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BBC NewsQuote:
Australia experts say a Tasmanian Devil called Cedric could hold the key to the survival of the embattled species.
The world's largest marsupial carnivore is facing extinction from a mystery facial cancer.
But scientists say Cedric appears to be naturally resistant to the contagious tumours which have killed half the devil population in Tasmania.
Cedric is the first Tasmanian Devil to have shown any immunity from the disfiguring disease.
Infected animals become so consumed by the cancer they can no longer eat or see and eventually die of starvation.
Breakthrough
Cedric was captured in western Tasmania last year, along with his half-brother, Clinky.
Both were injected by scientists with dead tumours. Clinky produced no antibodies, but Cedric did and appears to have built-in defences against the mystery illness.
The experiments have now moved up a gear.
Researcher Alex Kriess says the pair have had live cancer cells inserted into their faces.
"They haven't developed a tumour so far," he said. "We injected very few cells so it might take a while until they develop anything that we can see."
Cedric's apparent resistance to the disease has been seen as a significant breakthrough.
The facial tumours are decimating devil numbers on Tasmania's east coast. Cedric is from a genetically different population on the other side of the island.
Scientists hope marsupials that share his genetic pattern could also be immune to the cancer or capable of responding to a vaccine.
If real progress is not made soon, experts worry that the Tasmanian Devil could be extinct within 20 years.
BBC NewsQuote:
France's stock market regulator said it has uncovered evidence of insider trading and market abuse at Airbus parent firm EADS.
The findings follow an 18-month AMF probe into whether managers at the firm were aware of problems affecting its A380 planes before they sold shares.
When details of delays to the superjumbo project were announced in June 2006, shares in EADS slumped.
EADS said that it would "exercise vigorously" its right to defend itself.
"EADS will support its managers in their defence, it intends to demonstrate that it has applied standards of excellence when communicating to the market and has acted with full transparency."
However it accepted that the proceedings may have "significant consequences on its image and reputation".
And one of its key shareholders, Lagardere, said that it was "confident of its ability to provide all explanations needed to clear it".
The regulator will now refer the case to Paris prosecutors.
It added that despite its findings no one had yet been found guilty of any illegal activity.
The trading in shares occurred shortly before news about delays to the A380 superjumbo were made public last June.
EADS denies it knew about delays when millions of euros of shares were sold.
The announcement wiped 26% off the value of the Franco-German aerospace giant.
BBC NewsQuote:
Israeli forces have killed two Hamas militants during a brief raid on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli officials have said.
The Israeli army said troops had identified and shot two Hamas gunmen.
Palestinian medical sources told AFP news agency that the two militants had been killed in a gun battle and that two civilians had been injured.
Israel carries out regular raids in the Gaza Strip in an effort to stop rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.
There has been a lull in violence in recent weeks.
Egypt has been leading efforts to broker a ceasefire in the Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
ReutersQuote:
Prospects for a runoff in Zimbabwe's election appeared to increase yesterday after state media said President Robert Mugabe had failed to win a majority for the first time in nearly three decades.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai insisted on Tuesday that he would win an outright majority from last Saturday's election but projections by both the ruling ZANU-PF party and private monitors suggested he would fall short, forcing a second round.
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change and a thorn in Mugabe's side for a decade, said he would release his tally of the presidential result on Wednesday. Official results have yet to be announced, fuelling suspicions of rigging.
Both Tsvangirai and the government dismissed widespread speculation that the MDC was negotiating with ZANU-PF for a managed exit for Mugabe, who has ruled uninterrupted for 28 years.
"There is no discussion and this is just a speculative story," Tsvangirai told a news conference.
Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 but faced an unprecedented challenge in Saturday's elections because of the economic collapse of his once prosperous country, reducing much of the population to misery.
The state-owned Herald newspaper said on Wednesday MDC and ZANU-PF would tie in the parliamentary poll and projections for the presidential election showed neither Tsvangirai or Mugabe will get the 51 per cent majority needed.
"The pattern of results in the presidential election show that none of the candidates will garner more than 50 per cent of the vote, forcing a re-run," it said.
The prospect of a runoff has raised fears both inside and outside Zimbabwe that the three-week hiatus before a new vote would spark serious violence between security forces and militia loyal to Mugabe on one side and MDC supporters on the other.
The Herald also said the government had decided to immediately implement tax relief to cushion the effect of runaway inflation, officially over 100,000 percent but estimated to be much higher; the world's highest rate.
The widening of workers' tax-free threshold tenfold to 300 million Zimbabwean dollars per month; $10,000 (5,000 pounds) at the government's official rate but about $7.50 (3.80 pounds) on the black market – is widely seen as an attempt to curry favour with voters and suggests ZANU-PF is preparing for a runoff.
UNPRECEDENTED CHALLENGE
A senior Western diplomat in Harare told Reuters the international community was discussing ideas to try to persuade Mugabe to step down, "but I don't think there is anything firm on the table."
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the election stand-off in Zimbabwe could turn into violence but hoped the country would avoid the bloodshed recently witnessed in Kenya after disputed elections there.
No presidential results have been announced four days after polls closed, fuelling suspicions that Mugabe was trying to avoid defeat by rigging.
But two ZANU-PF party sources said on Tuesday its projections showed Tsvangirai getting 48.3 per cent against Mugabe's 43 per cent, with former finance minister Simba Makoni taking 8 percent.
Latest results from the parliamentary election showed ZANU-PF with two more seats than the mainstream MDC, and five seats going to a breakaway faction of the opposition. 189 seats have now been announced from a total of 210.
Seven of Mugabe's ministers have lost their seats.
Tsvangirai and many foreign governments urged the electoral commission to speed up result announcements.
The opposition and international observers said Mugabe rigged the last presidential election in 2002. But some analysts say the groundswell of discontent over an economy in freefall is too great for him to fix the result this time without risking major unrest.
Apart from the surreal inflation and a virtually worthless currency, Zimbabweans are suffering food and fuel shortages and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has contributed to a steep drop in life expectancy.
The opposition is expected to unite behind one candidate if there is a runoff, which would be held three weeks after the March 29 election.
AAPQuote:
It was fugitive Frank Montoya's teeth, or lack of them, that contributed to his downfall.
As Montoya's new police mug shot shows, the man accused of torturing Australian tourist Robert Schneider by bashing him with a skateboard and then dropping him in a fire pit has a distinctive smile.
Montoya and co-accused Damian Maple had been on the run since the alleged February 27 attack on a beach in the southern California city of San Diego.
Both were arrested yesterday more than 1000km away.
Montoya, 46, was found sitting alone on a step outside a music hall in the city of Eugene in Oregon.
Maple, 21, was found by US Marshals and sheriffs hiding under a bed in a home in the sparsely populated community of Coolin, Idaho.
Both arrests followed tip-offs by outraged Americans following media coverage of the attack on Schneider, a 26-year-old electrician from Adelaide.
The attack left the Australian with third degree burns to 15 per cent of his body, a fractured skull, broken wrist and lacerations to his face and body.
On Monday morning a resident in Eugene called to tell police a man fitting Montoya's description, who he had seen on America's Most Wanted (AMW) TV show, was sitting on the steps of a local music hall.
Eugene police officer Kyle Evans checked out the information.
"The citizen that called in said Montoya was wearing a bandana and yellow sunglasses and I saw the bright yellow sunglasses hanging off his shirt," Evans told AAP.
"I could see the glasses from about a block and a half away."
Evans had also printed out a description of Montoya from the AMW site and held it in his hand when he approached.
"The AMW description said Montoya was missing his front teeth," Evans said.
When Montoya opened his mouth and flashed his lack of pearly whites, Evans knew he had his man.
Montoya surrendered without a struggle and during a court appearance today waived his right to fight extradition, meaning he will soon be back in San Diego to face charges of torture and aggravated mayhem.
Maple appeared in a court in Idaho's Bonner County and also agreed to waive extradition to California.
Maple is charged with assault with a deadly weapon, battery, torture and aggravated mayhem.
If convicted, both face maximum sentences of life in prison.
Law enforcement officers in Oregon and Idaho, horrified by the attack on Schneider, said they hoped the arrests would help the Australian and his family with their recovery.
"It sound like it's a pretty horrific crime that has occurred," Evans said.
"It's pretty neat to get a tip from a citizen and follow up on it and actually make the arrest.
"I'm sure it puts the family and the victim of the case at ease a little bit."
Schneider, on a backpacking trip around the world, was allegedly attacked at about 5.30am on February 27 as he celebrated his 26th birthday at San Diego's Ocean Beach.
Montoya and Maple are accused of picking a fight with the Australian and then bashing him with a skateboard before tossing him into the flames in a beach fire pit.
Montoya and Maple fled, but an onlooker dragged Schneider out of the flames.
Schneider's parents, Peter and Judy, flew from Adelaide to be with their son and say they are relieved their son's accused attackers are in custody.
"You just shake your head and think, what would make somebody do this sort of thing?" Peter Schneider told San Diego's NBC affiliate TV station.
The Schneiders said their son is recuperating well, is now able to walk and talk and could be released from hospital in the next couple of weeks.
ReutersQuote:
Japan will study the safety of cloned animals for food, after a report concluded there is no biological difference in the meat and milk of cloned and non-cloned cattle, officials said yesterday.
"The safety commission has been asked to deliberate on the matter," an Agriculture Ministry official said.
It was not immediately clear how long it would take for the Food Safety Commission, Japan's food safety watchdog which will be looking into the issue, to reach a conclusion.
"There is no prior case that we can compare it with," an official with the commission said. He said the safety of cloned cattle and also pigs would be studied.
Many Japanese consumers, notoriously sensitive to food safety, are likely to oppose moves to introduce meat or milk from cloned animals into the human food supply, however.
The farm ministry official said Japan has been breeding cloned cattle since 1998.
As of September last year, a cumulative total 535 cloned cattle had been bred in Japan, all for research purposes.
The United States is ahead of Japan as it has already made a final risk assessment.
The US Food and Drug Administration ruled in January that food from cloned cattle, hogs and goats and their offspring is as safe as other food, opening the door to bringing the meat and milk from cloned animals into the food supply chain.
US industry sources have said, however, it could take four or five years before clone-derived food becomes widely available to consumers.
AAPQuote:
Police in Western Australia are baffled by the mysterious disappearance of a family of three and their friend, who told family last July that they were going for a holiday to Brazil.
The missing person's unit has been investigating the case for several months but has so far drawn a complete blank, and is now appealing to the public for help.
Chantelle McDougall, 27, originally from Victoria, her English partner Simon Kadwell, 45, and their six-year-old daughter Leela had been living in a house 10km out of Nannup, in WA's south-west.
They lived in the town for about 18 months after moving down from Perth, while a friend, Antonio Popic, 40, was living in a caravan in the backyard.
Acting Sergeant Fiona Caporn said today Ms McDougall told her mother Cathy in July they were going away on holidays to Brazil.
They called their real estate agent to say they were leaving and he could have their furniture, packed up their belongings and on July 13 travelled to Busselton where they sold their car.
It was the last time they were seen.
"There's nothing to say where they are, their location and whereabouts are unknown," Sgt Caporn said.
She said the family largely kept to themselves, but there was no indication of foul play.
Police said the bank accounts of the three adults were untouched, and Centrelink, Medicare and immigration checks had revealed nothing.
Ms McDougall and her daughter were only reported missing in October when her parents called police, while Mr Popic's brother reported him missing in November.
"Chantelle's parents didn't report them missing for a while because they were under the belief they had gone on a holiday, but all our information at this stage states they are still in Australia," Sgt Caporn said.
Police say they have not yet identified Mr Kadwell's next of kin.