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Rat study shows how marijuana may ease Alzheimer's

WASHINGTON, Oct 19: Marijuana may help reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease by reducing inflammation in the brain, US researchers reported.

Tests on rats showed that a compound found in marijuana stopped the loss of brain cells seen in inflammation and improved the animals' memories.

The findings, presented yesterday to a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Atlanta, may help explain some studies that suggest people who regularly smoked marijuana in the 1960s and 1970s are now less likely than others the same age to develop Alzheimer's disease -- the most common cause of dementia.

And caffeine may have similar effects, said Gary Wenk, a professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

''The baby boomers are just getting old enough now that we can just see this,'' Wenk said in a telephone interview.

His team used a widely studied drug called WIN-55212-2, or WIN for short, which is a synthetic compound similar to marijuana. WIN affects receptors -- molecular doorways -- on cells that are called cannabinoid receptors.

WIN has been tested against pain and inflammation in diseases such as Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis.

Wenk's team infused the rats' brains with a compound that that mimics the inflammation found in Alzheimer's patients.

They treated some of the rats with WIN daily for those three weeks, and then tested the rats by making them swim in a water maze -- a standard test of rodent memory and learning.

''Old rats tend to be pretty bad at navigating the maze. It's kind of like an elderly person trying to find his way around a house that he's not familiar with,'' Wenk said.

But the older rats that were given WIN did better on the test, Wenk said.

''We are not going to go out and suggest that people start smoking marijuana,'' Wenk added. Researchers need to narrow down the compounds that are having the effects and try to make a ''high-free'' alternative, he said.

His team also found that caffeine may have similar effects, but in younger rats.

''These (compounds) fall into the category of things that millions of people have abused over decades,'' Wenk said. ''So when there is a subtle effect, it will show up.''

It is not clear when it is too late to begin fighting brain inflammation, Wenk said. Alzheimer's is clearly a process that takes years to do its full damage.

But he said his study was good news.

''What we found is old animals have the receptors and they actually get better if we treat them with the drug. If we give an old rat a high enough dose ... We will reduce their brain inflammation and what we actually do is make them smarter as we do it,'' Wenk said.

Last week researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana's active ingredient, THC, can prevent another Alzheimer's process -- the formation of brain-clogging plaques.

More than 4.5 million people in the United States alone have Alzheimer's, which gradually destroys the brain and has no cure. That number is expected to balloon as the population ages.

Also yesterday, the National Institutes of Health announced it would provide $52 million over six years to researchers to conduct several new trials into ways to prevent Alzheimer's, although WIN is not among them.(AGENCIES)

China for better understanding with US in oil sector: Official

BEIJING, Oct 19: China, world's second largest energy consumer, hopes to enhance understanding with the United States in energy exploitation, especially in Africa which supplied 30 per cent of Chinese oil imports, a senior official has said.

Responding to criticism by the United States of China's exploitation of petroleum in Africa, in particular Sudan, the deputy director of the Energy Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Zhang Yuqing said cooperation with African countries in energy resources is mutually beneficial.

Zhang said China's investment in the energy sector had contributed to the economic development of African countries, while its technical cooperation and training programmes had helped Africa train its own oil technicians.

Speaking ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to be held here, Zhang said "Chinese companies wanted to cooperate with American companies but the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) Ltd was forced to withdraw a bid for major US oil company Unocal after strong opposition from the United States."

He claimed that China has always opened its door to other countries and many US companies have invested in energy in China, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of the overall foreign investment in this field.

He said China and the United States should enhance communication and understanding, and contribute to the development of the oil industry. (PTI)

South Korea to cut subsidies for resort in North

SEOUL, Oct 19: South Korea will stop subsidising tours to a mountain resort in North Korea that a US official has labelled a cash cow for Pyongyang's leaders, a Government official said today.

The Mount Kumgang resort, run by an affiliate of the South's Hyundai Group, has come under increased scrutiny after the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on North Korea to punish it for exploding a nuclear device last week.

''The government is going to suspend paying subsidies for Mount Kumgang tours,'' said a Unification Ministry official, who asked not to be identified.

The official did not say how much South Korea pays in tour subsidies, but local media said it ran into several of million dollars a year.

Package tours to the resort can cost from several hundred to several thousand dollars and the government frequently subsidises tickets for the elderly, war veterans or poor people.

South Korea has two major projects in North Korea where South Koreans can regularly cross the heavily fortified border.

One is the resort and the other is an industrial park in the border city of Kaesong where 15 South Koreans companies use cheap North Korean labour and land to produce goods such as shoes, clothes and cosmetics cases.

Tourists have paid $457 million in admissions and management fees to North Korea to travel to the mountain resort, which has been visited by over a million people since it was set up in 1998, the Unification Ministry said in a report.

Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. Envoy for North Korean affairs, said in Seoul on Tuesday that he saw the merits of Kaesong because it was as a long-term investment in human capital while Kumgang seems to be ''designed to give money to the North Korean authorities.''

South Korea has said it has no intention of pulling the plug on the mountain resort and the industrial park projects, but the government has come under increased criticism after the nuclear test for its engagement policy with the North. (AGENCIES)

Study warns of dangers of stents to prevent strokes

BOSTON, Oct 19: Propping open clogged arteries with little mesh tubes called stents is more likely to cause strokes than the old-fashioned method of simply cleaning out the arteries surgically, a French study showed.

Stents were found to be so dangerous that just over a year ago, the team led by Jean-Louis Mas of Sainte-Anne Hospitals in Paris stopped enrolling volunteers in the study, begun in November 2000, because of risks from the stent technique.

The work, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, reflects international efforts to determine the best treatment for clearing clogged carotid arteries -- the most common cause of the strokes suffered by over 700,000 Americans each year.

Based on results from 30 medical centers in France, the Mas team found that at the one-month mark, 9.6 per cent of 247 stent recipients had died or suffered a stroke, against 3.9 per cent of 257 who received the surgery, known as endarterectomy.

''One additional stroke or death resulted when 17 patients underwent stenting rather than endarterectomy,'' they said.

Of the strokes in the stent group, 71 percent took place on the day of the procedure. In the surgery group, 33 per cent of the strokes occurred on the first day.

The team decided it would be unethical to continue using stents in the patients, whose arteries were at least 60 per cent blocked and who had already had symptoms of a stroke.

Such symptoms can include confusion, vision changes, difficulty speaking and a sudden weakness, numbness or coordination problems in a hand or arm, even if temporary.

Stenting did offer some benefits, the researchers found. The risk of nerve damage was just 1 per cent for stenting versus nearly 8 percent for surgery, and surgery patients usually spent an extra day in the hospital.

UNDER SCRUTINY

The study coincides with troubling times for the 6 billion dollars global market for stents, which once implanted stay in the artery permanently to improve the flow of blood to the heart muscle and relieve symptoms such as chest pain.

The devices have come under scrutiny amid studies suggesting drug-eluting stents may raise the risk of blood clots months after they are implanted.

Medical device-maker Boston Scientific Corp., for example, has seen its stock hover near four-year lows this month following safety concerns that have sharply slowed sales of stents and implantable heart defibrillators.

Other studies, however, give conflicting results on the two techniques.

Johnson & Johnson's 300-patient SAPPHIRE trial released results two years ago that showed the stroke rate after stenting was 3.6 percent, less than half what it was in the Mas study, known as EVA-3S.

But the 2004 results may have made stenting look safer because 70 percent of the patients had never had symptoms before their treatment, and surgery for them tends to be less risky, the Mas team said.

In an editorial in the journal, Anthony Furlan of the Cleveland Clinic, said that, for now, the only patients who should be getting stents are those who have stroke symptoms, have an artery that is at least 70 percent blocked, and who face a high risk from surgery.

Several experiments assessing both treatments are still under way in the United States and Europe. (AGENCIES)

US group lists 10 most polluted places on Earth

NEW YORK, Oct 19: A Russian city where chemical weapons were once manufactured and a town in Zambia's copper mining belt are among the 10 most polluted places on Earth, a US environmental group

said.

The list was compiled by the New York-based nonprofit group the Blacksmith Institute, which said the world's pollution is sickening up to 1 billion people.

Blacksmith Director Richard Fuller said environmental problems cause up to 20 percent of deaths in developing countries. And environmental toxins in these towns put residents at risk of being poisoned, developing cancers and lung infections and having mentally retarded children, the group said.

''The worst problem is the damage it does to children's development ... And that damages the future of the countries,'' Fuller said in a telephone interview.

In Dzerzhinsk, Russia, a former Cold War-era center for making chemical weapons, including Sarin and mustard gas, the average life expectancy is 42 for men and 47 for women.

Chemicals from the weapons manufacturing were dumped into an aquifer that also provides the local community with drinking water, according to Blacksmith.

The group researched 300 sites to come up with its list. The sites were not ranked because health records in some developing countries were not available.

Several cities with industrial operations like coal and metal mining dominated the list.

''Norilsk in Russia is also just a horror story,'' Fuller said about an industrial city founded as a slave labor camp in 1935. ''Smelters with no pollution control: nickel, copper, lead, cadmium. No pollution control. Just an awful place.''

In Kabwe, Zambia, one of six towns around the country's copper belt, soil contamination levels of heavy metals are higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization. The average level of lead in a child's blood is five to 10 times the levels allowed in the United States, according to Blacksmith.

No U.S. Sites were listed in the group's top 10, as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Superfund law helped cleaned up the country, Fuller said.

''We've managed to clean up a lot of these horror stories. Pittsburgh 20 or 30 years ago probably ranked as badly as some of these sites did, and now it's quite a lovely place,'' he said.

Fuller said pollution in developing countries is best combated through funding from international donations and training on how to clean up sites. He said support for environmental clean-up was gaining strength, but took time.(AGENCIES)

Business, family ties rule on Syria-Lebanon border

DEIR AL-ASHAYER FARMS, SYRIA, Oct 19: Syrian farmer Mostafa Hamoud uses dirt roads cutting through orchards to reach the land he has owned for decades across the border in Lebanon.

''Syrian authorities have been blocking roads, but they're still many ways to get across,'' Hamoud said as he unloaded boxes of red apples, aubergines and cauliflowers at Deir al-Ashayer Farms, a hilltop village on the Syrian side of the border.

''We sometimes bump into Lebanese security but they don't say anything. Many Lebanese have abandoned agriculture and their land would become barren if Syrians did not take care of it,'' Hamoud said.

Several Syrian soldiers stood guard nearby in front of recently erected sand barriers on a fertile plain separating Deir al-Ashayer Farms from Deir Al-Ashayer, its sister village in Lebanon.

Syria says it increased security on the 250-km border in response to Western pressure after Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon earlier this year. It is aimed at preventing alleged smuggling of arms to Hezbollah guerrillas, whom Syria supports.

''I have been moving through the border since I was a kid and I have never seen weapon smuggling,'' Hamoud, 70, said.

LAWLESSNESS

Damascus, however, has refused to demarcate the border as urged by the United Nations after last year's Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon.

Syria opposes demarcation partly because of the difficulty in determining where the border is and it does not want to open a Pandora's box of land ownership disputes between Lebanese and Syrians, who have been living side by side for decades without demarcation.

Syria was the dominant player in Lebanon for three decades. Anti-Syrian politicians say the Baathist government in Damascus still interferes in Lebanon's affairs and ignores its territorial integrity by refusing to establish diplomatic ties and agree to demarcation.

The border, which straddles the Anti Lebanon mountain range, has had a reputation for lawlessness throughout its history. Syria's closed economy made it a haven for smuggling imported goods and currency, while subsidised Syrian petrol and sheep flowed to Lebanon.

Maps that could help draw a border are disputed. Plots of Syrian and Lebanese land are usually fragmented, zigzagging and surrounding each other.

Visitors to the Deir al-Ashayer border area could become easily confused as to where they are. One expert said separating the territories along exact border lines could be a nightmare.

Thousands of Syrian workers, who form the backbone of Lebanon's construction and farming sectors, walk across the border every day. Lebanon also depends on Syria as its only accessible land outlet to the world.

Syrian officials say enforcing border controls is difficult because of the erratic border and intermingling of populations. Western powers carved out Lebanon from what was known as Greater Syria only in 1920.

They say demarcation and restricting movement to five existing border crossings would disrupt commerce, as well as the lives of thousands of farmers and daily wage earners.

A further complication is the occupation by Israel of a 25 sq km area to the south known as Shebaa Farms, which the United Nations considers Syrian territory. Damascus and Beirut regard the area as occupied Lebanese land.

''We are doing our best, but these smugglers are very smart. The other day we discovered a pipeline siphoning diesel into Lebanon,'' a Syrian official said.

President Bashar al-Assad recently threatened to close the border if Lebanon accepted Israeli demands to station U.N. Peacekeepers on the border with Syria, a tactic used by his late father, President Hafez al-Assad.

The elder Assad closed the border in 1973 in response to Maronite Christian attacks on Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The closure disrupted Lebanon's trade and threatened to ruin its harvest.

ARTIFIAL BORDERS

In Deir al-Ashayer Farms, most villagers oppose demarcation as dual passports, mixed lineage and family links with Lebanon are common.

Salim Daoud, heir of an old Lebanese family, still owns large tracts of land in the village. During the last Israeli invasion of Lebanon, hundreds of Lebanese sought shelter in Deir al-Ashayer Farms and in nearby villages.

The plain between the two sides is planted with fruit and vegetables. Rich Damascenes have been buying property on the Syrian side and building villas, taking advantage of the view and the area's proximity to Damascus, which is 30 km to the east.

Amer Habash, 80, was born in the Lebanese town of Rashaya, in the eastern Bekaa Valley. He holds dual Lebanese and Syrian nationality and has three married daughters living in Beirut.

''America is demanding that the border becomes a heavily armed security zone, as if Lebanon and Syria were at war. They don't understand how close the two people are,'' Habash said.

''These are artificial borders,'' the elderly man said, recalling that his father called himself Syrian, like most Lebanese before the 1920 San Remo agreement, which divided Ottoman possessions in the Middle East between France and Britain. (AGENCIES)

New images may give clues on universe's origins

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 19: The newly discovered collision of two galaxies millions of years ago, which sparked rings of fire that are still expanding, may offer new clues on the origins of the universe, astronomers said.

New images of the Andromeda Galaxy were captured by an infrared camera aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope and are described in the science journal 'Nature'.

The pictures offer fresh insight into the ever-changing nature of galaxies, said Harvard University astrophysicist Giovanni Fazio yesterday.

Fazio, the mastermind behind the Spitzer, is considered one of the world's top space pioneers.

''We thought it was a plain, ordinary galaxy with two companions around it. But now we understand its structure. It will be used as a computer model to understand and study the early universe,'' Fazio said.

The cosmic crash is believed to have happened 210 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth, but is a relatively recent occurrence in the grander scheme of time, scientists said.

''That is like this morning in cosmology terms,'' David Block, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg who led the research project, told reporters at the release of the findings.

After the images from the telescope were entered into a computer model, it revealed how a small galaxy hit the centre, or ''sweet spot'', of its larger neighbour with such force it fired off new stars, space dust and two rings of fire.

Roughly comparable to a ripple effect from a stone dropped in water, the rings continue to spread at a rate of 50 km a second.

On a clear night, the Andromeda Galaxy is visible to the naked eye as it is the closest spiral galaxy to Earth -- separated by a distance of about 2.5 million light years -- and to our own Milky Way Galaxy.

Infrared images can look much deeper into the universe to show how galaxies, stars and planets were first formed and their current make-up.

(AGENCIES)

Dubai nightlife swaps bars for tents during Ramadan

DUBAI, Oct 19: Dubai's nightlife is famous for its Western-style pubs and discotheques in the conservative Gulf Arab region, but during Islam's holiest month, the partying becomes more traditional at ''Ramadan tents''.

The city slumbers during the daytime hours of Ramadan, when Muslims abstain from food, drink and sex from sunrise to sunset.

But come nightfall, people throng to Bedouin-style tents at hotel beaches and rooftops to smoke tobacco water pipes, eat traditional Ramadan dishes, and enjoy a festive outing.

''If you want to relax in a laid-back atmosphere, this is where you come,'' says media professional Shireen, as she sips mint tea at a hotel swimming pool area that has been transformed into an Arabian Nights-like vista.

Coloured-glass lanterns and palm trees line several red and white canvas tents and three musicians play old Arabic folk tunes on the ud -- a stringed instrument, popular in the region.

Waiters pour Ramadan beverages such as sahlab, a hot milky drink flavoured with nuts and cinnamon, or jallab, concentrated date juice with pine seeds and raisins.

''When I first heard of the tent a couple of years ago, I was intrigued, but never really figured out how it was linked to Ramadan or Islam. Then I understood it was just a way for businesses to make money during this time,'' Shireen said.

The concept of ''Ramadan tents'' was launched in the early 1990's in Egypt and later spread to other Arab countries and cities including Dubai, where revenues from entrance fees, food, drinks and shisha are estimated to reach 75 million dirhams ($20.42 million) in that one month.

Dubai-based hotelier Aziz Benhelli says tents came to Dubai -- one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates -- in the mid-1990s but really took off in 2000.

''When hotels first launched tents in Dubai, they were very basic but now they have put a lot of effort into them,'' he said. SHISHA DELIGHTS

An integral part of the tent is the water pipe or shisha that is a popular social activity in many Arab countries, in which even non-smokers sometimes join in. People often play card games or backgammon during the shisha sessions.

''Shisha is very essential to the Ramadan outing and some people get addicted to it,'' said Iyad, a real estate professional, taking a puff from the ornately decorated pipe.

People order an average of 150 to 250 shishas per night at outlets in Dubai during Ramadan compared to between 90 to 100 outside the lunar month, industry experts say.

Cafes that offer shishas, or hookahs as they are commonly known in the West, have over the years spiced up the range of flavours to include fruit and coffee tastes to attract more customers, especially women.

''I don't like to smoke shisha but I like its smell which is now linked to Ramadan. Shisha, tents, they are all a big part of celebrating Ramadan and I look forward to them each year,'' said Dubai resident Ura.(AGENCIES)

Dubai Flower Centre poised to tap Indian floriculture market

DUBAI, Oct 19: Dubai Flower Centre (DFC), the trans-shipment facility for perishable goods in the region is gearing up to tap the Indian flower export market which is expected to exceed USD 1 billion by 2010.

"Geographical location and superior infrastructure are two major factors that will favour Indian exporters if they decide to use the 180,000-tonnes per annum capacity DFC, which went operational in July this year," DFC Marketing Director Ibrahim Ahli said.

DFC can act as a hub for Indian growers and traders so that they can reach out to regional, European and American markets, he said.

A DFC delegation had recently visited India to create awareness about the Centre and its unique facilities. During the visit, the delegation met officials in major cities and held discussions with flower growers and exporters.

"Our main purpose is to ensure that floriculture industry in India is fully supported by DFC through its facilities which can be utilized for imports and exports of perishable products," he said in a statement.

By setting up operations in the DFC, farmers from India's major floriculture and horticulture areas can take advantage of Dubai's connectivity to global markets through more than 117 airlines operating from the Dubai International Airport, Ahli said.

Currently India produces 200,000 tonnes of loose flowers and 500 million tonnes of cut flowers according to India's Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). (PTI)

New York City Mayor Bloomberg's Lexus carjacked

NEW YORK, Oct 19: One of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's personal employees was beaten by a thief who then stole the billionaire's car in New Jersey, authorities said.

The employee was driving the gray 2001 Lexus yesterday morning in Hackensack, New Jersey, on an errand for the mayor shortly before 9 am (local time) when a woman came to the window to ask for money, police said. As he declined and began to roll up the window, a man got into the passenger seat and punched him in the face, authorities said.

"They force him out and take off," said Capt Frank Lomia, of the Hackensack Police Department.

The carjackers sped away, driving over a lawn as they made their escape, he said. Grass and dirt still clung to the car when it was recovered about two hours later, abandoned on the side of a road in nearby Fair Lawn, New Jersey.

Police were looking for the two suspects. Two people matching their description were spotted at a convenience store in the area just before the car was stolen.

The mayor's spokesman, Stu Loeser, said Bloomberg "hopes that those who committed this crime are swiftly brought to justice."

Bloomberg's employee, Gradimir Bosnjak, was in Hackensack to pick up a colleague. He was not seriously injured, although the mayor called to check on him after the crime. The worker is one of many staffers who take care of Bloomberg's personal business and his homes, including his town house in Manhattan and country house in upstate New York.

"Everything is fine, thank you," Bosnjak told The Associated Press late yesterday. (AP)

US school loses funds over meditationcontroversy

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 19: Plans for a high school meditation club funded by filmmaker David Lynch were canceled after parents found out that students would be taught a controversial meditation method that some claim is a kind of religious practice.

Amid protests that Transcendental Meditation _ a method developed by a one-time spiritual teacher to The Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi _ was a form of religious practice and therefore inappropriate for a public school, the David Lynch Foundation on Tuesday withdrew the USD 175,000 it had pledged to Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, California.

The grant would have provided funds for 250 students and 25 staffers to practice TM, a meditation style past adherents claimed allowed them to levitate.

Lynch, best known as the director of dark, surreal films like "Eraserhead" and "Blue Velvet," has meditated for more than 30 years and credits TM with nourishing his creativity.

But an information meeting for Terra Linda parents about the program last week turned chaotic, with one parent rushing the stage to denounce TM as a cult.

Others said they felt TM was too close to a religion and therefore should not be promoted as a student activity, leading a conservative legal organization to consider suing the school for violating the separation of church and state.

Alternative forms of spiritual expression are nothing new in Marin County, California, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Flower children of the 1960s flocked to the county's coastal bluffs and rolling hills after they decided to settle down and raise families. (AP)

Diplomats fail to break deadlock over UNSC seat

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19: The Latin American and Caribbean group failed to break the impasse over one non- permanent UN Security Council seat from the region with both Guatemala and Venezuela refusing to withdraw or consider a third candidate.

The representatives of 32 countries including the two contestants met yesterday but diplomats reported little process.

The 192-member General Assembly will today resume the voting process which was suspended for 24 hours after 22 rounds failed to produce a result to enable the group to come to some consensus.

A diplomat said Guatemala and Venezuela need some more time before considering the option of withdrawing in favour of a third candidate.

Except in one round, Guatemala has consistently got around 30 more votes than Venezuela but failed get two-thirds majority needed to be elected for a two-year term beginning on January 1.

Generally, a country consistently scoring less than another withdraws but the stakes are much higher in this case as Guatemala is strongly backed by the US which wants to keep Venezuela out for its President Hugo Chavez had described US President George Bush as "Devil" while participating in the high level segment of the General Assembly and said Bush had left a smell of sulphur in the hall.

After unsuccessful discussion among 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries, Guatemalan Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal, who is personally leading his country's delegation, said his country does not want to paralyze the Assembly but in the absence of a consensus, why not allow the country getting higher number votes to be elected. (PTI)