Would you eat meat from cloned animals?

Regardless, it still will be years before many foods from cloned animals reach store shelves, for economic reasons: At $10,000 to $20,000 per animal, they’re a lot more expensive than ordinary cows, meaning producers likely will use clones’ offspring for meat, not the clone itself.

And several large companies — including dairy giant Dean Foods Co. and Hormel Foods Corp. — have said they have no plans to sell milk or meat from cloned animals because of consumer anxiety about the technology.

Labels not required
But FDA won’t require food makers to label if their products came from cloned animals, although companies could do so voluntarily if they knew the source. Last month, meat and dairy producers announced an industry system to track cloned livestock, with an electronic identification tag on each animal sold. Customers would sign a pledge to market the animal as a clone.

But that system is voluntary, and there is no way to tell if milk, for example, came from the daughter of a cloned cow.

“Both the animals and any food produced from those animals is indistinguishable from any other food source,” Sundloff said. “There’s no technological way of distinguishing a food that’s come from an animal that had a clone in its ancestry. It’s not possible.”

The decision was long-expected, but controversial. Debate has been fierce within the Bush administration as to whether the FDA should move forward, largely because of trade concerns. Consumer advocates petitioned against the move, and Congress had passed legislation urging the FDA to study the issue more before moving ahead.

“The FDA has acted recklessly,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who sponsored that legislation. “Just because something was created in a lab, doesn’t mean we should have to eat it. If we discover a problem with cloned food after it is in our food supply and it’s not labeled, the FDA won’t be able to recall it like they did Vioxx — the food will already be tainted.

“If you ask what’s for dinner, it means just about anything you can cook up in a laboratory,” said Carol Tucker-Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America, who pledged to push for more food producers to shun clones.

Fatal birth defects
The two main U.S. cloning companies, Viagen Inc. and Trans Ova Genetics, already have produced more than 600 cloned animals for U.S. breeders, the vast majority cattle, including copies of prize-winning cows and rodeo bulls.

“We certainly are pleased,” said Trans Ova President David Faber, who noted that previous reports by the National Academy of Sciences and others have reached the same conclusion.

“Our farmer and rancher clients are pleased because it provided them with another reproductive tool,” he added.

It was a day forecast since Scottish scientists announced in 1997 that they had successfully cloned Dolly the sheep. Ironically, sheep aren’t on the list of FDA’s approved cloned animals; the agency said there wasn’t as much data about their safety as about cows, pigs and goats.

By its very definition, a successfully cloned animal should be no different from the original animal whose DNA was used to create it.

But the technology hasn’t been perfected — and many attempts at livestock cloning still end in fatal birth defects or with deformed fetuses dying in the womb. Moreover, Dolly was euthanized in 2003, well short of her normal lifespan, because of a lung disease that raised questions about how cloned animals will age.

The FDA’s report acknowledges that, “Currently, it is not possible to draw any conclusions regarding the longevity of livestock clones or possible long-term health consequences” for the animal.

But the agency concluded that cloned animals that are born healthy are no different than their non-cloned counterparts, and go on to reproduce normally as well.

“The FDA says, ’We assume all the unhealthy animals will be taken out of the food supply,”’ said Joseph Mendelson of the Center for Food Safety, a consumer advocacy group that opposes FDA’s ruling. “They’re only looking at the small slice of cloned animals that appear to be healthy. ... It needs a lot further study.”

France to have military base in UAE

 

 

ABU DHABI: France will have a permanent military base in the United Arab Emirates under a deal signed on Tuesday during a visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy to Abu Dhabi, a French presidential source said.
Around 400 to 500 French army, navy and air force personnel will be stationed at the facility in the oil-rich Gulf country, the source said while talking to a French news agency, requesting anonymity.
A local news agency said that an agreement to "boost relations between the two friendly countries through military cooperation" was inked by UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan and French Defence Minister Herve Morin, without providing details of the deal.

New UN forum launched to promote cross-cultural understanding

MADRID: Personalities from the worlds of politics, religion and the arts launch a new UN forum Tuesday aimed at bridging the divide between different cultures in the wake of 9/11 and other terror attacks.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero hosts the first Alliance of Civilizations Forum, which he proposed at the UN General Assembly in September 2004, six months after the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.
Also attending will be Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a co-sponsor along with Zapatero, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and former Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio, the UN high representative for the Alliance of Civilizations.
Sampaio said the forum was urgently needed to promote dialogue between civilizations, cultures and religions after the "complex international situation after September 11 and after other terrorist attacks which have marked this decade.
The two-day gathering is set to announce initiatives aimed at promoting greater understanding between cultures.
One of these will be the launch of a multi-million dollar media fund, to be run independently of the UN and set up by private philanthropists and media agencies.
Shamil Idriss, Acting Director of the Alliance of Civilizations, said the fund would "support major film productions that help to promote cross-cultural understanding and combat stereotypes."
Another project to be announced will be a Rapid Response Media Mechanism, aimed at reducing tensions in times of cross-cultural crises, Idriss said.
Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi praised the forum Monday as "good response" to resolving differences between civilizations.
"After hearing the debates and the dialogue, we will realise there is no clash between civilizations," she said. "Civilizations do actually have many points in common. We should start from those common points that we have."
Other participants in the forum's two plenary sessions will include Turkey's Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, Queen Noor of Jordan, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa and the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson.

US rejects Chavez call to remove FARC terror group label

 

 

WASHINGTON: The United States has rejected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's call for the international community to stop branding Colombia's leftist rebels as terrorists.
"You'll excuse me if we don't take that advice," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"Look, they earned their way on to the terrorism list," McCormack said, noting that FARC continues to hold many hostages, including three Americans, despite their release of two Colombian politicians last week.
"If there is any reason whatsoever to take a group off the terrorism list, then that's done," McCormack said. "But I'm not aware of any substantial change in a pattern of behavior by the FARC that would merit their being taken off the list."
Chavez last week described the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) as legitimate armies with political goals that must be respected and urged governments to remove the terror label.
McCormack said the United States remains concerned about the three Americans hostages, contractors in anti-drug operations who were captured by FARC after their plane was shot down in 2003.
"They should be released, unconditionally, so that they can be reunited with their families," McCormack said. "There's no reason on Earth to hold those people."
The head of the US military, Admiral Michael Mullen, said Chavez's proposal would not help Latin America.
"I'm honestly not surprised by that support," Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters after a visit to the headquarters of the US Southern Command in Miami.
"I don't think it is helpful long-term for building the kind of stability that we need to see in this part of the world," Mullen said.
Chavez, who was an intermediary in the release of the two Colombian women last Thursday, said afterwards that the guerrilla groups had legitimate national programs.
They "are not any terrorist body, they are real armies that occupy territory in Colombia," Chavez said.
"They must be recognized, they are insurgent forces that have a political project ... which here is respected." But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe flatly rejected the call

Russia's Lavrov accuses Britain of imperial nostalgia: agency

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Britain's refusal to close two cultural centres in Russia appeared to reflect nostalgia for a lost empire, a local news agency reported.
"Of course we understand that historical memory, possibly connected with nostalgia for colonial times, is prevailing," Lavrov was quoted as saying. "But this is not the language in which you can talk to Russia."

Surgeons hail operation on baby gorilla-Cyst removed near zoo ape’s spine during ‘Star Trek’ experience

 

SEATTLE - Veterinarians and pediatric surgeons combined their efforts to remove a cyst near the spine of a baby gorilla at the Woodland Park Zoo, an operation they believe is the first of its kind.

During the hourlong operation Thursday morning at the zoo, surgeons from Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center joined zoo vets in removing the mass, which was 1.2 to 1.6 inches (3 to 4 centimeters), said Dr. Richard G. Ellenbogen, a neurosurgeon and chairman of the department of neurological surgery at the University of Washington, which is affiliated with the hospital.

The surgery also confirmed that the as-yet-unnamed baby gorilla has a mild case of spinal bifida, which doctors said should not be a concern as she grows older.

"This gorilla operation was an amazing 'Star Trek' type of experience for the team from Children's and the UW," Ellenbogen said.

The baby, the 12th successful gorilla birth for the zoo and the third offspring of Amanda, 37, and the father, Vip, 28, arrived in October with the cyst at the base of her back, but because of the way gorillas hold their babies it was some time before the deformity was noticed.

Experts hoped to wait until the gorilla was a bit older and could tolerate surgery better but grew concerned as recent tests showed it had become infected and was growing toward the spine, raising a risk of meningitis, said Dr. Kelly E. Helmick, the zoo's interim director of animal health.

Before the surgery, zookeepers trained the mother, Amanda, to carry her baby to them so they could give antibiotics to help fight the infection, Helmick said.

After the operation, the gorilla was placed on a table outside of the operating room to be given fluids and kept warm in a large pink blanket while awakening from the anesthesia. About 30 minutes later, the creature yawned and opened her eyes, her pink and purple pacifier at the ready and a small stuffed gorilla on the counter nearby.

As soon as zookeepers returned her to Amanda, the mother grabbed the infant and began nursing, Helmick said.

"It was a touching reunion between mom and baby," she said.

Gorillas naturally pick at each other to remove dirt and insects, so the sutures were buried under the skin and covered with surgical tissue glue, while Amanda's nails were painted red so she would be distracted and pick at her nails instead of at her baby's incision.

Economy ties war as top issue, poll shows-Rapid turnabout already showing up on presidential campaign trail

The faltering economy has caught the Iraq war as people's top worry, a national poll suggests, with the rapid turnabout already showing up on the presidential campaign trail and in maneuvering between President Bush and Congress.

Twenty percent named the economy as the foremost problem in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Friday, virtually tying the 21 percent who cited the war. In October, the last time the survey posed the open-ended question about the country's top issue, the war came out on top by a 2-1 majority.

About equal proportions of Republicans, Democrats and independents in the new poll said the economy was their major worry, suggesting the issue looms as a potent one in both parties' presidential contests. It was also cited evenly across all levels of income, underscoring the variety of economic problems the country faces.

Amid increasing trade, job, housing, stock market and gasoline price woes, candidates from each party have started talking about how they would bolster the economy. The issue looms as the dominant one in the next presidential contest: Tuesday's Republican primary in Michigan, which had a 7.4 percent unemployment rate in November that is the nation's worst.

'Concern about Iraq is diminishing'
Even as signs of economic weakness in this country have grown in recent months, U.S. and Iraqi casualties in Iraq have been dropping since the summer. Though most in the U.S. remain against the war, growing numbers say they think President Bush's troop increase last year has been working, and politicians say the issue is raised with decreasing frequency by constituents.

"The lines are crossing now," said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster not working for a presidential candidate. "As Iraq becomes more stable and less violent, concern about Iraq is diminishing. It will still be an important issue, but the economy is filling the vacuum."

Economic concerns were voiced about evenly in most parts of the country in the AP-Ipsos survey. It was particularly high in the Rust Belt region of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin, states that are expected to be pivotal in the November election. About one in three there named the economy.

The poll offered another example of economic anxiety as an index measuring consumer confidence fell to its all-time low in the six years Ipsos has been measuring it. The RBC Cash Index dropped to 56.3 in early January, down from 65.9 in December.

The war was the top problem mentioned by three in 10 Democrats, about twice the number of Republicans who listed it. About one in five independents also put it as the top concern.

Health care was another important issue for Democrats, while Republicans also named morality, immigration and terrorism.

Issues key to voters
In exit polls of voters in last Tuesday's New Hampshire presidential primaries, people in both parties named the economy as their top concern, including 38 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans. Of those citing the economy, the most votes went to Hillary Rodham Clinton for Democrats and John McCain among Republicans — and each won their party's contest.

In the Jan. 3 Iowa presidential caucuses, the economy was tied with Iraq for most important issue among Democrats. Illegal immigration was the most mentioned by Republicans, followed by the economy. The winners in that state — Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama — also got the most support among those chiefly worried about the economy.

On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders are considering crafting legislation for stimulating the economy that might include tax rebates, longer unemployment benefits and more food stamps. Bush has said he is watching to see if federal steps will be needed, which officials have said might include tax rebates for individuals and tax breaks for business investment.

On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wrote Bush saying they should try to agree quickly on a package. Still, a clash could well occur because there is a history of Democrats seeking more spending and narrower tax cuts than Republicans want.

The issues question in the AP-Ipsos poll was asked of 535 people in telephone interviews conducted from Jan. 7-9. Their responses had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

Obama giving Clinton a race in her backyard-A win in South Carolina could develop grass-roots support in New York

With Senator Barack Obama vowing to challenge Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on her home turf, the Democratic presidential primary in New York on Feb. 5 is shaping up as the state’s most competitive since 1992, when Bill Clinton took up a rival’s mantra of change to all but cinch the nomination.

Mrs. Clinton was re-elected a little more than a year ago by better than two to one. Before the Iowa caucuses, she had so dominated opinion polls and endorsements by elected officials and powerful unions that many considered her home state impregnable to political interlopers.

But if Mr. Obama wins the South Carolina primary in two weeks, he could develop enough grass-roots support among young people, liberals and black voters in New York to pose a serious threat to her claim to the state’s rich delegate lode, allies of both candidates say.“The expectation is that Hillary should win in New York,” said Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV of Harlem, an Obama supporter. “As you know, expectations don’t always translate into votes, and so we’re going to fight in New York.”

While Mrs. Clinton’s supporters say they are certain she will win the state and, with it, the bulk of its 281 delegates, they acknowledge that to keep Mr. Obama from running even a close second, she may have to invest more precious time and money here. Twenty-one other states, including New Jersey and Connecticut, also hold primaries on Feb. 5.

“Clearly they’re going to make a humongous effort to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem, an Obama supporter.

'Emotion and racial pride'
“We’re not taking anything for granted,” said Blake Zeff, the Clinton campaign’s communications director in New York. Representative Charles B. Rangel of Harlem, one of Mrs. Clinton’s earliest supporters, predicted that she would do “extremely well — after all, she’s our ‘favorite daughter.’ She’s better known and she’s earned the right to our support.”
But, Mr. Rangel acknowledged, “Obama’s electric campaign will stimulate a big turnout.”

“Even though there’s no question in my mind that Hillary can do a better job, we’re dealing with a lot of emotion and racial pride, and he’s proven himself to be a credible candidate already,” Mr. Rangel said.

Measured by volunteers, phone banks, offices and other tangible signs statewide, the Clinton campaign appears better organized. She has the support of many members of Congress and the Legislature, as well as the backing of unions that are adept at turning out voters, including those representing teachers, building service workers and municipal employees.

Mr. Obama has been endorsed by a number of black elected officials in Harlem, southeast Queens and central Brooklyn, all bastions of Democratic voters. And in a particularly revealing gauge of his organizational strength, Mr. Obama is the only Democrat other than Mrs. Clinton to have full delegate slates in each of the state’s 29 Congressional districts, suggesting he may be competitive in areas outside New York City.

In the 2004 primary, nearly half the Democrats who voted were in New York City. Manhattan alone accounted for nearly one in five.