Under The Sun

Possible alternative to embryonic stem cells

New evidence suggests that cells derived from a patient’s own bone marrow may regenerate damaged nerves in the brain, a task once considered impossible.

Josephine Quintavalle, a lawyer and campaigner, said that she would use the latest work on adult cells to challenge whether scientists needed to use human embryos at all. “Adult stem cells are infinitely better than embryonic stem cells,” she said. “The bias in the UK has been to use embryonic stem cells simply because we have the most permissive environment in the world for this sort of research.”

An MSNBC graphic reveals one Middle Eastern country’s weapons of mass destruction in “The secret arsenal of the Jewish state“. Not all that secret, it would seem. The graphic itself is a fine example of style over usability- the text on the left scrolls, if you spot the tiny buttons supplied in place of a scrollbar.

Baby teeth revealed as source of stem cells

Currently, researchers can isolate two types of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells can develop into any cell in the body, but their harvesting requires the destruction of embryos, which pro-life groups oppose. Adult stem cells avoid this problem, but have more limited abilities. Now it appears that the stem cells from children’s lost teeth could provide an intermediate and easily accessible source.

Iraqi Shiite strength surprises the U.S., according to a Washington Post article:

As Iraqi Shiite demands for a dominant role in Iraq’s future mount, Bush administration officials say they underestimated the Shiites’ organizational strength and are unprepared to prevent the rise of an anti-American, Islamic fundamentalist government in the country.

The charity Save The Children has been refused permission to land a plane carrying vital medical supplies into Iraq:

Coalition forces initially committed themselves to allowing a flight to land within four days of the formal application being submitted, so long as the application was successful. Five days later Save the Children has received no notice of when it will be possible to land the aid flight. A US military official has told the charity that no aid flights will be permitted until the area is safe, but the United Nations has already declared Erbil a ’safe and secure’ area.

A spokesman for the charity claims that the lack of military cooperation is a breach of the Geneva convention and is costing children’s lives.

Karlin Lillington has some harrowing accounts of the “transitional process” in Iraq.

Here is the folly of Rumsfeld’s bargain-basement approach to waging war, and his risky decision to rush already-overstretched troops in to take Baghdad, rather than waiting for reinforcements: widespread looting and vandalism, at first encouraged by US troops rather than immediately curtailed while manageable, has gone out of control and US troops are doing nothing to contain it — because commanders say they don’t have enough people. … Another incredulous British reporter from Channel 4 reported on Irish radio today that Americans were shouting ’stop’ in English rather than in Arabic at cars at checkpoints, then opening fire when they don’t … In one case observed by the British TV crew, the marines at a checkpoint opened fire on a car, which then careened to a stop. When the marines said they would not go to see if there were any injured, the British crew’s Arab translator ran to the car; the translator returned running moments later with a badly-injured 6 year old girl in his arms.

The collapse of law and order could and should have been anticipated, and measures put in place much more quickly to contain it. At the very least, there should have been a substantial — and properly trained — peace-keeping corps ready to go in before the country collapsed into anarchy. As it is, it looks as though US soldiers are out of their depth.

Iraqi Christians

There are over 600,000 Christians in Iraq. At the beginning of the 20th
century about Christians constituted about 30% of the Iraqi population, but
immigration and other factors have reduced this to about 8%, mostly Roman
Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Chaldean. Under the secular Iraqi state of the last
20 years Christians have enjoyed a considerable degree of religious freedom in
comparison with most other Middle Eastern states. However, as Saddam started to
court international Islamic sentiment, Christians,
particularly
the ethnically distinct Chaldeans, have become increasingly vulnerable and marginalised.

There are six Reformed Christian churches in Iraq. the The Middle East Reformed Fellowship
(MERF) works closely with these churches, and their article

The Reformed Churches in Iraq
gives the historical background to these churches. The Barnabas Fund is another
organisation that provides support to indigenous Iraqi churches. In
Living
With the War: News from the Christian Community Inside Iraq they report:

Iraq’s 700,000 strong Christian community, approximately half of whom
reside in areas under the control of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and half in the
Kurdish authority areas of the north, have been suffering alongside their Muslim
neighbours in the war in Iraq. Until the bombing of Bartulla they had been
largely spared the tragic casualties of war suffered by many Iraqi civilians,
with only one Christian woman injured in a bombing raid. The main problem for
both Christian and Muslim Iraqis is the distress and psychological pressure caused
by bombing which is occurring 24 hours per day in some areas. People are very
afraid, sleep is difficult, children are distressed and crying. The
experience is very traumatic, and anxiety levels are high

Years of sanctions have created hardship for Christian families, many of whom
run small businesses. The fear now is of a post-war backlash by muslim neighbours.
The hope is that at the end of the war there will be real freedom and security for
both Christian and Muslim Iraqis.

When
vandals desecrated a British war cemetery in France, outrage was the only
appropriate reaction. I have to say, though, I was saddened (but not surprised)
at the invective of many, who consider the entire population of France to be
culpable for what may well have been the work of a single sick minded individual.
Chirac has now sent
a letter of apology to the Queen. The right wing press has been
quick to accuse Chirac of hypocrisy, but in this matter at least he has done
the right thing, and I don’t doubt that he speaks for the majority of the French
people. There is a disturbing element of racism and anti-semitism in
France, in part related to the problem of integrating a substantial and
marginalised immigrant community. But to use the reprehensible
views of a small number of extremists as the basis for the hatred of an entire
nation is itself a poisonous form of racism.