HozNews

LONDON (AFP) - - A US-based fertility doctor claimed to have cloned 14 human embryos and transferred 11 of them into the wombs of four women in an interview published on Wednesday.

Panayiotis Zavos told Britain’s Independent newspaper that although none of the women had had a viable pregnancy as a result, the first cloned baby could now be born within a couple of years.

“There is absolutely no doubt about it… the cloned child is coming. There is absolutely no way that it will not happen,” he said, quoted by the paper.

“If we intensify our efforts, we can have a cloned baby within a year or two, but I don’t know whether we can intensify our efforts to that extent.”

Zavos’s work is widely condemned by mainstream fertility experts, who question whether the technique, which also raises complex ethical questions, is safe.

Although other scientists have created human cloned embryos in test tubes to extract stem cells for research, Zavos has broken a taboo by actually putting them inside women’s wombs.

He said he has also produced cloned embryos of three dead people, including a 10-year-old girl called Cady who died in a car crash in the US. The child’s blood cells were frozen and sent to Zavos.

The doctor, a naturalised US citizen born in Cyprus, is thought to have carried out the procedures in a secret laboratory somewhere in the Middle East to escape the US ban on cloning.

He uses the same technique as was used to clone Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell.

The procedures were recorded by a documentary maker and will be shown on the Discovery Channel in Britain later Wednesday.

In 2004, Zavos claimed to have implanted the first human cloned embryo into a woman’s uterus although scientists then expressed scepticism over a lack of proof about his findings.

LOS ANGELES - Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rainn Wilson have joined Natalie Portman in “Hesher,” an indie comedy-drama that begins shooting next week in Los Angeles.

The story centers on a loser twentysomething who invades the life of an awkward 13-year-old who is living with a pill-popping father and grandmother.

Gordon-Levitt is the dad trying to keep his family together after the death of his wife.

Portman, who is also serving as a producer, plays a supermarket worker for whom the kid falls for after she saves him from a bully. Spencer Susser will direct from a script co-written with David Michod.

Gordon-Levitt, who stars in this summer’s ” Days of Summer” as well as “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” recently booked a lead role in “Dark Knight” director Christopher Nolan’s “Inception.” Wilson appears in this summer’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AFP) - - Cambodian and Thai defence ministers on Wednesday concluded border talks but said they could not agree to pull back troops from a tense territorial dispute near an ancient temple.

At least seven Thai and Cambodian troops have been killed in recent months in sporadic clashes between the neighbouring countries on disputed land around the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple.

Cambodian defence minister Tea Banh and his Thai counterpart Prawit Wongsuwan began this week’s talks by playing a round of golf in the northwestern tourist hub of Siem Reap on Tuesday.

The pair hailed progress by border negotiators from both countries, but Thailand’s Prawit told reporters after talks finished Wednesday that troops would remain in place until the border was demarcated.

“The issue of troop pullback… from the area near Preah Vihear temple depends on the negotiation related to border demarcation that has not been agreed yet,” Prawit told reporters in a joint press conference.

Tea Banh added that both countries were using all means possible to resolve the border dispute.

Troops from the two countries have been in a border standoff since tensions flared last July, when the cliff-top temple was awarded United Nations World Heritage status.

Ownership of the temple was awarded to Cambodia in 1962 but the two countries are in dispute over five square kilometres (two square miles) of land around it that has yet to be officially demarcated.

Welcome to Thailand, The land of smile and the true shopping paradise where shopaholics can find anything they wish in several places, from flea markets to luxurious shopping malls in the heart of Bangkok.

Super Special! Participate in our website to win various prizes sush as free accommodations, shopping vouchers, air tickets, and many more.
And don’t miss our monthly campaign featuring hot promotions, e-coupon, tour packages, News updates, and travel activities, you can find them all here!

For more information click www.amazingshoppingparadise.com

MOSCOW (AFP) - - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Bulgarian counterpart Sergey Stanishev said Tuesday they were close to signing a deal on the South Stream gas pipeline to Europe after resolving differences.

“There is no disagreement between Russia and Bulgaria,” Putin was quoted by RIA Novosti and Interfax as saying at the close of a meeting with Stanishev.

Putin added that an agreement on the pipeline would be signed as soon as two weeks from Tuesday.

Stanishev was also upbeat, playing down strains in Bulgarian-Russian relations over the pipeline issue.

“By the middle of next month a decision will be taken. I voice my satisfaction that the issue has been resolved,” Stanishev said.

South Stream is one of two major gas pipeline projects that Russia is developing, aimed at consolidating its commanding position in supplies of gas to Europe.

Analysts have pointed to a variety of difficulties with the two prestige projects, including a raft of objections from Russia’s neighbours.

Meeting Stanishev later, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said: “You had very satisfactory talks with Prime Minister Putin. I hope we will be able to sign the agreements very soon… And we hope that South Stream will not only exist on paper.”

Russian gas export monopoly Gapzprom said in a statement Tuesday that it had already agreed on a draft of a partnership accord to go ahead with the South Stream project in talks with the Bulgarian delegation.

It said the two sides planned to seal the deal “very soon.”

Tuesday’s meetings came after Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov said Saturday there was a “clash of interests” between Sofia and Moscow on the terms of the South Stream deal and insisted the small Balkan state would defend its interests.

Bulgaria had hoped Putin would attend a regional energy conference last weekend and took the Russian premier’s decision to stay away as a slight, resulting from Sofia’s refusal to commit to the South Stream project.

Sofia and Moscow agreed in principle last January to have a 50-50 share in the new pipeline, which will span Bulgarian territory from east to west before branching off toward Austria on one side, and Greece and Italy on the other.

But a recent Russian plan to cut South Stream costs by using Bulgaria’s existing pipeline network, which already channels Russian gas to neighbouring Greece, Macedonia and Turkey, has angered Sofia.

And in a move to reduce its almost total dependence on Russian supplies, Sofia has also voiced support for the competing EU-backed Nabucco pipeline to feed Europe gas from the Caspian region, while bypassing Russia.

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - - Authorities in Mexico have ordered the closure of all archeological sites to the public in a further effort to stop the spread of a new fatal flu.

The places, including world-famous Aztec and Mayan pyramids, will be closed “until further notice,” the National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement.

The measure came on the heels of others by federal and local officials, all designed to prevent people gathering and possibly transmitting the swine flu to each other.

Mexico is the epicenter of a worldwide flu epidemic. So far, more than 150 people have likely died from the virus and more than 1,600 people are suspected to be infected.

Bars, cafes, restaurants, gyms, cinemas and theaters in the capital were told to close Tuesday. The federal government has also ordered schools nationwide to shut.

The move to bar access to Mexico’s pre-Colombian heritage came as tourist numbers to the countries dwindled.

Tour companies in Britain, France and Germany have canceled trips to Mexico, as have major US cruise lines. Cuba said it was suspending all flights to and from Mexico until Friday.

PARIS (AFP) - - The global outbreak of swine flu sent shivers through financial markets on Monday just as some signs had appeared that the global economic crisis might be easing.

Travel and tourism took the brunt of uncertainty about how the threat of a pandemic might crimp economic activity, but the pharmaceutical sector rose as attention turned to defensive medical treatments and equipment.

Shares in Swiss drug giant Roche surged and then settled with a gain of 3.51 percent on prospects of a surge in demand for its treatment Tamiflu, a focus of interest during previous alerts over bird flu.

An analyst at Vontobel in Switzerland, Andrew Weiss, said: “When fear about bird flu really took hold in the fourth quarter of 2005, the price of shares (in Roche) rose strongly.”

In 2006 and 2007 Roche had made sales of Tamiflu worth a total of 4.0 billion Swiss francs (2.65 billion euros, 3.49 billion dollars), he recalled.

Rapidly spreading concern about possible international contagion from a fatal outbreak of the human version of flu originating in pigs also pushed up the yen.

In Tokyo, the yen firmed to 96.75 against the dollar from 97.13 in New York late on Friday. Analysts said that the dollar was weakened in part by growing concern over the impact of the new strain of swine flu.

“The outbreak of swine flu in Mexico is a concerning development for the global economy,” said Societe Generale analyst Patrick Bennett. “Initial investor reaction has not surprisingly been towards risk aversion.”

Pig flu also drove down oil prices with the threat of a drop in air travel, analysts said.

In New York, light sweet crude for June delivery fell 2.59 dollars to 48.96 dollars. Brent North Sea crude fell 2.31 dollars to 49.36 dollars a barrel in late morning trade in London.

In London, Manoj Ladwa, a senior trader at financial spread-betting firm ETX Capital in London, said: “Swine flu is ripping through the markets creating uncertainty in its wake.”

He added: “US markets are sure to be heavily affected by this crisis when they open later today.”

With the World Health Organisation warning that the outbreak could become a pandemic, the United States declaring a public health emergency and the European Commission calling an urgent meeting of health ministers, stock markets recoiled in alarm.

Amid uncertainty over the possible implications of anxiety over flu on economic activity, notably in such sectors as tourism and retailing, investors and analysts took the line of caution.

In London the FTSE index of leading shares was showing a mid-morning fall of 1.20 percent, Frankfurt stocks fell by 1.05 percent and the Paris CAC 40 index fell 1.83 percent.

Stocks in Tokyo edged up 0.21 percent but traders said they were held back by concern about the effects of the flu outbreaks. In Hong Kong they fell by 2.74 percent, and in South Korea by 1.05 percent.

“News over the weekend of a deadly flu outbreak is rocking financial markets,” said Matt Buckland, dealer at financial spread-betting firm CMC Markets.

“After last week’s gains many would have been looking to start locking in profits,” he said, referring to recent rises in share prices reflecting some optimism that the global economic crisis may be flattening out.

“But clearly this (flu) news has the potential to become a rather serious development.”

In Europe, shares in German airline Lufthansa were showing a fall of 10.60 percent and shares in Air France-KLM were down by slightly more than nine percent.

British Airways stocks were down 7.26 percent, shares in travel agency Thomas Cook 7.87 percent and in travel group TUI 5.52 percent.

Stock in cruise liner group Carnival showed a fall of 6.50 percent and Rolls Royce, which makes engines for aircraft and ships, saw its shares fall by 4.43 percent.

But companies making drug treatments were strong. GlaxoSmithKline gained 3.58, AstraZeneca 1.55 percent and Shire 1.21 percent.

In Tokyo, airline and tourism shares were hit by the swine flu worries. Travel agency H.I.S. tumbled 10 percent while Japan Airlines dropped 5.2 percent on fears that tourists and business travellers may cancel their overseas trips.

But Chugai Pharmaceutical, which sells the Tamiflu drug, climbed 14 percent.

The story begins with Russell, played by Jim Carrey, on his deathbed recalling the events of his life that led him there. He begins with his life in Texas as a happily married police officer who plays the organ at church, prays every night with his wife (Leslie Mann) and spends his off hours searching for the biological mother who gave him up as a child. That, and hes gay. But after finding and being handily rejected by the mother who gave him up as a baby, Steven leaves his life and family behind to go out into the world and be his true, flamboyantly gay self. He moves to Miami, finds a boyfriend (Rodrigo Santoro) and begins living the high life. He realizes quickly though, that a life of luxury is expensive, leading this resourceful former cop to turn to a life as a conman. But when his con work finally catches up with him, Steven is sent to prison where he meets, and almost instantly falls in love with Phillip Morris, played by Ewan McGregor. From there the story becomes a Don Quixote-esque story of a forlorn lover who cannot bear to be separated from his soul-mate. He will go to any lengths to be with Phillip, including but not limited to breaking out of jail on multiple occasions, impersonating Phillips lawyer and fraudulently becoming the CFO of a major corporation.

The Tale of Despereaux is a tale of three unlikely heroes - a misfit mouse who perfers readingbooks to eating them and who is desperately in love with a princess (Emma Watson), an unhappy rat who schemes to leave the darkness of the dungeon, and a bumbling servant girl with cauliflower ears - whose fates are intertwined with that of the castle’s princess.

From director J.J. Abrams (“Mission: Impossible III,” “Lost” and “Alias”) and screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (“TRANSFORMERS,” “MI: III”) comes a new vision of the greatest space adventure of all time, “Star Trek,” featuring a young, new crew venturing boldly where no man has gone before.