Indian actor wanted to fly back from Australia before death

MELBOURNE, Apr 7: A 30-year-old Indian musician, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a Sydney hotel, was reportedly denied boarding plane for India two days before his death after airport staff suspected that he was too drunk.

D Prakash, who was part of an acclaimed Indian production of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', was at Sydney Airport two days before his death on March 25 but was too intoxicated to fly and was sent back to his hotel room, the 'Herald Sun' reported.

He continued to drink in his room and later choked on his own vomit, it said.

Prakash, was found dead at a hotel room on March 25, three days after the Sydney season of the production ended, Indian Consular Yadu Vansh Dayal said.

The British director Tim Supple's multilingual production of the Shakespearean comedy was staged at the Sydney Theatre from March 11-22.

Dayal said the performer's body was sent back to Tamil Nadu for last rites. (PTI)

Earth in crisis, warns NASA's top climate scientist

WILMINGTON, Apr 7: Global warming has plunged the planet into a crisis and the fossil fuel industries are trying to hide the extent of the problem from the public, NASA's top climate scientist says.

"We've already reached the dangerous level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," James Hansen, 67, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, told AFP here.

"But there are ways to solve the problem" of heat- trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which Hansen said has reached the "tipping point" of 385 parts per million.

In a paper he was submitting to Science magazine today, Hansen calls for phasing out all coal-fired plants by 2030, taxing their emissions until then, and banning the building of new plants unless they are designed to trap and segregate the carbon dioxide they emit.

The major obstacle to saving the planet from its inhabitants is not technology, insisted Hansen, named one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2006 by Time magazine.

"The problem is that 90 per cent of energy is fossil fuels. And that is such a huge business, it has permeated our government," he maintained.

"What's become clear to me in the past several years is that both the executive branch and the legislative branch are strongly influenced by special fossil fuel interests," he said, referring to the providers of coal, oil and natural gas and the energy industry that burns them. (AGENCIES)

Clinton's top strategist quits over lobbying conflict

WASHINGTON, Apr 7: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's chief political strategist, Mark Penn, stepped aside after news that he lobbied for a free trade treaty with Colombia that Clinton opposes.

A meeting between Penn and Colombia's US ambassador over the trade deal posed political problems for the campaign of the New York senator, who is vying with Illinois Sen Barack Obama to become the Democratic nominee in the November election.

''After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign,'' the campaign manager, Maggie Williams, said in a statement yesterday.

Anxiety about free trade is widespread among the working-class voters Clinton and Obama are courting and both candidates oppose the deal with Colombia.

Penn apologized for the March 31 meeting with the Colombian envoy, which he said was held in his separate role as CEO of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, a lobbying firm hired by Colombia to promote a US trade deal with the South American country.

John McCain, who has already won enough votes to secure the Republican nomination, took a break from campaigning but outlined plans to pursue voters often ignored by his party, which had focused on getting conservatives to the polls.

''We need to go all over America ... (and) compete hard in every section of the country,'' McCain said on ''Fox News Sunday'' in an interview taped on Friday.

Although he still has not won over many conservatives, McCain made clear he panned a broader campaign than those run by President George W Bushwehfce iterObmaorClntonathe Democratic candidate in the November election.

The Arizona senator said he would go after votes of blacks and Hispanics, two traditionally strong Democratic blocs, as well as independents and young voters who have been attracted to the Democratic campaigns this year.

RED AND BLUE

''I'm not sure that the old red state, blue state scenario that prevailed for the last several elections works,'' McCain said, referring to the way television networks depict Republican states as red and Democratic states as blue.

''I think most of these states that we have either red or blue are going to be up for grabs.''

Before Democrats can start concentrating on the November election they must pick a nominee. Clinton and Obama have two more months of nomination contests to go.

The next battleground is in Pennsylvania on April 22 but this weekend they were in Montana, a large, sparsely-populated state that rarely gets any political notice.

In a race where every delegate to the party convention that picks the nominee is fought over, Montana's contest on the last primary day of the year, June 3, has taken on unexpected importance. In recent elections, the party's nominee has been chosen by states holding early contests.

''I, for one, am pretty pleased that Montana is going to have the last say in who we're going to nominate for the presidency of the United States,'' Clinton said during a campaign stop in Missoula, Montana.

All three candidates return to the US Senate this week where the Iraq war will be center stage when Gen. David Petraeus, the US commander on the ground, testifies before Congress.

Obama, who would be the first black US president, is leading the race for the 2,024 delegates for the nomination but will not be able to reach that figure when all the primaries are over and in fact trails in polls in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter, predicted on NBC's ''Meet the Press'' that she would win by five to 10 percentage points. The state's Democratic senator, Robert Casey, an Obama backer, agreed ''It's going to be tough.''

Some Democrats worry a prolonged fight will split the party into two camps, alienate voters and strengthen McCain. (AGENCIES)

China denounces Olympic torch protest

BEIJING, Apr 7: China today denounced protests that dogged the Beijing Olympic torch relay through London, while state media announced impending trials of people accused of rioting in the Tibetan capital.

Protesters opposing a security drive in Tibet and demanding the mountain region's independence turned Sunday's London leg of the torch's journey into an obstacle course of angry disruptions -- not what China wanted for its ''journey of harmony''.

At least 35 people were arrested and the wedge of police guarding the Olympic torch at one point were forced to hustle it on to a double-decker bus when about 100 protesters tried to seize it.

Chinese state television focused on the larger crowds of well-wishers who lined the route and British sports celebrities holding the torch, showing nothing of the protests.

But an official quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency was bluntly angry.

''Today a tiny number of Tibet independence elements sought to disrupt the relay of the Olympic Games sacred flame through London,'' said an unnamed spokesperson of the Beijing Olympic Games torch relay office.

''We strongly condemn this vile behaviour.''

Tibet's capital, Lhasa, was hit last month by Buddhist monks' protests against Chinese rule that gave way to deadly rioting on March 14, and since then security forces have poured in to reimpose control there and in other restive Tibetan areas.

PROTEST MAGNET

The Olympic flame is expected to remain a magnet for anti-Chinese protests ahead of the Games in Beijing, with campaigns aimed at Tibet and also at Sudan, where critics say Beijing has not done enough to help stop deadly strife in Darfur.

Chinese officials have accused the Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, of organising the unrest to press for independence ahead of the Beijing Games in August and have vowed to come down hard on rioters and protesters.

The Dalai Lama has repeatedly denied the accusations and said he wants true autonomy, but not outright independence, for Tibet.

The first group of suspects accused of deadly rioting will soon go on trial in Lhasa, the China News Service reported, citing officials.

Prosecutors have sent 17 people for trial on charges of ''arson homicide''. An official cited said the accused would ''receive the harsh sanction of the law''.

Police said last week they had caught more than 800 people involved in the Lhasa violence and 280 others had turned themselves in.

China says 19 people died in the Lhasa riot, but representatives of the Dalai Lama say some 140 people died in the broader unrest across Tibet and nearby areas.

The Olympic flame arrives in Paris today before crossing the ocean to San Francisco, both places where the atmosphere is likely to be tense.

(AGENCIES)

Three rare mutations lower blood pressure:US study

WASHINGTON, Apr 7: Up to 100 million people globally have genetic mutations that keep their blood pressure low and lower their risk of heart and kidney disease and stroke, US researchers report said.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Genetics, could help scientists design new and better blood pressure drugs. They also shed light on how the kidneys handle salt and in turn regulate blood pressure.

''We found that these mutation carriers have a 60 per cent reduction in their risk of developing hypertension,'' Richard Lifton, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher at Yale University in Connecticut, said in a statement yesterday.

People with the mutations, in three genes, have the equivalent of their own, natural, blood-pressure-lowering medication, he added.

''We find that about two per cent of the population has mutations in at least one of these three genes -- although all of the identified mutations are individually very rare.''

Lifton's team looked at the DNA of people taking part in the Framingham Heart Study, an ongoing study of people living in Framingham, Massachusetts, and their children, which started in 1948.

The researchers homed in on three genes known to cause rare recessive genetic diseases marked by dangerously low blood pressure. All affect how the kidneys handle salt.

High salt intake is known to cause high blood pressure, which affects an estimated one billion people globally and which is a major cause of stroke, heart disease and kidney failure.

But not everyone who eats too much salt develops high blood pressure.

People with two ''bad'' copies of the genes, called NCCT, NKCC2 and ROMK, have disease such as Gitelman and Bartter syndromes with extremely low blood pressure. Two of the most commonly used blood pressure medications known as diuretics target the functions of these genes.

''We used knowledge of the spectrum of mutations that cause Gitelman and Bartter syndromes to sort among the hundreds of sequence changes we observed,'' Lifton said.

''The results show that nearly two per cent of the (Framingham group) has a defective copy of one of these three genes,'' Lifton said. ''Unlike patients with Gitelman and Bartter syndromes, these subjects have only one defective copy, not two.''

These variations appear to keep blood pressure in check well into middle age, when most Americans begin to develop high blood pressure, defined as 140/90 or higher.

Lifton's team has found other genetic mutations affecting blood pressure.

''Because these three genes comprise only a small fraction of those in which mutations are known to alter blood pressure, and because there are likely to be many more genes yet to be discovered, it seems probable that the combined effects of rare independent mutations will account for a substantial fraction of blood pressure variation in the population,'' they concluded.

(AGENCIES)

Iceland life on global warming's front line

REYKJAVIK, Apr 7: If any country can claim to be pitched on the global warming front line, it may be the North Atlantic island nation of Iceland.

On a purely physical level, this land of icecaps and volcanoes and home to 300,000 people is undergoing a rapid transformation as its glaciers melt and weather patterns change dramatically.

But global warming is also having a profound effect on Iceland economically -- and in many ways the effects have actually been beneficial.

Warmer weather has been a boon to Iceland's hydroelectric industry, which is producing more energy than before as melting glaciers feed its rivers.

Climate change, stoked by human use of fossil fuels, has also focused attention on Iceland's energy innovations and created demand for its ideas and expertise in fields such as geothermal energy and fuel technology.

Scientists from Africa to the Americas are exploring what Icelandic universities and energy researchers are up to. And foreign companies are teaming up with the small island's firms.

Two-thirds of electricity in Iceland is already derived from renewable sources -- its plentiful rivers and waterfalls and the geothermal heat that warms 90 percent of Iceland's houses.

Some observers say forward-thinking comes naturally on an island where climate change can already be seen in thawing ice and balmier winters.

''People are already now planning for a future that will be different from the past,'' said Tomas Johannesson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office.

''We are in an unusual situation that many of the changes that are happening are maybe more beneficial than for the worse,'' he added.

The increase in waterflow in the island's rivers, because of melting glaciers, is one example.

''If you compare the hydrological data about how much energy is in the water for the last 60 years, and then the last 20 years, you see that there is an increase,'' said Thorstein Hilmarsson of the national power company Landsvirkjun.

This extra energy is needed in an economy driven partly by power-intensive industries such as aluminium smelting.

But Icelanders know that climate change is not a simple economic equation.

''If something serious happens to other nations, this can easily have an effect here. So people are not exactly welcoming these changes,'' Johannesson said.

(AGENCIES)

Scientists identify 20 new genes that ‘influence height

NEW YORK, Apr 7: It seems to be a ‘tall’ story. Scientists claim to have developed a clearer picture of what makes some people stand head and shoulders above others.

They have identified a further 20 regions of the first common version of a gene, that has been linked to influencing height earlier, which together can make a difference of up to six centimetres.

Using DNA samples taken from over 30,000 people, the international researchers have identified the 20 loci (regions of genetic code) common variations of which actually influence adult height, the ‘Nature Genetics’ journal reported today.

"The number and variety of genetic regions that we have found show that height is not just caused by a few genes operating in the long bones. Instead, our research implicates genes that could shed light on a whole range of important biological processes.

"By identifying which genes affect normal growth, we can begin to understand the processes that lead to abnormal growth-not just height disorders but also tumour growth, for example," said lead researcher Dr Tim Frayling of the Peninsula Medical School.

Half of the new loci identified by Dr Frayling and his colleagues contain genes whose functions are well documented.

While some help regulate basic cell division, which may have implications for cancer research, other genes are implicated in cell-to-cell signalling, an important process in the early development of embryos in the womb.

Yet others are so-called "master regulators", acting as switches to turn genes elsewhere in the genome on or off. One locus in particular is also implicated in osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis involving the effects of wear and tear on the body’s structures.

However, of the twenty loci identified, the other half contain genes about which little or nothing is known.

The researchers have compared these findings to their work last year which identified the first common FTO gene for obesity. Even though the gene has been shown without a doubt to be influence body size, its role is still unclear.

"There may be more than a hundred genes which affect our height, many of which will work in surprising or unpredictable ways.

"The challenge now for us is to understand how they influence growth in the body. This could open up new avenues for treating a range of diseases," said co-researcher Dr Mike Weedon. (PTI)

New tribunal to probe bombing of Bhutto’s Karachi rally

ISLAMABAD, Apr 7: A new tribunal will be set up to investigate the suicide bombing of former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming rally in Karachi last year and former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim will be among the suspects, the ruling PPP has said.

Zulfiqar Ali Mirza, the head of the Sindh unit of the Pakistan People’s Party, said the tribunal will be constituted after the party forms Government in the province, where it has a majority in the assembly.

Two suicide bombers attacked Bhutto’s motorcade hours after she returned to Pakistan from exile on October 18 last year, killing 140 people and injuring hundreds more. The PPP leader was later assassinated in another suicide attack in Rawalpindi in December.

PML-Q leader Rahim will be on the list of suspects because a day before the attack, he made a statement that "Benazir’s caravan will end at midnight", Mirza said.

Bhutto had reportedly alleged that Rahim along with several other PML-Q leaders and Government officials were involved in a conspiracy to target her

Mirza told reporters in Karachi yesterday that if Rahim is found guilty by the new tribunal, he would be "hanged".

He said the PPP had "no trust" in the inquiry tribunal headed by retired judge Ghous Mohammad that was set up by the previous government to probe the suicide attack on Bhutto’s rally and wanted to set up a new probe panel.

The PPP has boycotted the proceedings of the Ghous Mohammad tribunal on the grounds that it had no faith in it.

The tribunal’s proceedings were stayed till April 15 by the Sindh High Court in response to a petition filed by PPP lawyer and now federal Law Minister Farooq Naek.

PPP workers had hounded Rahim during the inaugural session of the new Sindh assembly on Saturday and he was unable to take oath as he had to flee from the assembly building.

The PPP workers later damaged Rahim’s portrait that was in the building.

Taking a dig at Rahim, Mirza said if the PML (Q) leader wanted to lodge an FIR to complain about what had happened on Saturday, he could do so since it was his "hobby" when he was in power to register FIRs against political opponents.

"He didn’t deliver justice while he was in power, but now the PPP will try to deliver justice to him. Rahim is now our colleague in the assembly and we will ensure that he can take his oath peacefully," Mirza said. (PTI)

Nestle announces part eyecare sale to Novartis for USD 11 bn

GENEVA, Apr 7: Swiss food giant Nestle today said that it had agreed to sell about a quarter of its eye-care unit Alcon to Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis for about USD 11 billion in cash.

Novartis will acquire about 24.85 percent of Alcon's issued and outstanding capital in the deal.

In addition, Novartis has an option valid from January 2010 until July 2011 to acquire Nestle's remaining majority stake of about 52 percent in Alcon for around USD 28 billion.

Nestle chairman and chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said: "Today's decision reflects Nestle's commitment to ensure a strategically sound and financially attractive solution for Nestle and Alcon.

"Nestle has been able to take a further step in realising shareholder value from its long-term Alcon investment."

Novartis said that the deal enhanced its "longer term growth prospects with greater access to the faster-growing eye-care market, a speciality field with unmet patient needs and annual sales of about USD 25 billion in 2007".

In 2007, Alcon generated annual sales of USD 5.6 billion and net profit of USD 1.6 billion. (AGENCIES)

Medicine mix-ups hurt about 1 in 15 hospitalized kids: study

CHICAGO, Apr 7: Medicine mix-ups, accidental overdoses and bad drug reactions harm roughly one out of 15 hospitalised children, according to the first scientific test of a new detection method.

That number is far higher than earlier estimates and bolsters concerns already heightened by well publicised cases like the accidental drug overdose of actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins last November.

"These data and the Dennis Quaid episode are telling us that ... These kinds of errors and experiencing harm as a result of your health care is much more common than people believe. It's very concerning," said Dr Charles Homer of the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality. His group helped develop the detection tool used in the study.

Researchers found a rate of 11 drug-related harmful events for every 100 hospitalised children. That compares with an earlier estimate of two per 100 hospitalised children, based on traditional detection methods. The rate reflects the fact that some children experienced more than one drug treatment mistake.

The new estimate translates to 7.3 per cent of hospitalised children, or about 540,000 kids each year, a calculation based on government data.

Simply relying on hospital staffers to report such problems had found less than 4 per cent of the problems detected in the new study.

The new monitoring method developed for the study is a list of 15 "triggers" on young patients' charts that suggest possible drug-related harm. It includes use of specific antidotes for drug overdoses, suspicious side effects and certain lab tests. (AGENCIES)

Candidates campaign pay heed to Hillary's recent assertion

NEW YORK, Apr 7: With presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's two claims already challenged, the former first lady has now come under fresh scrutiny for her assertion that she was "instrumental" in Northern Ireland peacemaking.

A 150-page thesis on Northern Ireland peacemaking, which her daughter Chelsea wrote as Stanford University senior in 2001, has been caught in a controversy and rival campaigners would like to lay hand on it with a hope to find some clue to hammer Clinton.

Chelsea's faculty adviser Prof Jack Rakove was quoted by Newsweek magazine as saying that Chelsea had spoken with her father "at some length" about the negotiations, before writing the thesis.

Through Clinton aides, the magazine said, Chelsea had directed reporters to ask the University for the document. But, the University says it does not have a copy in its library.

Meanwhile, Rakove, who has a copy, says only Chelsea can give the green signal for its release.

Clinton's spokesman Philippe Reines told Newsweek that the thesis "was written to satisfy an academic requirement and not media curiosity."

Nancy Soderberg, a senior adviser to Bill Clinton on Ireland subject, was quoted as saying Hillary Clinton's involvement with the Ulster women's group "really did support the peace process.

Former Northern Ireland peace broker George Mitchell told Newsweek that neither Hillary nor Bill were present at the peace table, as the discussions were limited to UK and Irish officials and Northern Ireland politicians. (PTI)

LTTE sets up base in US: Report

WASHINGTON, Apr 7: The LTTE has quitely established presence in the United States as part of its global expansion plan to raise funds and procure anti-aircraft weapons and other military equipment on a massive scale.

The group’s political wing has established "branches" in at least 12 countries, including the US, as part of a global expansion to purchase millions of dollars worth of anti-aircraft weapons, automatic rifles, grenade launchers, ammunition and other military equipment, the Washington Times reported today quoting officials.

The expansion includes operations in Maryland, New York and New Jersey.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been battling the Sri lankan military since 1983 to press for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in Sinhalese-majority Sri Lanka. Colombo had in January scrapped a tattered ceasefire with the rebels.

Yesterday, a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber hit a marathon event in Sri Lanka, killing 13, including a powerful minister, and wounding 100 others.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York in April last year said the LTTE relied on "sympathetic Tamil expatriates" in the US, Canada, Britain, Australia, France and other countries to raise and launder money; smuggle arms, explosives, equipment and technology to Sri Lanka; obtain intelligence about the Sri Lankan government; and spread propaganda.

The LTTE grabbed the attention of US authorities in August 2006 when eight people were charged in the New York case with conspiracy to provide resources and material support, the paper said.

Last year, FBI agents in New York arrested Karunakaran Kandasamy, described as the "director" of US operations, accusing him of raising money and arranging meetings between LTTE leaders in Sri Lanka and prominent US fundraisers.

FBI Assistant Director Mark J Mershon, who heads the bureau’s New York field division, said at the time Kandasamy "hasn’t merely supported the Tamil Tigers’ cause, he orchestrated US support.

US Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf said Kandasamy raised cash by staging fundraisers for tsunami victims through an organisation known as the World Tamil Coordinating Committee.

In Maryland, Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa, a Sri Lankan national, was sentenced in January to 57 months in prison on charges of conspiracy to provide support to the LTTE and the attempted exportation of arms and munitions, The Washington Times said.

A criminal complaint said Varatharasa conspired to export USD900,000 worth of machine guns, ammunition, surface-to-air missiles, night-vision goggles and other military weapons to Sri Lanka.

A co-conspirator, Haniffa Osman, who lives in Singapore, even travelled to Baltimore to test fire some of the weapons at a range in Havre de Grace with undercover US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. (PTI)