Japan local assembly endorses plan to use plutonium-based fuel

TOKYO, Oct 6: A local assembly in southern Japan today endorsed a plan for a nuclear power plant to use fuel made from weapons-grade plutonium, an official said.

The Ehime prefecture (state) assembly approved the proposal to use MOX fuel _ a mixture of plutonium oxide and uranium oxide _ at Ikata nuclear plant operated by Shikoku Electric Power Co., a prefectural official said on condition of anonymity due to policy.

Resource-poor Japan is pushing for light-water reactor use of MOX fuel, which uses less enriched uranium than conventional fuel.

Supporters say using MOX is an effective way of consuming plutonium left over from dismantled nuclear weapons, but critics say MOX is too volatile and produces highly radioactive waste.

Ehime's program still requires approval from the prefectural government and the town of Ikata, which hosts the power plant, before its operator can launch the plutonium-based fuel.

Shikoku Electric plans to start the program in the No. 3 reactor by 2010.

Ehime is the second Japanese prefecture moving ahead with the MOX plan after Saga, which approved its plan earlier this year.

In March, Saga prefecture on Japan's main southern island of Kyushu approved a similar program to start at Genkai power plant in 2010, becoming the first Japanese state to do so. (AP)

US bird flu plans near 'state of the art'-official

WASHINGTON, Oct 6: US preparations against a possible outbreak of the deadly form of the H5N1 avian flu virus are solid, but other countries may not be as ready, a US health safety official warned.

''We're ... Close to the state-of-the-art in the United States with preparations and strong biosecurity measures,'' said Ambassador John Lange, the State Department's special representative on avian and pandemic influenza.

But abroad, ''it's a mixed bag,'' Lange said during a meeting of poultry industry leaders in Washington.

The United States is spending 392 million dollars over two years, Lange said, to help other countries prepare for a possible human outbreak of the disease, known as bird flu.

US support has included sending experts and laboratory equipment to other nations, he said.

The H5N1 avian flu virus has killed at least 148 people since 2003, mostly in Asia. Currently, the disease affects birds almost exclusively. But health officials fear mutations could make it spread between humans more easily.

Lange said it was especially challenging for poor countries to gird for an outbreak because they don't have resources for sufficient surveillance, culling, and vaccinations.

Sherrill Davison, director of an avian medicine and pathology laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, gave industry officials details about ongoing testing of US bird flocks and other watchdog and safety measures.

''Over the years our diagnostics have become quicker ... We know that they work,'' she said.

She said poultry companies and agriculture officials were now working with law enforcement and emergency coordinators to plan a response to a possible outbreak.

If a dangerous case is suspected, Davison said, flocks would be quarantined and could be killed and buried on-site.

The National Chicken Council says nearly all US chicken producers test their flocks for avain influenza before marketing but no cases of the dangerous types of bird flu have been found.

Lampkin Butts, president and chief operating officer of Sanderson Farms, a large US poultry firm, said US precautions were working well, but warned that the threat of avian flu would increase during the upcoming winter season.

''The challenge remains for our industry to continue our testing programs ... To continue to monitor our biosecurity programs and ... To be able to react decisively in the event any bird flu is discovered,'' Butts said during a panel discussion with peers from other top firms.

Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety, said consumers' fears about getting bird flu from eating eggs and chicken need to be allayed.

Because the virus is normally transmitted by contact with live animals, not by handling or cooking poultry, he pointed to a Nigerian proverb as the best advice: ''Don't sleep with your chickens.''

(AGENCIES)

More companies set to join "Red" brand AIDS fight

LONDON, Oct 6: A second wave of companies including a major consumer electronics group is set to join the ''Red'' product branding alliance as the scheme to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa goes global.

Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said that several big firms would sign up in the coming weeks.

''There are five major corporations today -- I'm guessing there will be eight or nine by the end of the year,'' he told Reuters on the fringes of an HIV/AIDS conference held by British think-tank Chatham House.

Products bearing the brand name Red from American Express, Motorola, Gap, Giorgio Armani and Converse, a unit of Nike, have been on sale in Britain since early this year.

Under the programme -- the brain-child of U2 rock star Bono and former US President John F Kennedy's nephew Bobby Shriver -- manufacturers pledge to channel a portion of profits from Red branded goods to the Global Fund.

One per cent of money that customers spend on a special Red Amex card also goes to the Geneva-based organisation.

10 MILLION DOLLARS JUST A START

So far, the campaign has raised around 10 million dollars in Britain, but the potential is far higher as more companies sign up and the venture is launched around the world.

''It has the potential to raise truly large sums of money -- hundreds of millions of dollars a year -- and to ensure that those sums are sustainable year after year,'' Feachem said.

He declined to name the new members that were about to join the scheme but said the line-up included an ''iconic'' consumer electronics business.

The original backers, meanwhile, are expanding their operations, with Motorola, Gap and Giorgio Armani all launching Red brands in the United States and other markets in October and November.

Amex has not yet set a date to offer its Red card outside Britain, but Red label Converse sneakers are already available worldwide.

The UN-backed Global Fund was established in 2002 to channel both government and private sector funding into the fight against the three big killer diseases of the developing world.

To date, it has committed 5.6 billion dollars to finance disease prevention and treatment programmes in 132 countries, but it faces a struggle to secure long-term funding to meet its long-term commitments.

Before the launch of the Red scheme, contributions from corporations and private individuals represented just 0.1 per cent of Global Fund income. But Feachem said this had already tripled and should grow exponentially as firms realised the benefits of linking their products to the war on AIDS.

''The key to Red is that it's good for the companies. The companies are in this not for corporate philanthropy. They are in this to increase their market share and to increase the sale of their core products,'' he said.(AGENCIES)

Indonesia to help develop rapid bird flu test

JAKARTA, Oct 6: The Indonesian government has teamed up with a Singaporean firm to develop an early diagnostic bird flu test kit for humans, the health minister said.

A rapid test for bird flu infections in humans is key for existing treatments to be more effective, potentially saving lives.

Tamiflu, a drug made by Swiss giant Roche AG which has been used successfully to treat some patients, rapidly loses its effectiveness if not used in early stages of the disease.

''With this, case finding will be much faster, so treatment can be done as soon as possible,'' Siti Fadillah Supari told reporters after a signing ceremony between the health ministry and Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory.

''Temasek already has the concept of the development but they need the virus strains, something which we have, to produce the rapid test kit,'' she added.

The laboratory is part of Singapore's state financial arm Temasek Holdings.

Tan Kok Keng, chief operating officer of Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, said he hoped the diagnostic kit would be produced within a year.

''We have the technology, so we are here to evaluate further for detection of the H5N1 virus. First we have to develop it for animals and farms, subsequently and obviously it will be extended for humans,'' Keng said.

''We are concerned with the various strains of the virus. We want to make sure the diagnostic kit will have a good coverage of deeper strains of H5N1, whether for Indonesia, Vietnam or elsewhere in the world.''

Indonesia has become one of the frontlines in the battle against the disease. So far, 52 people have died of bird flu, the highest of any country, with the majority of deaths since the beginning of this year.

Worldwide, 148 people have died of bird flu since 2003.

The H5N1 virus mainly affects birds but experts fear it could mutate into a strain capable of killing millions of people in a global pandemic.

More deaths are feared in Indonesia because the virus is endemic in poultry across much of the huge archipelago of 17,000 islands.

(AGENCIES)

ADHD costly in terms of health services utilization

NEW YORK, Oct 6: Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) use significantly more health services 2 years before and two years after they are diagnosed compared with children without ADHD, research shows.

Among children diagnosed with ADHD, white American children accumulate more expenses related to ADHD than children of other ethnicities, researchers report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Roughly eight per cent of US children between the ages of four and 17 years have ADHD, making it one of the most common psychiatric disorders of childhood, note the authors of the paper. ''Excess use of services prior to an ADHD diagnosis may signal an existing problem for which the family may be seeking a diagnosis'' and suggests that these children are not being identified soon enough, the researchers add.

Using health plan records, G. Thomas Ray, of Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, Northern California Region, Oakland and olleagues identified 3,122 children aged two to ten years with a diagnosis of ADHD. They compared health costs for these children with that of 15,899 age- and sex-matched children without ADHD.

Compared with children without ADHD, children with ADHD had health care costs that were approximately 488 dollars higher in the second year before diagnosis, 678 dollars higher in the year preceding diagnosis, 1,328 dollars higher in the year after diagnosis and 1,040 dollars higher in the second year after diagnosis.

Despite similar insurance status, Asian American, African American and Hispanic American children had 221 dollars lower total average costs per year related to ADHD than white American children did. They also had lower ADHD-related pharmacy costs than white American children.

''Lower use of medications among ethnic minorities may be explained in part by cultural differences in the acceptance of ADHD diagnoses and treatment,'' the authors suggest. (AGENCIES)

China aims for 30 pc increase in "super wheat" output by 2020

BEIJING, Oct 6: China will develop 50 new breeds of "super wheat" in next 15 years, raising the output capacity in major wheat production areas by 30 per cent, the state media reported.

According to the target set at a recent national seminar on super wheat breeding, the planting areas of the new breeds of super wheat will be about 33.3 million hectares during the 15-year period, and the expected unit output will be 10,500-12,000 kilograms per hectare.

President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhai Huqu said super wheat refers to high quality and high yielding breeds of wheat.

Currently, China's super wheat breeds are still restricted in small areas because of poor adaptability and high input.

He said the super wheat project will significantly promote China's food safety. So far, related scientific research institutes have had necessary reserves of materials, technologies and methods, and a joint effort by different research teams will help raise China's innovative capacity in wheat breeding, he said. (PTI)

Daycare tots under age two most apt to catch colds

NEW YORK, Oct 6: Results of a large Danish study confirm that young children who attend group childcare, especially those without siblings, are at increased risk for catching respiratory infections compared with their counterparts who are cared for at home.

The study, which included more than 135,000 children, also shows that the increased risk is most pronounced in children 0 to 2 years of age and is greatest soon after they begin daycare.

Dr. Mads Kamper-Jrgensen, from Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen told Reuters Health: ''Previous small studies have suggested that childcare affects younger children more than older children and that only-children are at greater risk when enrolled in childcare. With the present huge study, we have confirmed these hypotheses.''

''We were pleasantly surprised,'' the researcher added, ''to show that only the first year after enrollment into childcare is associated with increased risk of acute respiratory infection.'' Thereafter, it decreases and after 1 year in childcare the risk is equal to that of children being taken care of at home.

Kamper-Jrgensen and colleagues used Danish national registries to gauge the impact of childcare attendance on acute respiratory infections in all Danish children aged 0 to 5 years in the period from 1989 to 2004.

They report in the journal Pediatrics that 138,821 children were hospitalized for an acute respiratory infection during the study period.

In children younger than 1 year of age, the first 6 months of daycare attendance were associated with a 69-per cent higher incidence of hospital admission for acute respiratory infection compared with children in home care.

For children aged 1, 2, and 3 years or older, the first half-year in daycare was associated with a 47-per cent, 41-per cent, and 8-percent higher incidence of hospitalizations, respectively.

''Our findings may suggest that it would be optimal to postpone enrollment into childcare until after 1 year of age,'' the authors write.

The incidence of hospitalization decreased after 6 months in daycare and after 1 year or more in daycare the incidence mirrored that of children in home care.

For 0- to 2-year-olds living in homes with no other children younger than 5 years, the excess incidence of hospitalization due to respiratory infection in the first 6 months of childcare attendance was 100 percent compared with 25 per cent for children living with one sibling and 9 per cent for those with two or more siblings.

Unlike most other countries, Danish parents are allowed a total of 52 weeks of maternity or paternity leave with benefits following the birth of a child. ''We suggest that parents keep children at home as long as possible during the child's first year,'' Kamper-Jrgensen said.(AGENCIES)

Chef to stand trial over model's murder

LONDON, Oct 6: A chef charged with the murder of teenage model Sally Anne Bowman will stand trial next year, an Old Bailey judge said.

Father-of-three Mark Dixie, 36, is accused of indecently assaulting and killing the 18-year-old in south London last September.

He appeared in court via a video link from Belmarsh prison in southeast London and spoke only to confirm his name during the 10-minute hearing.

Judge Peter Beaumont remanded Dixie in custody for another hearing on December 15 and set a trial date for March 12.

Bowman's immediate family were not in court but the public gallery was packed with her friends.

Dixie also faces charges of indecently assaulting a woman in Purley and outraging public decency on July 15, 2001.

Bowman, who worked as a hairdresser, was killed just yards from her front door in Croydon in the early hours after she returned from a night out with friends. (AGENCIES)

China names asteroid after Chinese middle school

BEIJING, Oct 6: For the first time, an asteroid has been named after a Chinese middle school, the state media reported today.

Rui'an Middle School in Rui'an city in east China's Zhejiang Province, which had many talented pupils in its classrooms, including astronomers, had the rare honour yesterday.

The asteroid was found in 1981 by Chinese astronomers from the Zijinshan Astronomical Observatory in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province. It was then coded Asteroid 4073.

The naming was approved by the Minor Planet Centre and Small Bodies Names Committee of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

With a history dating back 110 years, Rui'an Middle School has had many talented pupils, including astronomers who have contributed to science.

China has so far named four asteroids after universities -- Beijing University, Nanjing University, Beijing Normal University and Shandong University.

In September, an asteroid discovered by a Chinese observatory was named after Peng Huanwu, a senior physicist, who made key contributions to the development of China's first atomic and hydrogen bombs. (PTI)

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