Doctors put bite on snake venom for stroke treatment

PARIS, Nov 24: Ancrod, an anti-clotting drug derived from the venom of Malaysian pit vipers, is only effective in treating stroke victims if given within three hours, according to a study that appears in tomorrow's Lancet.

European doctors assessed ancrod, when administered within six hours of a stroke, against a harmless lookalike compound, called a placebo, among 1,220 patients in Europe, Australia and Israel.

No significant benefit was found when the drug was administered beyond three hours, according to the paper.

It also highlighted risks of haemorrhage and problems with neurological recovery among the ancrod group compared with the placebo group.

Ancrod, branded as Arwin and Viprinex, is an anticoagulant, intended to thin blood viscosity in arteries affected by ischaemic stroke, thus helping to ease pain, improve limb mobility and combat the risk of localised blood clots.

An ischaemic stroke happens when a clot blocks the flow of blood to the brain, causing brain cells in the affected area to be damaged or die from oxygen starvation. (AGENCIES)

Gangster shot dead

KATHMANDU, Nov 24: Nepalese police have shot dead an Indian gangster who was allegedly involved in the killing of two Indian-origin businessmen in southern Bara district.

The incident occurred Wednesday night when police tried to stop three persons who shot at a police team. In the ensuing encounter, police fired at the gang members killing one gangster identified as Shiva Sahani.

Two other gangsters managed to escape, the National News Agency reported.

Shiva Sahani, who hailed from Motihari district, was allegedly involved in killing of two local businessmen at Birgunj in Bara district.

A country-made gun and a used cartridge was recovered from the slain gangster. (PTI)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Japan halts S Korean poultry imports over bird flu outbreak

TOKYO, Nov 24: Japan has temporarily suspended South Korean poultry imports over a suspected bird flu outbreak that has killed around 6,000 chickens and prompted authorities to cull thousands more, the top government spokesman said today.

"As a precaution, we decided (yesterday) to temporarily suspend imports of South Korean poultry and to ask that people entering factories take such special measures as sterilising their shoes," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters.

The government has asked Seoul for more details about the outbreak in the country's southwest, Shiozaki added. (AGENCIES)

Cyber soldiers spread violent message online

PARIS, Nov 24: They neither carry weapons nor lay ambushes for soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan. But thousands of radical Islamists are waging a different kind of war from behind their computers, called "electronic Jihad".

These radical Islamic sites have sprung up over the past few years, specialising in the organisation and coordination of concerted cyber-attacks against Israeli, American, Catholic and Danish websites.

All you need to join this anonymous cyberworld is an address registered in Iraq or in tribal zones in Pakistan, and basic computer savvy to carry out attacks in which "internauts" from the four corners of the world take part.

Among their most high-profile attacks to date was that on the Danish Internet site of daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten which by published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in September 2005 that sparked violence among Muslims worldwide, albeit a few months later.

"It is the Internet version of jihad- you can telecharge viruses which will be activated at the planned date. I downloaded one which was called 'jihad reminder'," said Anne Giudicelli, a French specialist who runs a "terrorism" consultancy monitoring radical Islamic web sites.

A recent report from the American Jamestown Foundation, a group that aims to inform policymakers about countries of strategic and tactical importance that might restrict access to such information, highlights a so-called electronic jihad website (http://www.Al-jinan.Org), where the "electronic jihad program 1.5, silver edition virus" is available.

It also offers to install a toolbar on your personal computer that connects and then automatically brings up back dates, times and targets of cyber attacks. (AGENCIES)

Taiwan president's plight puts China in a spot

BEIJING, Nov 24: China loves to hate Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, but Beijing has so far held its tongue as he struggles to weather his worst political crisis.

Chen, whose wife and son-in-law face charges over financial scandals, today survived a third parliamentary vote aimed at forcing him from office before his second term ends in 2008.

But his troubles are far from over.

Beijing reviles Chen for rejecting its claim of sovereignty over the self-ruled island and asserting Taiwan's identity.

But China's policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office repeatedly declines comment on his plight, apparently fearing that the winds of democracy might blow towards the mainland. The two have lived in armed confrontation since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949.

''The mainland has similar corruption problems and doesn't want to see these kind of reports emphasised because it could encourage the mainland people,'' Taiwan political analyst Andrew Yang said by telephone from Taipei.

China's propaganda mandarins have ordered state media not to comment on Chen's troubles, said two media industry sources who declined to be named for fear of repercussions.

''It's awkward for the government, which has tried in the past to portray Taiwan's democracy as chaotic, with fistfights in parliament, and contrast it with our bright side,'' said He Weifang, a law professor at elite Peking University. (AGENCIES)

Chinese court confirms 5 year jail sentence for HK journalist

BEIJING, Nov 24: A Chinese court today upheld a five-year prison term for Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong on charges of spying for arch-rival Taiwan.

Rejecting Ching's appeal, the Beijing Higher People's Court upheld his original five-year sentence for espionage in one of the high-profile media prosecution cases in the Communist nation.

Ching, 56, who worked for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper in Hong Kong, was also deprived of political rights for one year, and his personal property worth 300,000 yuan (about 37,500 U.S. Dollars) was confiscated.

Ching was detained during a visit to the southern city of Guangzhou in April 2005.

The original verdict of the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in August was "a correct application of the law and provided appropriate punishment," Xinhua news agency quoted a judge of the Beijing Higher People's Court as saying.

The court fully guaranteed Ching's right of appeal, the judge said.

According to the court, Ching had become acquainted with two people from a Taiwan foundation, which was an espionage organisation.

Between May 2004 to April 2005 Ching supplied Xue and Dai, through fax and email, with information involving state secrets and intelligence he had received from his contacts in Beijing. Ching accepted 300,000 HK dollars from the Taiwanese organisation. (PTI)

Christie's eyes record sales in huge Asia auction

HONG KONG, Nov 24: Christie's is eyeing to break its HK$1.2 billion ($154.2 million) Asia sales record next week when it auctions artworks and jewellery from a region that is all the rage with wealthy international and Chinese buyers.

The global auction house's autumn sales season starts on Sunday in Hong Kong. It will be the largest ever in Asia and includes some 2,500 classical and modern paintings, luxury watches, jewellery and ceramics, predominantly from the region.

''I'm very confident it's going to break the record,'' said Ken Yeh, deputy chairman of Christie's Asia, about the autumn sales. The HK$1.2 billion record was set at the spring auctions in May.

''It's not just in Asia ... It's global, I think there's just too much money around. People are just eager to buy,'' he added.

The rosy outlook comes on the heels of what was billed as the biggest auction in history in New York, when Christie's pulled in $491 million for its November 9 sale of Impressionist and modern art.

In Asia, bullish stock markets and robust economies are helping fuel the art frenzy.

Yeh said he expected Asian art prices to surge for at least the next two years, due to the seemingly insatiable demand from international and Chinese buyers for Chinese art, particularly contemporary paintings.

Christie's said at least 25 per cent of its buyers are Chinese and that number is rising with each auction.

According to Christie's, Hong Kong is the world's third most important art market in in terms of turnover after New York and London. Its proximity to China and low taxes have helped turn it into the region's auction hub.

Among the notable items going under the hammer starting Sunday is an Imperial Qing dynasty ''swallows'' bowl, which once belonged to the Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton and which could fetch a record HK$60-80 million.

Another record could be set if a rare oil painting, ''Slave and Lion'', by renowned Chinese painter Xu Beihong is sold for more than HK$32 million.

Other works on offer include ''Tiananmen Square'' by Zhang Xiaogang, perhaps the hottest contemporary Chinese artist at the moment, ''Potted Chrysanthemum in a Blue and White Jardiniere'' by Sanyu and ''Nude at the window'' by Pan Yuliang. (AGENCIES)

Neurofeedback improves ADHD symptoms

NEW YORK, Nov 24: Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can be trained through biofeedback to regulate their brain waves, investigators in Germany report. This learned control is associated with durable improvements in behavior, attention and IQ scores.

Dr Ute Strehl and her colleagues at University of Tubingen explain that neurofeedback is used to modify activity of the brain, specifically of slow cortical potentials for patients with ADHD.

Although previous studies have shown the improved self-regulatory capacities in this patient population, no reports included electroencephalogram (EEG) data during learning and follow-up. An EEG measures the brain's electrical activity.

Their study included 23 children with ADHD, ages eight to 13 years, who were told the purpose of the training was to ''speed up their brain to maintain concentration in situations that are normally difficult,'' such as conversations or homework.

The training was introduced as a computer game. The subjects faced a computer that provided visual feedback in the form of movement of a ball, in which the position of the ball reflected amplitude of brain waves. Auditory feedback was also given and the children received small gifts at the end of a session based on the number of accurate responses.

While viewing a ball on the screen, they were told ''to be attentive to the feedback and to find the most successful mental strategy to move the ball into the required goal.''

The subjects completed 30 one-hour sessions divided into three phases. Each phase lasted for two weeks and the training sessions were held five days per week. After each phase was completed, the subjects took a six to eight-week break. During the last phase, the children worked on their homework while they applied the self-regulation strategy they had learned.

At the end of the training and at a six-month follow-up, EEG tests indicated that the children had learned to regulate negative slow cortical potentials. Two of the subjects at the end of training and three at follow-up no longer fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for ADHD.

Performance IQ scores on Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, and measures of attention improved significantly from screening to follow-up.

Pediatrics November, 2006.(AGENCIES)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parkinson's impairs driving skills, safety

NEW YORK, Nov 24: People with Parkinson's disease have difficulty spotting traffic signs and roadside landmarks while driving, and are more likely to make safety errors on the road, a new study shows.

These difficulties are related to the cognitive and visual effects of Parkinson's rather than better-known motor symptoms such as tremor, investigators say.

People with Parkinson's often continue to drive, and some continue to drive well and safely, but there is currently no reliable way to test which ones will fare better behind the wheel, Dr Ergun Uc of the University of Iowa in Iowa City noted in an interview with Reuters Health. He is leading a five-year, National Institutes of Health-funded study of Parkinson's patients with the goal of developing a system to predict their driving abilities.

In the current investigation, which is part of the larger study, Uc and his colleagues had 79 drivers with Parkinson's disease and 151 healthy older people complete a battery of tests to measure their visual, cognitive and motor abilities.

Study participants then completed a 16.7-mile course in a Ford station wagon equipped with a variety of sensors and cameras. They were asked to look for and report the presence of traffic signs and restaurants about a minute before these landmarks appeared. They were also monitored for unsafe driving behaviors such as moving into another lane or onto the road shoulder or slowing or stopping inappropriately.

On average, the Parkinson's patients fared significantly worse on the road tests than the control group, the authors report in the Annals of Neurology.

For example, they made .64 safety errors per mile, which jumped to nearly two such errors per mile when they were asked to identify landmarks as they drove.

The control group averaged 0.15 errors per mile while driving, and 0.45 errors per mile while looking for landmarks.

Parkinson's patients were able to identify 47.8 per cent of the landmarks and traffic signs, compared to 58.7 per cent for the control subjects. Seventeen percent of the Parkinson's patients made no safety errors at all, however.

Uc also noted ''the cognitive and visual tests are more predictive of driving errors and driving performance than the motor function.''

The findings clearly show that people with Parkinson's drive less safely than their age-matched peers without the disease, and that vision tests are not enough to gauge their driving ability, Dr Nancy J Newman of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta notes in an editorial accompanying the study.

''The question remains whether early identification and application of rehabilitation targeted to those aspects of driving most troublesome for this group of patients would improve their driving performance and prolong their independence, without risking their safety and the safety of others,'' she writes. (AGENCIES)

Murder mystery returns to French riviera in trial

NICE, FRANCE, Nov 24: A murder mystery involving money, sex and gambling returned to the French Riviera, as a court tried the lover of a casino heiress who disappeared some 30 years ago.

Jean-Maurice Agnelet is accused of killing his former lover Agnes Le Roux in 1977 after he persuaded her to sell shares in her mother's chic Palais de la Mediterranee casino to a rival casino mogul.

Agnelet has denied involvement in Le Roux's mysterious disappearance, which has fascinated the glitzy southern city of Nice for decades. Her body was never found.

''I have nothing to do with Agnes' disappearance, which remains a mystery to me,'' Agnelet said before the start of his trial yesterday.

The victim's mother Renee Le Roux said at the start of the trial she was convinced Agnelet, now 68, was guilty.

''To me, he's the murderer of my daughter. He has killed her for her money. The only things he ever loved were power and money. The man's a monster,'' the 85-year-old said.

Agnelet was briefly arrested in 1983 but charges were dropped two years later.

The case was reopened 14 years later when Agnelet's ex-wife retracted an alibi she had given him for the day Le Roux disappeared. She said in 1999 she had lied at Agnelet's request.

At the time of Le Roux's disappearance in 1977, her mother was managing the Palais de la Mediterranee, a plush casino by the waterfront which Jean-Dominique Fratoni, owner of the rival Le Ruhl casino, had his eyes on.

The prosecution alleges Agnelet turned Le Roux against her mother and persuaded her to sell her shares in the Palais de la Mediterranee to his friend Fratoni, who was suspected of links to the criminal underworld. Fratoni died in 1994. (AGENCIES)

| home | state | national | business| editorial | advertisement | sports |
| international | weather | mailbag | suggestions | search | subscribe | send mail |