Asia / All Themes
Malaysia: Free Journalists and Parliamentarian
12.09.2008 16:07
humanrightswatch.org
The Malaysian government should immediately and unconditionally release two journalists and an opposition politician arrested on September 12, 2008, under Malaysias draconian Internal Security Act, Human Rights Watch said today.
Malaysia
Human Rights Protection
EU sees possibility of more Syria partnership talks
12.09.2008 08:37
b4uindia.com
The European Union is willing to renew talks for a partnership pact with Syria once Damascus takes more steps to meet Western demands, the EU''s foreign policy chief said on Friday. The signing of an already-drafted association accord has been stalled since the assassination three years ago of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Syria has denied assertions the attack was orchestrated from Damascus. Javier Solana, the EU''s foreign policy chief, told reporters in Tel Aviv: "The attitude of the EU is to continue with Syria the negotiations as soon as it decides it''s clear enough that Syria has changed its position." Solana did not spell out what the Western demands were, but the EU has expressed concern about preventing weapons smuggling across Syria''s borders to the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran. "There is no doubt that if Syria changes their position in the way we are talking about, and they have done some change in that direction, then we''ll consider no doubt," resuming negotiations for the pact, Solana said. At this point there had not been any decision taken by the EU to resume these talks with Syria, he added. Solana praised recent indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel, under Turkish mediation, and said they ought to be resumed. Formal negotiations between Israel and Syria stalled in 2000. "I think it''s good. I think the contacts between Israel and Syria, through Turkey, should continue," he said. Syria said last week it had postponed a further round of talks with Israel after the resignation of Israel''s chief negotiator Yoram Turbowicz, who was stepping down as chief of staff for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Olmert, embroiled in a corruption scandal, has pledged to resign himself once his Kadima party chooses a new leader in an election scheduled for next week.
India
Social Life
Blast in Thai south kills bomber, wounds 4 police
12.09.2008 08:37
b4uindia.com
A small remote-controlled bomb exploded in Thailand''s predominately Muslim deep south on Friday, killing a suspected bomber and wounding four policemen, police said. The police officers were escorting a group of teachers home when the 5-kg (11 lb) bomb exploded on a road in Narathiwat, one of the four provinces where more than 3,100 people have been killed in four years of violence. "The militants were speeding away after detonating the bomb and one of them was hit by shrapnel and killed," a policeman at the scene told Reuters. Two of the four wounded police officers were in critical condition. Another man suspected of being an accomplice to the bomber was also wounded. Since the latest violence erupted in 2004, the rebels have never revealed themselves publicly or claimed responsibility for the near daily gun and bomb attacks in the rubber-producing region bordering Malaysia. (Reuters)
India
Social Life
NDA cadets to sail “Tarangini” at high seas
12.09.2008 08:37
b4uindia.com
A sailing expedition by the officers and cadets of National Defence Academy (NDA), to a few Indian Ocean Region countries on board a Sail Training Ship ''Tarangini'' is scheduled to take place from September 21 to November 24. The INS Tarangini, the Indian Navy''s Sail Training Barque, will be used for this expedition. It is custom-built for sail training of officers and cadets. Built at the Goa Shipyard Limited, Vasco da Gama, Tarangini is the only sailing ship to be commissioned into the Indian Navy on 11 November 1997, and is based at Kochi under Southern Naval Command. The ship is built for long voyages and can be deployed at sea continuously for a period of over 20 days. She is 54 metres long and carries 18 sails with a sail area of almost 1000 square metres. The sailing expedition will provide the cadets an opportunity to interact with officers and cadets of other countries and also go a long away in projecting the ethos of this great institution. It will also provide them an ideal platform to gain first hand experience of the vagaries at sea and foster character virtues of courage, comradeship and endurance. INS Tarangini would be flagged off for the sailing expedition by Vice Admiral S.K. Damle AVSM, NM, VSM the Flag Officer Commanding in Chief Southern Naval Command from Kochi on September 21. The ship will visit the ports of Salalah (Oman), Port Victoria (Seychelles), Male (Maldives) and Colombo (Sri Lanka) before culminating at Kochi on November 24. She will traverse a distance of 4900 nautical miles in 65 days. Two officers and 60 cadets in two groups will take part in the expedition. These cadets shall undergo a training capsule for one week duration on board the ship prior to setting sail for the voyage. One officer and 30 cadets will undertake first half of the voyage from Kochi till Seychelles, where they will be replaced by the second batch of cadets who will sail rest of the voyage. Major General B.S. Grewal, Deputy Commandant and CI of the Academy shall be accompanying the cadets in the last leg of the voyage from Colombo to Kochi. (ANI)
India
Social Life
Agriculture Leadership Awards announced
12.09.2008 08:37
b4uindia.com
The names for the National Agriculture Leadership Awards have been announced for this year by the National Committee which functions under the Chairmanship of Haryana Governor A. R. Kidwai. The Life Time Achievement Award for this year went to three outstanding personalities for having served the Indian agriculture system for over four decades each, which positively impacted the growth in India''s farm sector, created newer opportunities and contributed to overall rural prosperity. They are Dr. V. Kurien, Dr. K.L. Chadda, and Dr. R.S. Paroda. Dr. V. Kurien, who is known as the pioneer of the White Revolution in the country and the architect of Operation Flood, for organizing milk producers under cooperative system and later created National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), which helped milk farmers substantially. Dr. K.L. Chadha is known as the Pioneer of Golden Revolution in India, who provided leadership to horticulture development in India through shaping policies, building institutions, disseminating knowledge and energising the system for employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in horticulture sector, which benefited millions of farmers in the country. Dr. R.S. Paroda is known for his transformational role in Indian agriculture system, having headed Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) as its DG, which witnessed rapid growth in farm sector, building of agriculture institutions of international repute and forging international cooperation. A scientist par excellence and an outstanding administrator, he also played global roles in Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) systems, which helped farmers and agriculture around the world. The Agriculture Leadership Awards have been instituted by “Agriculture Today”, the national agriculture magazine, published by Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development from New Delhi. Andhra Pradesh has been selected for Leadership Award as the best performing State in agriculture by the Agriculture Leadership Awards Committee. The award ceremony will be held on September 19 at the Taj Palace, New Delhi, as part of the Agriculture Leadership Summit, which is being organised under the chairmanship of eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan. (ANI)
India
Social Life
One killed in police-separatists clash in Srinagar
12.09.2008 08:37
b4uindia.com
At least one person was killed in Srinagar today, when fresh clashes erupted between the police and separatists-led protesters. The clashes took place between supporters of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Yasin Malik and the police. The protesters took to the streets shortly after Friday prayers following a shutdown called by separatists. During the clashes JKLF chief Yasin Malik and several other protestors were injured. He was taken to SMHS hospital for treatment. According to reports, police fired tear gas shells and used batons to disperse thousands of demonstrators who assembled at Lal Chowk and staged a sit-in in response to the call given by separatists'' Co-ordination Committee. Malik, while addressing the demonstrators, said, "Our movement is peaceful and no military can defeat the resolve of Kashmiris." The Committee had given the shutdown call from 12.30 P.M. In Srinagar and other district headquarters shopkeepers pulled down their shutters and thousands of slogan shouting people took to the streets after Friday prayers. Clashes also occurred in Koker bazaar, Maisuma, Court road and adjoining localities, according to reports. Police and paramilitary forces had been deployed in strength outside all mosques and shrines and sensitive localities to maintain law and order. (ANI)
India
Social Life
New TB vaccine enters clinical trial in Germany
12.09.2008 08:37
b4uindia.com
A promising live vaccine against tuberculosis has begun safety testing on volunteers in the first phase of clinical trials in Neuss, Germany. The vaccine called ‘VPM1002’ has proved to be extremely effective and safe in animal models thus far. “This good protection now has to be proven in humans for the vaccine to be ready for the final approval," says the Chief Executive Officer of Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH (VPM), Bernd Eisele. The vaccine is based on a highly safe vaccine that was introduced in 1921, but has been genetically developed to an extent where it is significantly more effective at preventing infection with tuberculosis bacteria than its predecessor. "The new vaccine is based on the most administered live-vaccine worldwide: Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG). However, BCG often fails to display effects anymore. We wanted to sharpen the blunted weapon that is BCG once again," said Stefan H.E. Kaufmann, Founding Director of the Department of Immunology of the Max Planck. As to how that fate was achieved, Leander Grode, Project Manager at VPM, said: "The weakened vaccine was genetically modified in such a way to ensure that it is no longer able to hide from the human immune system and even stimulates the body''s own defences now." For that a gene of a different bacterium, Listeria, was inserted into the vaccine, added the researcher. "Macrophages of the human immune system take up the vaccine immediately. There it ends up in phagosomes. Due to the genetic modification the bacteria can leave the phagosomes and are then present in the middle of the immune cell – this alarms the rest of the immune system, which is then armed to repel real tuberculosis pathogens," said Grode. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Genetic mutation that can cause mad cow disease uncovered
12.09.2008 08:37
b4uindia.com
While mad cow disease has been thought to be a foodborne disease for years, a new study has shown that a genetic mutation also causes it. "We now know it''s also in the genes of cattle," said Juergen A. Richt, Regents Distinguished Professor of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology at Kansas State University''s College of Veterinary Medicine. The researchers have found that a genetic mutation within a gene called Prion Protein Gene can cause mad cow disease, scientifically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Prion proteins are proteins expressed abundantly in the brain and immune cells of mammals. This is the first time that a study has revealed that a 10-year-old cow from Alabama with an atypical form of mad cow disease had the same type of prion protein gene mutation as found in human patients with the genetic form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, also called genetic CJD for short. "Our findings that there is a genetic component to BSE are significant because they tell you we can have this disease everywhere in the world, even in so-called BSE-free countries," Richt said. He said that mad cow disease caused by genetics was extremely rare. According to him, a recent epidemiological study estimated that the mutation affects less than 1 in 2,000 cattle. The researcher said that the advantage of knowing that mad cow disease has a genetic component is that it offers ways of stamping out the disease through selective breeding and culling of genetically affected animals. Richt and his colleagues have developed high throughput assays to offer the possibility for genetic surveillance of cattle for this rare pathogenic mutation. "Genetic BSE we can combat. We have submitted a patent for a test system that can assess all bulls and cows before they''re bred to see whether they have this mutation," he said. The study has been published online in the journal PLoS Pathogens. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Breast cancer mutation risk underestimated for Asian women
12.09.2008 08:37
b4uindia.com
Oncologists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that the risk of breast cancer mutations among Asian women is highly underestimated. Allison Kurian, MD, and her colleagues at the Stanford University School of Medicine were perplexed. Computer models designed to identify women who might have dangerous genetic mutations that increase their risk of breast and ovarian cancer worked well for white women. But they seemed to be less reliable for another ethnic group. In the study, Allison Kurian, MD, used computer models designed to identify women who might have dangerous genetic mutations that increase their risk of breast and ovarian cancer However, they were taken by surprise when they found that in a head-to-head comparison between whites and Asians, two of the most commonly used computer models failed in predicting the presence of mutations in almost half of the Asian women studied. "We''ve been repeatedly surprised when Asian women who the models predicted would probably not have the mutations do in fact have them," said Kurian. She added: "Doctors and patients should have a higher level of suspicion when using these prediction models in Asian women, because they under-predicted the true number of clinically important mutations. We may have to consider more subtle patterns of family cancer history when considering genetic testing in this ethnic group." While it is believed that mutations in two genes - BRCA1 and BRCA2 are linked to the development of breast or ovarian cancer in carriers, it was found that, not every woman with a family history of cancer or who develops these cancers has these mutations. Kurian and her colleagues used two of the most widely used computer models, named BRCAPRO and Myriad II, to predict the presence of the mutations in 200 white women and 200 Asian-American women at cancer genetics clinics in four locations: Stanford, the University of California-San Francisco, Queen''s Medical Center in Honolulu and the British Columbia Cancer Center in Vancouver. They sequenced the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes of all of the study subjects and compared them to the models'' predictions. It was found that the models were highly accurate in predicting the presence of mutations in white women; one program identified 24 of the 25 women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations and the other identified all 25. However, both programs performed much worse in predicting the 49 Asian women in the study sample with mutations. One program predicted that only 25 of the 49 women would carry mutations, while the other recommended testing of 26 women. "It''s clear that these models are far from foolproof. These results emphasize the need for expert evaluation by a genetics professional to guide all clinical genetic testing," said Kurian, who is also a member of the Stanford Cancer Center. The study results point out the need for further investigation into the genetic variability of different ethnic groups. In addition to previously identified, clinically important mutations of the genes, the researchers identified more "variants of unknown significance" in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes of Asian women than in white women. Many of these variants probably don''t have any clinical effect. We know a lot more about the normal variability of these genes in white women. Many of these variants are probably just normal for members of a particular ethnic group, but we haven''t studied enough people in ethnic minority groups to know for sure, and further research needs to be done to distinguish variants of uncertain significance from truly harmful mutations," said Kurian. The study was published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
US army is breaking international codes of conduct to make terrorists talk
12.09.2008 08:37
b4uindia.com
If reports are to be believed, the US military is training psychiatrists to interrogate terrorism suspects, in defiance of internationally agreed codes of conduct which bar doctors from involvement in interrogation. “It undermines the notion of psychiatrists as healers, and undermines trust in the profession,” Jonathan Marks, a professor of bioethics and law at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, told New Scientist. From documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Marks discovered that five US army psychiatrists had been trained between July 2006 and October 2007. The American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association and the World Medical Association all have policies condemning the use of psychiatric advice in “softening up” detainees. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Nutritional supplements, moderate exercises combo can help elderly stay fit for long
12.09.2008 08:37
b4uindia.com
Older people can easily maintain an active lifestyle for a long time— all they need to do is a carefully framed combination of moderate exercises and eat nutritional supplements, according to a new study. The Manchester Metropolitan University study has found that taking carbohydrate and protein supplements just before and just after low-resistance exercise could boost muscle performance and slow muscle wastage in older people. Also, this combination appears to deliver greater fitness benefits than undertaking heavy-resistance training with or without changing one''s nutritional habits. This was the first-ever study of the combination of structured exercise and nutritional supplements to focus wholly on older people, and involved a carefully selected sample of around 60 healthy, independent-living adults aged 65 and over. All the volunteers were randomly divided into groups who underwent different 12 week programmes of physical exercise and nutritional supplementation. Everyone was then re-assessed at the end of the programme. Some groups undertook low-resistance exercise once a week, while others undertook high-resistance exercise twice a week. Within each group, some of the volunteers took protein and carbohydrate supplements while others did not. When all the participants were re-assessed at the end of the 12 week programme, it was observed that muscle size and strength had increased in all groups. However, according to the results, older people would derive the most benefits if they took appropriate supplements coupled with low-intensity exercise. "Maintaining muscle performance and arresting muscle wastage can offer older people real improvements in their quality of life. Though we still need to assess precisely what level of exercise gives the best results, we believe we''ve shown that regular low-resistance exercise complemented by the right nutritional supplements could boost the well-being of the UK''s ageing population," said Dr Gladys Pearson, who led the research. The researchers are now aiming to look at the effectiveness of novel combinations of strength training and nutritional supplementation as a way of speeding recovery and improving mobility for old and young orthopaedic surgery patients. The findings of the study were discussed at this year''s BA Festival of Science in Liverpool. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
News & Gossip : Shahid Kapoor Injured Again!
12.09.2008 08:24
bollyvista.com
Only few weeks back, Shahid was injured on the sets of Ken Ghoshs film. Now he has injured himself ...
India
Show Business
News & Gossip : Vidya Balan Moves On!
12.09.2008 08:24
bollyvista.com
Vidya Balan is doing well. Post the success of Kismet Konnection, the actress kismet is really ...
India
Show Business
News & Gossip : Govindas Faith Grows Further
12.09.2008 08:24
bollyvista.com
Govinda is surely finding lot of media space these days thanks to his astrologer in whom he believes ...
India
Show Business
News & Gossip : Salman Khan and Anees Together for T-series Film
12.09.2008 08:24
bollyvista.com
After the musical association with Salman starrers such as Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya, Partner, Tere Naam, ...
India
Show Business
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