US Supreme Court leaves stem cell research alone

Posted: 08 January 2013

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court declined Monday to enter the emotionally-charged debate over stem cell research, refusing to hear an appeal centred on the issue of federal government funding.

The top US court did not give a reason for its decision, which ends the long judicial saga over President Barack Obama's 2009 executive order lifting restrictions on financing imposed by his predecessor George W. Bush.

The appeal had come from two researchers working with adult cells rather than embryonic stem cells.

They had asked the Supreme Court to halt financing for stem cell research on the grounds that federal law banned the creation and destruction of embryos for scientific study.

Stem cell research is said to be promising for finding new treatments for a variety of diseases.

A federal judge banned the financing in 2010, but an appeals court in Washington reversed the ruling in 2012. The court said the federal ban does not apply to previously existing embryos that resulted from in vitro fertilization procedures.

Government financing through the National Institutes of Health was authorised for cells from frozen embryos that were left over from fertility treatments.

The NIH, which allowed researchers to use stem cells derived from donated frozen embryos no longer needed for fertility treatments, hailed the ruling.

"This decision allows the ruling to stand, and enables NIH to continue conducting and funding stem cell research, following the strict ethical guidelines put in place in 2009," NIH Director Francis Collins said in a statement.

"Patients and their families who look forward to new therapies to replace cells lost by disease or injury, or who may benefit from new drugs identified by screening using stem cells, should be reassured that NIH will continue supporting this promising research."

- AFP/jc


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Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
US Supreme Court leaves stem cell research alone

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Why do politicians cheat on their wives?

05:55 AM Jun 26, 2009

WASHINGTON - What is it with philandering politicians?

Mr Sanford with his wife Jenny, before he admitted to his affair. AP

Why do men in power - the ones on pedestals - think they are above their constituents and can get away with cheating on their spouses, particularly these days amid intense media scrutiny and when peccadilloes are arguably more politically damaging?

It is a long list of those who thought they could jet off to Argentina, cruise on the yacht Monkey Business, check into a hotel under an assumed name or use an escort service and never get caught, never have to come clean.

These days, the fallout can run the gamut. It can doom a career - former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey - or simply unleash the fury of a special prosecutor leading to impeachment - then-President Bill Clinton.

This was not always the way it was in the United States. There are politicians, presidents even, who did the dalliance dance privately and did not pay publicly: John F Kennedy, Franklin D Roosevelt, included.

No more. It's a different world today. A public with at-your-fingertips Internet has developed an insatiable appetite for scandal.

That makes it all the more inexplicable that these men tempt fate. And, particularly, men with presidential aspirations.

One possible explanation, said Mr Stanley Renshon, a political psychologist at City University of New York: "Narcissism is an occupational hazard for political leaders. You have to have an outsized ambition and an outsized ego to run for office."

To be sure, politicians do not necessarily have different reasons for cheating than non-politicians, and they do not necessarily cheat more often.

The difference: "They live their lives more in a fishbowl, and that has responsibilities and costs with it," said Mr Renshon, adding that an adulterous politician does not just betray his family's trust, but he also betrays the public's trust.

Indeed, when politicians get caught, their actions raise questions about their judgment, character and integrity as a leader.

"It does matter in public perceptions," said Mr Stephen Wayne, a Georgetown University government professor who has studied political psychology. When it comes to the highest positions in politics, he said, "we want to figure out who acts as a model for others".

On some level, it is easy to see why they cheat. Mr Fred Greenstein, a Princeton University professor

emeritus of politics, suggested adrenaline as the common denominator, saying that "for some individuals, the excitement of illicit sexual activity might feed the same desire" as "the excitement of politics".

There also is a clue in the kind of people drawn to politics.

These are men who relish seeking approval. These are men who adore getting praise and who often are surrounded by swarms of sycophants. These are men who, in some cases, need to exercise power and who think they are untouchable.

As leaders, these are also the type of men who are likely to break promises, manipulate and cut corners. They probably are big risk-takers. And they are prone to thinking of themselves first.

Just ask their wives, their mistresses or the security details that often are privy to indiscretions.

Not a year seems to go by without a Washington sex scandal, and both Democrats and Republicans are guilty.

Last year, former presidential candidate John Edwards and Mr Spitzer came before the public to admit they erred.

This month alone, it has been Mr John Ensign and Mr Sanford, two Republicans with national ambitions and mentioned as possible 2012 presidential candidates. Those dreams are likely over. AP

From TODAY, World – Friday, 26-Jun-2009; see the source article here.

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Obama seeks fresh start

Will this really trigger a change, an impact in the US, the whole world?

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will journey to the centre of Arab-Muslim civilisation this week to begin the daunting task of draining deep mistrust of the United States felt across the Islamic world.

In Egypt on Thursday, Mr Obama will make a personal address to the world's Muslims, harnessing his own ancestral ties to Islam and globalising his message of change in a speech rich in trademark political ambition.

His trip comes as some observers scent a moment of opportunity amid the perpetual Middle East crisis.

But others see only peril, with a showdown gathering pace between Washington and Israel over Jewish settlements and no end in sight to Iran's nuclear drive.

This trip's first stop, on Wednesday, will be Saudi Arabia, for talks with King Abdullah, seeking Arab support for US peace efforts.

But the highlight will be the speech at the University of Cairo, co-hosted by Al-Azhar University, an ancient hub of Islamic scholarship.

Mr Obama may try to use the charismatic rhetoric which helped make him president as a balm for region-wide mistrust of the US.

"I want to use the occasion to deliver a broader message about how the United States can change for the better its relationship with the Muslim world," he said last week.

The speech will also be a promise kept — way back in the presidential campaign Mr Obama pledged to speak before a major Islamic forum.

In Egypt, he will make references to the Islamic faith of some of his paternal family in Kenya, time spent in Indonesia as a young boy and contacts with Muslim communities in Illinois.

"The President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world," said foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough.

Some analysts predict though Mr Obama may fall short. "There's nothing Barack Obama could say to Muslims on June 4 that will make the US popular and he shouldn't try," said Mr Jon Alterman, of the Center of Strategic and International Studies.

"America's underlying interests are simply not allied with the policies that many Muslims around the world would like to see the US pursue."

The US image in the Muslim world has been stained by the invasion of Iraq, stalled Palestinian hopes for statehood and Bush administration acquiescence in Israel's offensives in Lebanon and Gaza. AFP

From TODAYonline.com, World news – Monday, 01-Jun-2009; see the source article here.

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Corporate woes rise as Asia reels from crisis: IMF

AFP - Wednesday, May 13

Corporate woes rise as Asia reels from crisis: IMF

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - The global financial crisis is taking an increasing toll on Asia's corporate sector with the region's economies now among the world's hardest hit, a senior IMF official warned Tuesday.

"Corporate risks are rising and market indicators are flashing warning signs," IMF deputy managing director Takatoshi Kato said.

"There are signs that even the best Asian corporate 'names' are being rationed out of financial markets and are considering approaching their government for direct assistance," he told the annual meeting of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, a regional think tank, in Washington.

Large Asian firms, like their US counterparts, entered the crisis with strong balance sheets and when the demand shock hit, they faced little immediate pressure to scale back their activities or cut costs, he said.

"However, liquidity positions have since dwindled."

Kato said the global economic downturn is hitting Asia more severely than other regions with fourth quarter data showing a decline in output of nearly 15 percent in Asia, excluding China and India.

Many small and medium-sized enterprises, he said, were also suffocating under the weight of the global crisis, which stemmed from a US home mortgage meltdown that triggered financial turmoil and slammed the brakes on growth.

The firms borrowed heavily during the previous decade to expand their activities as suppliers to larger manufacturing groups but with the onset of the crisis, banks immediately started to rein in lending to these firms, Kato said.

Bad corporate loans were also expected to taint bank balance sheets in Asia.

"The feedback loop between the financial and real sectors is expected to play out," Kato said.

"Given the likely prolonged nature of the downturn, non-performing loans are likely to rise. This will feed into bank balance sheets."

Kato said large Asian corporations would need to further cut production if the credit crunch combined with a sharp fall in demand put healthy companies into trouble and scuttled profits.

Predicting that the region could see a wave of consolidation through mergers and acquisitions, he said firms were only now beginning to adjust employment levels.

"In the near-term, the process may prove quite painful, particularly if large job losses are involved," he said.

"Already, unemployment has started to climb across the region and potentially high social costs from this downturn are a looming threat."

Kato said that as financial activity worldwide shrunk, Asia's financial centers "have also been broadsided."

Citing Hong Kong, the special administration region of China, he said its financial system was "contracting," particularly in areas such as asset management and brokerage services.

In Singapore, lending to non-bank customers has been contracting recently in the Asian Dollar Market, he said.

In Japan, stricter lending standards, wider risk spreads, and the significant stock market declines have tightened financial conditions, he said.

Kato also noted that private investment in most Asian countries had slowed significantly and warned about a slowdown in private consumption as well.

"Although private consumption so far has shown relative resilience, falling incomes and tighter financial conditions foreshadow a slowdown ahead."

On the whole, Kato said the current recession in the region promised to be "deeper and more prolonged" compared to previous cycles.

From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.

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Geithner's warning on speed of economic recovery

AFP - Saturday, May 9

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that there is a risk that US economic recovery could take a long time, but vowed to take all necessary steps to speed it up.

"Well, that's the risk," Geithner said in a PBS television interview on Friday when asked if the recovery could take several years.

"I mean, people -- economists generally worry that a recession that comes after a long period where people borrowed too much, banks took on too much risk -- requires a slower, longer recovery, because people have to reduce debt, they're going to have to save more," the treasury secretary pointed out.

But he promised that the administration of President Barack Obama was "going to do everything" it can to accelerate the process.

"We're laying the foundation for a more sustainable, more balanced, more healthy recovery for this economy," Geithner noted.

From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.

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