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Pak backing Taliban to gain strategic depth over India WASHINGTON, Nov 1: Pakistan is backing the violent and fundamentalist ....more Scientists
discover GEOTTINGEN, Nov 1: A protein that only occurs in the brain can trigger ..more LONDON, Nov 1: You are what you eat, they say. Seldom in history has....more |
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AIDS will be a national LONDON, Nov 1: India, currently accounting for 8.5 million AIDS cases, will face a national calamity unless we come out of our smugness on the issue, Indian High Commissioner to London Lalit Mansingh has warned....more Sunken
gold lost for LONDON, Nov 1: It was the Titanic of the 19th century and a salvage miracle 100 years later......more Pak
nominates new ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: Pakistan’s military Government has nominated Maleeha Lodhi, a newspaper editor, as the country’s new Ambassador to the United States, official sources said today.....more |
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Pak backing Taliban to gain strategic depth over India WASHINGTON, Nov 1: Pakistan is backing the violent and fundamentalist Taliban militia in Afghanistan to give its Army strategic depth in its ongoing conflict with India over Kashmir, a leading US magazine has said. Both Pakistan and the Taliban now are deeply involved in Kashmir and the former cannot abandon the student militia without affecting the Kashmir cause it espouses even if it wishes to, the Foreign Affairs Magazine said in a special article recently. Islamabad believes that the Taliban will be a powerful ally against India in Kashmir, it said. The Taliban, the Deobandi Groups in Pakistan (the school of thought which follows Islamic precepts which originated in Deoband but which has now become fundamentalist) and Osama Bin Laden are also supporting the Kashmiri militants, it said. Pakistan, therefore, cannot drop its support for Taliban, the article by the far Eastern Economic Review’s Central Asia correspondent, who has covered Afghanistan for the last two years, said. More and more Pakistani and Arab recruits are being sent to Kashmir turning it into a Taliban show, it said. The longer this goes on, the less chance there will be that the issue will ever be peacefully resolved. Day by day, the danger grows for Pakistan, Kashmir and India, it said. (PTI) |
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Scientists discover cancer-triggering brain protein GEOTTINGEN, Nov 1: A protein that only occurs in the brain can trigger cancer if it malfunctions, a team of medics from the Max Planck Institute for experimental medicine in Goettingen, Northern Germany, has found. "If the protein occurs outside the brain, it triggers an uncontrolled division of cells, in other words cancer," Professor Walter Stuehmer said. Mr Stuehmer and his colleague Luis Pardo claim to have identified for the first time ever the role played by an ion channel in the emergence of cancer. The identified protein, EAG, functions in the brain as a channel that steers the flow of potassium particles through the nerve-cell coating. The two experts say that in a few years’ time their findings could lead to improvements in the early recognition and treatment of breast cancer. "The advantage is that EAG only occurs in the brain. If we find it somewhere else in the body, it is likely to indicate the presence of cancer," explained Mr Stuehmer, who is head of the Department of Molecular Biology of Neuronal Systems. Blocking the EAG proteins with medication could substantially reduce the rate at which tumour cells divide. Such drugs, he said, had few side-effects because they were targeted to attack only the tumour cells. The brain and its EAG proteins are protected by the blood-brain barrier which prevents alien substances from entering the central nervous system. It is not known why the protein suddenly appears in other parts of the sick person’s body. It was originally discovered during experiments on the drosophila fruit fly. Later, experts identified it in rats and humans. In experiments on genetically modified mice it was found that outside the brain the EAG proteins multiply extremely rapidly. "Mice tumours grew much faster when the tumour cells produced the EAG protein," said Mr Pardo. The Max Planck Institute has been investigating the protein for the last two years, in collaboration with cancer experts from Goettingen University Hospital. Their trailblazing discovery has been patented, but Mr Stuehmer says that clinical trials on humans are still a long way off. An ion channel facilitates communication between nerve cells. Among other things, it passes on rapid neural impulses. It also plays a role in the constant renewal processes of body tissue, in which specific messenger substances and control mechanisms ensure a finely tuned balance between the division and death of cells. Once this balance is lost, there is a risk of cancer. In other words, malfunctioning components such as the EAG protein can trigger cancer. The EAG protein was named after initial experiments on the drosophila fruit fly. It was found that a combination of ether and the absence of the protein led the fly to twitch rhythmically, a phenomenon which the scientists christened Ether-A-Go-Go (EAG). (DPA) |
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LONDON, Nov 1: You are what you eat, they say. Seldom in history has eating been the mere intake of food in the form of carbohydrates, fats and calories. For thousands of years the appetising look and smell of carefully prepared dishes has encouraged people to eat what is good - and bad - for them. Some time ago, however, the food industry in Western industrial countries discovered a new way of attracting consumers - functional food. In other words, food that not only tastes good and fills you up but does you good as well. It began with reduced-calorie, reduced-sugar "diet" products. These, however, no longer find so much favour with customers, the german society for consumer research has found. For example, in 1992 30 per cent of the soft drinks sold in Germany were of the "diet" variety, but the figure is now closer to 23 per cent. Increasingly, health rather than slimness is the promise of many products found on supermarket shelves. A trend that is to be welcomed, no doubt. Though the advertising for new products often makes them sound more like medicines than foods, functional food, often with additives claimed to promote health, have certainly taken off in Germany and other European countries. Last year, around four billion marks (around 2.2 billion dollars) was spent on them in Germany alone. And yet the health-promotion claims are vague, to say the least. Probiotic bacterial cultures in yoghourt are said to "exert a positive influence on the intestinal flora," roughage to improve digestion, vitamins to strengthen the immune system. In Germany at least, the vagueness is deliberate. Manufacturers would not get away with more specific statements, because claiming that a product gave protection from illness would classify the product as a medicine. According to German drugs law, its quality, effectiveness and safety would then have to be proven in proper trials. In fact, it would have to undergo the same licencing procedure as any other drug. In short, nobody can claim that a new food product provides protection against illness. Anyone, however, can print packaging that says something is good for your health. And that precisely is the problem, says Helmut Streit, Director of the Chemical Testing Agency (Chemisches Untersuchungsamt) in Mainz. "Consumers are steam-rollered with advertising and have very little opportunity to inform themselves properly," he said. Supplements and additives were not automatically a good thing. "We must not forget that normal food law stipulates that food-stuffs have to be safe," said Rolf Grossklaus of the Federal Institute for Consumer health protection and veterinary medicine (Bundesinstitut fuer gesundheitlichen verbraucherschutz und veterinaermedizin) in Berlin. But is it safe simply to enrich foodstuffs with substances that are thought to or proven to have a positive effect? not necessarily, said Professor Guenther Wolfram of Munich Technical University. As an example, he cited manufacturers’ present fondness for adding the anti-oxidant vitamins A, C and E to various products. Many people believe that beta carotin, a vitamin a derivative, reduces the risk of lung cancer. However, a finnish study found that supplementing the diet of a group of long-term smokers with beta carotin did nothing to reduce the rate of lung cancer occurrence. On the contrary, the rate was eighteen per cent above the average. Other studies found beta carotin to be neutral in its affect on lung cancer incidence. In other words, said Wolfram, no conclusions about the benefits of adding anti-oxidant vitamin supplements to food could be drawn from epidemiological studies. Experts are equally cautious in their assessment of the so-called probiotic bacteria cultures increasingly added to yoghourt. They contain cultures of bacteria that naturally occur in the human intestine, above all lactobacillus acidophilus. "This is an attempt to optimise the benefits to health that are already found in conventional milk products," said Michael De Vrese of the Federal Research Institute of Milk Research (bundesforschungsanstalt fuer milchforschung) in Kiel. It had been proven, said Vrese, that a proportion of the bacteria did arrive in the intestine, that they alleviated certain types of diarrhoea, influenced the immune system and reduced the level of some possibly carcinogenic metabolic products. However, this did not mean that they reduced the risk of cancer. "For the consumer the question is whether it is worth paying around 30 per cent more for these products," said De Vrese. The best one could say was that they "reduce the risk of a deterioration in health." That could be said equally well, or even more so, of a healthy, varied diet with plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and vitamins and roughage. Yet another example are Omega-3 fatty acids that help to coun-teract cholesterol and are said to lower blood pressure. Their main source is oily fish, so they would make sense as a supplement for people who don’t like fish or find that it doesn’t agree with them, said Elke Trautwein of the Federal Association of Public-Service Food Chemists (bundesverband der lebensmittelchemiker im oeffentlichen dienst). On the other hand, they are also found in vegetable oils, wheatgerm, walnuts and linseed. "All these dietary supplements are no substitute for sensible eating," said Gerhard Rechkemmer of the Federal Nutrition Research Institute (bundesforschungsanstalt fuer ernaehrung) in Karlsruhe. Experts all seem to agree that though the new foodstuffs are probably harmless, their benefits are doubtful, in some cases very doubtful. As consumer protection expert Angelika Michel-drees put it: "Claiming that sweetened juices and sweets are beneficial to health is simply misleading the consumer." (DPA) |
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AIDS will be a national calamity, says Ambassador LONDON, Nov 1: India, currently accounting for 8.5 million AIDS cases, will face a national calamity unless we come out of our smugness on the issue, Indian High Commissioner to London Lalit Mansingh has warned. Speaking at a special screening of Hindi Film Nidaan (diagnosis) a powerful film on AIDS, he said in the early 80s when HIV or AIDS was endemic in the West, many in India thought it was because of the permissive society and it could never threaten Indian society. He said in 1986 there were hardly 500 HIV cases in India and according to the latest estimate by mid-June this year there were about 8 to 9 million infections and it might reach 20 million next year. Producer of the film R V Pandit said quoting data compiled by the World Health Organisation, that at the current rate of growth in infections, India would soon have the world’s largest population of HIV/AIDS infected persons. Pandit, producer of Maachis, which won the national award for the best popular film in 1997, told PTI ‘Nidaan’ yet to be commercially released in India, would be first shown in african and South East Asian countries where the high incidence of AIDS was posing a major problem. (PTI) |
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Sunken gold lost for 140 years up for sale LONDON, Nov 1: It was the Titanic of the 19th century and a salvage miracle 100 years later. Now a gold-rush tale of tragedy, perseverance and invention reaches its climax when 181 kg of sunken gold, part of a huge treasure which lay buried on the ocean floor for more than 140 years, goes on sale in December. The precious find — nuggets, ingots and coins — is part of the first successful salvage of a treasure ship, the SS Central America, which sank in 1857 off the East Coast of the United States, laden with Californian gold. The gold on auction is just the insurers’ share of the original 2.5 tonnes claimed lost in the sinking. The remaining 90 per cent now belongs to the salvage team of engineer Tommy Thompson The auction on December eight and night in New York could net up to 10 million dollars, according to Sotheby’s which is carrying out the sale. But that is only a fraction of the estimated total 21-tonne haul — the value of which could top one billion — most of which still lies on the ocean floor. "The bottom (of the ocean) was carpeted with gold. Gold everywhere, like a garden. The more you looked, the more you saw gold growing out of everything," said Thompson, describing the scene of their first uncovering of the sunken treasure. Sotheby’s says the sale is generating a lot of interest. "I’ve never seen coins of that period (1856) in such a remarkable state of preservation. They’re perfect and collectors will go crazy," said Sotheby’s Coin Expert David Tripp. "They’re also historically significant — a manifestation of the gold rush which set the course of American history, put it on the map." The steamer travelled every fortnight, with mail, freight and eventually passengers on the New York-Panama route. But when gold was found in the new state of California, gold rush fever gripped the nation and the sea routes took on a new importance. Travelling East to West, the steamer’s cargo was a human one — the hordes of people out to make their fortunes in the gold fields. On the return trip, the ships were laden with the precious metal. "These ingots were never meant to last. They were heading for New York to be destroyed, melted down and used commercially to fuel the economy of a young nation," Tripp explained. On September eight, 1857, the SS Central America set sail from Havana, carrying 500 passengers and 21 tonnes of gold. At first the seas were clear and calm. Then the weather changed and soon the crew was battling hurricane-force winds and 10 metre (33 feet) waves. Water seeped into the hold and cooled the engines, the paddle-wheels stopped turning and the vessel began to flounder 300 km off the coast. As the women and children huddled in the saloon, the menfolk bailed out the water but it was a losing battle. The ship began to sink to the sea floor 2,400 metres (7,874 feet) below. In the end, 428 people lost their lives, the gold going down with the ship to the bottom of the ocean. Mr Thompson began researching the Central America more than 20 years ago. Never before had anyone salvaged a deep wreck — the US Government had thrown millions at the challenge and failed. Mr Thompson had no money but he gathered a group of like-minded people and found investors. But they were not treasure hunters they were scientists and their pioneering work pushed out the boundaries of marine exploration. Once Mr Thompson’s team found their target, more than two km under the surface, treasure hunters began circling the ship like vultures. But he fought them off with court action, invented a robot to extract the gold and artefacts and began scientifically recording the whole process. As the gold was recovered, the team discovered new marine life forms and biologists began investigating what they found on a seabed otherwise barren because of its extreme depth. The variety of life there intrigued them. They concluded the ship had spawned a food chain starting with wood-boring worms and going on to coral and sponges and even greenland sharks never before seen so far south. But while the life forms around the wreck have evolved, the gold has remained unchanged and pristine. Even gold dust was lifted from the ruins. "There’s something for everybody in this sale and it’s all perfectly preserved," said Tripp, adding that smaller nuggets and gold dust would be auctioned on the internet at prices starting from around 100 dollars. Treasure still lies within the sleeping wreck and marine secrets continue to lurk in its environment. (REUTERS) |
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Pak nominates new Ambassador to US ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: Pakistan’s military Government has nominated Maleeha Lodhi, a newspaper editor, as the country’s new Ambassador to the United States, official sources said today. She earlier served as Ambassador in Washington during the rule of former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto from 1993 until the dismissal of that Government in November 1996. Lodhi is expected to take up the assignment after her nomination is agreed by Washington. (AFP) |
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