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Uganda threatens Somalia pullout

A Ugandan soldier of the African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu - 21 May 2011

Ugandan troops make up the majority of African Union peacekeepers fighting Islamist militants in Somalia

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said Somalia’s transitional government should be given another year to consolidate gains against militants.

Otherwise, Uganda will withdraw its troops helping the government fight Islamist al-Shabab militants, he said.

The current mandate for the UN-backed government is due to expire on 20 August and the UN is calling for elections to be held quickly.

Mr Museveni said polls this year would allow the militants to reorganise.

Uganda currently contributes about 5,000 troops to an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, called Amisom, in Somalia. Burundi supplies the rest of the force.

“It seems to us that the win-win situation for all parties seems to be an extension of the Transitional Federal Institutions for a period not exceeding one year,” Mr Museveni told an international meeting on Somalia held in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

Elections held too soon, he warned, would “allow the extremists time to reorganise and cause problems and undermine the battlefield gains so far obtained”.

He added: “If the current system collapses, or if it is seriously undermined, we can have no justification to stay in that situation – we will leave Somalia.”

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmad told the International Contact Group on Somalia that the country was too unstable for a vote. He also called for the transitional government’s tenure to be extended.

The AU force in Somalia deployed to Mogadishu in 2007 to back the weak interim government.

Somalia has been racked by constant war for more than 20 years. Its last functioning national government was toppled in 1991.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Enzyme offers Huntington’s hope

Researchers reduced the death of neurons in fruit flies by blocking a particular enzyme.

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A new approach to treating Huntington’s disease may have been found, a UK study carried out in fruit flies suggests.

The incurable disease, caused by degeneration of nerve cells, gradually impairs a person’s ability to function.

Researchers slowed the development of neurodegeneration – a key factor in Huntington’s disease – by targeting a particular enzyme in fruit-flies.

The study, led by the University of Leicester, is published in Current Biology.

“This breakthrough is important as no drugs currently exist that halt progression, or delay onset of Huntington’s disease,” said Dr Giorgini, who led the study.

The researchers found decreasing the activity of a certain enzyme – known as KMO – reduced the number of neurons dying in the fruit-flies.

“Since we have identified an actual target and there are chemicals that can act on the target, there is a possibility that we could develop drugs to delay the onset of the disease,” Dr Giorgini said.

Scientists also found that targeting other related enzymes with chemicals improved Huntington’s symptoms in fruit flies.

“We would like to look in closer detail at the other enzymes in the same pathway and to develop new inhibitors of KMO,” Dr Giorgini said.

Research from America also suggests the enzyme could be a key target for therapies.

The US research, published in Cell, found symptoms of Huntington’s disease in mouse models could be reduced by blocking the same enzyme.

They developed a new compound – known as JM6 – that blocks the enzyme, leading to reduced brain inflammation in mice.

Working with mouse models of another neurodegenerative condition – Alzheimer’s disease – they found that JM6 also prevents memory loss.

“The discovery has significant implications for two devastating diseases and suggest that the KMO enzyme is a good protein for us to target with medications in diverse neurodegenerative disorders,” said Professor Lennart Mucke, of the Gladstone Institute, where the research took place.

Huntington’s Disease Association chief executive Cath Stanley said: “This is an exciting piece of research that will offer hope to the many people affected by Huntington’s disease.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Leukaemia return ‘may be blocked’

Acute leukaemia has a high relapse rate

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Scientists are working on a way to stop one of the most aggressive forms of acute leukaemia returning after a patient has received treatment.

Recurrence of the blood cancer caused by rogue leukaemic stem cells is a major problem for doctors.

But a team at King’s College London, working on mice, have raised hopes of a solution.

They describe in the journal Cell Stem Cell how they eliminated the stem cells by suppressing two key proteins.

It is hoped the work, funded by Cancer Research UK and Leukaemia Lymphoma Research, will lead to new treatments which will enable complete remission for patients with a form of acute leukaemia called MLL

Cancer stem cells appear to be more resistant than other leukaemia cells to standard treatments, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

So even after treatment appears to have been initially successful, they can remain to trigger a new round of disease, which often reappears in a more aggressive form.

More than 50% of acute leukaemia patients will relapse and survival is poor, with fewer than half living for five years.

The King’s team looked at leukaemic stem cells found in a type of acute leukaemia involving mutations in a gene called MLL.

This particularly aggressive form of the disease accounts for about 70% of infant leukaemias, and 10% of adult acute leukaemias.

Only half of children diagnosed with the disease survive for two years after receiving standard treatment.

Double assault

A protein called Bmi1 was already known to play a key role in the survival and proliferation of various cancer stem cells.

“This research is important in uncovering how leukaemia stem cells are controlled at the genetic level which, in turn, will guide new treatments to tackle this difficult problem”

Dr David Grant Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research

But the King’s team showed that targeting Bmi1 alone was not enough to eradicate the rogue stem cells, as had previously been thought.

To do that, the scientists found that Bmi1 had to be targeted in harness with a second protein, Hoxa9.

This double assault abolished the ability of MLL mutation to induce leukaemia.

Researcher Professor Eric So said: “These findings take us a step forward in our understanding of how this devastating disease can return in patients after they have received the standard treatment.

“Now we know that leukaemic stem cells in certain types of leukaemia, such as MLL, can survive and proliferate independently of the Bmi1 protein, we need to consider more carefully the future of stem cell therapy to treat the disease.

“It’s not as easy as people originally thought it might be.”

Professor So said the next step would be to pin down exactly how the two proteins help cancer cells to grow.

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said: “Cancer stem cells appear to be more resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy than the other leukaemia cells, so understanding how they originate – and how we can kill them – will be a major step in being able to help even more people survive leukaemia in future.”

Dr David Grant, scientific director of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, said: “It is now widely agreed that leukaemia stem cells are the true target for new or existing drugs if patients are to be cured.

“This research is important in uncovering how leukaemia stem cells are controlled at the genetic level which in turn will guide new treatments to tackle this difficult problem.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Betfred expected to buy the Tote

Governments have been trying to privatise the Tote for 14 years

UK-based bookmaker Betfred has been chosen to buy the Tote after an auction process that began in November.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt had chosen Betfred although the deal had not been completed, with some technicalities still being sorted out.

The price is not yet known but Betfred is thought to have bid about £200m.

Half of the fee will go to the racing industry and racing charities, and most of the rest will go to the government.

The racing industry may be disappointed, because it was understood to have preferred the rival bid from SIP, a consortium led by British Airways chairman Martin Broughton.

Successive governments have been trying to privatise the Tote for about 14 years, but have never come this close to doing so.

The government is hoping that the deal will not fall foul of EU state aid rules or be overturned by a judicial review.

The Tote was set up 83 years ago to provide racecourse punters with alternatives to illegal bookmakers and ensure money went back into the sport.

The Tote is based in Wigan, with more than 4,000 staff, and currently injects half its profits into racing.

Last year, Chancellor George Osborne promised to secure value for taxpayers while recognising the support the Tote gave to the industry.

The Tote gave almost £19m to horse racing in 2010.

Efforts over the past three years to sell off the Tote hit problems, and the government faces getting a lower price than the £400m mooted in 2007.

The Jockey Club opposes the sale and wants the Tote to remain independent.

The Tote has 517 High Street betting shops and the monopoly to run pool betting online and at 60 racecourses in the UK.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Life under siege

A photographer’s experience under fire in Sarajevo

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

VIDEO: Bedbug dogs sniff out blood-suckers

Dozens of dogs trained to sniff out bedbugs have been put to the test at a US hotel in a bid to combat the increase in infestations.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Horse burial found at house plot

Horse burial site. Pic: Copyright of Ross and Cromarty Archaeological Services

The horse’s skull along with a number of other bones were recovered

A horse burial site uncovered by chance during a survey of land for a proposed new house has intrigued archaeologists.

The animal’s skull and a selection of other bones were excavated at the plot in Rosemarkie, in Ross-shire.

Ross and Cromarty Archaeological Services has dated the remains to about 1750 because of a glass bottle from that time also found at the site.

Analysis of the bones suggested the small horse was not butchered for dog food nor its bones used to make glue.

It is the first horse burial site to be listed on Highland Council’s Historic Environment Record database.

Mary Peteranna, an archaeologist involved in the survey, described the find as “intriguing” but added it would never be known why only a selection of the horse’s skeleton was buried.

In April this year, trenches were dug on the plot in Marine Terrace by archaeologists because of its position close to the site of an early monastery.

Archaeological remains have also been found in the wider area.

Ms Peteranna said the horse bones were found by chance as there was no evidence, or record of, a burial on the plot.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Bid to cut Whitehall buying costs

Prime Minister David Cameron appointed retail tycoon Sir Philip to lead a review

The government is to centralise the buying of goods and services across departments in a bid to save £3bn.

The move follows a review by tycoon Sir Philip Green who said Whitehall was not making the most of its scale, buying power and credit rating.

Sir Philip found various departments had signed multiple contracts with major suppliers at different prices.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said departments paying different rates for the same goods was “bonkers”.

The plan is to create a central government procurement team which would buy goods and services such as vehicles, stationery and office furniture at a single set price.

Profile: Sir Philip Green

Sir Philip Green is one of the UK’s most successful retailers.

With a personal fortune of more than £4bn, he owns the Arcadia Group, whose fashion chains include Topshop, Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans and Miss Selfridge.

In 2009 Arcadia made pre-tax profits of £213.6m, 13% higher than the previous year.

Sir Philip also owns department store chain BHS, whose fortunes he has transformed since he purchased the then-ailing company in 2000.

He prides himself on his ability to trim costs from his businesses.

However, Sir Philip’s appointment raised eyebrows.

His wife Tina is the direct owner of Arcadia, and she is officially a resident of Monaco. This enabled her to gain a tax-free £1.2bn dividend in 2005.

Sir Philip also made headlines in 2004 when he made a failed hostile takeover bid for Marks & Spencer.

Sir Philip, the owner of retail giants Topshop and BHS, said the government’s £2bn telecoms bill could be cut by up to 40%, and he pointed out that some departments had spent £73 on boxes of paper while others had got them for £8.

Other examples included different departments and agencies paying between £350 and £2,000 for the same laptops and between £85 and £240 for the same printer cartridges.

Sir Philip said civil servants should treat the buying of goods and services as if they were spending their own money.

Mr Maude, who is also Paymaster General, said: “It is bonkers for different parts of government to be paying vastly different prices for exactly the same goods.

“We are putting a stop to this madness which has been presided over for too long. Until recently, there wasn’t even any proper central data on procurement spending.”

He said centralised procurement could save more than £3bn a year by 2015 – a saving of 25%.

Mr Maude said “significant changes” had already been made over the past year to cut procurement spending by £1bn.

He also stressed the government’s commitment to buying more goods and services from smaller suppliers.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

University plans wind farm to cut costs

A computer generated impression of the proposed wind farm at Kenly

The site on Kenly farm is an abandoned World War II base

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A university has unveiled plans to build a wind farm to help protect itself against rising energy costs.

The University of St Andrews is seeking planning permission from Fife Council to develop the six turbine wind farm on farmland it owns.

Scotland’s oldest university hopes to build the 12MW facility at Kenly Farm near Boarhills.

It said it had already carried out a three-year on-site research process and consultation with local communities.

A spokesman for the university said the wind farm was a “vital component” of its plan to “offset the rapidly rising and punitive national costs of energy”.

Despite reducing energy consumption in recent years, the university’s bills have trebled since 2005 to £5.4m a year.

“This increase in costs is equivalent to the salaries of up to 120 full-time staff at St Andrews and is a major financial risk for us,” said Quaestor and Factor Derek Watson.

“Doing nothing is not an option. We would prefer to determine our own financial fate, than have it determined for us by the vagaries of international energy markets.

“Our consumption is on a flat line but we are being charged more and more for it.”

The university hopes the wind farm on Kenly, the site of an abandoned World War II airbase, will meet the needs of the energy-intensive scientific operations at the North Haugh and the rest of the institution’s electricity demand.

It has submitted an application for six turbines each capable of generating about two megawatts.

It is also holding discussions with local community councils about the possibility of forming community trusts to manage income from the proposed wind farm.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

New strain of MRSA found in cows

By Pallab Ghosh

Dr Garcia-Alvarez said finding a new strain in both in humans and cows is ‘very worrying’

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A new strain of the MRSA “superbug” has been found in British cows and is believed to be infecting humans.

Environmental campaigners say the new strain has emerged because of the over-use of antibiotics by dairy farmers.

Dr Mark Holmes of Cambridge University, who led the research, said this was a “credible hypothesis”.

The researchers, writing in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal, say there is no additional health risk from eating milk and dairy products.

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a drug-resistant form of a usually harmless bacterium which can be deadly when it infects wounds.

The 35 or so strains of antibiotic-resistant superbugs are genetically fairly similar. However, this new variety is very different and it is thought that it might have first emerged from cows.

Its discoverers have dubbed it “New MRSA”

Antibiotics are widely used by dairy farmers to treat cows with mastitis. However over-use means some bacteria become resistant and difficult to treat if humans become infected.

Dr Holmes said the problem might be exacerbated by financial pressures on diary farmers.

“If you drive your cows harder to produce more milk you get more mastitis,” he told reporters at a news conference.

The Soil Association has called for a complete ban on routine use of antibiotics in farming.

Soil Association director Helen Browning said: “Dairy systems are becoming ever more antibiotic-dependent. We need to get farmers off this treadmill, even if that means that milk has to cost a few pennies more”.

“It does appear that the numbers are rising”

Dr Mark Holmes Cambridge University

National Farmers’ Union chief dairy adviser Rob Newberry said the health and welfare of cows were of “paramount importance” to British dairy farmers.

“In the interests of human and animal health, and animal welfare, it is important that veterinary medicines are administered as little as possible but as much as necessary,” he said.

“Any antibiotic or veterinary medicine being administered to a food producing animal has strict conditions of use, including milk and meat withdrawal times, and in general, under European law, would only be available under prescription.”

Dr Holmes and his colleague Dr Laura Garcia-Alvarez discovered the new strain while studying a bacterium known to cause mastitis in cows.

They found that, like other MRSA strains, it was resistant to the most commonly used antibiotics. However, the bug was found to be genetically very different.

Subsequent research showed that the strain was also present in humans.

Dr Garcia-Alvarez says that finding a new strain in both in humans and cows is “very worrying”.

“Workers on dairy farms are at higher risk of carrying MRSA but we don’t yet know if this translates to a higher risk [of them becoming ill],” she said.

Dr Holmes said very few people had been infected with the new strain, probably fewer than 100 a year in the UK. “But it does appear that the numbers are rising,” he says.

The Health Protection Agency said the risk of becoming infected with the new strain was “very low”.

Dr Holmes and Dr Garcia-Alvarez will now investigate the prevalence of the new strain and whether it is more or less harmful than current strains.

They also plan to conduct studies on farms to look for more MRSA strains of this type and explore any potential risks to farm workers.

MRSA is often found in hospitals and was linked to 1,593 deaths in 2007.

Since then the number of suspected fatal cases has fallen dramatically. There were 1,290 in 2008 and 781 in 2009.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “From the available evidence, we understand this new form of MRSA is rare in the UK and is not causing infections in humans.

“However, our expert committee, ARHAI, will be reviewing this issue at their next meeting and will consider potential medical, veterinary and food safety issues.”

A Food Standards Agency spokesman said the study did not provide direct evidence that humans were being infected with MRSA from cattle.

“The risk of contracting this new strain of MRSA through drinking milk is extremely low because the vast majority of cows’ milk is pasteurised and the pasteurisation process destroys all types of MRSA,” he added.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.