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EU extends Syria sanctions
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‘Sex with FB friend’ gives new angle to Roebuck’s death
‘Wonder drug’ to kill off cancer
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Italy’s Monti works to form new govt
Rome, November 14 Monti began talks with political parties before separate meetings with trade unions and employers on Tuesday, as he rushes to appoint what is expected to be a relatively small cabinet made up of technocrats from outside Parliament. Monti went to work after a frenetic weekend of political activity, in which Italy’s Parliament approved a package of economic reforms agreed with European leaders, Berlusconi resigned and President Giorgio Napolitano appointed the respected international figure as head of a new government. “Monti spoke about a significant programme with many sacrifices,” Francesco Nucara, a lawmaker from one of the myriad tiny parliamentary groups involved in the talks, said after meeting the prime minister designate. The speaker of the lower house, Gianfranco Fini, said he expected Monti to seek a confidence vote in Parliament to confirm support for his new government by Friday. After a tumultuous week, when Italy’s borrowing costs rose to the kind of levels that saw Ireland and Greece forced to seek an international bailout, initial market reaction was positive on Monday, with both stocks and bond markets lifted. Napolitano called for an extraordinary national effort to support Monti and win back the confidence of international markets, noting that Italy had to refinance some 200 billion euros of bonds by the end of April. But once the initial boost from his appointment has passed, Monti will face a major challenge navigating the treacherous waters of Italian politics with clear signs of mistrust already emerging from the centre right. Monti, a convinced free marketeer with a record of successfully taking on powerful corporate interests during his decade in Brussels, is expected to outline a policy programme in line with demands made by Italy’s European partners. Monti has spoken frequently of his support for controlling public finances and for pro-market policies such as boosting competition, opening up closed professions and lowering the tax burden on employment. However, pushing though painful reforms such as raising the retirement age for those on so-called full-service or seniority pensions and loosening job protection measures will test the extent of the non-elected government’s support both in Parliament and outside. Other possible measures such as imposing a wealth tax on privately owned assets including first homes also risk strong opposition from the right. The next election is not due until 2013 but there are widespread predictions Monti will not last until then, making way for polls once he passes the reforms promised to Europe.
— Reuters The Technocrat
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EU extends Syria sanctions
Brussels, November 14 EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, also sought to increase economic pressure on President Bashar al-Assad by approving plans to stop Syria accessing funds from EU’s European Investment Bank (EIB). EU leaders warned last month that Syria could face new sanctions if there was no halt to the violence, in which the United Nations says more than 3,500 protesters have died. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said there was a good case for further extending EU measures, which from Tuesday will affect 74 individuals and 19 firms and entities. Eighteen officials were added to the EU’s list of people affected by a travel ban and asset freeze on Monday; their names will be made public on Tuesday. “It’s very important in the European Union that we consider additional measures to add to the pressure on the Assad regime to stop the unacceptable violence against the people of Syria,” Hague told reporters. EU ministers welcomed efforts by the Arab League to end the Syrian crisis and said they would continue to press for United Nations action to bolster international pressure on Assad. The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership and called on its army to stop killing civilians and some Western leaders said this should prompt tougher international action against Assad.
— Reuters Jordan’s King wants Assad to go
LONDON: King Abdullah of Jordan has said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should step down in the interest of his country, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday. “I believe, if I were in his shoes, I would step down,” the king told BBC World News in an interview. “I would step down and make sure whoever comes behind me has the ability to change the status quo that we’re seeing.”
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‘Sex with FB friend’ gives new angle to Roebuck’s death
Cape Town/Melbourne, November 14 The 55-year-old commentator plunged to death from his sixth floor room in the Southern Sun Hotel but Western Cape provincial police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk refused to say whether reports that he was being questioned on sexual assault charges were true. Van Wyk refused to comment on reports that Roebuck had appeared
“disturbed” and had been questioned by the police on Saturday. A report in the Herald Sun, quoting a South African website, claimed that Roebuck allegedly wanted to have sex with a Facebook friend against his will. “It is alleged Roebuck, 55, met a man, 26, at the hotel with plans to discuss a possible university sponsorship. “Roebuck is alleged to have tried to seduce the Facebook friend and have sex with him against his will, The New Age website said,” the Herald Sun reported today. According to reports in South Africa, Roebuck was being investigated over allegations of indecently assaulting a young man. The police had told Roebuck that a complaint of a sexual nature had been made against him by a friend he met on Facebook, the reports said. The newspaper also reported that “police sources said Roebuck was either going to be formally questioned in the Southern Sun Newlands Hotel
on Saturday night, or arrested and taken to a station for questioning over the allegations.” “Apparently the police had gone to the hotel to take him to the police station to question him and then he died,” Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) spokesman Moses Dlamini was quoted as saying by the paper. The ICD is a body that reviews deaths that occur in police custody or as a result of police action was also investigating the death of Roebuck. A Police Services official said that an inquest has been launched into Roebuck’s death and it may take four to eight weeks for it to be completed. “An inquest can take a long time, it can be anything from six months to two or three years, but what is critical here is to get the autopsy reports, or what we call the post-mortem report,” Colonel Vishnu Naidoo told ‘The Daily Telegraph’. “We will be looking at that first and that can take four to six weeks, sometimes up to eight weeks. When we get that report, we can determine officially what his cause of death was. “There is no crime suspected as far as Mr Roebuck’s death is concerned,” he added. The police have taken personal items from Roebuck’s hotel room, including a laptop. Naidoo said the exact chain of events leading to the death can be established only after the inquest.
— PTI
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‘Wonder drug’ to kill off cancer
London, November 14 An international team, led by University of California, says that the KG5 drug works by making cancer cells “commit suicide”; it stops tumorous cells multiplying and they then shut themselves down, the Nature Medicine journal reported. The radical drug will bring fresh hope to patients with aggressive and deadly tumours and could be available in as little as five years, say the scientists, who hope to deliver it in pill form, which has very few side-effects. Lead scientist Prof David Cheresh said the drug “blocks the function of proliferation” and the malignant cells commit suicide when they can’t multiply. Proved effective in tests against pancreatic, breast and kidney cancers, it could well have a positive effect on a broad range of other tumours. KG5 works in a totally different way to traditional therapies by altering the structure of a cancer growth protein, an enzyme known as RAF. The protein has been long-studied, but its role in cell division-critical to cell proliferation and tumour growth-is a surprise. Existing treatments block RAF’s activity. However, KG5 changes the entire shape of the protein, which neutralises it without leading to unwanted side-effects. To date, KG5 has been tested in animals and tissue samples taken from patients. The team has since developed variants of KG5 that are 100-fold more powerful than the original drug. They hope one of these more powerful compounds will enter clinical trials on humans at Moores Cancer Center in San Diego within 18 months. “Before this drug was designed, we had no idea RAF could promote tumour cell cycle progression. This may be only one example of how, by designing drugs that avoid the active site of an enzyme, we can identify new and unexpected ways to disrupt the growth of tumours. “In essence, we are attacking an important enzyme in a whole new way and thereby discovering new things this enzyme was intended for,” the ‘Daily Express’ quoted Prof Cheresh. At present, medicines that target enzymes like RAF often damage healthy cells, according to Prof Cheresh. “They hit many different targets, meaning they can produce undesired side-effects and induce dose-limiting toxicity,”
he said. Rather than homing in on a particular part of the protein, the new class of RAF inhibitor alters the enzyme’s whole structure. It singles out RAF in proliferating cells, while ignoring normal or resting cells. KG5 also acts by cutting off the blood supply to tumours. Dr Julie Sharp of Cancer Research UK, welcomed the new findings, saying, “The next step will be to test out these ideas with patients.”
— PTI renewed hope
The radical drug will bring fresh hope to patients with aggressive and deadly tumours and could be available in as little as five years, say the scientists, who hope to deliver it in
pill form, which has very few side-effects.
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Pak raises two squadrons of JF-17 Thunder fighters
Islamabad, November 14 So far, two Pakistan Air Force squadrons have been equipped with JF-17s while the "third is planned to be raised by the beginning of next year", an official statement said. The JF-17 programme was started by the two countries in 1998 and the detailed design was finalised in September 2001. The PAF showcased the jet at the ongoing Dubai Air Show, which was inaugurated yesterday. PAF chief Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman attended the inaugural ceremony.
— PTI
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Pak’s ex-foreign minister Qureshi quits PPP
Islamabad, November 14 Qureshi, who has been estranged from the PPP since he was not reallocated the foreign affairs portfolio during a cabinet reshuffle in February, sought to blame Zardari for his decision to leave the party. He accused Zardari of abandoning values and politics espoused by slain former party chief and premier Benazir Bhutto. "Zardari has moved away from (Bhutto's) vision. His love for the chair is so great and he is so determined to cling to his position that he is ready to sacrifice everything - values, the party and its workers," Qureshi told reporters. Accusing Zardari of burying Bhutto's "vision and politics along with her", Qureshi said: "This is not Benazir Bhutto's PPP, it is the Zardari league...I want to say that I will not remain associated with the Zardari league. I am severing links with it. I announce that I am leaving the Zardari league".
— PTI
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