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US Scientists Reverse Signs of Aging in Mice

2010-12-06T07:24:00.000-08:00

Scientists say they have reversed age-related degeneration in mice, resulting in an improvement in the rodents' fertility and the growth of new brain tissue. But it could be some time before the technique might be used in humans.

Fountain of youth

Scientists at Harvard University's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston report they were able to reverse signs of aging in mice by tweaking a gene that protects cells from the harmful, cumulative effects associated with growing old.

The gene is involved in the production of structures at the tips of DNA chromosomes called telomeres.

Telomeres are like the plastic caps on the ends of shoe laces that keep them from becoming frayed. In the case of chromosomes, the telomeres protect the strands of DNA from environmental assaults such as chemical and radiation exposure.

But every time a cell divides, its telemeres shorten, eventually leading to DNA damage and aging.

In studies with mice, researchers switched off the telomerase gene and watched the rodents rapidly develop age-related impairments.

Eternally young?

However, when they turned the genes back on on, the animals' declines reversed.

"Their fertility was restored. We also saw a big effect on the lining of the intestines and as well as in the brain, which was a little bit unexpected," says lead researcher Mariela Jaskelioff. "We actually saw a decrease in the size of the brains of these mice with premature aging. And we could reverse these by reactivating telomerase."

The mice in the study were at an age equivalent of an 80- or 90-year-old human. Researchers restored them to middle age by turning on the telomerase gene.

Despite the encouraging results, the genetic manipulation is not the secret to eternal youth for humans. Jaskelioff says the telomerase gene is involved in the growth of both normal and cancerous cells.

"The fear is that in humans, adult humans, we accumulate mutations all through our lifetimes," she says. "And if we were to reactivate telomerase in cells that have malignant mutations, then the propensity to develop cancer would probably be exacerbated."

However, according to Jaskelioff, it might be possible to stimulate the telomerase gene for short periods of time in people with a rare disorder which causes premature aging.

Scientists describe how they reversed aging in mice in an article published in the journal Nature Medicine.

WikiLeaks Exploits Weaknesses in Technology, Human Nature

2010-12-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

Historians, anti-war activists and armchair observers of human nature have had plenty to mull over in recent years thanks to the online group WikiLeaks.

The Web site has published hundreds of thousands of stolen U.S. military and diplomatic documents from as recently as February of this year and as far back as the 1960s. The latest round of leaks, involving diplomatic cables, has renewed efforts by the U.S. government to tighten security on its computer systems. But cyber-security experts point out the leaks were less a breakdown of technology than of trust.

That fact now has the U.S. government scrambling to secure its computer networks. But Bruce Schneier, British Telecom's chief security technology officer, says even the most secure systems will still be vulnerable to human nature.

"You could take a computer, bury it in the ground, make sure you never turn it on," Schneier says. "Don't tell anybody where it is and it's probably pretty secure. But as soon as you turn it on and have people look at it, you have to trust the people."

Listen to Kate Woodsome's interview with Bruce Schneier

Tightening security

The U.S. Defense and State Departments say they are working to limit users' ability to download material onto removable media, like CDs and USB "thumb drives." And they are working to better track suspicious behavior.

"In general, I think reducing the capabilities of the hardware is probably not the way to go," Schneier says. "Although as a temporary measure after this has already happened, it’s seems like an okay, quick solution. But long-term, it seems kind of dumb."

He says a better solution would be to limit access to the diplomatic cables in the first place. "Make sure people who only need to know them have access to them. And make sure that people who read them, make sure an audit log record is kept."

But that wasn't the case when U.S. Army intelligence specialist Private Bradley Manning committed one of the biggest information breaches in U.S. history while listening to Lady Gaga's hit song "Telephone." Manning says he lip-synched the words to the song while downloading a quarter-million classified diplomatic cables from the Defense Department's data network onto a Lady Gaga CD.

If access was far more limited, as Schneier recommends, there's no way Private Manning and his Lady Gaga tunes could have touched the network and all the diplomatic cables it stored. But he did. Because at that time, government agencies were sharing more intelligence in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

This week, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters the procedures spread information too widely.

Demystifying state secrets

Instead of rolling back information sharing, says Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, the U.S. government instead should keep fewer secrets.

"If we kept less information classified, it would be an easier, more manageable task to protect that smaller volume of information," Aftergood says. "When you start getting into tens of millions of secrets being produced every year, you can easily swamp the system and lose control precisely of what you're trying to protect."

Listen to Kate Woodsome's interview with Steven Aftergood

The secrecy system now in place has its roots in the Cold War, when U.S. President Harry Truman signed an executive order in 1951 establishing standards to classify and control information in the name of national security.

But now the defense and intelligence bureaucracy is so massive that is has outgrown, and outdated, that Cold War-era system. "Information is produced and consumed and transferred in completely different ways from what was true 10, 20 or 30 years ago. And the classification system has not yet adapted to that," Aftergood says.

Overhauling the system

U.S. President Barack Obama says he recognizes the problem. Last year, he ordered an overhaul of how the government keeps its top secrets. In May this year, the government disclosed the size of its nuclear weapons arsenal for the first time. And in September, the director of National Intelligence and Defense Secretary Gates revealed the total intelligence budget.

Aftergood calls the changes "momentous."

"Government officials have resisted disclosure of this information literally for decades," he says. "And the fact that it is finally possible to get this information out into the open and do so as a standard practice means that the system is not totally calcified. It's not totally stuck in concrete."

Still, keeping fewer secrets will not stop hackers from trying to break into secure networks. For about 18 minutes in April, China Telecom rerouted about 15 percent of U.S. and foreign Internet traffic through Chinese servers. According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, that traffic included communications from the U.S. government and military in a breach far greater than WikiLeaks. It is not clear how the information was, or will be, used.

Man versus machine?

David Gewirtz, the director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute, says cyber-war is inevitable because it is just too easy and effective to ignore.

"Cyber-terrorism is much more like a cancer. It just sort of eats at you from the inside as opposed to traditional terrorism, where you can actually see flames."

Listen to Kate Woodsome's interview with David Gewirtz

Gewirtz says the U.S. is now focused on improving its cyber-defense, but it is an uphill battle because of the sheer number of vulnerabilities. Government computer networks not only need to be protected against state-sponsored cyber attacks and rogue hackers, but also against internal threats such as Private Manning. Cheap consumer electronics like USB "thumb drives," cameras and mp3 players can turn any network user into a threat.

"Everybody has these things, and so we have a million points of weakness instead of just one or two."

Private Manning now sits in military custody where he faces charges of leaking classified documents. As he awaits trial, U.S. officials are left grappling with a security problem that technology alone cannot solve.

NASA Scientists Find Unusual DNA Form of Arsenic

2010-12-06T07:22:00.001-08:00

NASA scientists on Thursday announced they have found a new source of bacteria, made of something earlier thought impossible. The bacteria's DNA is not made of phosphorus but of arsenic. The scientific community can barely contain themselves about the findings. Within two hours of the announcement, more than 2,000 articles about it were found on the internet. Our correspondent explains how this could change what we know about life and the possibility of life outside of earth.

The picture NASA shows us looks like a bunch of white fingerling potatoes. But we are told, these microbes change everything. Here's NASA's director of Astrobiology, Mary Voytek.

"This is a huge deal," she said. "It's going to require at least some paragraphs in a textbook to be rewritten, perhaps. This is a big finding."

The real star of the NASA briefing is named GFAJ 1. It's a microbe that thrives on arsenic, an element that is normally poisonous. NASA's Felisa Wolfe-Simon discovered the bacterium with a team from Arizona State University.

"All life that we know of requires carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur," said Wolfe-Simon. "And it uses those six elements in critical pieces that I think we are all familiar with, including DNA and RNA. We've discovered an organism that can substitute one element for another in these major biomolecules."

The researchers found the bacteria in Mono Lake, a Northern California lake that has three times the salt of sea water and is full of arsenic. The team scraped the bacteria from the bottom of the lake, then grew it in a laboratory, where it incorporated arsenic - rather than phosphorus, which was previously thought to be the backbone of DNA and RNA. Wolfe-Simon says extra terrestial life could be possible.

"I was taught as a biochemist all life we know of is here so far, and if there's an organism doing something different, we've cracked open the door to what's possible for life elsewhere in the universe," she said.

But chemist Steven Benner, from the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution is cautious. He says arsenic molecules would be a weak link in a compound under stress.

"We know they are relatively unstable and they fall apart with half lives measured in the order of minutes, conveniently," said Benner. "When you try and put them into a DNA molecule, and you put them under stress they fall apart."

Wolfe-Simon points out that for every one of a human's cells, there are ten microbial cells. Therefore, she says this finding has implications in how our bodies work, in addition to how the planet works.

Meantime, this announcement dealt with a scientific discovery. Others will announce the practical implications of it -starting with the tiny GFAJ 1 and its fellow potato-looking microbes.

US Senators Say Temporary Tax Cut Extension Likely

2010-12-06T06:59:00.000-08:00

U.S. senators of both parties say a compromise on federal taxes is likely to preserve lower rates for all income levels and allow for consideration of other measures, such as extending federal benefits for the unemployed. The comments come one day after Senate Republicans successfully blocked consideration of two Democratic proposals that would have allowed tax cuts to continue for all but the wealthiest Americans.

The tax debate comes at a time of sluggish U.S. economic growth and large federal budget deficits. At issue: should broad tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration continue for all income levels, or only for the middle class?

Republican Senator John Kyl of Arizona opposes any tax hikes. "Especially in an economic downturn, like we are in now, it is not a good idea to raise people's taxes. They key here is to put people back to work, to get economic growth going again. We are never going to get out of the deficit we have, unless we have economic growth," he said.

Kyl spoke on the CBS program Face The Nation.

Also appearing on the program was Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, who accused Republicans of preventing congressional action on extending jobless benefits while demanding tax breaks for millionaires.

"The notion that we would give tax cuts to those making over $1 million a year, which is the Republican position, and then turn our backs on two-million Americans who will lose unemployment benefits before Christmas, is unconscionable," he said.

Republicans have pledged to use procedural motions to block Senate consideration of all legislation so long as the tax issue remains unresolved. President Barack Obama has urged members of both parties to negotiate a compromise on taxes and other matters. Without action, all Bush-era tax cuts on all income levels will expire at the end of the year.

Appearing on NBC's Meet The Press program, the Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell, sounded optimistic that a bipartisan deal will be struck. "I think the American people expect us to work together to make sure their taxes do not go up. And we are working on that package, and I think we are going to get there," he said.

McConnell would not discuss details of a possible compromise, but negotiations are widely reported to be focusing on preserving all tax cuts for another year or two and an extension of unemployment benefits.

Senator Durbin says he will oppose any deal that falls short of that basic framework. "I am not voting for any permanent tax cut for people at the highest income categories," he said.

Budget experts say, in the long run, significant sacrifice from all Americans will be required to eliminate the nation's trillion-dollar federal deficit. Most economists believe some combination of spending cuts and tax increases is needed.

A presidential deficit commission has issued recommendations that would put the deficit on a downward trajectory during the coming decade, but many of the provisions are thought to be politically unpalatable.

Republican Lawmakers Block US Middle Class Tax Cut Extension

2010-12-06T06:58:00.000-08:00

Republican lawmakers have won another round in the political battle over how to kick-start the struggling U.S. economy.

The Republican minority in the Senate blocked a measure that would have extended current tax breaks to middle class Americans but not to the country's wealthiest citizens. Republicans effectively killed the proposal in a procedural vote.

Republicans argue extending tax cuts for everyone, including the wealthiest, is necessary to create jobs and spark consumer spending.

The legislation, backed by Senate Democrats, would have kept tax breaks in place for individuals making less than $200,000 a year or for couples arning less than $250,000 a year.

A second measure - to extend the tax cuts for Americans making less than $1 million a year - also failed.

The tax cuts - first enacted during the presidency of George W. Bush - expire at the end of the month.

White House officials and a select group of lawmakers have been meeting over the past several days in an attempt to forge a compromise.

Earlier Saturday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden used the president's weekly address to urge Congress to extend tax breaks to the middle class.

The vice president, filling in for President Barack Obama while Mr. Obama returned from Afghanistan, also called on lawmakers to approve an extension of unemployment benefits to millions of Americans before they leave for the upcoming holiday break.

In the Republican address, Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois called for bipartisan solutions to cut federal spending.

Senator Kirk said the American people want Washington to tax, spend and borrow less.

Diplomats Feel Fallout After WikiLeaks Release

2010-12-06T06:54:00.003-08:00

State Department officials in Washington are acknowledging that the WikiLeaks publication of thousands of classified diplomatic documents is making life more difficult for diplomats, even though U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the release will not interfere in any way with U.S. diplomacy efforts.

State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington Thursday that Secretary Clinton has made a number of phone calls in recent days to express regret for the release of classified State Department cables.

"On Friday she talked to China, Germany, France, the U.K., Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia," said P.J. Crowley. "On Saturday, she talked to Canada. On Sunday, she talked to China again. "

And, Crowley said, in the past week Clinton has met with a number of her counterparts and made other phone calls, most recently to the presidents of Pakistan and Argentina, and a call earlier this week to the president of Liberia.

Clinton departed on a diplomatic trip to the Near East, Central Asia and Bahrain on Monday, the day after the WikiLeaks release began. Speaking in Kazakhstan Wednesday after a day of diplomatic meetings, Clinton said the massive leak would not interfere with diplomatic efforts.

" I have not had any concerns expressed about whether any nation will not continue to work with and discuss matters of importance to us both, going forward," said Hillary Clinton.

But, as Crowley pointed out at the State Department Thursday, officials in foreign capitals are now delving into the documents. Some cables reportedly contain less-than-flattering descriptions of world leaders' personal and professional lives.

"Countries, depending on what they've seen and what they've read, are reacting," he said. "We anticipate that for a period of time, some government officials that have talked to us freely in the past may be more reluctant. "

Crowley said diplomatic outreach is continuing, from high-profile calls placed by the secretary of state down the ranks to the deputy secretary, ambassador and counselor level at embassies around the world.

State Department officials have emphasized that policy is made in Washington and not in the diplomatic messages that are sent from embassies to the U.S. capital. They say the best way to evaluate U.S. policy is to look at U.S. policy and not candid cables.

WikiLeaks continues to release documents in batches, ensuring that the issue will not just blow over. For instance, a classified cable released Wednesday refers to Moscow as a "kleptocracy."

The State Department says it will not comment on what it says are alleged to be State Department cables, but Crowley acknowledged that people are indeed reacting negatively to the content of those messages.

" This is having an effect," admitted P.J. Crowley. "Undersecretary Bill Burns was on the Hill yesterday [Wednesday] and he made clear that this is going to make the conduct of diplomacy for a period of time more difficult. I mean, for human nature reasons, if none other. You know, we're not happy at the release of these documents, and I have no doubt that countries and leaders looking at the documents out of context are not happy, as well. "

Secretary of State Clinton is expected to continue conversations about WikiLeaks when she meets with counterparts in Bahrain.

UN Cannot Confirm Iran's Nuclear Activities are Peaceful

2010-12-06T06:54:00.001-08:00

The head of the United Nations' nuclear agency says he cannot confirm that Iran's atomic activities are peaceful.

Yukiya Amano says Tehran has not been providing the cooperation needed for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to clear up questions about its nuclear activities. He commented at the start of an IAEA board meeting Thursday in Austria.

His remarks come ahead of next week's meeting between Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalil, and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton. Ashton will represent the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany in talks about Iran's nuclear program.

Western nations have accused Iran of pursuing nuclear technology to make weapons. Iran denies the charge.

Amano also told the board he has asked Syria for greater cooperation in an ongoing probe into a suspected nuclear site. He also said he has "great concern" about North Korea's nuclear program.

Russia and NATO to Cooperate on Key Issues

2010-12-06T06:53:00.000-08:00

At the recent NATO summit, the 28-member alliance agreed to end military operations in Afghanistan by 2014 if conditions are right. The leaders also agreed to a new mission statement. But many analysts say the meeting between NATO leaders and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was the highlight of the Lisbon meeting.

Russia-NATO issues

The meeting between President Medvedev and NATO leaders was held in the context of the Russia-NATO council which brings together the 28 members of the Western alliance plus Russia. It was a parallel meeting to the official NATO summit and provided a venue to discuss issues important to both sides.

Missile defense

One of the key issues discussed was missile defense. The Bush administration proposed to deploy ground-based ballistic missile interceptors in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic. The Russians strongly opposed such a plan, saying it was aimed against Moscow, a view rejected by U.S. officials.

Ohio Wesleyan University NATO expert Sean Kay says the Obama administration proposed a more mobile, regional missile-defense system. And that system was approved by the NATO leaders.

"They have agreed in principle to begin the process of building an architecture for ballistic missile defense that would in theory cover all of Europe," Kay said. "I am not sure that's actually technically possible at this stage, but it is a significant victory diplomatically for the Obama administration. It is a major shift from the hard, heavy pressing for ballistic missile defense that the Bush administration pushed through and only got begrudging acceptance of that in the NATO alliance and of course, very much upset the Russians at the same time."

Missile defense cooperation

But in what many analysts say is a major shift, President Dmitry Medvedev has accepted a NATO invitation to cooperate on missile defense. Lowell Schwartz is a NATO and security expert with the RAND Corporation.

"Russia has been firmly in opposition," Schwartz said. "And this has been a major bone of contention, and the fact that Russia and the president (Medvedev) has agreed that Russia will certainly not stand in the way and would like to help and participate, is a very important milestone."

Promising shift

The head of the private research firm, the Arms Control Association, Daryl Kimball, says Moscow's shift is promising.

"But as you heard from the Russian officials, they still have a lot of questions about how this might work," said Kimball. "They want to make it clear that this should not simply be a defense for Western Europe and not European Russia. And there has been talk, we have to remember, for decades about potential cooperation between the United States and Russia on missile defense sharing technology, sharing early-warning radars, but that cooperation is going to be much more difficult to achieve when you get down to brass tacks and we will have to see how this develops."

On Afghanistan, Russia has agreed to facilitate and expand railway transit of non-lethal supplies from Europe to that country.

Daryl Kimball says this is part of the Obama administration's efforts to reset relations with Moscow.

"Russia's cooperation mainly has to do with helping NATO with its supply lines going into Afghanistan," Kimball added. "It means the United States does not have to depend solely on supply lines through Pakistan which is very important for NATO, gives it greater flexibility. And so I think that is another sign that the Obama administration approach with Russia is paying dividends in terms of tangible Russian cooperation on issues that matter to the United States and NATO."

But Sean Kay says Russia helping NATO in Afghanistan can be a double-edged sword.

"Because at the same time they can signal support for access to corridors, they are also sending the message that we also have the power to shut that down if things do not go our way," Kay said.

Support for START

Analysts say NATO leaders also provided a boost to President Barack Obama when they expressed support for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between Washington and Moscow. The U.S. Senate is supposed to vote on whether to ratify the treaty, but the timeframe is uncertain.

World's Tallest Jesus Exposes Poland's Religious Divide

2010-12-06T06:47:00.001-08:00

The world's tallest Jesus statue now reigns over a field in western Poland, on the outskirts of a small town with big hopes for tourism. But the statue reveals a lot about Polish Catholicism and the divisions within it.

The statue was completed last month, rising from a cabbage field. Measuring a towering 51 meters, it is a nearly 14 meters taller than the famous statue in Rio de Janeiro, and even beats the previous record-holder in Bolivia.

The setting may lack some of the grandeur of Rio's mountaintop - this Jesus stands across from the local Tesco supermarket. But residents in the town of Swiebodzin are no less proud of their statue. Dubbed "Christ the King", it was the dream of a local priest and was financed entirely through private local donations. But some people in Poland see the statue as being too ostentatious, or not representing the true spirit of Christianity.

During the statue's inauguration ceremony in late November, hundreds of pilgrims and curious onlookers descended on the town as a singing procession made its way down the street.

"It's beautiful, just beautiful," said one local man as he gazed at the statue, which stands on a small mound of earth and is topped with a golden crown.

Strong links

The link between the Catholic church and patriotism is strong in Poland, partly due to the Church's role in opposing communism. The country still has one of the highest church-going populations in Europe. In Swiebodzin, some people in the procession were carrying banners that read, "Jesus is the only king of Poland." One group was wearing red capes emblazoned with both a picture of Jesus and the Polish white eagle.

Another man wearing a cape says that he came because he is both a patriot and a believer, and he believes in what the church is doing for Poland.

Tourism boost

But other local residents see the giant statue as an opportunity to attract tourists to their town, which does not normally get many visitors.

A man who traveled from Germany just to see the statue, says he is not religious himself, but that he came out of curiosity and thinks there are others who will do the same.

Although Poland is an overwhelmingly Catholic country, Poles have been divided lately over the overt presence of religion in the public sphere. This debate came to a head last summer with a stand-off over a wooden cross outside the presidential palace in Warsaw.

Criticism

Swiebodzin's statue, which took five years to build, is not without its detractors. Some Poles see the whole project as ridiculous, while others simply think that such monuments do not represent the spirit of Christianity.

Tomasz Krolak, vice president of Poland's Catholic Information Agency, is one of them. He says that while he respects Swiebodzin's decision to build it, he doesn't think the statue has much to do with true Catholicism.

"I have a problem with this statue in Swiebodzin. I would like to point out that this idea - the monument in Swiebodzin - is not any central idea of the Catholic church in Poland,"" Krolak said. "The best way for the Christian community is to build monuments of Christ inside us, in our hearts, in our minds."

Main attraction

But for one young man from Swiebodzin, the issue is not so simple.

He says he is sure the money could have been better spent. "With that kind of money we could really have helped people," he says. He does think, though, that lots of people will come to see the statue, and it will be good for the local economy. "Plus," he says, "we will be famous."

Whether tourists will really flock to this small Polish town remains to be seen. But in the meantime, the locals are convinced that their giant Jesus in the cabbage field will finally put them on the map.

Human Health Depends on Biodiversity

2010-12-06T06:46:00.001-08:00

There’s a good reason why people should be concerned about having a healthy environment containing lots of animal and plant species. A new study says the loss of biodiversity may make humans more vulnerable to infectious diseases.

Biodiversity is one of the ways to measure the health of an eco-system. And the healthier an eco-system is, the better off we are. That’s because animals, plants and even microbes can act as a buffer between people and pathogens.

Associate Professor Felicia Keesing, an ecologist at Bard College in Annandale, New York, is the lead author of the study.

“Biodiversity is the diversity of genes, species and eco-systems that occupy the earth. Most of the time when we talk about biodiversity, we mean the diversity of species,” she says.

Keesing says the study adds a new reason to protect the environment.

“People have always recognized that there’s some sort of esthetic value in having all of these different creatures living on earth with us. Many people feel that there’s an ethical responsibility to protect them. But in the last couple of decades, scientists have begun to document ways in which biodiversity is actually providing services to us. Such services become practical reasons for protecting biodiversity as well,” she says.

It’s long been known that biodiversity helps provide clean water, cycles nutrients through the eco-system, and absorbs carbon from the atmosphere. But Keesing says the fact that biodiversity protects humans from disease is a compelling reason for conservation.

Sucking up pathogens

Keesing says, “What we’ve seen over and over again in different studies that we describe in our paper is that in diverse systems the species that are present either reduce the number of disease bearing organisms by competing with them. Or they suck up pathogens, sort of vacuum up pathogens, and then don’t transmit them again.”

That protection suffers as biodiversity is lost. Keesing says one example is Lyme Disease, which is a common tick-borne bacterial illness in the United States.

“If you have a low diversity system, the species that are present always include white footed mice. And white footed mice are very, very good at transmitting the Lyme bacterium back out so that humans are at risk,” she says.

Eco-systems under attack

Biodiversity faces many threats all over the world. The biggest, she says, is land conversion.

“We’re destroying habitats,” she says, “So there are fewer places for organisms to live. But there are also a lot of other threats. The key ones are also climate change. So as the climate changes species are struggling and in some cases going extinct because they can’t adapt quickly enough – or they have nowhere to go that has the appropriate environmental conditions.”

Other threats to biodiversity include the spread of invasive species of plants and animals, as well as overhunting or overharvesting of species.

“In many ways, the biggest threat is that all of these things are happening at the same time and interacting with each other,” she says.

Keesing rejects the idea that the loss of biodiversity is simply a matter of survival of the fittest, with humans being the most fit.

“Our survival,” she says, “is actually linked to the survival of these other species. So, neither our short term nor our long term survival prospects are increased because we’re destroying other species.”

Scientists are also considering what a loss of biodiversity means for such diseases as Ebola in Africa. In other words, could it mean the disease could become more common and spread to new areas if there’s a weak biodiversity buffer?

The Bard College associate professor says the effects of biodiversity loss are so clear, there’s no reason to delay protecting the Earth’s eco-systems.

South Korean Military Starts Live-Fire Drills

2010-12-06T06:45:00.002-08:00

South Korea has begun a fresh series of live-fire artillery exercises across the country. They are seen as a response to North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island, nearly two weeks ago.

As South Korea began a week of artillery drills across the country, the new defense minister ordered the military to exercise its right of self defense, should another attack be launched by North Korea.

Former Army general Kim Kwan-jin, who took office two days ago, told reporters Monday South Korea's military forces can immediately retaliate, if North Korea provokes first.

Park Syungje, at the Asia Strategy Institute, says the defense minister's statement is meant to make a distinction from the more cautious rules of engagement.

Park says the right-of-self-defense comment should deter North Korea from making additional attacks. He adds that South Korea is not expected to fire too closely to the disputed maritime boundary, known as the Northern Limit Line, during the current drills.

South Korean defense officials, contacted for interviews, would not comment on the precise locations where artillery will be fired into the troubled western waters.

It was in that area, during an artillery exercise by the South on November 23, that North Korea fired shells onto Yeonpyeong island.

On Monday, in Washington, the foreign ministers and other senior diplomats from South Korea and Japan are to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Officials here say the three countries will discuss the North Korean artillery attack and Pyongyang's nuclear programs, including its recently revealed uranium reprocessing operation.

After the November 23 attack on Yeonpyeong, South Korea's government and military faced domestic criticism for their slow and restrained response. The military did fire back artillery but aircraft were not sent to destroy the guns in North Korea which fired on the island.

Most of the 1,500 people living on the island fled to the mainland after the attack.

Monday, South Korea's prime minister vowed the government will do all it can to return life to normal on the battered island. Kim Hwang-Sik has announced $25 million in aid will be dispensed to displaced residents to help them rebuild destroyed homes. He also noted more troops and weaponry are being sent to Yeonpyeong and four other islands on the frontline.

The prime minister says that will allow South Korea to respond firmly to any further military provocation from the North.

Pyongyang has repeatedly taken aggressive action in waters near the Northern Limit Line, which it stresses it does not recognize as the sea border.

In its Sunday evening news broadcast, North Korean television warned the fresh South Korean artillery drills would bring the peninsula even closer to a state of war.

The announcer says such provocative madness is creating an uncontrollable, extreme and unpredictable situation. But she says North Korea, is, remaining cool-headed and in control.

The Yonhap news agency reports a South Korean presidential security panel has recommended that, in wake of the shelling of Yeonpyeong, the number of marines be doubled. The South Korean marines are a key force for the defense of the country's western border islands. The policy suggestions, according to the news service, include halting the reduction of how long those conscripted into the military are required to serve. In South Korea, a period of military service is compulsory for all physically fit men to complete between the ages of 19 and 30.

US Hosts North Korea Crisis Talks in Washington

2010-12-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

U.S. President Barack Obama is asking China to send a "clear message" to North Korea, as Japanese and South Korean officials gather in Washington to discuss the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

The diplomatic activity comes as South Korea stages five days of live-fire artillery drills that Pyongyang has denounced as an effort to trigger a war. It was during a similar drill last month that North Korea launched an artillery barrage on a South Korean island, killing four people.

Mr. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao spoke by telephone as the exercise began Monday morning. A White House spokesman said Mr. Obama urged his counterpart to let Pyongyang know that "its provocations are unacceptable."

Chinese media say President Hu expressed his deep concern about the situation and called for a "cool and rational" response on all sides.

Later Monday, the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea are to meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss last month's artillery attack and North Korea's recent disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility.

The three countries have so far declined China's invitation to a wider meeting that would also include China, Russia and North Korea. They say that to sit down with Pyongyang at this point would reward it for bad behavior.

South Korea's artillery drills were scheduled as a response to the shelling on November 23 of Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four people and wounded 18. North Korea said it launched the barrage because the South was staging an exercise that involved firing into waters claimed by both sides.

South Korean officials declined to say specifically where Monday's drills were taking place. But previously, it warned vessels to stay away from 29 locations including Daechong, another island near the disputed sea border with North Korea. South Korean media said no shells had been fired near the border so far.

Pyongyang has denounced the exercise but has not specifically threatened retaliation. Seoul's new defense minister, retired General Kim Kwan-jin, has vowed a strong military response if the Pyongyang government launches another attack.

The Washington Post newspaper reports in its Monday edition that the United States is moving to strengthen its relationship with Japan and South Korea because of growing frustration with China. It says U.S. officials are reluctantly building what could become an anti-China bloc.

The newspaper says the Obama administration feels that China's failure to condemn North Korea as it develops nuclear weapons and attacks its southern neighbor has encouraged Pyongyang to believe it is free to act with impunity.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

Bomb Kills at Least 50 in Pakistan's Northwest

2010-12-06T06:44:00.000-08:00

Pakistani officials say two suicide bombers in the northwestern tribal belt have killed at least 50 people and wounded 100 others in an attack on an anti-Taliban committee meeting.

Authorities say Monday's twin blasts happened inside the compound of a top local government official in the Mohmand tribal region. The top political official in the region, Amjad Ali Khan, said the alleged suicide bombers attacked his office in the town of Ghalanai, where where tribal elders and top officials were meeting.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The Pakistani army has been fighting insurgents in Mohmand, but has been unable to defeat Taliban and al-Qaida linked groups.

Militant groups have been targeting local tribesman, who have been encouraged by the military to form militias against insurgents.

Obama Seeks Economic Boost With Trade, Tax Cuts

2010-12-06T06:43:00.000-08:00

U.S. President Barack Obama is calling on lawmakers to help him boost the economy with a new trade deal and compromises on tax cuts.

Speaking Saturday to promote a new trade deal with South Korea, Mr. Obama called for speedy ratification of the pact in Congress.

He said the deal reached Friday after three years of stalemate could increase annual exports of American goods by up to $11 billion and create tens of thousands of jobs.

"I look forward to working with Congress and leaders in both parties to approve this pact because if there is one thing Democrats and Republicans should be able to agree on it should be creating jobs and opportunities for our people," he said.

But Mr. Obama expressed disappointment Republicans in the Senate blocked measures Saturday to make tax cuts passed by former president George W. Bush permanent for the middle class.

"Those provisions should have passed," said the president. "I continue to believe that it makes no sense to hold tax cuts for the middle class hostage to permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans, especially when those high income tax cuts would cost an additional $700 billion that we do not have and would add to our deficit. But with so much at stake, today's votes cannot be the end of the discussion."

Republican lawmakers who voted against the initiative by Mr. Obama's Democratic Party want to make tax cuts permanent for all Americans, including the wealthiest. Republicans say this would help create jobs.

In the Republican weekly address, Illinois Senator Mark Kirk said the president and lawmakers should listen to voters who in November gave Republicans huge gains for the new Congress starting next year.

"These leaders should not raise taxes and risk another recession. Instead, Congress should reduce spending and prevent another tax hike on American taxpayers. Americans already pay some of the highest taxes in the world," he said.

If no compromise is found, current tax rates would expire for all Americans at the end of the year.

White House officials and a select group of lawmakers have been meeting over the past several days in an attempt to forge a compromise. Discussion points now include temporarily extending income tax rates, as well as extending jobless aid for the long-term unemployed, which are also starting to run out.

The struggling economy, including unemployment hovering near 10 percent, has recently been the main focus for the outgoing Democratic Party-dominated Congress, which will be replaced by a Republican majority House of Representatives and slim Democratic majority Senate in 2011.

Chavez Eyes Private Land to Help Flood Victims

2010-12-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the government will seize private land and tourist resorts to house the thousands of people made homeless by the worst flooding in 40 years.

Mr. Chavez ordered the government to seize nearly 36 hectares of privately owned land near the national airport and authorized the building of thousands of housing units.

He also authorized officials to take over unused hotel rooms and tourist resorts.

At least 32 people have died and more than 70,000 left homeless by flooding due to heavy rains in recent days.

Incoming Brazilian President Wants Closer Ties With US

2010-12-06T06:41:00.001-08:00

Brazilian President-elect Dilma Rousseff, who will be the country's first female president, says she wants closer ties with the United States.

Rousseff told the Washington Post newspaper, in an article published Sunday, that the U.S. and Brazil together have an important role to play in the world.

She said she has not yet accepted any invitations to visit other countries because she is setting up her administration before taking office January 1. But she said she would like to visit U.S. President Barack Obama "in the very first days" of her administration.

Rousseff also said she does not favor the latest U.S. monetary policy known as "quantitative easing," meant to stimulate the economy. She said a systematic devaluation of the dollar can prompt reactions of protectionism.

Rousseff, who was backed by incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has said she will adhere to the previous administration's policies in many regards. But she said Sunday that she does not agree with Brazil's decision not to back a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Iran for human rights violations.

A former political prisoner, Rousseff said she would not feel comfortable not speaking out against such issues as Iran's policy of stoning women.