Today in the News:
– Chavez heir Maduro wins Venezuela presidential election
– Scientists make ‘laboratory-grown’ kidney
– Russia bans 18 Americans from country in answer to US list
Socialist Nicolas Maduro, hand-picked successor of the late leader Hugo Chavez, has won a narrow victory in Venezuela’s presidential poll. Maduro won 50.7% of the vote against 49.1% for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. Capriles has demanded a recount, saying Mr Maduro was now “even more loaded with illegitimacy”. He said there were more than 300,000 incidents from Sunday’s poll that would need to be examined. In any case, Madura will have a very tough task governing the people of Venezuela, a small country with one of the highest rates of inflation in the region, and soaring crime rates. Food shortages and electricity blackouts are also common. Maduro has vowed to deepen Mr. Chávez’s revolution. But some economists say that, despite the tough talk, issues like high inflation and shortages could force Mr. Maduro on to a more orthodox path.
A kidney “grown” in the laboratory has been transplanted into animals where it started to produce urine, US scientists say. Similar techniques to make simple body parts have already been used in patients, but the kidney is one of the most complicated organs made so far. A study, in the journal Nature Medicine, showed the engineered kidneys were less effective than natural ones. But regenerative medicine researchers said the field had huge promise. Kidneys filter the blood to remove waste and excess water. They are also the most in-demand organ for transplant, with long waiting lists.
Moscow listed 18 Americans who are banned from entering Russia in an announcement Saturday – a tit-for-tat measure that comes a day after Washington imposed similar sanctions. The list, which was released by the Russian Foreign Ministry, includes staffers in the Bush administration and two former commanders of Guantanamo Bay. Last week, the US Treasury announced financial sanctions and visa bans on 18 Russian officials, the majority of whom were implicated over the arrest and death of the corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky died in a Russian prison in 2009, after being arrested by the same officers he was investigating over a $230m fraud. He was reportedly beaten and denied medical treatment while behind bars. Among those singled out by Washington for sanction are two police officers, Pavel Karpov and Artyom Kuznetsov, and a former tax official, Olga Stepanova. Magnitsky was arrested after linking the three to a tax fraud scheme. What else could we expect from A mafia state?
Today in the News:
– Chavez heir Maduro wins Venezuela presidential election
– Scientists make ‘laboratory-grown’ kidney
– Russia bans 18 Americans from country in answer to US list
Socialist Nicolas Maduro, hand-picked successor of the late leader Hugo Chavez, has won a narrow victory in Venezuela’s presidential poll. Maduro won 50.7% of the vote against 49.1% for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. Capriles has demanded a recount, saying Mr Maduro was now “even more loaded with illegitimacy”. He said there were more than 300,000 incidents from Sunday’s poll that would need to be examined. In any case, Madura will have a very tough task governing the people of Venezuela, a small country with one of the highest rates of inflation in the region, and soaring crime rates. Food shortages and electricity blackouts are also common. Maduro has vowed to deepen Mr. Chávez’s revolution. But some economists say that, despite the tough talk, issues like high inflation and shortages could force Mr. Maduro on to a more orthodox path.
A kidney “grown” in the laboratory has been transplanted into animals where it started to produce urine, US scientists say. Similar techniques to make simple body parts have already been used in patients, but the kidney is one of the most complicated organs made so far. A study, in the journal Nature Medicine, showed the engineered kidneys were less effective than natural ones. But regenerative medicine researchers said the field had huge promise. Kidneys filter the blood to remove waste and excess water. They are also the most in-demand organ for transplant, with long waiting lists.
Moscow listed 18 Americans who are banned from entering Russia in an announcement Saturday – a tit-for-tat measure that comes a day after Washington imposed similar sanctions. The list, which was released by the Russian Foreign Ministry, includes staffers in the Bush administration and two former commanders of Guantanamo Bay. Last week, the US Treasury announced financial sanctions and visa bans on 18 Russian officials, the majority of whom were implicated over the arrest and death of the corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky died in a Russian prison in 2009, after being arrested by the same officers he was investigating over a $230m fraud. He was reportedly beaten and denied medical treatment while behind bars. Among those singled out by Washington for sanction are two police officers, Pavel Karpov and Artyom Kuznetsov, and a former tax official, Olga Stepanova. Magnitsky was arrested after linking the three to a tax fraud scheme. What else could we expect from A mafia state?