WESTERN EUROPE

DOLLY THE SHEEP SCIENTIST GETS CLONING LICENSE IN BRITAIN

LONDON – The scientist who attracted the world’s attention by cloning Dolly the Sheep is about to take another major step for medical research: cloning human embryos and extracting stem cells to unravel the mysteries of muscle-wasting illnesses like Lou Gehrig’s disease. Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly at Scotland’s Roslin Institute in 1996, was granted a cloning license yesterday by British regulators to study how nerve cells go awry to cause motor neuron diseases.

The experiments do not involve creating cloned babies, but the license has nonetheless stirred fresh controversy over the issue and prompted abortion foes and other biological conservatives to condemn the decision. “Are we supposed to be appeased by Professor Wilmut’s declarations that the human embryos will be destroyed after experimentation and that his team has no intention of producing cloned babies?” asked Julia Millington of the London-based ProLife Alliance.

Mr. Wilmut, speaking after the announcement in Edinburgh, Scotland, defended the move. “We all take for granted the very much healthier life that we have now compared with people 100 years ago,” he said. “I think that the majority of people support this type of research and hope it will be successful in helping to bring useful treatment for diseases like motor neuron disease.”

– Associated Press

DENMARK’S INCUMBENT GOVERNMENT WINS

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen’s center-right government won a second term yesterday as Denmark voters embraced plans to keep immigration in check and taxes from rising. “The government will continue,” Mr. Fogh Rasmussen said following the nationwide parliamentary vote. “It’s one thing to win an election, but it’s more difficult to be re-elected.”

With 99% of the votes tallied, the governing bloc – a coalition of Liberals, Conservatives, and the anti-immigration Danish Peoples Party – had 54% and was set to take 95 seats in the 179-seat parliament, or Folketing. Opposition leader Mogens Lykketoft conceded defeat, acknowledging that the government had made “a much stronger impact.” His Social Democratic-led opposition had 46 percent, enough for 80 seats. The remaining seats go to the Faeroe Islands and Greenland, both Danish territories. The turnout was 84% among the 4 million Danes eligible to vote. The percentage was roughly the same in the last national election in 2001.

– Associated Press

PREMIER: BELFAST BANK ROBBERY LINKED TO IRA

DUBLIN, Ireland – A still-unpublished report into the raid of a Belfast bank firmly pins the Irish Republican Army to the record-setting theft, Prime Minister Ahern told lawmakers yesterday. Mr. Ahern spoke hours after his Cabinet discussed the confidential contents of the report from the Independent Monitoring Commission, a panel of international experts formed by the British and Irish governments to monitor the activities of the IRA and other illegal Northern Ireland groups. Both governments plan to publish the report Thursday.

Mr. Ahern has already said that, based on briefings from his own police force and authorities in Northern Ireland and Britain, he’s confident that the IRA committed the December 20 raid on Northern Bank, and that senior figures in Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party, authorized it. Asked whether the report backs those views, Mr. Ahern said: “If anything, it would go beyond anything I said.”The gang responsible for the robbery stole $50 million – the biggest cash theft in history.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

17 KILLED IN CLASHES IN PHILIPPINES

MANILA, Philippines – Hundreds of marines sailed yesterday to reinforce troops in the southern Philippines following fighting with followers of a jailed Muslim leader that killed at least 17 soldiers and as many as 30 rebels, officials said.

Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, commander of the military’s Southern Command, said air force helicopters and planes also were sent to bombard gunmen holed up in Panamao on Jolo Island. He said up to 600 marines were heading to Jolo from southern Zamboanga city.

“They have asked for it and we’ll give it to them,” General Braganza said.

The clashes erupted Monday when 500 fighters loyal to jailed leader Nur Misuari attacked government troops following an assault on their stronghold near Panamao, where guerrillas of Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf movement had allegedly sought refuge, the military said. Mr. Misuari’s followers said two children and their parents were killed in the military raid. About 300 gunmen encircled a group of soldiers in Panamao’s Siit village and entered a nearby hospital, which was later retaken by troops, military officials said.

– Associated Press