Delays at Chinese-run Afghan mines raise security fears

Tuesday, 25 December 2012

Bamiyan, Dec 25 : Foreign investment in Afghanistan's mining sector was meant to bring peace and prosperity. But here in Bamiyan province, it has so far put locals out of jobs and fueled a spreading insurgency.

For decades, thousands of Afghans have dug for coal in the unregulated mines of Bamiyan's Kahmard district, in a valley dotted with timber-framed entrances to dangerous, narrow shafts. This summer, the Afghan government evicted these squatters to make way for a Chinese consortium that has won one of the biggest natural-resources concessions in a country that sits atop vast, largely untapped mineral wealth.

The Chinese firm that won the tender, however, hasn't yet replaced the lost jobs with new ones. Many evicted miners have turned to the Taliban for a paycheck, leading to a sharp decline in security. The Chinese investors now say they don't know when the situation will improve enough to let them to start exploiting the site.

"If people do not have jobs, the insurgents will get these people," said Bamiyan Gov. Habiba Sarabi, adding that the mining project has destabilized what was once considered Afghanistan's safest province.

The Taliban fighters that swarmed the area have set up illegal checkpoints and exercise de facto authority in many parts of the district, say local Afghans.

"When the government kicked us out from the coal mines, we had no other choice except to join the Taliban," said one miner who declined to be identified and who says he is earning some $30 a day when he is with the Taliban. About 50 other former miners have taken up weapons alongside him, he said.

As Afghanistan's bitter winter advances on this mountainous region where freezing to death is common, the shortage of coal—used here for heating and cooking—is further alienating the population.

"These communities are now ready to fight," said Ali Wardak, a tribal leader who has been trying to negotiate on the matter with Kabul authorities. "The government and the Chinese are moving to a point of no return."

Many miners haven't joined the insurgency, of course, leaving some room for hopes expressed in recent years by U.S. officials that mining projects would spur development and bring stability. Afghanistan is one of the world's poorest countries but has trillions of dollars in potential mineral wealth, by U.S. government estimates, from oil to gold to rare earths.

The Afghan Ministry of Mines says the summer's closure of 103 illegal mining tunnels in Kahmard was needed to safeguard the area for the Chinese investors and to stop widespread child labor and unsafe practices, some of which have been documented earlier this year by The Wall Street Journal. According to the ministry, 1,000 jobs have been lost.

Miners and local government officials say 5,000 to 10,000 people have become unemployed across Bamiyan and in the adjoining provinces of Samangan and Baghlan.

"I can't find a job to feed my children. Where will we find the firewood to heat our houses this winter?" said Sakhi Daad Lali, 51, a former laborer in Bamiyan's coal mines and a father of 11. "People have no choice but to join the Taliban when the government doesn't do anything to help them."

The Chinese consortium, led by state-run MCC China Metallurgical Group, won the concession for Bamiyan's coal mines in 2009, along with more lucrative copper deposits of Mes Aynak in Logar province, south of Kabul. The entire deal, details of which are confidential, has been valued at $3.5 billion.

Bamiyan's coal is supposed to power a 400-megawatt electricity station that the Chinese group has pledged to build, according to the ministry of mines, with half of that power going to Mes Aynak and the rest feeding Afghanistan's national grid.

The Chinese consortium is supposed to start developing the mines—estimated to hold 45 million tons of coal—by the spring, with the power station completed by 2015, said Afghanistan's deputy minister of mines, Nasir Durrani. Speed is essential, said Gov. Sarabi. "The Chinese company should start work on this as soon as possible so that the people can get jobs," she said.

Bamiyan isn't the only place where foreign mining investment is proving far less lucrative than Afghan officials had hoped. All in all, the country earns some $100 million a year in mining revenue, much of it from licenses from new contracts as opposed to royalty payments from actual extraction.

"This issue is essential for us—that investors don't sit on our resources and wait it out," Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal said. "We need the money now."

MCC Tongsin Resources Ltd., the MCC unit leading the coal project, said in a written response to questions that it didn't know yet when work in Bamiyan would start. The feasibility report on a coal-fired power plant is still being compiled, it added.

"The company and employees' families worry about the security situation in Bamiyan, which causes a threat to our employees' lives and property, and also causes many difficulties in the logistics supply," MCC Tongsin wrote. It added that it hoped the Afghan government would be able to assuage local miners' concerns. "We are unable to carry out any project without public support. We don't want the lives of the local people to be affected," it said.

The Taliban say they oppose the Chinese investment because the concession was awarded by a government they consider illegitimate. "We are against any foreign company extracting the mineral [wealth] of Afghanistan as long as Afghanistan is under occupation," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Many locals say they are turning to the Taliban for the opposite reason: Anger at the Chinese for failing to move ahead with a project they say would have given stable, better-paid jobs to the displaced miners.

"The brave insurgents will fight against the Chinese if they don't start their work and hire the poor laborers they have kicked off the land," said Khaliqdad, a driver from the area who used to transport laborers to the coal mines. Like many Afghans, he goes by one name.

Mr. Wardak, the tribal leader, agreed. Locals, he said, "wouldn't mind working for the Chinese if they actually developed the land."

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An Afghan mystery: Why are large shipments of gold leaving the country?

Kabul, Dec 25 : Packed into hand luggage and tucked into jacket pockets, roughly hewed bars of gold are being flown out of Kabul with increasing regularity, confounding Afghan and American officials who fear money launderers have found a new way to spirit funds from the country.

Most of the gold is being carried on commercial flights destined for Dubai, according to airport security reports and officials. The amounts carried by single couriers are often heavy enough that passengers flying from Kabul to the Persian Gulf emirate would be well advised to heed warnings about the danger of bags falling from overhead compartments. One courier, for instance, carried nearly 60 pounds of gold bars, each about the size of an iPhone, aboard an early morning flight in mid-October, according to an airport security report. The load was worth more than $1.5 million.

The gold is fully declared and legal to fly. Some, if not most, is legitimately being sent by gold dealers seeking to have old and damaged jewelry refashioned into new pieces by skilled craftsmen in the Persian Gulf, said Afghan officials and gold dealers.

But gold dealers in Kabul and current and former Kabul airport officials say there has been a surge in shipments since early summer. The talk of a growing exodus of gold from Afghanistan has been spreading among the business community here, and in recent weeks has caught the attention of Afghan and American officials. The officials are now puzzling over the origin of the gold — very little is mined in Afghanistan, although larger mines are planned — and why so much appears to be heading for Dubai.

“We are investigating it, and if we find this is a way of laundering money, we will intervene,” said Noorullah Delawari, the governor of Afghanistan’s central bank. Yet he acknowledged that there were more questions than answers at this point. “I don’t know where so much gold would come from, unless you can tell me something about it,” he said in an interview. Or, as a European official who tracks the Afghan economy put it, “new mysteries abound” as the war appears to be drawing to a close.

Figuring out what precisely is happening in the Afghan economy remains as confounding as ever. Nearly 90 percent of the financial activity takes place outside formal banks. Written contracts are the exception, receipts are rare and statistics are often unreliable. Money laundering is commonplace, say Western and Afghan officials.

As a result, with the gold, “right now you’re stuck in that situation we usually are: is there something bad going on here or is this just the Afghan way of commerce?” said a senior American official who tracks illicit financial networks.

There is reason to be suspicious: the gold shipments track with the far larger problem of cash smuggling. For years, flights have left Kabul almost every day carrying thick wads of bank notes — dollars, euros, Norwegian kroner, Saudi Arabian riyals and other currencies — stuffed into suitcases, packed into boxes and shrink-wrapped onto pallets. At one point, cash was even being hidden in food trays aboard now-defunct Pamir Airways flights to Dubai.

Last year alone, Afghanistan’s central bank says, roughly $4.5 billion in cash was spirited out through the airport. Efforts to stanch the flow have had limited impact, and concerns about money laundering persist, according to a report released last week by the United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

The unimpeded “bulk cash flows raise the risk of money laundering and bulk cash smuggling — tools often used to finance terrorist, narcotics and other illicit operations,” the report said. The cash, and now the gold, is most often taken to Dubai, where officials are known for asking few questions. Many wealthy Afghans park their money and families in the emirate, and gold dealers say more middle-class Afghans are sending money and gold — seen as a safeguard against economic ruin — to Dubai as talk of a postwar economic collapse grows louder.

But given Dubai’s reputation as a haven for laundered money, an Afghan official said that the “obvious suspicion” is that at least some of the apparent growth in gold shipments to Dubai is tied to the myriad illicit activities — opium smuggling, corruption, Taliban taxation schemes — that have come to define Afghanistan’s economy.

There are also indications that Iran could be dipping into the Afghan gold trade. It is already buying up dollars and euros here to circumvent American and European sanctions, and it may be using gold for the same purpose.

Yahya, a dealer in Kabul, said other gold traders were helping Iran buy the precious metal here. Payment was being made in oil or with Iranian rials, which readily circulate in western Afghanistan. The Afghan dealers are then taking it to Dubai, where the gold is sold for dollars. The money is then moved to China, where it was used to buy needed goods or simply funneled back to Iran, said Yahya, who like many Afghans uses a single name.

He declined to name those involved in aiding Iran. But Western officials said his description of how the process worked tracked with their knowledge of money laundering networks that operate in Afghanistan and the surrounding region.

Before officials can say whether the gold shipments are part of an illicit financial scheme, though, they first have to figure out how much gold is going out — or, for that matter, coming in.

It is a task easier said than done. The Finance Ministry, which is supposed to collect taxes on each shipment, did not have figures, said Wahidullah Tawhidi, a spokesman for the ministry. He suggested that the Commerce Ministry would know. The Commerce Ministry did not, and officials there said it would be best to contact airport customs officials.

At the airport, a reluctant customs official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, brushed aside concerns that there had been an uptick in gold shipments out of Afghanistan. He then ended the conversation with the cryptic promise to one day share “the real story of what is happening to the gold.”

M.Y. Rassuli, the president of the airport, said shipments had begun increasing over the summer. He said that he could not offer specifics because he deals with operations, not customs. But he expressed frustration about the problem. “If it’s 5 kilograms or 500 kilograms, that’s not a normal thing to transfer,” he said in an interview. “This is why Afghanistan is No. 1 in corruption.”

Without knowledge of how much gold is leaving, it is impossible to calculate the value of the trade. But airport security forms that cover the last two weeks of October indicate about 560 pounds, worth about $14 million, were carried by hand out of Afghanistan during that period.

That is a princely sum in one of the world’s 10 poorest countries. But it is perhaps a measure of the current state of affairs in Afghanistan that seemingly no one — not Afghan bank regulators, not American investigators of illicit financing, not European economic experts — found it particularly surprising that gold appears to have joined bank notes in the skies over Afghanistan.

The addition of gold to the flight of cash from the country, the Afghan official said, only proves that “if it is a thing that has value and we can put it in our pocket, some of us are going to fly away with it.”

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With the war in Afghanistan ending, where does the peace movement go next?

Washington, Dec 25: President Barrack Obama plans to remove all but 6,000 to 9,000 US troops from Afghanistan by 2014, ending the American combat role, saving tens of billions of dollars, and leaving an unpopular, incompetent and corrupt Karzai regime needing a diplomatic fix to avert collapse into civil war.

Although not officially announced, the numbers have been reported in recent days. The Los Angeles Times predicts 6-9,000, while the New York Times reports "under 10,000." Troop cuts in that range will mean a 90-95 percent reduction from 109,000, the highest US level reported in 2010. It would require a 60,000 reduction between now and late 2014. The pace of the withdrawal has not been announced but is expected any day.

The numbers are well below those requested by the Pentagon, which range from 15,000 troops and upward. Opposition to Obama's reductions is expected from neo-conservative and military advocates as well as Congressional hawks. Obama has gained political cover, however, from the recent 62 Senate votes cast for "accelerated" withdrawal and a similar message in a letter from 94 House members. The recent New York Times editorial finally endorsing a one-year withdrawal also provides critical support from within the mainstream political and national security establishments.

Obama's decision, and the stand taken by Congressional peace advocates, is consistent with his campaign pledge to begin steady American withdrawals after a two-year surge of 33,000 troops. The surge was a concession to generals like Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus, and to cabinet hawks including Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates, who fought for withdrawals to be based on "conditions" rather than timelines. In Bob Woodward's account, Obama's Wars, the president is quoted as saying, "I'm not an advocate of the timetable, but it will come from the Hill," by Democrats in Congress. In fact, the White House quietly supported language advocating an accelerated timetable for "swift withdrawal" and a "significant and sizable reduction no later than July 2011" in the Democratic National Committee resolution of Feb. 24, 2011. The resolution was sponsored by Reps. Barbara Lee and Mike Honda, and longtime Democratic leaders Donna Brazile and Alice Germond.

The critical resolution reflected the demands of local peace networks and rank-and-file Democrats across the country. Behind closed doors, Obama told Sen. Lindsay Graham, "I can't let this be a war without end, and I can't lose the whole Democratic Party. And people at home don't want to hear we're going to be there another for another ten years."

As the recent reports show, the new Obama plan already "has sparked internal criticism at the Pentagon" which argues for a "sizable military presence" to be deployed in southern and eastern Afghanistan, according to the LA Times. Obama's troop reductions are likely to spur even sharper cuts in NATO forces. The Afghan army, according to Pentagon sources, will face "enormous difficulties" as the American troops leave. There were 2,500 insurgent attacks every month this year from April to September, higher levels than in 2009, according to a recent Pentagon report to Congress.

Whatever decision Obama makes will be the subject of ongoing talks between Washington, Kabul and NATO powers. Bagram air base, along with smaller bases around Kabul, will be the defensive hub for any residual US force. The most controversial US mission, though smaller in scope, will be counterterrorism. Embassy protection and training Afghan troops will also be included. Virtually none of the Afghan army's 23 brigades can operate on their own, suggesting that Western air support will be authorized as well.

In the end, the discussion of a smaller residual force might be undone altogether by Afghan insistence on stripping immunity from American personnel violating Afghan laws and procedures. A similar scenario occurred during the endgame in Iraq. One American official told the LA Times that "one of the things that Obama and Karzai have always agreed on is the need for a reduced force presence. I could see them both wanting zero, but at the end of the day I don't think that will happen."

Nothing will change the shifting balance of forces as Karzai's army and regime are left on their own amidst corruption and insurgency. The danger of renewed civil war will increase unless diplomacy creates a power-sharing arrangement on the ground. Republicans so far have blocked Obama's efforts to release several Taliban detainees from Guantanamo in exchange for an American POW, Bowe Bergdahl, captured by Afghan insurgents in 2009. A larger diplomatic settlement will require controversial contacts with Iran, China, Russia and Pakistan, all states with proxy interests in divided Afghanistan. If all efforts fail and Afghanistan implodes into civil war, Obama will have to count on American domestic exhaustion with the decade-long war to protect him against military claims that he "lost" Afghanistan.

Feminist groups which originally supported the war will have to lobby successfully to ensure the meager gains of Afghan women are preserved in an enforceable aid and assistance package.

In summary: it's official: America's longest war is ending soon. The peace movement, which built a necessary groundwork of opposition, is ten years older.

First, unlike the Cold War era, the peace forces have won most of the all-important battle for public opinion. It's possible that a window will open, however briefly, for the peace forces to link with labor, civil rights and environmental coalitions in an effort to put some definition and muscle into Obama's repeated promise to "do some nation-building here at home."

This shift to domestic priorities will be very difficult. The US is an empire with 800 military bases, a growing interest in deterring China, a role in hot battlefields such as Yemen and Mali, risky brinksmanship with Iran, dangerous ties to Israel's hawks, and an unknown number of CIA operations around the planet. If expensive US ground wars are no longer affordable or winnable, there will be momentum towards drone wars, cyber wars, black operations, and an edifice of greater secrecy over our institutions. The military budget, despite its gargantuan size, will be difficult to assail politically. Peace doves will have to become fiscal hawks in attacking wasteful military spending.

A top priority will be reversing, and trying to end, the escalating use of drones. Public opinion unfortunately is favorable toward killing hundreds of alleged foreign terrorists in far-away lands, assuming the alternative is putting American troops in harm's way at an extraordinary cost to taxpayers. The growing protests against drones, coupled with Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation's educational documentary, if combined with civil liberties and human rights groups' complaints over detentions and "kill lists", will gradually build a climate of dissent from current policy.

The most important challenge will be to revise the 1973 War Powers Act to require public disclosure and Congressional approval of drone attacks, cyber-wars, and secret operations by the CIA in places like Libya. President Obama, as a constitutional lawyer, can hardly wish to be remembered as rebuilding the Imperial Presidency, but that is the path he is on. Perhaps aware of the peril, Obama has taken the unusual step of appealing to the public and Congress to "rein in" his exceptional powers with "new legal architecture" in the coming year. That invitation should be taken up at once by civil liberties and peace communities with interests to protect.

One possible scenario might be to de-escalate and phase out the drone attacks on Pakistan's tribal areas as part of a diplomatic settlement in Afghanistan. It's highly doubtful after a decade of war that the Taliban will be driven to the table by drones, and no serious diplomat should expect them to acquiesce. But a permanent suspension of drone attacks is a necessary ingredient of any peace settlement with Afghanistan and Pakistan, as Obama well knows.

If that occurs, a parallel process of drafting and debating new Congressional policies to "rein in" the imperial presidency could gain traction.

Finally, peace advocates will have to keep challenging the paradigm of the "war on terrorism" with its underlying rationale and legislative authorization that sustains the secretive Long War. There is no single path to an alternative narrative, any more than there is a single effective approach to slowing the domestic "wars" on gangs and inner-city youth that have resulted in mass incarceration. The neo-conservatives and the domestic Right-wing play on racial fears to mount their militarized approaches to both domestic and foreign policy. Peace and civil rights critics might gain traction, however, when their constitutional and moral arguments are reinforced by the expensive failures of the Long War abroad and mass incarceration at home.

There is a connection between the Long Wars and domestic inequality that peace advocates also might offer to civil rights and labor reformers. It is that corporate and financial globalization result in an exploding gap between the rich and the underclass. The model offered by neo-conservative theorists is a failed one. Even as we militarize our relationship to Pakistan, we privatize the sweatshop conditions that draw investment away from US labor markets. By a similar process, the "de-industrialization" of American cities in the 1980s led to increased joblessness and despair among inner city youth, with expensive and unconstitutional policing and imprisonment as false solutions. A global living wage is needed for the world, one built on the experience of winning living wage ordinances in American cities.

Finally, the experience of the peace movement offers a message to environmentalists: that the continuous Long War over oil, gas, minerals and other resources is a direct obstacle to a new priority on developing conservation and renewable resources. Ending the Long War is a precondition to transitioning to an energy-efficient future.

New coalitions are likely to form as "nation building at home" challenges the Long War as the agenda of the coming four years.

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Cases of illness linked to E. coli prompt recall of frozen hamburgers

Ottawa, Dec 25 : Grocery chain Loblaw Companies has recalled two more frozen beef products because of possible contamination from E. coli bacteria.

The affected products are Butcher's Choice Hickory Barbecue Beef Burgers with best-before dates of Feb. 1 and Feb. 10

The company earlier recalled Butcher's Choice Garlic Peppercorn Beef Burgers with a best-before date of March 3.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it is monitoring the recalls, which were prompted by four case of E. coli infection.

Public Health officials notified the CFIA last week that the E. coli cases could possibly be linked to a food source, which prompted the investigation into the meat.

It's not yet known, however, whether the E. coli strain responsible for the illnesses is the same as the one found in the meat.

Officials said they were also inspecting Cardinal Meat Specialist Ltd., the facility where the burgers were produced.

"An initial review of inspection reports and company documentation has not identified any issues with the facility's E. coli O157 control measures and the company currently has no outstanding corrective action requests," said Garfield Balsom, a food safety recall specialist with the agency said.

There is a possibility that additional products could be identified and the recall could expand.

"There is good evidence these four cases are linked to some kind of common source, (but) we don't yet know what that common source is," said Dr. Frank Plummer, chief science officer at the Public Health Agency of Canada's national microbiology laboratory.

"Possibly the hamburgers, but we're not sure at this point. "

E. coli O157:H7 is potentially deadly. Health officials say it can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in the most severe cases, kidney failure.

The cases identified in this investigation do not share the same genetic fingerprint as those from an outbreak earlier this year that led to a massive international beef recall, said Dr. Gregory Taylor with the Public Health Agency of Canada.

"To put it clearly, this means that these cases are not linked to the XL Foods investigation," he said.

In September, Canadian authorities were notified by their U.S. counterparts that beef from the XL Foods plant in Alberta was testing positive for E. coli.

It took the CFIA nearly two weeks after that to begin notifying the public about the products and more than eight recalls were eventually issued covering over 200 products.

The plant's license was also temporarily suspended for failing to comply with food safety measures.

The company resumed operations in late October but was only allowed to resume exports to the United States earlier this month.

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Can mental screening predict mass murder?

London, Dec 25 : A "Minority Report" technology to predict murder remains wishful science fiction thinking.

But a mass shooting that killed at least 20 children and 8 adults at a school in Newton, Conn. once again raises the question of what technological tools, if any, can help predict or prevent such tragedies by identifying troubled individuals.

Psychologists say that predicting the intent among individuals to commit mass murder remains incredibly difficult, if not impossible — especially with mass killings having many different patterns and representing rare events. TechNewsDaily previously spoke with an expert on psychopaths who explained the challenges despite his optimism in using psychological screening.

"If you study 100,000 people, three might go out and kill someone else," said Kent Kiehl, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of New Mexico. "There's really not a good way to predict that single individual."

Kiehl previously spoke regarding a U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency effort to predict a person's state of mind related to suicide and murder. The DARPA project focused on preventing suicides among U.S. military members, but it also considered the idea of predicting the intent to murder.

A combination of screening tools could identify people most at risk of violence and allow psychologists to begin helping them earlier, Kiehl said. Regular screenings with a questionnaire or interview could act as the first screening stage, so that individuals who trigger a red flag might undergo additional screening with neurocognitive computer tests and games.

The third screening step for individuals identified as being most at-risk could use electroencephalography (EEG) to measure electrical brain waves, or use brain imaging such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanners. Such technologies can provide a more detailed analysis of what goes on in the brain to help mental health professionals treat individuals.

Predictions of at-risk individuals might also improve if psychologists could access more information about their personal lives — a way to keep an eye on risk factors such as divorces, bankruptcy or living in an unstable home.

But ordinary Americans would have to agree to the idea of undergoing psychological screening on a semi-regular basis. They would also have to give up additional privacy if they wanted psychologists to examine broader risk factors in their personal lives for the sake of improving predictions.

In any case, Kiehl and other mental health professionals don't envision screening technologies providing a "yes" or "no" answer to the question of whether an individual will snap and carry out a mass killing spree. Instead, they emphasize that screening would provide quicker attention for people suffering from mental illness — regardless of whether those people would end up committing violence or not.

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Case of 'food poisoning' passed from mother to child

New York, Dec 25 : A newborn became ill after he acquired a type of E. coli bacteria from his mother during delivery, one that is typically linked to food poisoning, Swiss researchers report.

The mother was infected with a strain of E. coli that produces the shiga toxin, a toxic substance that can cause diarrhea and kidney failure. Last year's outbreak of food-borne illness in Germany, which resulted in 30 deaths, involved an E. coli strain called E. coli O104:H4, which produced the shiga toxin.

While the mother did not have any symptoms,her baby boy began vomiting two days after birth, and within a week developed kidney failure and seizures. The baby was diagnosed with hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a condition caused by the shiga toxin.

Tests of stool samples from the mother and infant showed that both were infected with the same strain of shiga toxin-producing E. coli. This strain, called E. coli O146:H28,is less virulent than the one that caused the outbreak in Germany, and until now, it had not been known to cause disease in people.

The less virulent nature of this bacterial strain meant the mother could carry the bug without showing symptoms. But in the gut of her newborn — which is free from germs until birth — the bacterium could proliferate without competition from other bugs

"It could easily expand and multiply because the bowel was sterile," said study researcher Dr. Giacomo Simonetti of Bern University Hospital in Switzerland. The newborn's gut may have allowed a larger-than-normal amount of bacteria to grow, resulting in illness, Simonetti said. The baby was kept well- hydrated and given medication for the seizures. He recovered and left the hospital in good condition 11 days after birth.

It is not known how or when the mother acquired this strain of E. coli, but she has an older son who did not have symptoms of hemolytic-uremic syndrome when he was born, Simonetti said.

Shiga toxin-producing E. coli can be spread from infected animals to people through uncooked meat, contaminated produce, raw milk or through direct contact with the animal, according to the European Food Safety Authority.

But the bacterium has been known to spread in other ways, including from person to person, including through fecal contamination at daycare facilities, said Dr. James Johnson, a professor of medicine and infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study.

"This bug does not have to be in food to infect people," Johnson said.

Only a few other cases of mother-to-child transmission of shiga toxin-producing E. coli have been reported in the past, the first occurring in France in 2005.

Other types of bacteria are known to pass from mother to child during childbirth, including herpes simplex virus and group B streptococcus, Johnson said.

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Porcupine quills inspire new type of hypodermic needle

London, Dec 25 : The hypodermic needle has been around a while—many believe the concept even dates back centuries.

Of course, there have been upgrades throughout the years, and now there might be another: Researchers believe porcupine needles could serve as inspiration for a new and improved version.

According to a scientific paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that porcupine needles contain "microscopic backward-facing deployable barbs" that enable penetration and "high tissue adhesion."

In plain English, that means the needles are really good at both breaking the skin and staying in place thanks to the barbs. The discovery could help those who require long-term IVs and be used for medical treatments that require staples to keep a wound from splitting.

The scientists made the discovery by measuring "how much force it took to push in and pull out porcupine quills into pig skin and raw chicken meat," according to the Smithsonian, which also reported on the study. The researchers then repeated the experiment using quills without the sticky barbs. Guess which quill worked better?

In a statement, study co-author James Ankrum of MIT said, "If you can still create the stress concentrations, but without having a barb that catches tissue on removal, potentially you could create something with just easy insertion, without the adhesion."

Scientists have re-created the porcupine quills in plastic. The Smithsonian reports that they "worked like a charm." Hooray for prickly rodents!

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Mystery of mass squid 'suicides' possibly solved

London, Dec 25 : Thousands of jumbo squid have beached themselves on central California shores this week, committing mass "suicide."

But despite decades of study into the phenomenon in which the squid essentially fling themselves onto shore, the cause of these mass beachings have been a mystery.

But a few intriguing clues suggest poisonous algae that form so-called red tides may be intoxicating the Humboldt squid and causing the disoriented animals to swim ashore in Monterey Bay, said William Gilly, a marine biologist at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, Calif.

Each of the strandings has corresponded to a red tide, in which algae bloom and release an extremely potent brain toxin, Gilly said. This fall, the red tides have occurred every three weeks, around the same time as the squid beachings, he said. (The squid have been stranding in large numbers for years, with no known cause.)

"It's not exactly a smoking gun, but it's pretty circumstantial evidence that there is some link," Gilly told LiveScience.

For decades, beach lovers have reported bizarre mass strandings where throngs of Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas), also called jumbo squid, fling themselves ashore, said Hannah Rosen, a marine biology doctoral candidate at the Hopkins Marine Station.

"For some reason they just start swimming for the beach," Rosen told LiveScience. "They'll asphyxiate because they're out of the water too long. People have tried to throw them back in the water, and a lot of times the squid will just head right back for the beach."

Before this, scientists in 2002 and 2006 noticed mass squid strandings from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Alaska, Gilly said.

But the cause of the mass squid deaths was an enigma. The strandings seem to happen whenever schools of squid invade new territory, leading some to suggest the creatures simply get lost and don't realize they are out of the water until it is too late. The squid washing ashore are juvenile size, about 1 foot (0.3 meters) long, and hadn't been traveled to Monterey Bay before this fall. This season's stranding, which started Oct. 9, happened around the time Humboldt squid entered the bay.

Other scientists have proposed that red tides that release a lethal toxin called domoic acid may be intoxicating the squid and disorienting them. But when researchers tested the stranded squid for domoic acid, they found only trace amounts of the chemical, Gilly said.

The poisonous chemical mimics a brain chemical called glutamate in mammals, though domoic acid is 10,000 times more potent than glutamate. The similar structure means domoic acid can bind to glutamate receptors on neurons. In turn, the receptor opens channels that let calcium into the cell. At high levels the poison causes brain cells to go haywire and fire like crazy, so much that they fill up with calcium, burst and die, Gilly said.

Humans who eat shellfish contaminated with this red-tide toxin get amnesic shellfish poisoning, because the toxin destroys their brain's memory center called the hippocampus. Sea lions that eat similarly poisoned anchovies or krill go into seizures or become disoriented and behave bizarrely.

However, no one has tested the effects of lower levels of the chemical on squid.


But new evidence points to the red tide as at least one cause of the mass strandings. While most sea life follows daily tidal or lunar cycles, the mass deaths seem to be happening every three weeks. That led one of Gilly's graduate students, R. Russell Williams, to see if something in the environment was leading them astray.

"He was fixated in finding some kind of environmental signal," Gilly said.

Russell found that red tides occurred every three weeks, around the same time as the squid strandings, suggesting a link, Gilly said.

While past researchers have only found trace levels of the toxic red-tide chemical in stranded squid, low doses of domoic could essentially be making the squid drunk. Combined with navigating unfamiliar waters, that could cause the mass die-offs.

"They could be tipped over the edge by something like domoic acid that might cloud their judgment," Gilly said.

This isn't the first time Gilly and his colleagues have been led on a CSI-like hunt for Humboldt squid. In 2011, they figured out why the elusive jumbo squid left their usual feeding grounds off the Baja California coast in the winter of 2009 to 2010. Apparently, the squid had moved north, following their prey, small, bioluminescent fish called lantern fish, which had also moved north due to El Niño weather patterns.

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Distant galaxy regains title as oldest in universe

Los Angeles, Dec 25 : A galaxy once considered the oldest has reclaimed its title, scientists reported.

Poring through Hubble Space Telescope photos, the team recalculated the galaxy's age and determined it is actually 13.3 billion years old — not a mere 13.2 billion.

The dim galaxy filled with blue stars was first noticed last year by a different group of researchers, who also used the workhorse telescope to make the previous age estimate. It reigned as the most ancient galaxy observed until last month when it was knocked off its perch by another distant galaxy.

Now it's back on top after the team used a longer exposure time to get a clearer view of the earliest and far-off galaxies. Seeing the most distant galaxies is like looking back in time and this one existed when the universe was in its infancy — about 380 million years old. More observations are needed to confirm the result, but astronomers think it's the best candidate to date.

Besides refining the galaxy's age, they found six more early ones.

"People have found one object here and there," but never so many early galaxies, said Richard Ellis, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology who led the new work.

The findings will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Scientists are excited about the bounty of early galaxies, which should help refine theories about the formation of the first stars and galaxies. Astronomers think galaxies started appearing about 200 million years after the Big Bang, the explosion believed to have created the universe 13.7 billion years ago. Our Milky Way — one of hundreds of billions of galaxies — formed about 10 billion years ago.

The new study adds further evidence that galaxies formed gradually over several hundred million years and not in a single burst.

"We want to know our cosmic roots, how things got started and the origins of the galaxies that we see nowadays," said Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who had no role in the latest research.

Launched in 1990, Hubble has consistently peered back in time to reveal ancient and distant objects. The farther away something is, the longer it takes for its light to travel to Earth, which scientists use to estimate its age.

As far back as Hubble can see, it still can't capture the earliest galaxies. That job is left to its more powerful successor, the James Webb Telescope, to be launched in 2018.

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Fairfax selling $651 million stake in trade Me, AFR Reports

Sydney, Dec 25 : Fairfax Media Ltd. (FXJ), Australia’s second-largest newspaper company, is selling a stake in Trade Me Ltd. (TME) worth A$616 million ($651 million), the Australian Financial Review newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

The 202 million shares of Trade Me, the New Zealand online auction site, are being sold through UBS AG at about A$3.05 each, the newspaper said. Trade Me shares in Australia closed at A$3.22 on Dec. 14, the most recent closing price, and at NZ$4.05 ($3.43) in New Zealand that same day.

Brad Hatch, Sydney-based spokesman for Fairfax, declined to comment today in an e-mail when asked about the stake sale.

Fairfax has seen its share price fall 88 percent in the past five years as newspaper readers switched to the Internet and falling consumer spending eroded advertising sales.

The company’s shares slumped 29 percent this year after it posted a record annual A$2.73 billion loss and said in June it will cut 1,900 workers, close printing sites and introduce Internet subscriptions as it seeks to halt sliding revenue.

Fairfax earlier this year sold 59.4 million shares in Trade Me at the equivalent of NZ$3.46 each, reducing its stake to 51 percent from 66 percent, Wellington-based Trade Me said in a statement June 18.

Gina Rinehart, Asia’s richest woman, is Fairfax’s biggest shareholder, owning a 15 percent stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. She failed in June to get a seat on the board for herself after disagreeing on conditions including signing Fairfax’s Charter of Editorial Independence.

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SoftBank merger wouldn’t limit Sprint’s startup efforts, exec says

New York, Dec 25 : A new Sprint Nextel Corp. effort to become more active in the Kansas City startup scene should withstand its incoming merger with SoftBank Corp., a Sprint executive said.

A story in the print edition of the Kansas City Business Journal lays out Sprint’s recent interest in local entrepreneurship outreach. Print subscribers can read the full story online.

Some of Sprint’s prior attempts to be engaged with local entrepreneurs petered out after its merger with Nextel, Kevin McGinnis, Sprint’s vice president of product platforms and services, said in an interview this week.

McGinnis, who oversees Sprint’s external software and application developer program, is the executive leading the charge on the local startup effort, which he said has support from CEO Dan Hesse and other company leaders.

As Sprint possibly faces another merger with Japan-based SoftBank — a $20.1 billion deal in exchange for a 70 percent stake in Sprint — McGinnis said the pending transaction isn’t expected to hurt the local initiative’s activity.

“We can’t leave the area from a business leadership, technology leadership respect again,” McGinnis said. “I would tell anybody who’s worried we’re going to retract from that again, that that’s not going to be the case.”

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China biotech in review: China leads emerging countries Pharma M&A

Beijing, Dec 25 : Drug companies are increasing their M&A spending in emerging markets, and China is garnering the lion's share of activity, according to data.

All together, including capital from both overseas and domestic drug manufacturers, M&A in emerging countries has totaled $20 billion this year. That's a jump of 67% over last year. China deals were responsible for one-third of the total: $6.8 billion.

Sinopharm (China National Pharmaceutical Group) and China Development Bank recently signed a 40 billion RMB ($6.4 billion) agreement that will help Sinopharm - and China's pharma industry as a whole - develop on several fronts. CDB will supply the investment in a combination of investment, loans, debt, rent and other financial services. With the new capital, Sinopharm will seek to advance its R&D and manufacturing, while it also internationalizes the pharma industry.

Shanghai Fosun Pharma and Dalian Wanchun Biotech will establish a JV to develop innovative oncology treatments. Wanchun has in-licensed China rights to plinabulin, a Class 1.1 innovative anti-tumor drug from Nereus Pharma of the US. Through the JV, Fosun will build Wanchun's development ability and add potential drugs to its pipeline. Wanchun will serve as an innovative drug incubator for Fosun.

The Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Science, will collaborate with MRC Technology, a UK-based technology transfer and early development institute. SIBCB will contribute potential new drug targets, on which MRC will build IP and conduct early-stage research. MRC describes itself as a liaison between university-level researchers and pharmas that are looking for lead drug candidates.

Jiangxi Boya Bio-Pharmaceutical (SHA: 300294) will pay up to $18.5 million to purchase a 68% stake in Zhejiang Haikang Biologicals. Both companies are involved in blood products and plasma collection. The deal was structured to include earn-out provisions over the next three years and will allow Boya to increase its ownership of Haikang if specific conditions are met. Boya bought the 68% stake from a third party.

DelMar Pharma, a virtual company based in Vancouver, is developing a treatment for cancer. It partnered with Guangxi Wuzhou Pharma, which was already marketing the drug to the China market. Initially, DelMar established a supplier relationship with Wuzhou, and then expanded the partnership in October into a more far-reaching collaboration. In an exclusive interview with ChinaBio Today, CEO Jeffrey Bacha discusses DelMar and his experience partnering with his China counterpart.

Mauna Kea Technologies, a French medical device maker, has been granted SFDA approval to market its probe-based microscope, Cellvizio, in China. Cellvizio is a Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy product (pCLE) that allows doctors to view tissue inside the body at the cellular level during an endoscopy procedure. Mauna Kea will partner with Fujifilm (China) Investment to market Cellvizio in China.

Veridex, a Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) company, received SFDA approval for CellSearch, an in vitro diagnostic device that tests for circulating tumor cells in the bloodstream (see story). The initial indication is women with metastatic breast cancer. In 2004, CellSearch was first approved in the US, also for metastatic breast cancer. Subsequently, it added indications for metastatic colon cancer and metastatic prostate cancer.

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China wealth fund: "Not optimistic" about debt crisis in eurozone

Sanya, Dec 25 : China's sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp is "still not optimistic" about the debt crisis in the eurozone, a top executive said.

Jesse Wang, an executive vice president at CIC, was speaking at a forum in Sanya in the southern tropical Hainan island.

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Voestalpine mulls $1 billion US plant: report

Vienna, Dec 25 : Austria's group Voestalpine (VOE.VI) is considering a plan to build a $1 billion plant in the United States that would convert iron ore into concentrate used in steelmaking, Trend magazine reported.

Voestalpine declined to comment on the report, which was released ahead of publication.

Trend said the plant was envisioned for a coastal city in the southern United States, given cheap and reliable supplies of natural gas, political stability and efficient port infrastructure.

A source familiar with the situation said such a plan was under consideration but no decisions were imminent.

Voestalpine Chief Executive Wolfgang Eder has been pushing for foreign expansion to help diversify from Europe, where he says political opposition to closing plants is weighing on efforts to address chronic overcapacity in the steel sector.

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Renault taps Logan creator for $5,500 India car

Paris, Dec 25: Renault's (RNO.PA) move into low-cost cars, which has kept the French automaker afloat as mass-market peers drown in European losses, may soon help it sink competitors beyond the old continent.

That is the long game for Gerard Detourbet, the man behind the no-frills Logan and other "Entry" models, who has a new mission: to devise an even cheaper vehicle programme for India that can compete with such champions of frugality as Maruti Suzuki  and Hyundai.

If he pulls off the challenge set by Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, it could then give his carmaking alliance a new weapon with which to undercut rivals in emerging markets around the globe.

Detourbet, 66, moved to Chennai early this year and has been quietly building an Indian supplier network and crack team of local executives, including several lured away from the competition.

"We don't set out to poach people, but it happens that they sometimes come to us from Suzuki and Hyundai," Detourbet said in a recent interview during a return visit to Paris.

"We've put together a new team, so of course there are people from all over."

Set firmly in Chief Executive Ghosn's sights is a major auto market combining the promise of breakneck growth with implausibly low prices.

Suzuki Motor Corp holds sway in India with models from its Maruti subsidiary starting below 250,000 rupees ($5,600, 3,550 euros) and accounting for 1 million registrations a year in a market of 2.6 million.

Hyundai has also made dramatic inroads of late with its Eon mini, priced closer to 300,000 rupees.

Renault's new "sub-entry" architecture will offer roomier cars for a similar price tag and spawn at least one additional model for Nissan, Detourbet said.

Renault and its 43.4 percent-owned Japanese affiliate, which share Ghosn as CEO, already make costlier vehicles such as the Pulse and Micra subcompacts at their Chennai factory, claiming a combined 3 percent Indian market share for April-November.

Producing a car in the Eon's $5,500 (4,300 euro) bracket would then provide the blueprint for an assault on the lower ends of markets such as Brazil and Russia, outflanking offerings from Volkswagen (VOW3.DE), General Motors (GM) and others.

"India is the only country where you begin to see modern cars at this kind of price," Detourbet said.

"Once you've done battle with the world's best cheap car manufacturer, you can go into another country where there isn't a Maruti Suzuki and be relatively comfortable."

While most French auto executives come from applied science backgrounds or hothouse business schools, Detourbet left behind a promising career as a university mathematician. Admirers including Arnaud Deboeuf, his successor on the Entry programme, say his approach is refreshing.

"With Gerard, it's an innovation a minute," Deboeuf said. "He's not your typical auto engineer."

After joining Renault in 1971 as an IT specialist, Detourbet rose steadily through the ranks to become senior vice president in charge of gearboxes and transmissions in 1997. Louis Schweitzer, then CEO, asked him to set up the group's low-cost car programme three years later.

Logan-derived models such as the Duster SUV and Lodgy minivan have since become an earnings mainstay, helping Renault to avoid the kind of job cuts and plant closures announced by PSA Peugeot Citroen and Ford.

Thanks largely to the 12,000-euro Duster, Renault recorded a modest auto division profit in January-June, with almost half its global deliveries outside Europe. Peugeot, which still depends on the region for 61 percent of sales, lost 662 million euros.

But the success of low-end Renault models - built in Romania and Morocco and sold under the Dacia brand in Europe - has also proved controversial as France struggles to defend industrial jobs and the carmaker presses unions to give ground on pay and conditions.

"The money invested in Dacia could have been spent on developing the new mainstream Renault models that are seriously lacking today," said Patrick Biau, an official at the Force Ouvriere union.

Renault-Nissan's scramble to field cut-price Indian vehicles follows several false starts in the country.

While the original Logan caught on unexpectedly in Europe, Indian consumers were not seduced. Renault scrapped a production venture with Mahindra & Mahindra in 2008, then discussed plans with Bajaj to build an ultra-cheap car to counter Tata Motors' $3,000 Nano.

That project was abandoned last year, as the Nano itself fell far short of Tata's sales objectives.

Finally, Detourbet was tapped once again for what, given his age, might be his last major overseas assignment for Renault. The new programme could launch its first car in late 2014, he said.

"We're about where we were two years before the Logan launch, in a race against time to prove feasibility," he added, insisting that "nothing's been decided yet".

But Detourbet smiled when asked if he could still report back to Ghosn that the idea won't fly.

"I get the impression that would be difficult," he said.

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14-year-old girl commits suicide

Srinagar, Dec 25 (Newswire): A 14-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide in Kupwara district of held Kashmir.

The girl consumed some poisonous substance at her Trehgam residence, 120 kms from here, this morning and was rushed to hospital by her family, police said. However, she died on way to the hospital.

It was not immediately known why she took the extreme step, the spokesman said.

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Police bar screening of ocean of tears at KU

Srinagar, Dec 25 : Demonstrations rocked University of Kashmir after the held Jammu and Kashmir Police barred screening of a documentary film ‘Ocean of Tears’ in the campus.

The documentary has been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.

 The documentary portraying the “nature of crimes committed against women in Kashmir,” is directed by a Kashmiri filmmaker Bilal A Jan. The film was to be screened in the Varsity’s Convocation Complex here this afternoon. According to the filmmaker, the documentary reveals the “victims’ experience” in the struggle against all forms of violence inflicted to them.

 “It depicts how they learn to deal with their past and the coming year of further battle against power structures,” he said.
 At around 2: 30 pm, a contingent of police stopped the organizers, the filmmaker and hundreds of viewers from entering the Convocation Complex. It was put under a siege ahead of the scheduled time of documentary’s premiere.

 Police move to stop screening of the documentary enraged the students and viewers with anti-India and pro-freedom slogans rocking the campus. “This is an open attack on freedom of expression and speech. If the film has already been certified by Central Board of Film Certification, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, denying screening of the documentary in the Varsity is paranoia of authorities,” said Syed Abid Shafi, a postgraduate student.

 The protestors also shouted anti-University slogans and accused the KU administration of “surrendering to police whim.”
 “This is a police state. The film is a depiction of reality of victims of conflict and crime. It is absurd that police denied screaming to a CBFC-certified film,” said maker of the documentary, Bilal A Jan. He said he had already paid a rent of Rs 20,000 to the University for screening of the film in the Convocation Complex.

 “My film was certified by CBFC without any cuts. We were hopeful of its screening in the Kashmir University but at the eleventh hour it proved that this place is a police state,” Jan said.
 The documentary ‘Ocean of Tears’ is funded by Public Service Broadcasting Trust in partnership with Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

 Among the viewers who had come to watch the documentary were Chairperson Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons Parveena Ahanger, members of Majlis Mushawirat Shopian.
 “We are being barred to even listen to our stories. This is the height of injustice. Since the documentary is a depiction of victims, I had already a premonition that they would not allow its screening,” viewers said.

 The filmmaker said the act of police to stop them from entering the Convocation Complex was uncalled for. “It is dictatorship. A contingent is coming and stopping people without any reason,” he said.

 Registrar Kashmir University Prof Zaffar Ahmad Reshi said screening of the film was barred because the officials had received “a complaint” from someone regarding the film.
 “The complaint has not been registered about the content, it is about copyright. The complainant has contested the film is his production,” he said. Asked who complained about the film, the Registrar said he has no further information of the issue.

Superintendent of Police Hazratbal Abdul Qayoom said the University itself denied screening of the film. Denying further comments on the matter, he dropped the phone.

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Magnetic particles used to accelerate process of heart healing

Islamabad, Dec 25: Interventional cardiologists used magnetic particles to accelerate the process of healing after the placement of a stent.

To do this, they extract cells from the interior of a patient's blood vessels, cultivate them, and insert iron-based paramagnetic particles into the cells.

When the cells are reintroduced to the blood, this attracts them to the magnetic coating on the stent, creating a film of living cells that promotes tissue healing and ultimately reduces the risk of blood clot formation.

A common heart problem may now have a magnetic solution. Researchers are using the laws of attraction to make heart stents that unclog blood vessels more safely.

A puppy named Cash is the newest member of Bob Stortron's family. At 68, Stortron says it's not too hard keeping up with him.

A few years ago, it may have been more difficult. Stortron's heart was fading, and he had to have a stent put in. Stents reinforce blood vessel walls to keep vessels open and blood flowing.

"When you're talking about numbers of patients in the millions, 1 percent can add up to pretty large numbers," Gurpreet Sandhu, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said of those who need heart stents.

Normally, it takes weeks for endothelial cells to coat stents and blood vessels to heal. Now, interventional cardiologists are testing magnetic stents that attract those cells faster. First, cells are taken from the blood and tagged with iron microspheres.

Then, a magnetic stent is threaded through the blood vessel. At last, tagged cells are sent through the blood vessels to see if they are attracted to the stent.

"This will hopefully mean fewer repeat procedures on patients and better quality of life for our patients," Dr. Sandhu said.

Dr. Sandhu says the technology speeds up healing to just days, requires fewer blood thinners and lowers the risk of blood clots.

Stortron says he couldn't ask for a better life, and he's content spending the rest of it enjoying his family.

"I hope I'm around for a long time, but I don't have control over that button," Stortron said.

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Unregistered medical shops, nursing homes in dock

Srinagar, Dec 25 : Occupied Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed Secretary Health and Medical Education, Deputy Commissioners and Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) of all districts of the state to file status report with regard to unlicensed, unregistered drug stores, private hospitals, nursing homes and chemical establishments functioning in the state.

Granting last opportunity to the official respondents to file the report, a division bench comprising Chief justice M M Kumar and justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar held if they (respondents) failed to file the reply, they shall have to appear in person to explain their conduct.

Senior Additional Advocate General, A M Magray solicited last opportunity to file the report after the bench expressed displeasure over the delay in filing the report by the government.

 The Court asked the Secretary Health and Medical Education department to file report on the decision taken on the proposal submitted by drug controller and Food Control organizations for strengthening of drug and testing laboratories as also providing of sufficient staff to the organization.

 Acting on a PIL titled G M Khan versus state, the court had earlier directed deputy commissioners of all the districts to file fresh status report whether unlicensed/ unregistered drug stores, private hospitals, nursing homes, or clinical establishments were closed in terms of the previous order of the court.

The court also directed the commissioner secretary Health and Medical Education Department to file an affidavit indicating the steps taken by the government to carry out the perfect analysis of samples in drug testing laboratories. 

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Topiramate effective therapeutic medication for drinking

Islamabad, Dec 25: Neuropharmacologists ran clinical trials to find that a drug called topiramate is an effective therapeutic medication for decreasing heavy drinking and diminishing the physical and psychosocial harm caused by alcohol dependence.

The drug works by blocking the right amount of the feel good effects of alcohol (brought on by increased levels of dopamine), making drinking less enjoyable and thus reducing cravings and helping to stop heavy drinking.

Topiramate was also found to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels which may lead to a decrease in heart disease in alcohol dependent patients.

Alcoholism affects over 17 million people. Without proper treatment, it's a devastating disease that can ruin lives and relationships. A new therapy that comes in a pill is bringing new hope to alcoholics.

There was a time in Christine Flemming's life when alcohol came before her kids.

"I can't remember when my daughter was very little, because I was drinking so much," said Flemming. "That affected me a lot."

Flemming needed help, but traditional treatment methods didn't work. Now she's on a new kind of therapy in the form of a pill called topiramate. It has changed her life. "I can tell you that it cuts my cravings, and I don't feel like I have to drink," Flemming said. "I don't feel like that's something I need in my life and I have to do."

Alcohol increases levels of dopamine, a chemical in the brain that makes us feel good. The drug works by blocking the right amount of the feel-good effects from alcohol to reduce cravings and help stop heavy drinking.

During clinical trials, neuropharmacologists were surprised to learn it also lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which may lead to a decrease in heart disease in alcohol dependent patients.

"Most of the morbidity due to alcoholism is caused by secondary effects of all these other systems, so to have a drug that begins to correct all those other physical abnormalities is extremely helpful," said Bankhole Johnson, Ph.D., a Neuropharmacologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.

The drug helped improve Fleming's health and end her dependence on alcohol. She cut her drinking from 15 beers a day to just three, so time with her kids is now a priority.

"It's made a big difference," Flemming said. "It's made a really big difference, and I feel like I'm actually there for my family."

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Autonomous molecular robot made out of DNA

Islamabad, Dec 25 : A team of scientists from Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have programmed an autonomous molecular "robot" made out of DNA to start, move, turn, and stop while following a DNA track.

The development could ultimately lead to molecular systems that might one day be used for medical therapeutic devices and molecular-scale reconfigurable robots -- robots made of many simple units that can reposition or even rebuild themselves to accomplish different tasks.

A paper describing the work appears in the current issue of the journal Nature.

The traditional view of a robot is that it is "a machine that senses its environment, makes a decision, and then does something -- it acts," says Erik Winfree, associate professor of computer science, computation and neural systems, and bioengineering at Caltech.

Milan N. Stojanovic, a faculty member in the Division of Experimental Therapeutics at Columbia University, led the project and teamed up with Winfree and Hao Yan, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Arizona State University and an expert in DNA nanotechnology, and with Nils G. Walter, professor of chemistry and director of the Single Molecule Analysis in Real-Time (SMART) Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, for what became a modern-day self-assembly of like-minded scientists with the complementary areas of expertise needed to tackle a tough problem.

Shrinking robots down to the molecular scale would provide, for molecular processes, the same kinds of benefits that classical robotics and automation provide at the macroscopic scale. Molecular robots, in theory, could be programmed to sense their environment (say, the presence of disease markers on a cell), make a decision (that the cell is cancerous and needs to be neutralized), and act on that decision (deliver a cargo of cancer-killing drugs).

Or, like the robots in a modern-day factory, they could be programmed to assemble complex molecular products. The power of robotics lies in the fact that once programmed, the robots can carry out their tasks autonomously, without further human intervention.

With that promise, however, comes a practical problem: how do you program a molecule to perform complex behaviors?

"In normal robotics, the robot itself contains the knowledge about the commands, but with individual molecules, you can't store that amount of information, so the idea instead is to store information on the commands on the outside," says Walter. And you do that, says Stojanovic, "by imbuing the molecule's environment with informational cues."

"We were able to create such a programmed or 'prescribed' environment using DNA origami," explains Yan. DNA origami, an invention by Caltech Senior Research Associate Paul W. K. Rothemund, is a type of self-assembled structure made from DNA that can be programmed to form nearly limitless shapes and patterns (such as smiley faces or maps of the Western Hemisphere or even electrical diagrams). Exploiting the sequence-recognition properties of DNA base pairing, DNA origami are created from a long single strand of DNA and a mixture of different short synthetic DNA strands that bind to and "staple" the long DNA into the desired shape. The origami used in the Nature study was a rectangle that was 2 nanometers (nm) thick and roughly 100 nm on each side.

The researchers constructed a trail of molecular "bread crumbs" on the DNA origami track by stringing additional single-stranded DNA molecules, or oligonucleotides, off the ends of the staples. These represent the cues that tell the molecular robots what to do -- start, walk, turn left, turn right, or stop, for example -- akin to the commands given to traditional robots.

The molecular robot the researchers chose to use -- dubbed a "spider" -- was invented by Stojanovic several years ago, at which time it was shown to be capable of extended, but undirected, random walks on two-dimensional surfaces, eating through a field of bread crumbs.

To build the 4-nm-diameter molecular robot, the researchers started with a common protein called streptavidin, which has four symmetrically placed binding pockets for a chemical moiety called biotin. Each robot leg is a short biotin-labeled strand of DNA, "so this way we can bind up to four legs to the body of our robot," Walter says.

"It's a four-legged spider," quips Stojanovic. Three of the legs are made of enzymatic DNA, which is DNA that binds to and cuts a particular sequence of DNA. The spider also is outfitted with a "start strand" -- the fourth leg -- that tethers the spider to the start site (one particular oligonucleotide on the DNA origami track).

"After the robot is released from its start site by a trigger strand, it follows the track by binding to and then cutting the DNA strands extending off of the staple strands on the molecular track," Stojanovic explains.

"Once it cleaves," adds Yan, "the product will dissociate, and the leg will start searching for the next substrate." In this way, the spider is guided down the path laid out by the researchers. Finally, explains Yan, "the robot stops when it encounters a patch of DNA that it can bind to but that it cannot cut," which acts as a sort of flypaper.

Although other DNA walkers have been developed before, they've never ventured farther than about three steps. "This one," says Yan, "can walk up to about 100 nanometers. That's roughly 50 steps."

"This in itself wasn't a surprise," adds Winfree, "since Milan's original work suggested that spiders can take hundreds if not thousands of processive steps. What's exciting here is that not only can we directly confirm the spiders' multistep movement, but we can direct the spiders to follow a specific path, and they do it all by themselves -- autonomously."

In fact, using atomic force microscopy and single-molecule fluorescence microscopy, the researchers were able to watch directly spiders crawling over the origami, showing that they were able to guide their molecular robots to follow four different paths.

"Monitoring this at a single molecule level is very challenging," says Walter. "This is why we have an interdisciplinary, multi-institute operation. We have people constructing the spider, characterizing the basic spider. We have the capability to assemble the track, and analyze the system with single-molecule imaging. That's the technical challenge." The scientific challenges for the future, Yan says, "are how to make the spider walk faster and how to make it more programmable, so it can follow many commands on the track and make more decisions, implementing logical behaviour."

"In the current system," says Stojanovic, "interactions are restricted to the walker and the environment. Our next step is to add a second walker, so the walkers can communicate with each other directly and via the environment. The spiders will work together to accomplish a goal." Adds Winfree, "The key is how to learn to program higher-level behaviors through lower-level interactions."

Such collaboration ultimately could be the basis for developing molecular-scale reconfigurable robots -- complicated machines that are made of many simple units that can reorganize themselves into any shape -- to accomplish different tasks, or fix themselves if they break. For example, it may be possible to use the robots for medical applications. "The idea is to have molecular robots build a structure or repair damaged tissues," says Stojanovic.

"You could imagine the spider carrying a drug and bonding to a two-dimensional surface like a cell membrane, finding the receptors and, depending on the local environment," adds Yan, "triggering the activation of this drug."

Such applications, while intriguing, are decades or more away. "This may be 100 years in the future," Stojanovic says. "We're so far from that right now."

"But," Walter adds, "just as researchers self-assemble today to solve a tough problem, molecular nanorobots may do so in the future."

The other coauthors on the paper, "Molecular robots guided by prescriptive landscapes," are Kyle Lund and Jeanette Nangreave from Arizona State University; Anthony J. Manzo, Alexander Johnson-Buck, and Nicole Michelotti from the University of Michigan; Nadine Dabby from Caltech; and Steven Taylor and Renjun Pei from Columbia University. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the Searle Foundation, the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and a Sloan Research Fellowship.

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