria.

Out of them, Syria, Iraq’s neighbour, is highly critical of the resolution and opposes any military action. (PTI)

Milosevic behind Yugoslav break up, Croat leader says

THE HAQUE, Oct 1: The first head of state to testify at Slobodan Milosevic’s war crimes trial accused him today of engineering the break up of Yugoslavia and using the army to seize croat land in the pursuit of a "greater Serbia".

Croatian president Stjepan Mesic, who took over the rotating Yugoslav Presidency in July 1991, said Milosevic invoked the threat of war in his plan to "restructure" Yugoslavia.

The former Serbian President faces 61 charges, including genocide, in this key Bosnia and Croatia stage of the biggest international war crimes trial in Europe since Hitler’s henchmen were tried at Nuremberg.

"I’m quite certain that Milosevic did not favour any kind of Yugoslavia that was federal or confederal. What he was interested in was a greater Serbia built on the ruins of Yugoslavia," Mesic, 67, told the UN International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in the Hague.

Prosecutors accuse 61-year-old Milosevic of genocide in Bosnia and crimes against humanity in Croatia in a scheme to create an ethically pure greater Serbia in the early 1990s.

The court heard minutes from a 1991 meeting of the rotating federal presidency in which then-president mesic — who held the Yugoslav post for just a few months before resigning — warned of Serbian imperialism.

"Gentlemen what they want is territory. They want to grab Croatian land and trick the army into doing it for them," prosecutor Geoffrey nice quoted mesic as saying during the meeting with representatives of the army and the five other Yugoslav Republics.

"Croatian villages have been burned and cleansed. Territory is being seized," Mesic was quoted as saying. Milosevic, forsaking a United Yugoslavia for the creation of a Serbian state, approved Slovenian and Croatian secession as part of plans to carve the country along ethnic lines, mesic said.

"Milosevic said let slovenia go. We know why he said that because there were no indigenous serbs in Slovenia. He said let Croatia also leave yugoslavia but not those serbs who want to remain in Croatia," Mesic, dressed in a dark suit and striped tie, said.

He said Milosevic planned that Croatian territory on which serbs lived would remain in Yugoslavia, and said the Serb leader deceived the world with his plans and even Serbs in Croatia.

"The Serbs in Croatia were only needed to ignite the fuse in order for the war be transferred to (neighbouring) Bosni Herzegovina. With regard to Croatia whatever territory could be wrested from it would be joined to greater Serbia," Mesic said.

Contained in the indictment against Milosevic is the notorious 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe’s worst atrocity since world war two where up to 8,000 muslim men and boys were killed after Serb forces overran the UN "safe area" in Bosnia.

Prosecutors at the UN court last month wrapped up their case on Kosovo, where milosevic and former aides are accused of expelling almost one third of the Albanian population from the disputed Serbian province.

Milosevic was Yugoslav leader during the Kosovo conflict, but experts say convicting him for the Bosnian and Croatian conflicts, when he was Serb leader, will be tough. (AGENCIES)

Paris bomb trial starts amid UK extradition spat

PARIS, Oct 1: Two Algerians accused of a 1995 bombing campaign in Paris that killed eight and wounded nearly 200 stood trial today, but judges postponed the court case of a third suspect after Britain refused his extradition.

Smain Ali Belkacem and Boualem Bensaid, already serving jail terms here on terrorism-related charges, are suspected of using home-made bombs to target civilians at train stations in one of the most deadly bombing campaigns to hit post-war france.

Belkacem and Bensaid, both 34, stood in court as charges of murder, attempted murder and having links to terrorist groups were read out. They face possible life imprisonment.

The trial hearings are due to finish October 31.

Judges at the court in paris postponed the trial of a third suspect, 33-year-old Rachid Ramda, after London’s High Court of justice in June overturned approval for his extradition given by the British Government.

Investigators believe Ramda provided logistical support and financing for three attacks, including one in July 1995 in a commuter train at the Saint Michel Station in central Paris that killed eight people and wounded 150. The two ex-GIA leaders presumed to have ordered the attacks, Djamel Zitouni and Ali Touchent, have both since been killed in fighting between Algerian Government forces and Islamic rebels.

Bensaid denies the accusations while Belkacem, in his only pre-trial statement to court so far, said in 1999: "If you call the Jihad ("holy war") terrorism, and Islam a criminal organisation, then I am proud to be among them."

Ramda’s case has been a hot potato for London and Paris since his arrest in Britain in November 1995.

After a six-year battle — and just three weeks after the September 11 attacks on the United States — Britain’s home office said it would approve Ramda’s extradition, a move hailed as the start of a new era of cross-border crimefighting.

Yet London’s High Court of justice overturned that approval in June, saying that evidence submitted in initial hearings raised questions over the fairness of the extradition decision. A separate British Court will review that ruling November 23.

The wrangle has given rise to impatience in France, where there is a tradition of politicians expecting to exert influence on the judicial process.

"I strongly regret that Britain has not taken the decision to extradite one of the accomplices in this case. I hope we will not wait indefinitely," Perben said last week.

One French anti-terrorist magistrate speaking on condition of anonymity was more pointed.

"London doesn’t want to send Ramda because it doesn’t want problems with the radical Islamists on its soil," said the Magistrate, complaining Britain turned a blind eye to radical Islamist leaders who openly preached war against the west.

Britain’s policy of keeping Islamic radicals under surveillance but letting them meet freely and speak openly has led scornful French commentators to refer to the British capital as "Londonistan." (AGENCIES)

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