UK to introduce alien species to fight Japanese knotweed

LONDON, May 6: Scientists in Britain are planning to release alien species to deal with the devastating effect of Japanese knotweed in the countryside.

The authorities in Britain hope to save about 1.6 bn pounds by introducing the non-native species as an alternative to using ordinary methods, such as pesticide.

"Japanese knotweed has been described as having the biodiversity value of concrete it just smothers the ground in a mass," Dick Shaw, principal investigator at Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International (Cabi), was quoted as saying by the British daily Independent. The jumping plant lice, also called psyllids, lay eggs on the plant and the hatched larvae suck out the sap, the report said.

According to the daily, Japanese knotweed was brought to Europe as an ornamental plant that grows up to 3 m in height and sends out a root-like stem system into the ground. Fresh stem fragments of less than a gram in weight can produce a viable plant in just six days.

It can cost upto 54,000 pounds to completely clear the weed from a square metre of ground on development land, the report said.

Scientists at Cabi believe the introduction of alien parasites will not cause any environmental damage. However, some experts urged caution, saying it might have unintended consequences, such as feeding on British relatives of the knotweed. (PTI)

Iraq war strains US army mental health system

FORT DRUM, N Y, May 6: Fort Drum, a bleak US Army base in upstate New York, is a test case for how the military is handling a looming mental health crisis.

The military and its critics agree on one thing -- there are not enough therapists to treat all the soldiers who return from Iraq and Afghanistan traumatized by the experience.

The 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (2BCT) is the most-deployed brigade in the US army since 2001. It served two tours in Afghanistan, totalling 11 months, and was sent to Iraq twice for tours of 12 and 15 months.

''They're kind of a canary in a coal mine,'' said Paul Rieckhoff, a former Army captain who founded the advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. ''They're a good barometer to understand the human cost of the war.''

A report by advocacy group Veterans for America said the mental healthcare system at Fort Drum was not meeting the demands placed on it and had prepared inadequately for the return of more than 3,500 soldiers from Iraq late last year.

''Even though we knew this group were coming back from their 4th deployment and there would be these problems, we still had massive waits of two months (for appointments),'' Veterans for America spokeswoman Adrienne Willis said.

The report, released in February, said there were not enough counselors, pschologists and psychiatrists, there was too much reliance on group therapy over individual care and there was a lack of continuity in care. The lack of a hospital on base was also a problem.

It said commanding officer Gen. Michael Oates deserved ''commendation'' for setting the tone that psychological wounds were legitimate combat wounds. Nevertheless, the stigma of mental problems kept many soldiers from speaking up, it said.

Todd Benham, head of Fort Drum's behavioral health department, attributed long wait times to a lack of staff. He said the unit had plans to expand but it takes time to recruit, particularly in a rural area such as Fort Drum.

''It's definitely a crunch, it's difficult recruiting and certainly it's more difficult up here,'' Benham said.

''I don't think anybody is pretending the stigma has gone away or we didn't have significant wait times for a while,'' Benham said. ''We understand there was an issue.''

''Yes, we recognise Fort Drum needs some help, but that's something we've been working on for a year or more,'' he said.

GROWING CASE LOAD

Benham said visits to the clinic have risen from about 14,000 in 2001 to 26,000 expected this year. There was a big jump from 2004 to 2005 when the unit started screening all returning soldiers for mental health problems.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, can result from wartime trauma such as wounds or witnessing others being hurt. Symptoms include irritability or outbursts of anger, sleep difficulties, trouble concentrating, extreme vigilance and an exaggerated startle response.

Christopher Smith, 23, a tank mechanic who served in Ramadi, returned from Iraq in January 2006 and left the army. In the following six months, he grew increasingly withdrawn and isolated and was unable to hold down a job.

(AGENCIES)

Gen Franco ‘cheated Sir Cliff out of Eurovision title

LONDON, May 5: India-born famous British crooner Sir Cliff Richard was cheated out of success in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1968 after General Franco’s regime rigged the competition to improve Spain’s image, claims a documentary.

Spanish singer Massiel’s ‘La, La, La’ pipped Sir Cliff’s hit song ‘Congratulations’ by one vote at the last minute in the contest which was held at London’s Royal Albert Hall in April 1968.

Now 40 years on, filmmaker Montse Fernandez Vila has revealed in a documentary, titled ‘1968. I lived through the Spanish May’, that Spain’s only ever Eurovision win was down to behind-the-scenes negotiations by television executives from that country’s state-run channel.

The filmmaker has claimed that the executives toured Europe offering cash and promising to buy TV series and enter into contract with unknown artists from other Eurovision member states to influence the vote in the singing contest.

"There is evidence that votes were bought to secure a win for Massiel. The (Franco) regime was acutely aware of the need to improve their image (both at home and abroad).

"Looking back at the parties that were organised and the way Massiel was turned into a national hero-it seems a bit excessive for a song festival but it all served to glorify the regime," ‘The Daily Telegraph’ quoted Villa as discussing the documentary with Spanish newspaper ‘20 Minutos’.

Massiel, now 60, whose real name is Maria Felix de los Angeles Santamaria Espinosa, went on to become one of Spain’s best loved singers and re-released her Eurovision entry last year with a hip-hop beat.

Sir Cliff, now 67, made a second attempt to win the Eurovision Song contest when in 1973 he represented the UK with Power To All Our Friends. But he only reached third place behind artists from Luxembourg and Spain. (PTI)

Clinton delivers Top 10 list on Letterman show

NEW YORK, May 6: Democratic Presidential contender Hillary Clinton appeared on the ''Late Show with David Letterman'' to deliver the ''Top 10'' reasons she loves America, which included the ability to order her trademark pantsuits around the clock on the Internet.

Clinton, who appeared on tape from North Carolina where she was campaigning ahead of the state's nominating primary today, used the list to take a poke at Letterman with her No. 1 reason: ''Apparently anyone can get a talk show.''

But Clinton steered away from any controversy in her list and made not even a mention of her lengthy, tight race with rival Democrat Barack Obama for the party's presidential nomination. The Letterman segment will air on his show, which starts yesterday night at 11:30 pm EDT (0900 IST).

The ''Top 10'' list is evening staple on Letterman's late night talk show on CBS. Obama appeared last week, delivering a ''Top 10'' list of ''Surprising Facts about Barack Obama.''

Here are Clinton's ''Reasons Hillary Clinton Loves America:''

10. ''We have more Dakotas than every other country combined.''

9. ''Canadian bacon: soggy and chewy; American bacon: crisp and delicious!''

8. ''Thanks to the Internet, I can order new pantsuits 24/7. There's your pantsuit joke, Dave. Are you happy now?''

7. ''232 years and not one cookie shortage.''

6. ''TiVo.''

5. ''Did I mention the soup? Mmm, soup.''

4. ''Did you know former President Teddy Roosevelt was an American?''

3. ''Where else can you get a car painted for $29.95?''

2. ''Is this the part where I say, 'Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!'?''

1. ''Apparently anyone can get a talk show.'' (AGENCIES)

Republican evangelical support has peaked-analyst

KEY WEST, FLA, May 6: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain will almost certainly garner less of the evangelical vote in November than the almost 80 per cent that President George W Bush took in 2004, a former top Bush aide said.

Michael Gerson, a former Bush speechwriter and adviser who is now with the Council on Foreign Relations, predicted yesterday at a conference on religion and politics in Key West, Florida, that Bush's 2004 totals among this key voting bloc won't be matched by the Republican Party for a long time.

He pointed among other factors to ''a candidate like John McCain who doesn't have a specifically religious appeal.''

By contrast he noted that Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were both more comfortable talking about their faith than McCain, who was raised in a mainline Episcopal tradition but who now attends a Baptist Church in Phoenix.

Gerson also noted that ''evangelicals experience the same kind of economic concerns'' as other Americans as the pain from a housing and credit crisis spreads.

Bush had the support of 78 per cent of the white evangelical Protestants who cast ballots in the 2004 election by some estimates and about one in four US adults count themselves as evangelical.

''2004 was really a high point for evangelical entusiasm and support for George W. Bush ... I think that in some ways that was an artificial high,'' he told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference, organized by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

While the party will still win the lion's share of the evangelical vote in the November election, ''I don't think that Republicans going forward are likely to equal (Bush's) share of the evangelical vote,'' said Gerson, a leading evangelical intellectual who is also a columnist with the Washington Post.

The evangelical movement has been broadening its agenda beyond the hot-button social issues of abortion and gay marriage that defined much of its public face in the past and which were used to get out the vote for the Republican Party.

But Gerson said that the Democratic Party's in-roads with evangelicals which were opened to an extent by this widening agenda remained constrained by the party's support for abortion rights -- the issue which remained the litmus test for many evangelical voters including younger ones.

(AGENCIES)

Obama, Clinton face new tests in White House duel

WASHINGTON, May 6: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton face crucial tests in their grueling White House fight today, when voters in Indiana and North Carolina cast ballots in the latest Democratic showdowns.

The two states, with a combined 187 delegates to the August nominating convention at stake, are the biggest prizes remaining in the tight Democratic nominating race. After Tuesday, only six contests will be left.

''The stakes are high and the consequences are huge,'' Clinton told supporters at a New Albany, Indiana, fire station on Monday night, urging voters to think through their decisions.

Polls close in Indiana at 0430 ist) and in North Carolina at 0530 ist, with results expected soon afterward.

Clinton has cut Obama's advantage in North Carolina to single digits in most polls over the past few weeks. The two run closer in Indiana, where most polls show Clinton with a slight edge.

''Obviously we hope to do as well as we can, but, you know, we started out pretty far behind,'' she told reporters on her campaign plane last evening . ''I never feel confidant, I just try to do the best I can.''

Obama has an almost unassailable lead in pledged delegates who will help select the Democratic nominee to face Republican John McCain in November's presidential election.

If Obama wins both contests today, it would end Clinton's slender hopes of overtaking him in either delegates or popular votes won in the state-by-state battle and spark a fresh flood of calls for Clinton to step aside.

Clinton victories in both states could fuel doubts about Obama's electability and persuade some superdelegates -- party insiders who are free to back any candidate at the nominating convention -- to move toward her.

Neither candidate can win enough delegates to clinch the race before voting ends on June 3, leaving the decision to the nearly 800 superdelegates.

A split decision leaves the race largely unchanged heading to the last six contests, which have 217 delegates at stake.

OBAMA'S ROUGH STRETCH

Obama has struggled through a rough campaign stretch after last month's loss to Clinton in Pennsylvania, dogged by a furor over his comments on ''bitter'' small-town residents and a controversy over his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Obama, who would be the first black US president, said yesterday his recent troubles ''basically exhaust my problems'' and he had moved past them.

Obama has won nine of 10 black votes in other states and is expected to benefit from a strong turnout in North Carolina, where blacks could make up more than one-third of primary voters.

The two Democrats, courting working- and middle-class voters suffering from an ailing economy and high gas prices, battled for the past few days over Clinton's proposal to lift the federal gasoline tax for the summer.

Obama and many economists called the plan a political gimmick, but Clinton launched an advertisement in both states on Monday questioning her rival's stance.

''What has happened to Barack Obama?'' an announcer asks. ''He is attacking Hillary's plan to give you a break on gas prices because he doesn't have one.''

Clinton says a summer-long suspension of the tax would help Americans struggling with record gas prices in a faltering economy. Congressional leaders say there is little chance Congress will take up any gas tax proposal this year.

''Realistically, it's tough. I know that,'' she said late on Monday. ''Do I think we can get it done, past a veto by President (George W.) Bush as the ultimate blocker?'' she said. ''It's obviously a very difficult challenge. But that doesn't mean you don't try.''

Obama, an Illinois senator, released his own advertisement that said Clinton offered ''more of the same old negative politics.'' He told supporters the gas tax holiday was a dishonest approach to a real problem.

''The majority of people do find me trustworthy, more than they do the other candidate,'' he said. ''We can't solve problems if people don't think their leaders are telling them the truth.''

(AGENCIES)

Consulate helps Indian women stranded

DUBAI, May 6: The Indian consulate here rescued two Indian women from the Dubai International airport after they refused to board their flight fearing being duped by their employer.

The two women hailing from Kerala, did not board their flight yesterday that was booked by their employers, fearing being duped and not being able to reach their hometown.

They are currently lodged at the Indian consulate shelter house until further arrangements are made to send them home.

"We were being sent to Chennai instead of Kerala," they said.

The plight of the two women, in their mid-thirties, came to light when they sought help from a fellow Indian.

"The women said that they arrived in UAE on an entertainment visa. They worked as dancers in a local hotel. Their relations with their sponsor turned sour when they refused to entertain men who came to the hotel," Gulf News reported.

They said that they were wakened by their sponsor and asked to pack their bags to fly to Chennai instead of their hometown Kozhikode in Kerala.

On their way to the airport they overheard a telephone conversation by one of the staff with someone in Chennai.

"He was providing the colour of the dress worn by us, our names and passport numbers," they said.

"Instructions were also given to withhold our passport and return them if a payment of Rs 45,000 was made by us. We panicked and feared getting trapped further. We decided not to board the flight and walked out of the airport hoping to get help to return home". (PTI)

China's Hu urges cooperation ahead of Japan summit

TOKYO, May 6: Chinese President Hu Jintao lauded closer cooperation with Japan ahead of a state visit starting today which is intended to build trust between the Asian powers despite rifts over energy resources and security.

Aiming to promote his country as a friendly neighbour after years of feuding over Japan's handling of its wartime aggression, Hu will spend five days busy with an imperial dinner, speeches and cooperation deals, ping-pong and perhaps a panda.

Hu's longest state visit also comes as China seeks to calm international criticism over Tibetan unrest, which has threatened to mar Beijing's Olympic Games, a showcase of national pride.

With the two economies increasingly intertwined, Hu said closer cooperation was important to both countries' prosperity.

''I sincerely hope for generations of friendship between the people of China and Japan,'' Hu wrote in a message to Japanese readers of a Chinese magazine, Xinhua news agency reported.

Cooperation has ''brought real benefits to the people of both countries and spurred the growth and development of each,'' Hu said. ''These achievements are worth treasuring by the people of China and Japan.''

The Beijing Games were ''Asia's Olympics and the world's Olympics,'' Hu added.

Certainly much is at stake in ties between Asia's two biggest economies. China replaced the United States as Japan's top trade partner last year, with two-way trade worth 236.6 billion dollars, up 12 per cent from 2006.

OPPORTUNITIES, ANXIETIES

But while China's fast growth offers market opportunities, Beijing's accompanying expansion in diplomatic and military reach has stirred deeper anxieties in Japan -- over disputed energy resources, military power and the safety of Chinese exports.

Hu's efforts to court Japan could yet stumble on these rifts.

''Although the iceberg between China and Japan has melted, fully warming relations require further efforts from both sides,'' a commentator wrote in China's People's Daily on Tuesday.

The political climax of Hu's visit is set to be a summit tomorrow with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, when they hope to unveil a joint blueprint for managing ties in coming years.

But it was unclear whether the avowals of friendship would narrow rifts or merely bathe them in warm words.

Japanese media reports said touchy references in the document to Taiwan, human rights, and Japan's hopes for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council were still under negotiation.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said both governments had to deal with citizens wary of the other nation's intentions.

''The people's sentiment in both countries is still fragile, so we have to improve people's feeling through this visit,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The two country's are quarrelling over the rights to gas beds beneath the East China Sea, while a row over Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticide that made several people sick has become, analysts say, a symbol of Japanese alarm at China's rise.

PING-PONG AND PANDA

Officials from both sides had earlier raised hopes of a breakthrough in the gas dispute before Hu's visit. Hu on Sunday told Japanese reporters that a plan acceptable to both sides was possible. But a swift compromise seems unlikely.

Japan also wants greater transparency about China's surging defence spending, set at 60 billion dolllars for 2008, up 17.6 per cent on 2007 and outstripping Japan's defence budget. Foreign critics say China's real military budget is much higher.

Tokyo wants Chinese backing for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, an issue that in 2005 fuelled anti-Japanese protests in China, where there is deep rancour over Japan's harsh 1931-1945 occupation of much of the country.

For its part, China has pressed Japan to spell out again its stance on Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing says must accept reunification.

Tokyo has said it supports ''one China'' that includes Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony for much of the first half of the 20th century and retains close ties to Japan.

Still, the two sides are keen to stress forward-looking goodwill and are to issue a joint document on fighting climate change, a key topic for Japan as host of the July G8 summit.

Hu will give a speech to university students in Tokyo, he may play table tennis with Fukuda and he might also offer Japan a panda to replace one that died in a Tokyo zoo in April. (AGENCIES)

High-fat, low-carb diet helps kids with epilepsy

NEW YORK, May 6: The results of a study provide strong evidence that a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates -- a so-called ''ketogenic diet'' -- can help control seizures in children with stubborn epilepsy that does not respond well to drug therapy.

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures when the normal working of the brain is interrupted. A ketogenic diet has been widely used since the 1920s to help control hard-to-treat seizures in children.

In their study, Dr. Elizabeth G. Neal, from University College London, and colleagues randomly assigned a group of children who were having at least seven epileptic fits per week despite anti-epileptic drug therapy, to a standard diet or a ketogenic one, which is typically high in fats and very low in carbohydrates.

After three months, children on the ketogenic diet had more than one third fewer seizures, while seizure frequency increased in children on the standard diet, the researchers report in the Lancet Neurology medical journal.

A greater than 50 per cent drop off in seizure frequency was noted in 38 per cent of children on the ketogenic diet compared with just 6 per cent of children on the standard diet.

This study confirms that a ketogenic diet is safe and effective in children with drug-resistant epilepsy, the investigators conclude.

The most common side effects with the ketogenic diet were constipation, vomiting, lack of energy, and hunger, Neal and colleagues note.

In a written commentary, Dr. Max Wiznitzer, from the Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, notes that some questions still remain regarding ketogenic diets for childhood epilepsy. Among these are the long-term effects, the identification of epilepsies that benefit from early initiation of such a diet, and the mechanism by which the diet produces its anti-seizure effect. (AGENCIES)

Study shows breast-fed children are smarter

WASHINGTON, May 6: A new study provides some of the best evidence to date that breast-feeding can make children smarter, an international team of researchers said.

Children whose mothers breast-fed them longer and did not mix in baby formula scored higher on intelligence tests, the researchers in Canada and Belarus reported yesterday.

About half the 14,000 babies were randomly assigned to a group in which prolonged and exclusive breast-feeding by the mother was encouraged at Belarussian hospitals and clinics. The mothers of the other babies received no special encouragement.

Those in the breast-feeding encouragement group were, on average, breast-fed longer than the others and were less likely to have been given formula in a bottle.

At 3 months, 73 per cent of the babies in the breast-feeding encouragement group were breast-fed, compared to 60 per cent of the other group. At 6 months, it was 50 per cent versus 36 per cent.

In addition, the group given encouragement was far more likely to give their children only breast milk. The rate was seven times higher, for example, at 3 months.

The children were monitored for about 6 1/2 years.

The children in the group where breast-feeding was encouraged scored about 5 per cent higher in IQ tests and did better academically, the researchers found.

Previous studies had indicated brain development and intelligence benefits for breast-fed children.

But researchers have sought to determine whether it was the breast-feeding that did it, or that mothers who prefer to breast-feed their babies may differ from those who do not.

The design of the study -- randomly assigning babies to two groups regardless of the mothers' characteristics -- was intended to eliminate the confusion.

'MOTHERS WHO BREAST-FEED ... ARE DIFFERENT'

''Mothers who breast-feed or those who breast-feed longer or most exclusively are different from the mothers who don't,'' Dr Michael Kramer of McGill University in Montreal and the Montreal Children's Hospital said in a telephone interview.

''They tend to be smarter. They tend to be more invested in their babies. They tend to interact with them more closely. They may be the kind of mothers who read to their kids more, who spend more time with their kids, who play with them more,'' added Kramer, who led the study published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

The researchers measured the differences between the two groups using IQ tests administered by the children's pediatricians and by ratings by their teachers of their school performance in reading, writing, math and other subjects.

Both sets of scores were significantly higher in the children from the breast-feeding promotion group.

The study was launched in the mid-1990s. Kramer said the initial idea was to do it in the United States and Canada, but many hospitals in those countries by that time had begun strongly encouraging breast-feeding as a matter of routine.

The situation was different in Belarus at the time, he said, with less routine encouragement for the practice.

Kramer said how breast-feeding may make children more intelligent is unclear.

''It could even be that because breast-feeding takes longer, the mother is interacting more with the baby, talking with the baby, soothing the baby,'' he said. ''It could be an emotional thing. It could be a physical thing. Or it could be a hormone or something else in the milk that's absorbed by the baby.''

Previous studies have shown babies whose mothers breast-fed them enjoy many health advantages over formula-fed babies.

These include fewer ear, stomach or intestinal infections, digestive problems, skin diseases and allergies, and less risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that women who do not have health problems exclusively breast-feed their infants for at least the first six months, with it continuing at least through the first year as other foods are introduced. (AGENCIES)

Needle-free device delivers pain-free analgesia

NEW YORK, May 6: A new needle-free device that delivers a local anesthetic to the skin promises to help make delivering drugs and drawing blood less painful for children.

The system involves a sterile, prefilled, disposable device that dispenses lidocaine powder into the epidermis, the cells that make up the outer layer of the skin, lead author Dr. William T. Kempsky, from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford, and colleagues explain.

In the study, investigators randomly assigned a group of children to the powder lidocaine system or to a sham placebo system 1 to 3 minutes before a procedure known as venipuncture, during which a small needle is inserted into a vein in the back of the hand to collect blood, or a procedure called venous cannulation, which is used to drain blood or fluid or administer medications.

The use of the lidocaine system provided rapid and significant analgesia relative to the sham system, based on standard pain scale scores.

Parental ratings of pain were also significantly lower with the lidocaine system, the researchers report in the journal Pediatrics.

The study, which involved nearly 600 children, confirms what was seen in smaller studies.

''The convenience and rapid effect of the needle-free powder lidocaine delivery system may make it more likely that children will receive local anesthesia'' for these types of procedures, ''as recommended by guidelines,'' the investigators conclude. (AGENCIES)

Task force dealing with food crisis to
move at full speed: Ban

UNITED NATIONS, May 6: Expressing concern over increasing food insecurity across the world, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said that international task force he has set up on global crisis will be "moving a full speed" since an urgent response is required as livelihood of millions is threatened.

"If not properly handled, this crisis could cascade into multiple crises affecting trade, development and even social and political security around the world," Ban said.

The UN secretary-general appealed to the member states to attend the Rome summit scheduled for early June at the highest level to work out the strategies to address and overcome the crisis caused by the fast rising prices of food.

Ban, who is sending personal invitation to all heads of State and Government, called on the world leaders to come with fresh ideas, stressing that it is time for "real commitment and real action."

Ban last week announced a new international task force which will prepare a plan of action to tackle the global rise in food prices. The group, which brings together the heads of key UN agencies, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as experts from the around the globe, will hold its first meeting in New York on Monday.

The UN chief, who has just returned from official visits to West Africa and Europe, said the international community has taken promising steps in recent days to address emergency needs, but added that the longer-term challenge is "to boost agricultural development, particularly in Africa and other regions most affected."

Responding to criticisms leveled against the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Ban said given the gravity of the current crisis, he can understand and sympathise with the frustrations that many people have. (PTI)