Biologists at the University of Liverpool in the UK have published new research suggesting that the reason why ten per cent of Europeans are immune to HIV infection is because of the plagues that swept the continent in ancient times.
Scientists have known for some time that these individuals carry a genetic mutation (of the [...]

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[so much for the war in Iraq was for Oil-ed]
BUSINESSES could be forced to close down and lay off workers this winter because the country’s energy reserves are so low, the director-general of the CBI warned yesterday.
“If we have a cold winter, we are going to throw the switch, businesses will shut down, people [...]

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White patients cope better with the pressure of cancer than their British Asian counterparts, research suggests.
The University of Leicester looked at coping strategies among 200 white and British Asian patients.
The British Journal of Cancer study found the most common method of coping among Asian people was simply to deny they were ill.
White [...]

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A man has been convicted of showing video footage of a hostage beheading in Iraq to a woman on his mobile phone.
The District Court in Glasgow heard Subhaan Younis, 23, showed hotel worker Charlotte McClay graphic images of a man having his head sawn off.
Younis, of Baliol Street in the city, was found [...]

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More than 200 jobs are to be lost from a broadband company in Plymouth. Telewest Broadband is to close its call centre in Plymouth by March 2005 and 204 staff are facing redundancy. The company said that it was planning to change the way it routed calls and had experienced a “significant reduction in call [...]

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HUNDREDS more jobs looked set to disappear from Scotland’s insurance industry yesterday as another major employer announced plans to move posts to India.
Royal & SunAlliance (RSA), Britain’s second largest insurer, announced it plans to transfer more than 1,100 jobs to India in an effort to cut costs.
The firm, which employs 440 people in [...]

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THE crisis in the health service deepened yesterday after new figures revealed that 40 per cent of doctors who train in Scotland leave to work elsewhere before they qualify.
According to official statistics, only 62 per cent of medical students studying at Scottish universities in 2002 were still employed by NHS Scotland last year. Although [...]

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Ahead of an expected Commission propsal next Wednesday, to adjust the EU working time directive, the Brussels executive has run into criticism.
A leading doctors’ group has attacked the Commision’s proposal saying it could prevent ‘on-call’ doctors from having an adequate rest between shifts.
The British Medical Association (BMA), representing doctors in the UK and one of [...]

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Thousands of patients have received letters saying they may be at risk of developing the human form of “mad cow disease”. Health Secretary John Reid said the patients may have been exposed through blood plasma products.About 4,000 people may be at a very small risk of developing vCJD.
The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, [...]

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The first project in Europe to use satellites to track paedophiles and other offenders has been launched by Home Secretary David Blunkett. The new technology can pinpoint a criminal’s postion to within six feet.In a pilot scheme, up to 120 offenders will be fitted with satellite tags.
The tags will be used on sex offenders, [...]

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CLIMATE change could have helped provoke the most intense and widespread attack of heather beetle seen in Scotland.
It is feared that huge areas of the countryside face being stripped of heather this year and next due to an unprecedented onslaught by the destructive insect.
The beetles, lochmaea suturalius, emerge during spring to feed on [...]

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The death of a severely overweight three-year-old from heart failure is being used to symbolise the UK’s massive childhood obesity epidemic.A report by MPs said the girl had grown to 6st by the time of her death, more than double the recommended weight for a child her age.And in a stark account of the problem, [...]

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LONDON (Reuters) – Cingular, the second-largest U.S. mobile phone group, has thrown down the gauntlet to Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L – news – msgs) by raising its bid for U.S. target AT&T Wireless to $38 billion, a source close to talks says.
Cingular Wireless, which is controlled by SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC – news) and BellSouth (NYSE: [...]

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Pretty faces make men reach for money.
10 December 2003
HELEN PEARSON

Men with more on offer might be better able to win the girl.
© GettyImages
Pretty ladies make men want wealth with which to impress, according to a new study – even if they’ll be worse off in the long run.
Psychologists Margo Wilson [...]

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Mutant worms withstand boozy bender
Single gene linked to alcohol tolerance.
12 December 2003
HELEN R. PILCHER

Mutant worms can soak up the equivalent of twenty times the human drink-drive limit.
© SPL
Some worms can really hold their drink. A genetic twist of fate renders them immune to alcohol, new research reveals.
The study may [...]

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Humanised kidneys appear to thwart first round of rejection.
08 December 2003
HELEN PEARSON

Miniature pigs’ organs are roughly the same size as human ones
© GettyImages
Genetically modified pig kidneys have survived long after being transplanted into baboons. Researchers hope that this early success may pave the way for animal-to-human organ transplants.
The pigs used [...]

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Human fertility experiment prompts wrath
Babies made by cloning-type technique die prematurely.
14 October 2003
HELEN PEARSON

The embryos contained nuclear DNA from one mother, and mitrochondrial DNA from another.
© alamy.com
Doctors have created the first pregnancies using a controversial technique related to cloning. The babies died before birth.
Other experts have condemned the procedure because [...]

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Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting,
New Orleans, November 2003

Breast-feeding promotes wound healing
Rat study may fuel breast-versus-bottle debate.
12 November 2003
HELEN R. PILCHER

Oxytocin, which prompts lactation, lowers stress hormones.
© GettyImages
Breast-feeding may help the scars of childbirth fade. Lactation speeds wound healing and lowers stress in rats, researchers told this week’s Society for Neuroscience [...]

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ONCE upon a time, even the most precocious little girl was content to celebrate her birthday with a round of pass the parcel and musical chairs.
But now a manicure and a make-over is being sold as a suitable way for fashionable five-year-olds to entertain their guests in style.
Pamper Partys is the latest phenomenon [...]

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Babies made by cloning-type technique die prematurely.
Doctors have created the first pregnancies using a controversial technique related to cloning. The babies died before birth.
Other experts have condemned the procedure because the health risks are unknown. “You’d find it hard to find people that support it,” says reproductive-medicine researcher Chris Barratt of the University of [...]

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