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TOP NEWS STORIES OF WEDNESDAY JULY 11th 2007:

Big powers give nuclear-terrorism treaty a miss

Thalif Deen | United Nations

02 July 2007 10:01

A long-awaited international convention against nuclear terrorism will come into force next week, nine years after it was originally proposed by Russia and 10 months after it was adopted by the 192-member United Nations General Assembly. But most of the major powers, including those with nuclear weapons, are giving it a miss -- at least so far.

"The convention will help prevent terrorist groups from gaining access to the most lethal weapons known to man," says UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who describes nuclear terrorism "as one of the most serious threats of our time".

The new international treaty, which has 115 signatories, needed 22 ratifications before it became international law. The 22nd country to ratify it was Bangladesh. The treaty comes into force on July 7.

However, Dr Natalie J Goldring -- a senior fellow with the Centre for Peace and Security Studies and an adjunct full professor in the Security Studies Programme at the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University -- expresses doubts about the effective implementation of the convention.

To implement this convention fully, she points out, signatories must also carry out related measures through national legislation. "This will not be easy," Goldring says.

Since mid-June, she says, the only permanent member of the UN Security Council to ratify the convention is Russia. The only other nuclear state that has ratified the convention so far is India. The United States has signed the convention, but has not ratified it.

Still, Goldring says, this convention is likely to contribute to efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism by bringing additional attention to this crucial issue. "However, the world community has a great deal of work to do. We need to limit access to nuclear weapons and radioactive material much more effectively than is currently the case."

The 22 ratifying parties that have expressed their willingness to implement the treaty include: Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Comoros, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Hungary, India, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Mexico, Mongolia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.

The world's five declared nuclear powers are the US, Britain, France, Russia and China. India and Pakistan have declared their nuclear weapons, but are not considered "nuclear weapon states" under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty because it defines nuclear weapons states as those that tested weapons before January 1967. Israel and North Korea are also believed to have nuclear weapons.

Officially titled the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, the treaty outlaws specific, concrete acts of nuclear terrorism.

One of the objectives of the convention is protection against attacks involving a broad range of possible targets, including nuclear power plants and reactors.

Under the convention, all parties to the treaty will have to cooperate in preventing terrorist attacks by sharing information and assisting each other with criminal investigations and extradition proceedings.

"The entry into force of the Nuclear Terrorism Convention must, of course, be welcomed as a demonstration of the consensus within the international community that nuclear weapons must not be acquired by terrorist groups," says a former UN under-secretary general for disarmament affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala.

However, he points out that there is a rich irony in the fact that key members of that same international community have failed to ratify such important treaties as the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty preventing the development of new nuclear weapons.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and at least three other countries outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, he says, have about 26 000 nuclear weapons among them, of which 12 000 are on alert status.

"These are weapons of terror and there can be no distinction between 'right' hands and 'wrong' hands for their possession in terms of the humanitarian principles of war and the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion of 1996," says Dhanapala, who is also a member of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission.

Back to the table Cora Weiss, the UN representative of the International Peace Bureau and president of the Hague Appeal for Peace, says the best thing about this convention is that it brings the nuclear issue back to the table and, hopefully, to the consciences of the world's governmental leaders.

"What would really prevent nuclear terrorism is the total abolition of nuclear weapons. And that is not a pipe dream," Weiss says.

She says that a recent op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal calling for a nuclear-free future, and authored collectively by former US secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former US defence secretary William Perry and former senator Sam Nunn, has been in wide circulation among anti-nuclear activists and members of civil society.

There is also the World Court decision that generally nuclear weapons are illegal under international law; there is the Hans Blix commission report on weapons of mass destruction; "and we have just celebrated the 25th anniversary of filling Central Park with one million people who gathered to say, 'Goodbye nuclear weapons'".

Even the most recent foreign secretary of Britain, Margaret Beckett, endorsed the Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. "And we will soon, once again, remember the Nagasaki and Hiroshima atomic bombings," Weiss says.

She says there has never been a better time to revive the campaign to free the world of the most deadly and lasting possibility: nuclear devastation.

Goldring describes the convention as one of a constellation of measures to decrease the risks of nuclear terrorism. If fully implemented, she says, it would increase the level of cooperation among states and the quantity and quality of information they share with respect to terrorist incidents.

"It also has an important focus on safeguarding any nuclear or radiological material that is captured by states," she says. "Unfortunately, while this step is laudable, no single measure is going to solve this problem, and the convention is relatively modest in comparison with the work that needs to be done."

Goldring also says that outlawing nuclear terrorism is not enough. "We urgently need to secure the surplus nuclear material in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere, and to protect nuclear facilities around the world." -- IPS

Great debate or great swindle?

Great debate or great swindle?

Email Print Normal font Large font Matthew Ricketson

July 11, 2007

AdvertisementTonight ABC television will broadcast The Great Global Warming Swindle. More to the point, it will swaddle the controversial documentary in a radioactive suit made up of an interview with director Martin Durkin by one of the national broadcaster's current affairs tough nuts, Tony Jones, a panel discussion among carefully chosen experts and a website that provides links to eight earlier ABC programs about climate change.

Rarely, if ever, has a documentary shown on the ABC been surrounded by such an elaborate buffer zone.

Durkin's program will also be broadcast on ABC2 and on ABC News Radio.

The website devoted to it at ABC Online asks viewers to take part in a poll whose results will be aired soon after the program is screened and to send in their comments by email or video.

Does this mean the ABC does not believe in the documentary's explosive claims that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by a conspiracy between scientists and a left-dominated media?

Does it mean the ABC's board, which includes three right-wing cultural warriors, has influenced ABC decision-making in selecting a documentary whose claims have been contested by many scientists?

Or is the screening simply a shining example of the national broadcaster's recently updated editorial policies that enshrine balance?

First, some background. In March, Durkin's documentary was screened in England on Channel 4, a not-for-profit broadcaster funded partly by the British Government and partly by licence fees from commercial networks. It is known both for screening Big Brother and acclaimed documentaries such as The Falling Man.

According to The Great Global Warming Swindle, human beings do have an impact on climate but it is minute compared with the vast natural forces, especially the sun, that are continually pushing global temperatures one way or the other.

The program's supporters believe it is a definitive answer to former US vice-president Al Gore's award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Its detractors believe Swindle is propaganda, not a documentary, and that not only are its claims of a conspiracy theory outrageous but its claims to scientific validity are virtually non-existent.

Within days of its screening in England, the ABC's head of programming, Marena Manzoufas, requested a preview tape.

The 90-minute documentary was trimmed to 55 minutes - partly for international release and partly to remove references to one scientist who said his quotations had been misrepresented, according to the ABC's head of television, Kim Dalton.

Distributors in Germany, Canada, Spain and the United States have bought the rights to The Great Global Warming Swindle, but Dalton says it has only been screened in Britain so far.

He flatly denies suggestions of influence by ABC board members in airing the program.

"There is no truth whatsoever that any ABC board members get involved in program decision-making on ABC television," he said.

"Those decisions are entirely my prerogative."

His comments were reinforced by board member and controversial historian Keith Windschuttle, who said yesterday he had not seen the documentary and had nothing to do with the ABC's decision.

"The ABC board does not get involved in individual programs. That is simply not how it operates," Dr Windschuttle said.

He would not comment on whether he believed in man-made climate change but it is believed he is a climate-change sceptic.

Another board member, Janet Albrechtsen, did not respond to requests for an interview, even though she devoted her regular column in The Australian to the topic yesterday.

Published without a declaration of her board membership, Albrechtsen's column lambasted those who attended or watched the Live Earth concerts last weekend.

Strangely, she did not mention the controversial documentary by name, but wrote: "The Kyoto (Protocol) period was framed around a classic progressive agenda, defined by symbolism and moral absolutes, universal diagnoses and universal solutions. That's why Kyoto was a joke.

"And it's why Al Gore and his Live Earthers, with their impossible goals, will be sidelined in the same way history has sidelined other dreamers."

Rather than direct board influence, it is more likely, according to sources inside the national broadcaster, that the ABC's managing director, Mark Scott, with his keen antennae for the political winds blowing in Canberra, decided that screening a documentary with a message close to the hearts of the Coalition Government would balance its hostility towards the controversial - and successful - drama about the waterfront dispute, Bastard Boys, that was screened in May.

One ABC source said: "There were noises coming from Canberra when The Great Global Warming Swindle was first aired in the UK. 'When's the ABC going to run this?' and so on. And if the Government is returned later this year, you would think there would be barely anyone standing at the ABC after Bastard Boys, which showed unionists in a reasonably favourable light."

Inside the broadcaster there are also reports of tension between Tony Jones, who usually hosts Lateline, and the head of factual entertainment, Denise Eriksen, over his reportedly tough questioning of Durkin when he travelled to England last week.

According to the independent news website Crikey, Eriksen also travelled to London and, without Jones' knowledge, apologised to Durkin for the "rough treatment".

"Edit suites have been resounding all week to screams of outrage from Eriksen demanding that tough responses be cut out. Jones has more than once needed to make clear he will 'walk' rather than agree to a sanitised show," an "ABC insider" reportedly told Crikey.

"Eriksen has even gone as far as demanding a written rundown from Jones as to how he intends to conduct the live to air discussion after the Swindle film airs. He has refused to comply. The stand-off may lead to a sudden change of presenter on Thursday night, so stay tuned."

Jones did not respond to requests for an interview yesterday. A spokeswoman for Eriksen said: "We are not going to even dignify such an inaccurate report with a comment."

Australian of the Year Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers, said the documentary's screening was "just a total distraction that will only serve to delay urgent action that is needed on climate change".

He said: "The debate is over. Even the American President, George Bush, who has been denying climate change for years, has come on board at the G8 leaders' meeting in June when he said the United States would join the United Nations-led process on developing a global approach to tackling climate change."

At the meeting in Germany, Mr Bush said: "The US will be actively involved, if not taking the lead, in a post-Kyoto framework, a post-Kyoto deal."

Dalton believes the interest and debate spurred by the Durkin program will be "good TV".

Asked if the make-up of the expert panel that will discuss the program accurately reflects the consensus of views on climate change in the scientific community, Dalton said: "There is no doubt global warming sceptics are very much in the minority.

"But they are a very vocal minority. They still have support among some high-profile commentators and among some in the scientific community."

He added: "The ABC is in the business of showing programs that allow discussion and debate. We are not being hijacked, to use your word, by a vocal minority."

He pointed to the range of programs on the ABC that accept man-made climate change is a reality and urge action, including Carbon Cops.

LINKS

http://www.abc.net.au/swindle.

http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk<0x2014>news/6290228.stm.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2123447,00.html

Distributors in Germany, Canada, Spain and the United States have bought the rights to The Great Global Warming Swindle, but Dalton says it has only been screened in Britain so far.

He flatly denies suggestions of influence by ABC board members in airing the program.

"There is no truth whatsoever that any ABC board members get involved in program decision-making on ABC television," he said.

"Those decisions are entirely my prerogative."

His comments were reinforced by board member and controversial historian Keith Windschuttle, who said yesterday he had not seen the documentary and had nothing to do with the ABC's decision.

"The ABC board does not get involved in individual programs. That is simply not how it operates," Dr Windschuttle said.

He would not comment on whether he believed in man-made climate change but it is believed he is a climate-change sceptic.

Another board member, Janet Albrechtsen, did not respond to requests for an interview, even though she devoted her regular column in The Australian to the topic yesterday.

Published without a declaration of her board membership, Albrechtsen's column lambasted those who attended or watched the Live Earth concerts last weekend.

Strangely, she did not mention the controversial documentary by name, but wrote: "The Kyoto (Protocol) period was framed around a classic progressive agenda, defined by symbolism and moral absolutes, universal diagnoses and universal solutions. That's why Kyoto was a joke.

"And it's why Al Gore and his Live Earthers, with their impossible goals, will be sidelined in the same way history has sidelined other dreamers."

Rather than direct board influence, it is more likely, according to sources inside the national broadcaster, that the ABC's managing director, Mark Scott, with his keen antennae for the political winds blowing in Canberra, decided that screening a documentary with a message close to the hearts of the Coalition Government would balance its hostility towards the controversial - and successful - drama about the waterfront dispute, Bastard Boys, that was screened in May.

One ABC source said: "There were noises coming from Canberra when The Great Global Warming Swindle was first aired in the UK. 'When's the ABC going to run this?' and so on. And if the Government is returned later this year, you would think there would be barely anyone standing at the ABC after Bastard Boys, which showed unionists in a reasonably favourable light."

Inside the broadcaster there are also reports of tension between Tony Jones, who usually hosts Lateline, and the head of factual entertainment, Denise Eriksen, over his reportedly tough questioning of Durkin when he travelled to England last week.

According to the independent news website Crikey, Eriksen also travelled to London and, without Jones' knowledge, apologised to Durkin for the "rough treatment".

"Edit suites have been resounding all week to screams of outrage from Eriksen demanding that tough responses be cut out. Jones has more than once needed to make clear he will 'walk' rather than agree to a sanitised show," an "ABC insider" reportedly told Crikey.

"Eriksen has even gone as far as demanding a written rundown from Jones as to how he intends to conduct the live to air discussion after the Swindle film airs. He has refused to comply. The stand-off may lead to a sudden change of presenter on Thursday night, so stay tuned."

Jones did not respond to requests for an interview yesterday. A spokeswoman for Eriksen said: "We are not going to even dignify such an inaccurate report with a comment."

Australian of the Year Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers, said the documentary's screening was "just a total distraction that will only serve to delay urgent action that is needed on climate change".

He said: "The debate is over. Even the American President, George Bush, who has been denying climate change for years, has come on board at the G8 leaders' meeting in June when he said the United States would join the United Nations-led process on developing a global approach to tackling climate change."

At the meeting in Germany, Mr Bush said: "The US will be actively involved, if not taking the lead, in a post-Kyoto framework, a post-Kyoto deal."

Dalton believes the interest and debate spurred by the Durkin program will be "good TV".

Asked if the make-up of the expert panel that will discuss the program accurately reflects the consensus of views on climate change in the scientific community, Dalton said: "There is no doubt global warming sceptics are very much in the minority.

"But they are a very vocal minority. They still have support among some high-profile commentators and among some in the scientific community."

He added: "The ABC is in the business of showing programs that allow discussion and debate. We are not being hijacked, to use your word, by a vocal minority."

He pointed to the range of programs on the ABC that accept man-made climate change is a reality and urge action, including Carbon Cops.

http://www.abc.net.au/swindle.

http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk<0x2014>news/6290228.stm.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2123447,00.html

Invisible Killers: The Truth About Environmental Genocide

Invisible Killers: The Truth About Environmental Genocide

A just released book, “Invisible Killers: The Truth About Environmental Genocide” by Rik Deitsch and Stewart Lonky, M.D., is getting national attention for providing valuable information about the myriad of toxins that humans are exposed to and the measures that can be taken to minimize their effects. Deitsch and Lonky begin the book by stating that “it is not our intent to frighten this audience into believing that Armageddon is at hand from a hopelessly polluted environment, but we also do not intend to diminish the real dangers that do exist.”

Concentrating primarily on the toxins in the air, water, food and in the home, “Invisible Killers” goes through toxic threats, both natural and man-made, with a style that informs and educates in common sense language for readers of all backgrounds. In Part I they go through the threats by identifying the compound, naming the source of exposure, and finally cataloging the possible health effects from that particular toxin. Part II, with chapters like “Methods of Detoxification,” Deitsch and Lonky catalog a number of methods and cures for exposure.

They also give the reader of premier of how the body deals with the various compounds, serving to give one a look at bodily functions that could prove invaluable in a variety of other situations. “Invisible Killers: The Truth About Environmental Genocide” is a must read for all concerned about the environment and the health of family and friends.

Dr. Lonky is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary and critical care medicine. As a National Institutes of Health post doctoral fellow and as a full-time faculty member at the University of California, San Diego he spearheaded a research team studying the cellular and biochemical mechanisms of lung injury. His practice involves the evaluation and treatment of patients with toxic exposures as well as patients with lung disease. In addition, he has served as the Chief Medical Officer for a diagnostic device company that developed technologies for the early diagnosis of certain epithelial cancers. His practice is located in Los Angeles, California.

Rik Deitsch, Chief Executive Officer of Nutra Pharma Corp. (nutrapharma.com), served as the President of NDA Consulting Inc., a biotechnology research group that provided consulting services to the pharmaceutical industry. NDA Consulting specialized in the research of peptides derived from Cone Snail venom, Cobra venom and Gila Monster venom. Deitsch holds both a B.S. in Chemistry and an M.S. in Biochemistry from Florida Atlantic University and has conducted research for the Duke University Medical School Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is an adjunct professor and teaches several courses for Florida Atlantic University's College of Business and Continuing Education Department.

For media interviews contact Promotion in Motion at 323-461-3921 or brad@promotioninmotion.net

Irwin Zucker (brad@promotioninmotion.net) President

Promotion In Motion

6464 Sunset Blvd. Suite 755

Hollywood, CA 90028

Phone : 323-461-3921

Fax : 323-461-0917

Invisible Killers: The Truth About Environmental Genocide

New research offers hope of treatments for obesity

Date: 2007-07-11]

A Franco-American team of researchers has identified the genetic 'master switch' that triggers the production of brown fat, a finding the scientists hope will lead to new treatments for obesity.

The work, which was partly funded by the EU, is published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

There are two types of fatty tissue: white fat and brown fat. White fat cells store energy primarily in the form of triglycerides; it is this kind of fat that is causing increasing numbers of waistlines to bulge. In contrast brown fat cells dissipate energy in the form of heat.

'Brown fat is present in mice and in human infants, where it keeps them warm by dissipating food energy as heat, instead of storing it as white fat,' explains Professor Bruce Spiegelman of Harvard Medical School in the US, who led the research. 'Human adults don't have much brown fat, but there is some, and from a therapeutic perspective the question is whether that pathway can be reactivated.'

Currently little is known about the developmental origins of brown and white fat cells. In this latest piece of research, Professor Spiegelman and his team identified a gene called PRDM16 which is found in brown fat cells but not in white fat cells. Analyses revealed that PRDM16 triggers the formation of brown fat cells by activating genes which allow cells to release large amounts of energy as heat.

The researchers also inserted PRDM16 genes into white fat precursor cells and injected these under the skin of mice. The PRDM16 gene subsequently caused these precursor cells to generate brown fat cells.

'These results illustrate that the gene we identified can turn on a broad programme of brown fat cell development when we insert it into precursors that otherwise would produce white fat,' explains Professor Spiegelman.

The scientists believe that inducing PRDM16 activity in white fat precursors could constitute a strategy to boost whole body energy expenditure and prevent the accumulation of excess fat. This could be achieved by drugs to raise PRDM16 levels in fat cells, or by engineering fat precursor cells with PRDM16 in the lab and injecting these into patients.

'You might not have to implant a large amount of engineered precursors in people who are at risk for being obese,' said Professor Spiegelman. 'In theory, you would only have to reduce the accumulation of white fat by one per cent or so to have an effect.'

The next step for the researchers is to test these theories further in animals, for example by boosting PRDM16 levels in mice and overfeeding them to see if they are resistant to becoming obese.

EU funding for the work came from the Sixth Framework Programme HEPADIP (Hepatic and Adipose Tissue and Functions in the Metabolic Syndrome) project.

For more information please visit:

http://www.hepadip.org

http://www.cellmetabolism.org/

Category: Project Results

Data Source Provider: Cell Metabolism, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Document Reference: Seale, P. et al. (2007)

Transcriptional control of brown fat determination by PRDM16. Cell Metabolism 6: 38-54.

Programme or Service Acronym: MS-FR C, FP6-INTEGRATING, FP6-LIFESCIHEALTH, FRAMEWORK 6C

Subject Index: Coordination, Cooperation; Medicine, Health; Scientific Research

RCN: 28022

Most U.S. Newborns Now Screened for Genetic Disease

07.11.07, 12:00 AM ET

WEDNESDAY, July 11 (HealthDay News) -- Most American babies are now routinely tested at birth for an array of lethal or disabling genetic conditions, a new study from the March of Dimes finds. In the last year, 88 percent of the nation's 4 million newborns received 21 or more of the 29 screening tests now recommended by the American College of Medical Genetics. Two years ago, just 38 percent of newborns received these tests.

"We're in the home stretch of a campaign for all babies to be screened for 20 or more genetic disorders," said Jennifer Howse, president of the March of Dimes. This testing is critical, she said, because the conditions involved are often treatable and "essentially the effects can be reversed if caught quickly."

Sickle cell anemia, congenital hypothyroidism, cystic fibrosis, hearing loss, phenyiketonuria (PKU, an enzyme deficiency), congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and galactosemia (another enzyme deficiency) are some of the most common genetic conditions included in the American College of Medical Genetic's list of 29 recommended screenings.

The screening test for 28 of the conditions involves taking a drop of blood from a newborn's heel before the baby leaves the hospital. Functional hearing loss -- which may affect as many as three to four newborns per thousand -- requires a separate assessment by a specialist, Howse explained.

The March of Dimes' Newborn Screening Report Card, released Tuesday, notes that 13 states -- Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia and Wyoming -- plus the District of Columbia currently mandate all 29 newborn screenings. Three more states -- Montana, Kansas and West Virginia -- are in the process of implementing a 29-test system.

Progress is being made in upgrading mandatory programs in states such as Montana, because "the 21st Century is the century of the Human Genome Project and the technology is there to be able to develop the tests to find the disorders," said Denise Higgins, supervisor of newborn screening for Montana's Public Health Laboratory.

Montana expects to have its 29-condition mandatory screening program in place by the beginning of 2008, Higgins added. Until now, the state has required newborn screening tests for only four types of genetic disorders, although additional testing has been available at parents' requests. Montana is already is screening almost all of its 12,000 newborns each year and in about one-third of the cases parents have asked for expanded screening.

Pennsylvania, with nine tests required, and Arkansas, which requires seven tests, will be the only remaining states requiring newborn screening for less than 10 conditions. Washington State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Massachusetts and New Hampshire's programs now mandate between 10 and 20 tests.

"The ironic thing is that in the states that don't do all these screens, when babies show up in the ER in dire circumstances, treatment -- although too little, too late -- is automatically provided," Howse added. It makes little fiscal sense not to screen, she said, because treatment for these conditions is expensive. Even more important, "babies can die or are terribly, terribly disabled for a long period of time," Howse said.

Treatments are simple and cheap for some conditions. Dr. Mariana Glusman, a pediatrician at Children's Memorial Pediatric Uptown Clinic in Chicago, said that she has seen cases of congenital hypothyroidism caught early through newborn screening.

After treatment with a thyroid hormone, such as Synthroid, the babies develop normally, Glusman said. Without such treatment, their growth and brain development would have been retarded. "These are very rare diseases," Glusman said, referring to the 29 conditions on the screening list. "Catching them early really makes a difference."

Five of the states that screen for 28 conditions do not automatically screen for functional hearing loss, although such screening is offered. Seven other states that mandate screening for 28 conditions do not require testing for cystic fibrosis, which has a prevalence of more than one in 5,000 babies, according to the March of Dimes data. The March of Dimes only recently has begun to recommend newborn screening for cystic fibrosis.

Dr. Shari Brasner, an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York City, suspects that some states may not require cystic fibrosis screening in newborns because so many parents have themselves tested before the baby is born.

"We tests for cystic fibrosis in almost all our [newborn] patients regardless of ethnicity," she said, because there is a significant prevalence in every single ethnic group.

More information

For more on newborn screening, head to the March of Dimes.

A 10,000-year-old baby mammoth carcass found

MOSCOW (AP) — The frozen carcass of a 10,000-year-old baby mammoth has been unearthed in a remote northern Siberian region, a discovery scientists said Wednesday could help in climate change studies. The 4-foot (1.2-meter) gray-and-brown carcass, discovered in May by a reindeer herder in the Yamal-Nenets region, has its trunk and eyes virtually intact and even some fur remaining, said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Zoological Institute.

The animal's tail and ear were apparently bitten off, he said.

"The mammoth is an animal that you look at and you see that there is an entire epoch behind it, a huge time period when climate was changing," he said in comments broadcast Friday. "And of course when we talk about climate change, we must use the knowledge that we will get from them (mammoths)."

Scientists believe mammoths lived from 4.8 million years ago to around 4,000 years ago. Studies suggest climate change or overkill by human hunters as possible reasons leading to their extinction.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Sciences | Sergei Tikhonov said the mammoth would be sent to an institute in Japan for further study.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Delay for Nasa asteroid mission

The launch of a Nasa mission to explore two giant asteroids has been pushed back to September. The Dawn spacecraft was due to launch on Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

But US space agency managers decided to postpone the lift-off due to scheduling problems with another Nasa mission.

Officials felt the window for launching Dawn in July was too tight, and that it could affect preparations for the Mars-bound Phoenix spacecraft.

Phoenix will launch from the Cape in August on a mission to explore the Red Planet's northern polar region.

CERES AND VESTA

At 930km (580 miles) across, Ceres is the biggest object in the asteroid belt

It is almost spherical and is classed as a dwarf planet Vesta is 525km (326 miles) across and has been resurfaced by volcanic flows

Ceres is thought to have an icy layer beneath its dusty surface; Vesta was resurfaced by ancient lava flows Pieces of Vesta have fallen to Earth as meteorites Dawn is due to set off on an eight-year mission to explore the two biggest asteroids in the Solar System - Ceres and Vesta.

Asteroids are considered the building blocks of planets - primordial relics left over from the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago.

Dawn will carry out a detailed study of the structure and composition of these giants, shedding light on their evolution and the conditions in which they formed.

The mission will reach Vesta in 2011 before going on to visit Ceres in 2015.

Ceres - now formally classed as a dwarf planet - may harbour significant stores of water ice; Vesta is devoid of water and appears to have been resurfaced by ancient lava flows.

The launch window closes on 19 July; managers decided there was too little time to get the spacecraft on the right trajectory to fly past Mars on a gravity assist manoeuvre, which will help propel it to the asteroid belt.

The Dawn mission has experienced a number of hurdles on its way to the launch pad. It was cancelled by the US space agency in March 2006.

The decision caused a furore in the scientific community, prompting Nasa to reinstate the mission less than a month later.

In August 2006 the International Astronomical Union created a new category of celestial body known as a "dwarf planet" for large Solar System objects that were more significant than asteroids in general but not quite "true planets". Ceres was put in this category.

World Population Day Special

By: Kamala Sarup Posted on: 7/11/2007

World Population Day Special

by Kamala Sarup

Every year on July 11, we celebrate World Population Day by organizing special events. The world has been observing World Population Day since July 11, 1987.

“We see men and women as partners in family-making with mutual respect and trust. It promotes right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity” United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Dr Thoraya Ahmad Obaid said. Ms. Obaid further said, “Today, too many women die from easily preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Every minute, another woman loses her life,” said Ms. Obaid. “Let us go forward with the message: No woman should die giving life. Let us do all we can to promote the right of every woman to enjoy a life of health, dignity and equal opportunity.”

According to UN, more than half a million women die each year during pregnancy and childbirth, 99 per cent of them in developing countries, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted in his message marking the Day. Many more suffer serious complications that can have a severe impact on the quality of life for women and their families". (Source:Un news)

Thousands of mothers around the world find themselves caught between life and death. Every day thousands of mothers die of malnutrition, thousands of women still can not choose when or whether to become pregnant. Thousands of women are subject to derogatory treatment including sexual violence.

Studies show that the present trend of the population growth especially in developing countries including Nepal will be ravaged by famine and economic crisis.

More and more women are not in favor of having many children, but these women do not have easy access to various types of family planning facilities. In Nepal, only 39 percent of the married couple have access to means of family planning. The 'unmet need,’ according to the Family Planning Association of Nepal (FPAN), is at least 28 percent.

There is no reproductive freedom for the majority of women. They have to bear children one after the other until her husband is satisfied. A son is a must. Most of the women's deaths in the developing countries could be prevented by using existing medical knowledge, but there are many reasons why mothers continue to die. There are cultural and social causes that increase the risk of women's death during pregnancy.

Women all over the world want and need information on health, and access to appropriate information and services to help them make right decisions. The issue becomes more importance since half the world’s population is under the age of 25 and half of all new HIV infections occur to young women.

At the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), 180 nations recognized the importance of improving access to health care, education and employment opportunities to improve women's development. Even the right to family planning was more specifically defined in the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

The Cairo Programme of Action (United Nations, 1994) says, "Reproductive health implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this are the rights of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice" (paragraphs 7.2 and 7.3).

Reproductive right was not discussed when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drawn up. However, it has become a recognized basic human right, which has had a major impact on the advancement of women's status and their lives during the past century.

The world population has already crossed the 6 billion mark and the two Asian giants, India and China, alone have over 2 billion people.

Decentralisation is key to good local governance. Population planning should, therefore, be an integral part of local development. Launching of literacy campaigns together with awareness programmes could serve as the conduit towards addressing the issue of equality and growing population.

Equal opportunities for both sexes in the field of education and employment is very important. Only by challenging the ingrained and systemic roots of women's inequality would true equality with men can be realized.

At a glance:

3,000,000 number of AIDS deaths each year.

529, 000 number of women in developing world dying needlessly from pregnancy-related causes each year

$1 (US) cost of a birthing kit which could save a woman's life every 60 seconds

34,000,000 amount owed by the US government in 2004 to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund

120,000,000 number of couples wanting, but not having, access to contraception.

(Source: Interact Worldwide)

Journalist and Story Writer Kamala Sarup is specialising in in-depth reporting and writing on Peace, Anti War, Women, Terrorism, Democracy, and Development. Some of her publications are: Empowerment in South Asia, Nepal (Booklet). Prevention of trafficking in women through media,(Book) Efforts to Prevent Trafficking in for Media Activism (Media research). Two Stories collections. Her interests include international conflict resolution, cross-cultural communication, philosophy, feminism, political, socio-economic and literature. Her current plans are to move on to humanitarian work in conflict areas in the near future. She also is experienced in organizational and community development.

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American Psychological Association reviews policy on counseling gays

By DAVID CRARY

The Associated Press

NEW YORK | The American Psychological Association is embarking on the first review of its 10-year-old policy on counseling gays and lesbians.

Gay-rights activists hope that the step will end with a denunciation of any attempt by therapists to change sexual orientation. Such efforts — often called reparative therapy or conversion therapy — are considered futile and harmful by many gay-rights activists.

Conservative groups defend the right to offer such treatment, and say that people with their viewpoint have been excluded from the review panel.

A six-member task force set up by the association has its first meeting beginning next Tuesday.

Scores of conservative religious leaders and counselors, representing such groups as the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family, have written a joint letter to the association, expressing concern that the task force’s proposals would not properly accommodate gays and lesbians whose religious beliefs condemn gay sex.

“We believe that psychologists should assist clients to develop lives that they value, even if that means they decline to identify as homosexual,” said the letter, which requested a meeting between APA leaders and some of the signatories.

APA spokeswoman Rhea Farberman said that a decision on when and how to reply to the letter had not yet been made.

The current policy, adopted in 1997, opposes any counseling that treats homosexuality as a mental illness, but does not explicitly denounce reparative therapy.

Conservatives contend that the review’s outcome is preordained because the task force is dominated by gay-rights supporters.

Joseph Nicolosi, a leading proponent of reparative therapy, predicted that the task force would propose a ban of the practice — and he vowed to resist such a move. Nicolosi, who was rejected as a task force nominee, is president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

Clinton Anderson, director of the APA’s Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns Office, insisted that the panel would base its findings on scientific research, not ideology.

One of the task force members, New York City psychiatrist Jack Drescher, said that conservatives don’t acknowledge the harm that might be caused when a gay patient — even voluntarily — undergoes therapy to suppress or change sexual orientation.

Jody Huckaby, executive director of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said that reparative therapy had been particularly harmful for young gays whose parents insisted on trying to change their sexual orientation.

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