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student chosen as finalist in worldwide internet challenge ARMONK, NEW YORK, Nov. 10: Debangsu Sengupta, a 17 year Indian high school student, and his team, reached a significant plateau in the third annual Think Quest Internet Challenge. ......more Scientists
isolates human |
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Khan
accuses ISI of political role ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: Pakistan’s retired Air Marshal Asghar Khan has accused the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), of a political role and demanded the organisation be taken away from the Prime Minister’s control. ......more Tibetans are victims of rights violations: Lama WASHINGTON, Nov 10: The Dalai Lama has said that Tibetans in his Himalayan homeland are "victims of human rights violations," because Chinese officials jail monks and nuns for publicly seeking.......more UN approves draft calling Israel to accede to NPT UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10: The United Nations disarmament an intenational security has approved a draft resolution which calls on Israel to accede to the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and not to develop, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons. ...more Plan to promote Buddhism COLOMBO, Nov 10: The first ever international
Buddhist conference currently underway in Colombo would
work out a comprehensive action plan for the countries
professing the religion to promote Buddhism in the next
millennium........more DHAKA, Nov 9: Thailand’s prompt extradition of a former army officer to face execution raised hopes today of bringing home more fugitives from the United States and Canada who were sentenced to death for plotting the 1975 assassination ......more |
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| Scientists
isolates human cells that grow into all tissues WASHINGTON, Nov 10: Scientists have achieved one of the most sought after goals in biological sciences by isolating primordial human cells that can grow into all kinds of tissue like muscle, bone and brain, reports ‘Science.’ The prestigious international scientific journal ‘Science,’ in its latest issue said human embroynic cells, the premordial cells that give rise to all specialised tissues in a developing embryo, were isolated and cultured — offering possibilities for growing fresh tissues for people with various diseases. The discovery, seen as a parallel to the pioneering scientific achievement in somatic cells cloning done some months ago, also threatens to reopen the debate over human cloning since it offers an easy way of growing replacement cells which can be transplanted to humans. The Embryonic Stem Cells (ES), as they are called, could help scientists grow tissue like bone marrow cells for cancer patients, neurons for patients afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease and pancreatic cells for diabetics. The replacement of such cells could offer lifelong treatment to the patients. The discovery, viewed as a potential biotechnology goldmine, was reported by a team of scientists led by James A Thomson at the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Centre, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. The scientists said "the ES cells should offer insights into developmental events that cannot be studied directly in the intact human embryo but that have important consequences in clinical areas, including birth defect, infertility and pregnancy loss." Experiments based on es cells could also help identify gene targets for new drugs. The Washington Post Daily also reported that another group of scientists working on the subject were successful and would publish their results in today’s issue of the ‘proceedings of the national academy of sciences.’ It said both the teams had worked independently of each other. Already researchers have used the ES cells to grow human heart muscle cells that beat in unision in a laboratory dish as well as blood cells, blood vessel cells, bone, cartilage, neurons and skeletal muscle. Scientists said the ES cells might make it easier to engineer babies because a single "specially endowed stem cell injected into a developing embryo will divide and spread its endowment throughout the developing foetus." The ES cells are controversial because they offer embryologists a comparatively simpler way of creating designer babies bearing specific traits which could be passed on to next generations. The paper also reported that the new work has "reignited a smouldering debate" over a four-year-old congressional ban on the use of federal funds for human embryo research. With the therapeutic potential of embryonic cells suddenly very real, advocates are calling for re-examination of that ban, saying the development of life-saving applications will be affected if Government funding remains off-limits. Both the teams worked in privately-funded laboratories. (UNI) |
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| Most Britons want queen to
remain monarch: Poll LONDON, Nov 10: Most Britons do not think Queen Elizabeth II should abdicate the thrown to allow her oldest son, Prince Charles, to become king, according to two polls. A Mori Poll commissioned for the Tabloid the Daily Mail and GMTV channel found that 67 per cent believe the queen should remain the monarch for the rest of her life, the paper said yesterday. The Poll also found that Britain is more supportive of the relationship between the prince and his longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles. Only ten per cent said they should split up, the newspaper said. "The good news for Charles and Camilla is the highest-ever level of support for them to conduct their relationship in public and eventually to marry," the daily mail said. But the Tabloid also reported that eight of ten Britons do not want Mrs Parker Bowles to become queen. The prince, who celebrates his 50th birthday on Saturday, has enjoyed increased popularity in the year after princess Diana’s fatal car crash in Paris. The Mori Poll was based on interviews with 1,019 adults between November 5 and 6. The newspaper did not give a margin of error. Meanwhile, another Poll published yesterday by the Daily Telegraph mirrored these results. It found that 66 per cent of Britons were against the idea of the queen abdicating. That poll was based on interviews with 1,036 people. (AP) |
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| US SC rejects White House
appeal WASHINGTON, Nov 10: The US Supreme Court has rejected White House and Clinton administration appeals arguing that Presidential lawyers and bodyguards should be shielded from testifying to the Monica Lewinsky grand jury. In two important cases, the High Court yesterday allowed secret service officers to disclose what they learn while protecting President Bill Clinton and said White House lawyer Bruce Lindsey may be questioned about conversations with Clinton. By a 7-2 vote, the court rejected the White House argument that attorney-client privilege bars Lindsey’s testimony and denied the administration’s request to create a new privilege to protect the bodyguards from answering questions. The two cases were among the most bitterly fought legal battles during independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation of whether Clinton had an affair with the former White House intern lewinsky and lied about it under oath. While the court’s action has little practical impact for Starr’s investigation as he already has submitted a report to Congress listening possible impeachable offences by Clinton, the cases involved important legal principles and may be cited in the future. Although not a ruling on the merits, the court’s rejection of the two appeals drew impassioned dissents from Clinton’s only two appointees on the tribunal — Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (REUTERS) |
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| US puts Afghanistan at top
of oppressor states list UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10: Urging the world to keep fighting for human rights, the United States has put Afghanistan at the top of its list of oppressor states followed by Myanmar, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan and Iraq. Deputy US Ambassador Peter Burleigh yesterday also denounced human rights violations by the "dictatorial executive" in Belarus, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, the Croatian Government, and all parties involved in fighting in the great lakes region of Africa. In the 50th anniversary year of the universal declaration of human rights, Mr Burleigh lamented that genocide, slavery, racial warfare and the brutal oppression of minorities and dissenters were still widespread. And he decried a recent report by UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson who said violations continue to dominate the international agenda and the international community often appears unwilling or unable to act. Declaring that the United States is well aware of its own shortcomings, Mr Burleigh pledged that the United States will continue fighting for human rights at home and abroad and will eventually triumph. "It may often be difficult, but the cause is too great," he said in a speech to a general assembly committee. "The world together must continue to fight for human rights for all." In Afghanistan, the United States is concerned about reports of ethnic-based mass arrests and executions, rape and abuses against women, religious persecution, and the slaughter of Shiite minorities and killing of Iranian diplomats in the Northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Mr Burleigh said. Stressing that women and girls are Afghanistan’s silenced, not silent majority, he said: The world simply will not accept a Government that denies women their human rights, including access to education, health care and employment. The people of Myanmar, formerly Burma, continue to suffer under one of the most repressive authoritarian military regimes in the world whose human rights record is dismal, Mr Burleigh said. He called on the military Government to enter a meaningful dialogue with Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, whose national league for victory in 1990 parliamentary elections. North Korea’s notoriously poor human rights record has not improved this year and Pyongyang’s failure to provide even the most basic sustenance for its people is linked to its repressive regime, Mr Burleigh said. In the nine months since Pope John Paul II visited Cuba, he said, some 30 dissidents and human rights defenders have been detained or arrested, a number of independent journalists have been tried, and freedom of speech, Assembly and association remain severely restricted. The already unacceptable human rights record in the great lakes region of Africa further deteriorated since hostilities broke out in August, Mr Burleigh said. Thousands of civilians have already been killed. Ethnic minorities have been rounded up and detained. There has been torture, summary execution, lack of access by the International Red Cross, and the threat of genocide. Again, he said. In Mudan, Burleigh said, 15 years of civil war have left nearly two million people dead, mainly innocent civilians. And some of the most egregious violations of human rights in the world today continue, seemingly unnoticed and often unreported. Famine and rape are used as weapons of war, Mr Burleigh said, and there are credible reports of slavery including the abduction of 400 children from Bahrel gazal in April by armed men in Sudanese uniforms. In Iraq, freedom of thought, religion and movement don’t exist, waves of summary executions have continued, and there is no protection from arbitrary arrest, torture and imprisonment, he said. Mr Burleigh cited several examples of progress on human rights this year in Bosnia where participation in democratic Government is rapidly expanding and in Nigeria where Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar has released political prisoners and promised presidential elections next year. "While China has taken several positive steps toward the development of greater respect for human rights," he said, Beijing still sharply limits discussion of political change and does not tolerate organised opposition to the Communist Party. Mr Burleigh said the United States was also encouraged that Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami sought to advance the rule of law and international dialogue. But he said Teheran’s actual record remains troubling, citing the arbitrary shutdown of publications, minority persecutions, and disavowals of the government’s decision to distance itself from the bounty on Salman Rushdie’s life. (AP) |
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