■ United States
Judge bans procreation
Citing a pattern of negligence and drug abuse that has left a couple unable to care for their children, a judge in upstate New York last week barred the couple from procreating until they prove they can take care of their offspring. The ruling, by Judge Marilyn O'Connor of Monroe County Family Court, came after the mother's four children were placed in foster care and after three of them tested positive for cocaine as newborns. "The generosity and kindness of society have been abused enough," O'Connor wrote in her opinion. Advocates for women's reproductive rights denounced the decision, which they said was the first of its kind in New York.
■ United Kingdom
N Ireland awash with gangs
Law enforcement chiefs in Northern Ireland have identified more than 80 high-level organized-crime gangs in the province, most linked to outlawed guerrilla groups, an official report said yesterday. The fourth annual "threat assessment" from the Organized Crime Task Force said it had identified 85 groups with international ties and another 150 local and regional criminal operations in the British-ruled province of 1.7 million people. Between 60 percent and 70 percent of the gangs are connected to outlawed paramilitary groups from both sides of Northern Ireland's long sectarian conflict. Catholic pro-Irish "republican" and Protestant pro-British "loyalist" groups are both heavily involved in counterfeiting and cigarette smuggling operations, the report said.
■ Congo
UN probes abuse claims
The UN mission in Congo said on Monday it was investigating allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation of civilians, including minors, by its staff serving in the northeastern town of Bunia. About half of the UN 10,800-strong peacekeeping force and some 60 civilian staff are based in and around Bunia, the capital of troubled Ituri province. A UN spokesman said there were "a few incidents that have emerged recently amongst a small group of people, rather than wide-scale abuses." However, another UN source said the reports on the alleged abuses referred to "more than just a few cases" and involved both UN civilian and military staff, some of them quite senior.
■ SARS
Optimism over vaccine
A SARS vaccine could be just two to three years away, scientists said on Monday at a conference in Luebeck, Germany. But a specific medicine to cure SARS after a victim has fallen sick remains uncertain, most participants agreed. British scientists described early successes in developing a vaccine using genetically modified virus-like substances. The 300-strong meeting was the first comprehensive world forum on the disease.
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