Monday 19 January 2015

The European Union Times

French stem cell therapy patient doing ‘well’ after heart operation

Posted: 18 Jan 2015 02:07 PM PST

A human embryo clone used in stem cell research.

A novel embryonic stem cell therapy has apparently proved successful as a woman who has received the treatment for a severe heart failure has been reported “well” by doctors.
The patient’s cardiologist, Philippe Menasche of the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, presented the positive results on Friday, saying she was doing “well” three months after her operation in the French capital.
“Today, she is much better. She is well, she is at home, and has resumed normal activity,” Menasche said at the annual meeting of the French Society of Cardiology.
The cardiologist also stated that his team was the first to use human embryonic stem cells to treat heart failure.
In October 2014, juvenile heart cells that had been grown in the lab from human precursor cells were transferred to a damaged part of the 68-year-old woman, who was suffering from a serious heart disease.
Menasche said the female patient has not been diagnosed to have any negative reaction to the cells or immunosuppressant drugs.
The stem cells are extremely versatile and can differentiate into any tissue of the body, and can possibly replace damaged or lost organs.
People with deteriorating eyesight had their vision restored by stem cell therapy.
However, besides the ethical complications, there are controversies that the patient’s immune system may later attack the transplanted cells.
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Firearm Manufacturer ‘Regrets’ Providing Guns For ‘Taken 3′ After Actor’s Anti-Gun Remarks

Posted: 18 Jan 2015 01:59 PM PST

“We will no longer provide firearms for use in films starring Liam Neeson…”
The firearm manufacturer that produced the guns for the movie Taken 3 has said it regrets its work after the film’s star, Liam Neeson, called the number of guns in America “a fucking disgrace” earlier this week.
On Monday, the Batman Begins actor made a series of disparaging remarks towards gun ownership in America when asked about the Paris terror attacks targeting the satirical paper Charlie Hebdo.
“There are too many fucking guns out there, especially in America,” Neeson said. “I think the population is, like, 320 million? There are over 300 million guns. Privately owned, in America. I think it’s a fucking disgrace. Every week now we’re picking up a newspaper and seeing, ‘Yet another few kids have been killed in schools.’”
On Thursday, American-owned gun company PARA USA issued a Facebook post announcing it “regrets its decision to provide firearms for use in the film,” asserting that the actor’s statements undermined “support of the Second Amendment and American liberties.”
The Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace actor’s comments came at a press conference for 20th Century Fox’s third installment of the ultra-violent action series Taken, in which Neeson’s character, Bryan Mills, relies on guns to avenge the death of his ex-wife. The film’s poster even features Neeson brandishing a gun.
Many were quick to highlight Neeson’s hypocrisy, especially given the multiple roles in which he’s portrayed a gun-wielding protagonist.
The actor, however, reasoned that movie violence does nothing to influence people’s behavior, and that it is far different from actual violence.
“I grew up watching cowboy movies, loved doing that [gun gesture] with my fingers, ‘Bang, bang, you’re dead!’ I didn’t end up a killer. I think that’s something the power of cinema can be,” Neeson told Gulf News.
“A character like Bryan Mills going out with guns and taking revenge: it’s fantasy. It’s in the movies, you know? I think it can give people a great release from stresses in life and all the rest of it, you know what I mean? It doesn’t mean they’re all going to go out and go, ‘Yeah, let’s get a gun!’,” he said.
Neeson’s was one of the few anti-gun voices that emerged following the Paris attacks, likely because the country already applies some of the strictest gun control laws in the world.
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Tiny amphipod has 32 retinas to see better in dark

Posted: 18 Jan 2015 01:52 PM PST

This image is a side view of “Paraphronima gracilis” showing the enormous mostly transparent eyes, row of orange retinas and transparent body with developing gonads (white).

Researchers say that the eyes of a type of a tiny deep-sea crustacean are comprised of two rows of 16 distinct red retinas to see better in the dark.
According to Smithsonian Science website, a detailed study into the marine crustacean Paraphronima gracilis’ unique eye was published in the Current Biology journal on Thursday, by its lead author Jamie Baldwin Fergus.
“We have never seen the retina split up this way in any other arthropod eye, not in insects, not in crustaceans or other animals with a compound eye,” said Fergus, from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
The new research shows that the amphipod’s two large eyes, that envelope its head like a space helmet, are compromised of a total of 32 different retinas, the light-sensitive part of eye.
The research, which was co-authored by Karen Osborn of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and Sonke Johnsen of Duke University, hypothesize that each retina captures an image which is sent to the transparent crustacean’s brain, which goes on to integrate all the images to increase brightness and contrast sensitivity.
“The neat thing about their eyes is that by grouping the light signal from multiple facets, they can see in extremely dim light. The really unique thing about their eyes is that they group the light signal in a way that means they don’t have the typical large loss in resolution–ability to distinguish details–that all other animals who group light signals to see in the dark do,” said Osborn.
P. gracilis lives at a depth of 150 to 500 meters off the coast of California, in an environment that is completely dark to the human eye. As it moves its eyes are positioned upward, searching for its prey which are a kind of transparent creature called siphonophores that swims above it.
The scientists say additional experimentation is required to unlock the mysteries about the structure and function of these animal’s unique eyes.
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Belgian troops deployed to thwart terror plots

Posted: 18 Jan 2015 01:45 PM PST

Belgian soldiers patrol in Antwerp on January 17, 2015 after security forces smashed a suspected terrorist cell planning to kill police officers.

Scores of soldiers are being deployed across Belgium to patrol the streets in a bid to thwart possible terror attacks after security forces began crackdown on a suspected Muslim terrorist cell in the country.
Around 150 troops were sent to the northern town of Antwerp in Saturday, which is home to the NATO headquarters, various EU offices as well as the US and Israeli embassies.
According to a statement by Prime Minister Charles Michel’s office, the mobilized soldiers “will be armed and their primary responsibility will be to survey certain sites” and to strengthen police forces.
Armed soldiers also took positions in front of the Jewish Museum of Brussels. As many as 300 troops are to be deployed in the operation.
The soldiers could be also dispatched to the eastern city of Verviers, where two suspected militants were shot dead by police during a huge security operation on Friday.
Thierry Werts of the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office told a press conference in Brussels that the massive offensive was carried out to foil an imminent terror plot in the region.
The raid in Belgium came shortly after terrorist attacks in and around the French capital city of Paris left 17 people dead. European countries are concerned about the threat posed by young militants who come back home after fighting alongside Takfiri terrorist groups in the Middle East.
After Verviers’ raid, Belgian police detained nearly 15 people during a series of raids across Belgium. Five of the arrestees were charged with taking part “in the activities of a terrorist group.”
Police also discovered arms, bomb-making materials, police uniforms and fake documents during their searches in the militants’ homes.
On Friday, head of the European Union’s police agency, Europol, confirmed that preventing terror attacks has become extremely difficult for law enforcement agencies in Europe.
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Donetsk shelled as Kiev ‘orders massive fire’ on East Ukraine

Posted: 18 Jan 2015 01:35 PM PST

Ukrainian troops have launched a massive assault on militia-held areas Sunday morning after an order from Kiev, a presidential aide said. The self-proclaimed Donetsk republic’s leader accused Kiev of trying to restart the war.
The order to launch the offensive was issued early approximately at 6:00 am, according to Yury Biryukov, an aide to President Petro Poroshenko.
“Today we will show HOW good we are at jabbing in the teeth,” he wrote on his Facebook page, a mode of conveying information favored by many Ukrainian officials.
In a later post he said: “They are now striking a dot. Uuu…” in a reference to Tochka-U (‘tochka’ means ‘dot’ in Russian), a tactical ballistic missile, one of the most powerful weapons Ukraine so far deployed against rebel forces.
“That wasn’t a dot but ellipsis. Strong booms,” he added.
Reports from the ground confirmed a sharp escalation of clashes across the front line, with particularly heavy artillery fire reported at Gorlovka.
“Locals in Donetsk said they haven’t heard such intensive shelling since summer,” Valentin Motuzenko, a military official in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, told Interfax news agency.
“The Ukrainian military are using all kinds of weapons, Grad multiple rocket launchers, mortars…” Motuzenko said.
A source at the site told RT that a group of OSCE monitors have demanded that the Ukrainian military stop the shelling. The source added that there is a danger that the group may itself come under artillery fire.
Aleksandr Zakharchenko, who was elected in November the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, has accused Kiev of using the ceasefire to regroup their troops and boost their armaments, and now of trying to restart the all-out war.
“It’s clear that Kiev is making an attempt to take revenge for the serious military defeat it took from the militia last year,” he added. “Kiev always ignored our numerous suggestions to pull back heavy weapons from the disengagement line.”
“At the moment, we are aware of five civilians killed,” the Donetsk administration said, adding that the shelling of the city by Ukrainian forces is still under way.
Several residential buildings, a shop and a bus station have been seriously damaged by artillery fire in the city, RIA Novosti reported.
The Putilovsky Bridge, which is located near the Donetsk airport, has also been destroyed in the shelling, RT’s Roman Kosarev reported from the scene.
There were also reports of attacks on the town of Makeevka and several nearby villages.
The militia added that at least one shell hit a residential area in central Donetsk rather than the outskirts of the city.
Two people have died and 16 other received injureies after a Ukrainian shell exploded at bus station in city of Gorlovka, the press service of the People’s Republic of Donetsk said.
Several buildings in the city also suffered direct hits during the bombardment, including four schools and a kindergarten, the press service added.
Witnesses said that Kiev used aviation in the assault, with Sukhoi Su-24 warplanes jets seen in the air above Gorlovka.
The ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of Donetsk (DPR) has called upon the international community to address the worsening of the situation in southeast Ukraine and “make every effort to stop unpunished mass murder in the heart of Europe.”
“The People’s Republic of Donetsk again suffered a treacherous and large-scale attack from Ukraine,” which is aimed at the destruction of the republic’s population and infrastructure, Aleksandr Kofman, DPR foreign minister, said in a statement.
The actions of the Kiev forces in Donetsk Region “bear all characteristics of serious war crimes,” Kofman said.
Moscow is seriously concerned by the by the renewal of shelling of residential areas of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk by Kiev forces, the Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said.
The actions of the Ukrainian military in no way promote the settlement of the conflict between Kiev and the eastern regions, he said.
“Of course, the stance of the Russian side will be expressed. Of course, it involves serious concerns over the resumption of full scale warfare in Donetsk, including shelling of populated residential areas. And, of course, such a state of affairs doesn’t promote the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements [from September 5] and the further search for a peaceful solution,” Peskov told Govorit Moskva radio station.
The escalation comes after several days of violent clashes at the ruins of the Donetsk International Airport, a scene of constant fighting over the months of shaky ceasefire between Kiev’s troops and local militia forces.
The militia, who have accused the Ukrainian military of launching constant attacks on Donetsk from their positions at the airport, reported taking over the location this week. Kiev denied this report.
The Ukrainian Security and Defense Council confirmed the resumption of hostilities and that Kiev’s objective was to recapture the airport.
Kiev launched it’s retaliation days after President Poroshenko ordered a new wave of mobilization into the country’s armed forces. The government plans to hold at least three conscription campaigns over 2015 to sustain its military operations in the east.
The escalation of violence comes after a controversial incident at Kiev’s checkpoint near the town of Volnovakha, where 12 passengers were killed on Tuesday. Kiev blamed the deaths on the militia, saying it was hit by a Grad rocket. The DNR forces denied the accusations and said the bus was targeted by the Ukrainian troops themselves – either in a tragic incident or as a staged provocation – and said the damage visible in the picture of the bus is consistent with a less powerful weapon, possibly a landmine.
An OSCE observer team studied blast craters near the checkpoint and confirmed the direction they came from. Russia’s permanent representative to the OSCE, Andrey Kelin, said the direction runs along the disengagement line separating militia- and Kiev-controlled areas, which makes it difficult to determine who fired the rockets.
The observers did not identify the type of rockets used.
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