Mutation makes breast cancer almost certain-study

WASHINGTON, Oct 24: Jewish women with perhaps the best-known genetic mutation — in the Brca gene — have more than an 80 percent chance of developing breast cancer, US researchers reported yesterday.

And the risk is getting worse. Women with the mutations born before 1940 had a 24 percent chance of developing breast cancer by age 50 while women born after 1940 have a 67 percent chance.

But the study, the first to quantify the risk across a broad population, shows staying slimmer and exercising moderately can delay the much-feared diagnosis.

"I was surprised at how, age by age, the risk is worse in more recent times," said Dr Mary-Claire King of the University of Washington, who led the study.

"A part of it is that as a group we are more sedentary and we weigh more (than in the past) but that is not the whole explanation and I don’t know what it is," King, an expert in the genetics of breast cancer, added in a telephone interview.

For instance, the study did not look at differences in diet —just in exercise and in weight.

"There a flip side of this message that I am very concerned that women hear and that is the risks associated with these mutations are very high even when you do everything right," King added. "Don’t feel it is your fault if you get breast cancer."

"In Askenazi Jewish women as a whole about 2.5 percent of young adults carry one of these mutations and 10 percent of (Jewish) breast cancer patients carry it," King said.

"Among American Caucasian women generally, 7 percent of breast cancer patients carry mutations of brca1 or brca2."

Breast cancer will affect nearly 250,000 women and men in the United States alone, killing 40,000. Writing in the Journal Science, King and colleagues at centers across the New York area described their study of 1,008 breast cancer patients. They chose Jewish women because they are known to carry certain well-defined BRCA mutations.

"The lifetime risk of breast cancer among female mutation carriers was 82 percent," they wrote.

The study also showed that family history may not always be the best indicator of risk. Many of the patients had a limited family history of breast cancer, or none.

"Mutations in brca1 and brca2 are inherited from fathers as often as from mothers, although fathers are rarely affected with breast cancer. So if a family is small, there may be no warning that a mutation is present," King said.

There are several options for women with the mutation. They can have regular mammograms and examinations they can have their breasts surgically removed to prevent the development of cancer, or they can have their ovaries taken out.

The ovaries produce the estrogen that apparently fuels the cancer. Women with more body fat produce more estrogen, and the theory is that is why obese women have a higher risk of the disease.

The next step is to study Israeli Jewish women, King said. Perhaps lifestyle and other environmental factors that act on genetic weaknesses can explain why some women do not get breast cancer even if they carry a mutation.

A second report in science may help explain why the mutations cause cancer. The brca gene repairs damaged DNA, preventing a cell from becoming cancerous.

A team at the Massachusetts institute of technology found that mutations in the brca1 gene stop the proteins it controls from attaching to damaged dna, thus stopping them from fixing damage.

Michael Yaffe and colleagues say the finding could help scientists design better breast cancer drugs. (AGENCIES)

Satellites help slash Karachi car thefts, kidnaps

KARACHI, PAKISTAN, Oct 24: Unpleasant shocks await car thieves in Karachi.

With the click of a computer mouse, a satellite tracking system allows remote operators to seize control of the stolen vehicle, bring it grinding to a halt, and snap its locks shut as police swoop in.

"One of my friends’ cars was snatched, but he got it back within an hour because of this system," said Saleem Khan, owner of Samad Rent-a-Car Co in the grimy Pakistani port city. He has had the system installed in six of his new cars.

"In Karachi, there are lot of incidents of car theft and snatching," he said. "It’s very useful. We feel more secure."

Police say nearly 300 cars are stolen in Karachi every month.

Behind the satellite system, known as trakker, stands businessman and crime fighter Jameel Yusuf, who won fame last year by helping police track down the killers of US journalist Daniel Pearl by using computers to analyse mobile phone records.

His firm, Trakker Pvt Ltd — a collaboration with South Africa’s digicore holdings, which provided 30 percent of the 1.5 million investment — uses satellite technology to track and recover vehicles.

Since it was established in 1998, trakker says it has recovered more than 1,000 vehicles, thanks to an implanted device that uses global positioning system technology to signal a vehicle’s location via SMS messages over a mobile phone network.

At trakker’s control centre in Karachi, operators follow the movement of thousands of vehicles on computer screens.

The coordinates of a stolen car can be given to police to guide patrol cars to the scene. And clicks on a computer mouse can immobilise the car and lock its seat-belts, doors and bonnet.

Primarily a fleet-management system used by car hire and trucking firms, Yusuf says it has been adapted to the needs of Pakistan where continued fears of kidnapping and other violent crime mean significant consumer demand.

For instance, the system provides a panic button that sets off an alarm in the control centre and has helped thwart more than a dozen carjackings and kidnap attempts, Yusuf said. The system is a big help, says Abdul Razaque Cheema, a senior police Superintendent who specialises in finding stolen vehicles.

"But it’s expensive and only owners of expensive cars can afford it. In Karachi, snatching of smaller cars is also rampant, but their owners find trakker’s charges too high," he said.

The system can be programmed to turn off a car’s engine if it tries to leave a designated area, such as Karachi’s city limits, and is bad news for people whose jobs involve driving.

It can monitor employees wanting to use cars for personal errands or who waste fuel by braking too aggressively, over-revving or speeding.

Trakker can record a vehicle’s movements and even excessive engine idling — an indication a driver may be using fuel-guzzling air-conditioning without permission.

Trakker’s chief operating officer Omar Hatmi says the system has now been installed in 12,000 vehicles in Pakistan and attracts 500 new customers a month, paying up to 43,000 rupees for installation and 1,000 rupees ( 17) monthly.

Additional subscriptions allow customers to track their vehicles via the internet or cellphone.

In Pakistan, Honda cars offer trakker as a factory-fitted option, and insurance firms offer discounts on premiums.

Yusuf said trakker was just moving into profit after recouping its initial investment, but declined to give details.

Looser restrictions in Pakistan than those in Western countries had been part of the system’s success, he said.

"In some other countries, stopping a stolen car remotely is illegal and you could end up being sued if there is an accident," he said. "We don’t have that restriction, we just shut it off."

Trakker, with digicore, is now looking to expand into Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, Yusuf said.

Saudi Arabia was a big potential market because of the need to manage fleets of vehicles taking pilgrims to Mecca, and a Pakistani firm had an advantage in such an environment, he said.

"It’s eastern culture, and for us to reach out to them would be much faster than for the South Africans," he said.

Yusuf knows a thing or two about fighting crime. In the late 1980s, Yusuf founded the Citizen’s Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), a non-profit organisation to assist the Pakistani city’s hard-pressed and under-resourced police force.

Using modern computer technology the police lacked, the CPLC helped dramatically reduce a wave of kidnapping and other crime afflicting the teeming port city, which is home to violent underworld gangs and Islamic militant groups. (AGENCIES)

Calculated risk should be taken to succeed: Kalam

ON BOARD SPECIAL AIRCRAFT, Oct 23: President A P J Abdul Kalam has said that the transformation of UAE from a desert land to a prosperous place sends out the message that one needs to take a "calculated risk" to succeed.

Summing up his visit to UAE and Sudan before the start of the third leg of his tour to Bulgaria, Kalam told reporters that "nobody has succeeded without taking a risk and if you want to succeed, you have to take a calculated risk."

"That is the message I got and than you see 40 years back UAE was just desert land. Sheikh Zayed had a vision and he converted the desert land into a place of what you have seen. A prosperous place and one can share this experience with them."

Kalam said he chose UAE, Sudan and Bulgaria because "I wanted to see three continents and I want to see different types of people and the quality of life and where we can contribute."

On his visit to UAE, he said "the rulers of Dubai and others are very proud of Indian people there and their contribution. Many of the Indians have become part and parcel of these countries and are contributing in a big way for the development of the country."

Elaborating on his visit to UAE, he said "as soon as I got in Dubai I went to my interest. What is my interest? My interest is how do you desalinate because they have water problem in the country and it is not only in one country but the whole world is going to have this problem for out of six billion people less two billion have water to drink. I was interested to know how these 40 lakh people are given water to drink."

The President said that the Emirates is working on how to cut down costs at the plant which is providing water to the whole region.

He said during the discussion with the UAE leaders it was felt that solar power could be used to convert water into electric power and energy.

The thinking in India and UAE, the President said is "can we use solar power for setting up cost effective desalination plant so as to provide drinking water as also water for irrigation. This is one area in which both sides are interested."

The President said there were many similarities between Sudan and India as both have abundant natural resources, human resources. Moreover, Sudan also has two large rivers - white Nile and blue Nile. "What amount of water it (Nile) brings so they have water and they want only planning and implementation and they want support from us for agriculture, information, communication and technology and we are working with them in certain areas of oil sector and they want us to expand and the message I got from Sudan was that it was a country with a lot of hope," Kalam said.

On his interaction with school children in Sudan, he said they asked him the same question which children have been always doing so "Mr President tell us how we can become a prosperous, peaceful and safe country?.

"For this, it is the scientists, visionaries, politicians and rulers who have to give the answer," he said.

On his visit to Bulgaria, he said "I would like to understand their industrial status and also their cultural revolution and India can cooperate in this direction." (PTI)

Sleepy Afghan town unlikely home for peacekeepers

KUNDUZ, AFGHANISTAN, Oct 24: A sleepy corner of Afghanistan, where horses and carts outnumber cars, and political and ethnic tensions are relatively low, is an unlikely setting for hundreds of German peacekeeping troops.

But if the Berlin Parliament votes in favour this week, the Dusty city of Kunduz will be home to 450 German troops in the first phase of an eagerly awaited expansion of a NATO-led peacekeeping force outside the Afghan capital.

Many of Kunduz’s 250,000 inhabitants say they will welcome the German soldiers, but aid workers and diplomats wonder why peacekeepers are being deployed to the safest part of the country, particularly when needs are greater elsewhere.

"Kunduz is by far the safest region in Afghanistan, so from a military and security point of view I don’t understand why it was chosen," said Stefan Recker of German agro action, which has been building canals and wells in the province for 16 months.

"In fact I would feel safer without the German army than with it, because armed soldiers attract attention from less desirable elements of society."

The Afghan Government, the United Nations and aid agencies have long been calling for peacekeepers to be deployed outside Kabul, and have welcomed NATO’s decision to expand the area of operations of the currently 5,500-strong force.

But with the south and east falling prey to daily hit-and-run attacks by a resurgent Taliban militia, and effectively off-limits to aid workers as a result, the decision to send the troops to Kunduz has raised more than a few eyebrows.

"We have reached a point where the first people to go in are aid workers, the second are international organisations and diplomats, and the last ones are the troops," said one western diplomat in Kabul. "This is ridiculous."

But aside from the Germans, no one has agreed to send significantly more troops for an expanded peacekeeping force, and some western diplomats are doubtful that they will.

"You might be able to find a few dozen or a few hundred more, but if I was to guess, I don’t think you would get 1,000 more," said another western diplomat. "We may be able to relocate some, and refocus. If we could do that we could still produce a good result."

This piecemeal approach does not impress aid agencies like care, which says attacks on aid workers in Afghanistan have grown from one a month last year to almost one a day now.

"We are concerned that with these kinds of initiatives, putting large numbers of troops in relatively safe areas, the international community may perceive it to be an adequate solution to Afghanistan’s security needs — which it is not," said Care’s Paul O’Brien.

"What we need to see are appropriately sized and mandated forces being put in areas of the country where there are serious security concerns."

Not that the people of Kunduz mind, like 48-year-old book and stationery seller Abdul Ghafar. "Although we have security here in Kunduz, we will welcome NATO troops, because we want 100 percent security," he said.

With the German troops will come dozens of German aid workers, as well official development money from Berlin’s Government, keen to see its soldiers continue to be welcomed.

The province has also been chosen for the launch of an ambitious UN-backed plan to disarm 100,000 militiamen over the next two years, and many hope the German aid money will help provide jobs to reintegrate former combatants.

"If the the soldiers are coming to keep the peace, there is no need," said Kunduz Governor Abdul Latif. "But NATO’s arrival here will be very positive, and we welcome it."

"We hope this province can be an example for other provinces, so that other people follow suit." (AGENCIES)

Giant squid helps scientists swim trend of new species

WASHINGTON, Oct 24: It’s been captured on video at nine different places in the world, has elephant ears and is 9 metres long.

But until scientists from around the world started comparing notes for a global census of marine life, no one knew how widespread the giant squid’s habitat really was.

"No one had ever known this squid was globally distributed," said Ron O’dor, chief scientist on the census taking and a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Then there was the "Rasta Sponge" - named for its bright red colour - found 10 miles off the Florida keys, another brand-new species of ocean life.

Over the past three years, a team of 300 international marine scientists from 53 countries who are working on the census have identified 5,700 new species of marine fish, plants and other animals.

They released their findings yesterday at the Smithsonian institution in the first instalment of a 10-year, 1-billion-dollar effort to catalogue all the species of the world’s oceans.

The impetus came from a directive at the 1992 earth summit on biodiversity in Rio De Janeiro for countries to create baseline descriptions of diverse species on land and water, said Jesse Ausubel, programme director for the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, which has funded part of the census’s initial costs of 70 million dollars.

The outcome has revealed how much is "unknown" about what swims, gurgles, drifts and attacks in the brine that covers three-quarters of the globe.

"Earlier today, we were having an argument about whether 1 per cent or 5 per cent (of the oceans) have been explored," Ausubel said in a telephone interview.

Marine scientists estimated that 210,000 forms of marine life are currently known.

But based on the results of the first three years of work on the census, they are projecting 10 times that number could be floating in the vast abyssal sediments off angola or the 4,500-metre depths of the charlie-gibbs fracture zone in the North Atlantic.

About 600 new fish species have been found since the year 2000, in addition to 5,100 other animals and marine plants as a direct result of the census efforts, the organizers said in a press statement. (DPA)

Diana photographers to go on trial in privacy case

PARIS, Oct 24: Three photographers who took pictures of Britain’s Princess Diana and her friend Dodi Al Fayed in their car shortly before their fatal crash in 1997 go on trial in a Paris court today for invasion of privacy.

The case against Jacques Langevin of Sygma Agency, Christian Martinez of the Angeli Agency and freelancer Fabrice Chassery follows a complaint by Dodi’s father Mohamed Al Fayed, the millionaire owner of London’s famous Harrods store.

The trial for invasion of privacy will hang on a recently established precedent in French law under which the interior of a car is deemed private even if it is on a public road. If found guilty, they could be jailed for a year and ordered to pay fines of 45,000 Euros (53,000 dollars).

Diana, Al Fayed and driver Henri Paul died in a high-speed crash on August 31, 1997, as their Mercedes was pursued by Paparazzi on motorbikes through central Paris. Egyptian tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed lost his bid to have the photographers chasing the car tried for manslaughter when France’s highest court ruled they were too far away to have caused the accident.

Today’s trial comes amid renewed controversy in Britain over Diana’s death following the revelation by her former butler Paul Burrell of a secret letter in which the Princess predicted her own death.

Burrell said the Princess had given him a letter written in October 1996 in which she said someone was planning to kill her in a car crash, in order to allow her estranged husband Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, to remarry.

The report led Mohamed Al Fayed, who has repeatedly claimed Diana and his son were murdered by the British Secret Services because their relationship embarrassed the Royal household, to renew his call for a full public inquiry.

The British Government has rejected the demand.

Evidence at the initial inquiry showed that the driver Henri Paul had been drunk at the time of the accident, something his parents deny.(AGENCIES)

President visits 10th century Bulgarian monastery

SOFIA, Oct 24: It was a pleasant moment for President A P J Abdul Kalam on the concluding day of his two-day state visit to Bulgaria when he drove to the Rila monastery, 117 Kms from here, evincing keen interest in the historical and spiritual aspects of the place considered to be holy for the Bulgarians.

The monastery, founded in tenth century by followers of the Bulgarian hermit saint Ivan Rilski is one of the most significant cultural centres of Bulgaria and was completely rebuilt in the 19th century after it was destroyed in a devastating fire.

Driving through the mountains soon after leaving the capital, the monastery, which was included in the world register of historical sites in 1983, presents a sight to behold with its painting of stone, wood and metal combined.

Impressed by the monastery, the President enquired about the details of every aspect of the history and art and architecture of the monastery and evinced keen interest on the various works of art on display.

Kalam, who is on a "learning trip" to three nations of UAE, Sudan and Bulgaria in three continents was on a "learning tour of the historical sites" of Bulgaria.

The monastery is spread over an area of about 8800 square metres in the shape of an irregular quadrangle. The construction of the residential buildings started in 1816 and richly decorated walls strengthen the impressiveness of the interior, a great diversity of compositions depicting religious scenes, and a unique woodcut iconostasis with azure fretwork. (PTI)

Resentment lingers over US domination in Iraq

MADRID, Oct 24: Has the international community forgiven the United States for the Iraq war, and is it willing to help the once wealthy country to rise to its feet after decades of dictatorship?

Mixed signals emerged Thursday at a conference of more than 70 donor countries in the Spanish capital madrid, where a certain resentment lingered despite US hopes that participants would pledge significant sums towards rebuilding the war-ravaged country.

Several new pledges were announced during the day, and European External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten said he expected donors other than the United States to contribute nine billion dollars towards reconstruction next year.

With an additional US pledge of 20 billion dollars, the conference was expected to yield more than half of the estimated need of 55 billion dollars through 2007.

The contribution will leave a sizeable shortfall in Iraq’s needs, but it could nevertheless make an important difference for the country whose infrastructure is not thought able to absorb more than six billion dollars next year.

Washington continued to lobby for money during the conference, offering journalists interviews with Iraqis it hus appointed to the provisional Government.

Yet United naNions Secretary-General Kofi Annan indicated that money pledges would not amount to a blanket approval of the policies of Washington, which he indirectly criticized for not guaranteeing security in Iraq and for resisting a rapid handover of sovereignty to Iraqis.

Two major potential donors, France and Germany, declined to participate in the financial effort and sent only lower-level representatives to Madrid.

Paris, Berlin and Moscow remain uneasy over the reluctance of Washington to cede control to the United Nations after a war which they opposed.

Donations were expected to reflect the international division over the war itself, with pro-war countries such as Britain and Spain being among the main contributors to reconstruction.

Even if the international community gave a clear signal of willingness to help Iraq, questions lingered over whether donors were focusing on their business interests rather than on the needs of Iraq’s battered economy.

"We are starting from a level below zero," said Mowaffak Al-Rubaie of the Iraqi provisional Government. Three wars and more than a decade of UN sanctions have left the economy in shambles, with half the population without regular access to drinking water and dependent on food aid.

Yet a meeting of some 300 business representatives featured prominently in Madrid, and several Non-Governmental Organizations criticized the conference as "neo-colonialist".

Critics have accused the US of using the development fund for Iraq to earmark lucrative contracts for its companies, which have grabbed the lion’s share of business opportunities during the first six months of rebuilding Iraq.

The Texas-based construction and oilfield services company Halliburton alone has secured contracts worth more than 1.7 billion dollars, while for instance Spanish companies have not been given a single contract despite the country’s staunch support for the Iraq war.

The conference will present a multilateral and transparent reconstruction fund, which is expected to award contracts through bidding practices open to global companies.

Spanish diplomats expressed hope that the US would channel a large part of its contribution through the new fund, but Washington has made it clear that it is not willing to go that far in its campaign to attract aid for Iraq. (DPA)

Resentment lingers over US domination in Iraq

MADRID, Oct 24: Has the international community forgiven the United States for the Iraq war, and is it willing to help the once wealthy country to rise to its feet after decades of dictatorship?

Mixed signals emerged Thursday at a conference of more than 70 donor countries in the Spanish capital madrid, where a certain resentment lingered despite US hopes that participants would pledge significant sums towards rebuilding the war-ravaged country.

Several new pledges were announced during the day, and European External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten said he expected donors other than the United States to contribute nine billion dollars towards reconstruction next year.

With an additional US pledge of 20 billion dollars, the conference was expected to yield more than half of the estimated need of 55 billion dollars through 2007.

The contribution will leave a sizeable shortfall in Iraq’s needs, but it could nevertheless make an important difference for the country whose infrastructure is not thought able to absorb more than six billion dollars next year.

Washington continued to lobby for money during the conference, offering journalists interviews with Iraqis it hus appointed to the provisional Government.

Yet United naNions Secretary-General Kofi Annan indicated that money pledges would not amount to a blanket approval of the policies of Washington, which he indirectly criticized for not guaranteeing security in Iraq and for resisting a rapid handover of sovereignty to Iraqis.

Two major potential donors, France and Germany, declined to participate in the financial effort and sent only lower-level representatives to Madrid.

Paris, Berlin and Moscow remain uneasy over the reluctance of Washington to cede control to the United Nations after a war which they opposed.

Donations were expected to reflect the international division over the war itself, with pro-war countries such as Britain and Spain being among the main contributors to reconstruction.

Even if the international community gave a clear signal of willingness to help Iraq, questions lingered over whether donors were focusing on their business interests rather than on the needs of Iraq’s battered economy.

"We are starting from a level below zero," said Mowaffak Al-Rubaie of the Iraqi provisional Government. Three wars and more than a decade of UN sanctions have left the economy in shambles, with half the population without regular access to drinking water and dependent on food aid.

Yet a meeting of some 300 business representatives featured prominently in Madrid, and several Non-Governmental Organizations criticized the conference as "neo-colonialist".

Critics have accused the US of using the development fund for Iraq to earmark lucrative contracts for its companies, which have grabbed the lion’s share of business opportunities during the first six months of rebuilding Iraq.

The Texas-based construction and oilfield services company Halliburton alone has secured contracts worth more than 1.7 billion dollars, while for instance Spanish companies have not been given a single contract despite the country’s staunch support for the Iraq war.

The conference will present a multilateral and transparent reconstruction fund, which is expected to award contracts through bidding practices open to global companies.

Spanish diplomats expressed hope that the US would channel a large part of its contribution through the new fund, but Washington has made it clear that it is not willing to go that far in its campaign to attract aid for Iraq. (DPA)

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