No shame in not knowing
Expert witnesses in 鈥渃ot death鈥� murder trials have unjustifiably incriminated mothers, says a UK report covering a spate of high-profile acquittals. 鈥淒octors should be willing to say 鈥業 don鈥檛 know鈥� without shame or inhibition,鈥� says the report, released on Monday by the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Frances hits shuttle
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Damage from Hurricane Frances last week may delay NASA鈥檚 plans to resume space shuttle flights. Gusts of up to 150 kilometres per hour tore off a part of the roof from a building in the Kennedy Space Center in Florida where heat-resistant tiles for shuttles are made. The building sustained extensive water damage.
Blame the ducks
Veterinary authorities in South Korea claimed last week that the H5N1 bird flu virus still causing outbreaks across east Asia was brought to the country last October by migrating ducks. Conservationists point out that this flu strain evolved in southern China, and ducks arriving in October would have migrated from Siberia, not China. Wild ducks could have spread H5N1 only if wintering populations maintain the infection, they say.
Plague threatens tigers
A wild Siberian tiger has been killed by canine distemper. The virus, carried by dogs, is a serious threat to the fewer than 500 wild tigers surviving in Russia, says the Wildlife Conservation Society based in New York. In 1994 the virus killed a third of the Serengeti鈥檚 lions in Tanzania.
Cloning law passed
Singapore last week passed laws that ban human reproductive cloning but allow therapeutic cloning 鈥� the derivation of stem cells via cloning. The UK passed a similar law in 2001. The US still has no federal laws on human cloning but is pushing for a global ban.