Stockholm, October 11
Two Americans and a British-Cypriot economist won the 2010 Nobel economics prize today for developing a theory that helps explain why many people can remain unemployed despite a large number of job vacancies.

Federal Reserve board nominee Peter Diamond was honoured along with Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides with the 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.5 million) prize for their analysis of the obstacles that prevent buyers and sellers from efficiently pairing up in markets.

Diamond, a former mentor to current Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, analysed the foundations of so-called search markets, while Mortensen and Pissarides expanded the theory and applied it to the labour market.

Since searching for jobs takes time and resources, it creates frictions in the job market, helping explain why there are both job vacancies and unemployment simultaneously, the academy said.

"The laureates' models help us understand the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy," the citation said.

Diamond, 70, is an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an authority on Social Security, pensions and taxation.

President Barack Obama has nominated Diamond to become a member of the Federal Reserve. However, the Senate failed to approve his nomination before lawmakers left to campaign for the midterm congressional elections.

Senate Republicans have objected to what they see as Diamond's limited experience in dissecting the inner workings of the national economy.

Bernanke was one of Diamond's students at MIT. When Bernanke turned in his doctoral dissertation back in 1979, one of the people he thanked was Diamond for being generous with his time and reading and discussing Bernanke's work.

Pissarides, a 62-year-old professor at the London School of Economics, told The Associated Press that the win was "a complete surprise". "The happiness is even more when it comes as a surprise," he said, speaking from his north London home. Pissarides said that his work had already helped shape official thinking on both sides of the Atlantic. — AP

Copiapo (Chile), October 11
The final stages of the operation to rescue 33 Chilean copper miners stuck 700 metres underground were put in place today, 48 hours before it is hoped they can be winched back to the surface.

Helicopters took part in practice flights over the mine in the Atacama desert overnight so that the miners, who have been trapped for two months, can be flown quickly to hospital after meeting with relatives.

On Wednesday rescuers hope to start lifting the miners to the surface one-by-one in a specially built escape capsule. The narrow shaft, which has been drilled down to the chamber where they are trapped reached the miners on Saturday. It now needs to be stabilised with steel rods, due to be completed on Monday, according to Health Minister Jaime Manalich.

The operation itself is expected to take two days, as it will take around an hour for the capsule to be raised and lowered. The men will be surveyed by sensors designed to keep watch on their medical health in case they have difficulties during the slow, confined journey to the surface.

The miners themselves were also preparing for the press attention, an enormous media presence is camped out by the remote mine.

The drama began when a shaft collapsed August 5. It was two weeks before rescuers could locate them and begin providing relief supplies via small bore holes.

Never before has a group people spent so long trapped so deep underground. The rescue operation is the longest and most complicated ever undertaken in mining. — DPA

Washington, October 11
US doctors have begun treating the first patient to receive human embryonic stem cells, but details of the landmark clinical trial are being kept confidential, Geron Corp said today.

Geron has the first US Food and Drug Administration licence to use the controversial cells to treat people, in this case patients with new spinal cord injuries. It is the first publicly known use of human embryonic stem cells in people.

“The patient was enrolled at Shepherd Center, a 132-bed spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation hospital and clinical research centre in Atlanta, Georgia,” Geron said in a statement.

Geron’s stem cells come from human embryos left over from fertility treatments. They have been manipulated so that they have become precursors to certain types of nerve cells.

The hope is that they will travel to the site of a recent spinal cord injury and release compounds that will help the damaged nerves in the cord regenerate.

The Phase I trial will not be aiming to cure patients but to establish that the cells are safe to use. Under the guidelines of the trial, the patients must have very recent injuries. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

Kiwi radio host apologises to Sir Anand Satyanand
Auckland: A New Zealand radio host on Monday apologised to Indian-origin Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand for calling him a “large, fat man”, a day after a TV anchor quit following flak for his remark on Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. In a statement on the RadioLive website, Michael Laws of RadioLive apologised for calling Sir Anand Satyanand a “large, fat man” who has “never left” the buffet table. “I apologise to the governor general for comments which were, upon reflection, uncharitable and inappropriate,” Laws was quoted as saying by the New Zealand
Herald. — IANS

Lady Justice Heather Hallett, Assistant Deputy Coroner, poses at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Lady Justice Hallett will preside over the inquests into the deaths of 52 persons killed in the London suicide bombings of July 7, 2005. -— Reuters

George Michael released from prison
London: Popstar George Michael has been released from prison after serving half of an eight-week sentence for crashing his car while under the influence of cannabis. The 'Careless Whispers' hitmaker was arrested in July after being found slumped at the wheel of his Land Rover in Hampstead, north London, reported BBC online. The 47-year-old was sentenced to a prison stint on September 14 and while serving his time in jail he had issued a statement saying that he had received "no special treatment of any kind". — PTI

Man bites dog, makes news
Washington: When a dog bites a man, it's not news but the opposite is. Now, a man in the US has hogged headlines by exactly doing that - biting a police canine. Roderick Lewis, allegedly committed this unnatural act after a police dog bit him while he was engaged in a fight with a cop. Lewis tried to reach into a police officer's waist band and punched the officer in the face when he resisted. At that time, the dog which was inside the cop's vehicle jumped off and attacked Lewis. Infuriated at the dog's bite, the man bit the animal back. — PTI