UK may approve world’s first three-parent baby 
London, June 28
The UK may become the first country in the world to allow a controversial IVF technique that creates babies using DNA from three persons, to keep parents from passing genetic diseases to their offspring.

Moscow, June 28
Russia today accused the United States of putting it in a "tough spot", claiming Washington never disclosed that it had revoked the travel passport of fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.

The former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor spent today holed up in a Moscow airport for a sixth day after arriving by a regular Aeroflot flight from Hong Kong, where he had disclosed US surveillance secrets to the press.

A Russian official close to the matter on Friday accused the United States of apparently deliberately putting Moscow in a difficult position by never reporting that Snowden's passport had been revoked, Interfax reported.

The official said Moscow might not have allowed Snowden to fly to Russia had it known about his travel problems.

"The Americans deliberately put Moscow in a tough spot by having failed to inform it of the fact that (his) passport was annulled in time," the source said.

"The Russian authorities were informed of this post-factum, more than a week after Snowden was stripped of his passport," said the official.

"If this fact had been known in advance, then possibly Snowden might not have flown to Moscow and this entire story might never have happened."

Russia and the United States do not have an extradition treaty and Moscow has so far refused to hand over Snowden to Washington.

Russia's refusal -- expressed personally by President Vladimir Putin earlier this week -- has added to diplomatic tensions between Moscow and Washington that have existed due to the Syria crisis.

The Russian official said Snowden will only be able to leave the Sheremetyevo airport after a country such as Ecuador or Venezuela offers him political asylum.

"On these grounds, he will legally leave the territory of Russia, without ever having crossed its border," the official said. — AFP

Melbourne, June 28
Kevin Rudd's dramatic comeback as Australian Prime Minister and Labor leader has not been able to reverse the heavy odds stacked against the ruling party as the opposition Coalition is still favoured to win the upcoming general election, a new opinion poll said today.

The poll has shown that the opposition Coalition led by Tony Abbott was maintaining its lead over the Labor Party government despite Rudd taking charge.

The Coalition leads 52-48 per cent after preferences and if the results are repeated, Abbott would be able to form the government with a comfortable majority of about 20 seats, the poll shows.

But it also indicated that 55-year-old Rudd was still preferred as Prime Minister in the 7News Reachtel poll, leading Abbott by 52-48 per cent.

Voters were evenly split on the merits of the Labor leadership change with 44 per cent agreeing with the decision to replace Julia Gillard with Rudd, while 42 per cent disagreed.

Over 3,000 respondents took part on the latest poll which was conducted overnight, according to an AAP news agency report today.

Labor Cabinet minister Jason Clare commented that Rudd's comeback has spooked the Coalition, which thought it would have an easy win at this year's election.

"The Liberal party has been very cocky for three years; they weren't cocky yesterday," the Home Affairs Minister was quoted by the report.

"They know now that the fight is on and there's a real competition at the next election," he said. — PTI 

London, June 28
The UK may become the first country in the world to allow a controversial IVF technique that creates babies using DNA from three persons, to keep parents from passing genetic diseases to their offspring.

A landmark decision by UK's Department of Health has opened the door to controversial treatments for inherited diseases that use donated DNA from a second donor mother, despite fears it might lead to "designer babies".

The department announced that the UK government intends to publish draft regulations later this year in a public consultation about the in vitro fertilisation (IVF)-based techniques to eradicate mitochondrial diseases.

The new regulations to fertility law allowing the procedures will be issued for consultation and then debated in Parliament, the 'Sky News' reported.

In case the MPs find the regulations ethically acceptable, the first patients could be treated within months. It is envisaged that between five and 10 three-parent babies would be born in Britain each year.

The aim of the IVF treatments is to stamp out serious mitochondrial diseases which can be passed from a mother to her children. Mitochondria replacement involves transferring nuclear genetic material from a mother's egg or embryo into a donor egg or embryo that has had its nuclear DNA removed so the embryo does not inherit the mitochondrial disease. — PTI

Boston, June 28
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect of Boston marathon bombings, has been indicted on 30 counts, including the use of a weapon of mass destruction, over the April attacks that killed three persons and injured over 260 others in the US.

A federal grand jury yesterday returned a 30-count indictment against Dzhokhar and many of the charges carry the possibility of life in prison or the death penalty.

The charges include: use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death; bombing of a place of public use resulting in death, malicious destruction of property resulting in death, conspiracy, and use of a firearm during and in relation to a violent crime, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

19-year-old Dzhokhar is one of two ethnic Chechen brothers accused of carrying out the twin blasts near the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15.

A fourth victim, a university police officer, died in a gunfight with the pair four days later as the authorities raced to capture them.

Seventeen of the charges carry the possibility of the death penalty. The others carry the possibility of as much as life in prison.

Dzhokhar aka "Jahar Tsarni" is a US citizen from Cambridge, Massachusetts. The indictment alleged that Dzhokhar and his 26-year-old brother Tsarnaev Tamerlan conspired to use improvised explosive devices against people, property and places of public use. — PTI 

Pretoria, June 28
A day after Nelson Mandela's daughter lashed out at the "crass" media frenzy around her ailing father, the South African police today asked journalists to leave the road outside the entrance to the Pretoria hospital, where the global peace icon remains on life support.

Reporters were given an hour to remove their cars from the road outside the Park Street entrance to the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital, where the 94-year-old former President was admitted 21 days ago.

The Celliers Street, where the hospital's exit is, has already been cordoned off to traffic. The Tshwane metro police told journalists that the vehicles posed a "security risk" to the hospital, SAPA news agency reported.

The Park Street entrance is where reporters have kept watch since Mandela was admitted on June 8 with a recurring lung infection. It is also the entrance used by the Mandela family, government officials, President Jacob Zuma and others to enter the hospital.

Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Madikizela said today that he is showing a "great improvement" in his health, but was still "unwell." "From what he was a few days ago, there is great improvement, but clinically he is still unwell," she told reporters .

Well-wishers are continuing to gather outside the hospital where Mandela is admitted. — PTI

Turpan (China), June 28
China today labelled riots in the restive Xinjiang as "a violent terrorist attack" after state media said the death roll rose to 35 and the authorities tightened control ahead of the anniversary of the 2009 clashes.

Wednesday's violence in the western desert region, which is home to 10 million mostly Uighur Muslims, were the worst to hit the resource-rich province since riots on July 5, 2009, left hundreds dead.

"We defined the attack as a violent terrorist attack," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a regular briefing in Beijing.

Some in the community have blamed the unrest on economic inequality and religious repression -- claims that China rejects, pointing to regional investment and placing the blame instead on "terrorists".

The Xinhua state news agency said "knife-wielding mobs" in Turpan city's Lukqun township attacked police stations and set fire to cars before officers opened fire.

The clashes left 35 dead, including 11 rioters, while 21 policemen and civilians were injured and four rioters detained, the report said. — AFP