UNITED STATES
‘Curry’ drug could help brain
Studies on animals suggest that a new hybrid drug, made in part from the chemical in the yellow spice turmeric, could help regenerate brain cells after a stroke, researchers said on Wednesday. The molecular compound is made with curcumin, a natural yellow pigment that originates from a perennial herb called Curcuma longa and is popular in South Asian and Middle Eastern foods, particularly curries. Human trials on the drug, which works by restoring pathways that feed neurons, could begin soon, according to scientist Paul Lapchak of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The new drug does not attack clots, but if administered to rabbits in one hour, which translates to three hours in human time, it “reduced stroke-caused ‘motor deficits’ — problems of muscle and movement control,” the study said.
UNITED STATES
Giffords asks for toast
Representative Gabrielle Giffords has begun speaking as she continues her recovery a month after being shot in the head — and one of her first requests was for toast. The 40-year-old, shot at point-blank range on Jan. 8, is talking more and more every day as she undergoes rehabilitation in a hospital in Houston, Texas, a spokesman said on Wednesday. “All I can tell you is that she requested toast ... she asked for it at breakfast the other day. And she’s speaking more and more and doing more and more with each passing day,” said the spokesman, C.J. Karamargin.
UNITED STATES
Shirtless congressman quits
A married New York congressman accused of sending a shirtless photo of himself to a woman resigned on Wednesday, saying he regretted actions that had hurt his family and others. The gossip Web site Gawker reported on Wednesday that Representative Christopher Lee, a two-term Republican with a young son, had e-mailed the photo to a woman he met on the Craigslist classified-ads Web site. Lee said in an e-mailed statement that his resignation was effective immediately.
VENEZUELA
Dozens detained for fraud
Authorities have detained 42 people and are seeking more than 100 others in an expanding housing construction fraud investigation, the country’s attorney general said on Wednesday. Prosecutors are seeking to crack down on construction companies accused of scamming home-buyers. President Hugo Chavez recently called for action against companies accused of fraud and of speculating with home prices. He has cited complaints from buyers that they were illegally charged inflation adjustments on unfinished apartments.
UNITED STATES
Over 40s twice at risk
Men diagnosed with testicular cancer at 40 years of age or older have twice the risk of dying from the disease as younger patients, according to a study of nearly 28,000 men. This was true even when initial treatment and the extent of the disease were taken into account, according to findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Mortality was doubled in patients diagnosed over the age of 40, the study found. However, those diagnosed after 1987 were less likely to die during follow-up than men diagnosed earlier, possibly due to the introduction of a certain kind of chemotherapy about 10 years earlier. Several factors may account for the age-related mortality difference, including the fact that many older patients are often not treated with the same intensity as younger patients, the researchers said.
INDIA
Free activist, laureates say
A group of 38 Nobel laureates is demanding the immediate release on bail of a human rights activist who was convicted and sentenced to life on charges of aiding communist rebels. Binayak Sen, a 60-year-old physician and outspoken government critic, was found guilty of sedition in December and sentenced to life in prison. An appeal filed by his lawyers has not been heard yet and he remains in jail. A bail hearing was completed on Wednesday. The court is expected to issue its ruling soon. The Nobel laureates — ranging from medicine winners to economics honorees — posted a statement on a Web site on Wednesday demanding that Sen be freed on bail while both sides fight the legal battle.
INDONESIA
Cleric’s trial postponed
The terrorism trial of the nation’s best-known radical cleric has been postponed until next week over a technicality. Abu Bakar Bashir, the 72-year-old spiritual head of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network, faces a maximum penalty of death on charges of helping plan a series of deadly attacks. He is also charged with funding a new terror cell in Aceh Province and mobilizing foot soldiers. The trial was supposed to open yesterday at the tightly guarded South Jakarta District Court, but Bashir’s lawyers protested, saying they received a summons only two days ago. By law, a defendant needs at least three days’ notice.
SOUTH KOREA
Cull causes milk shortage
Dairy farmers are pouring away 200 tonnes of milk a day as the country grapples with its worst outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, an official said yesterday. A potential milk shortage is the latest problem posed by the outbreak, along with a shortage of space to bury all the 3.2 million livestock culled so far. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said late last month that the outbreak was the worst in 50 years in the region. The agriculture ministry has so far spent 1.9 trillion won (US$1.7 billion) on culling cattle, pigs, goats and deer, compensating farmers and launching a nationwide vaccination program.
SOUTH KOREA
Pyongyang calls off talks
North Korea said yesterday that it would not hold further military talks with the South, accusing Seoul of lacking serious intent to improve relations. The announcement by the North’s military, made in a statement carried by state media, came a day after its first military talks with the South in months ended with no agreement. The discussions were aimed at laying the groundwork for higher-level defense talks and were the first official dialogue between the Koreas since a North Korean artillery barrage killed four people on a front-line island in November. The North’s military accused the South of sticking to its “unreasonable” insistence that the high-level talks cannot be held unless the North takes “sincere, responsible measures” over the attacks.
NEW ZEALAND
Police target biker gang
Police raided dozens of properties yesterday in an operation they said “ripped the welcome mat out” from an Australian biker gang trying to establish itself in the country. In a series of dawn swoops across North Island focusing on the Rebels motorcycle gang, armed officers seized drugs, firearms, luxury cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles and cash. Detective Inspector Chris Bensemann said police were determined to halt the Rebels from expanding into the country.
FRANCE
Le Pen praises Cameron
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front party, yesterday praised British Prime Minister David Cameron for his recent declaration that multiculturalism had failed. Le Pen, daughter of nationalist politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, claimed Cameron’s speech in Munich last week proved that he endorsed her party’s ideas and that attitudes were changing in Britain and Europe. “It is exactly this type of statement that has barred us from public life for 30 years,” the recently elected Le Pen told the Financial Times newspaper. “I sense an evolution at European level, even in classic governments. I can only congratulate him.” A spokesman for Cameron’s Conservative party told the newspaper: “She has clearly failed to understand the prime minister’s speech.” Cameron’s speech, in which he called for a “muscular liberalism” and for public money to be diverted away from groups who did not share British values, caused an outcry in his own country.
LITHUANIA
Monks stop “insulting” ad
Monks and nuns forced a brewery on Wednesday to withdraw an “insulting” poster campaign featuring a Franciscan brother holding up a brimming glass of beer. The outdoor billboard was to promote a beer produced by the country’s biggest brewer, Svyturys-Utenos alus, which is majority owned by Danish brewing giant Carlsberg.
UNITED KINGDOM
Gauguin fails to sell
A historic painting by French post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin failed to sell at a London auction on Wednesday despite being displayed for the first time in 15 years. Nature morte a ‘L’Esperance was expected to sell for about £10 million (US$16.1 million) when it appeared at Christie’s auction house, but failed to meet its reserve price. The 1901 painting, which depicts sunflowers in tribute to friend Vincent van Gogh, was displayed at the 1906 Salon d’Automne exhibition that strongly influenced modern pioneers Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.
UAE
Mosque slayer executed
The father of a boy murdered in a Dubai mosque said the convicted killer had been put to death by a firing squad, the first execution in the federation in three years. Mukhthiar Ahmed Khudabakhsh, the father of the four-year-old victim, said the sentence was carried out yesterday at a shooting range in Dubai. The boy’s parents were among five family members present for the execution of Rashid Rabee al-Rashidi, a 30-year-old boat captain convicted of raping and killing the boy Moosa in a mosque bathroom in November 2009.
ITALY
Mom appeals on TV
The mother of missing six-year-old twins fought back tears on Wednesday as she made an emotional plea on TV, hours after prosecutors revealed that witnesses had seen the girls on board a ferry. Irina Lucidi, whose estranged husband ran off with little Alessia and Livia on Jan. 30 before throwing himself under a train, urged viewers to contact the police if they had any information that could bring an end to her ordeal. News that the twins had been spotted on board a ferry bound for the French island of Corsica gave relatives new hope despite investigators playing down their chances. “I appeal to whoever has seen them or knows something to contact the police,” Lucidi said on Rai 3’s primetime news bulletin.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not