LONDON, June 17 (AFP)
American scientists have cloned the first human embryos, the London Daily Mail reported on Thursday.
Using methods similar to those which produce Dolly the cloned sheep at Edinburgh�s Roslin Institute, they produced a male embryo comprising nearly 400 cells, according to the British tabloid.
The scientists at the Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology then incinerated it after two days.
They want to produce human body tissue which can be used to treat patients with various conditions, including nerve damage, diabetes and Parkinson�s disease.
A DNA-loaded nucleus of a human cell was extracted from a skin sample from a man�s leg and then inserted into the outer protein of a hollowed out cow�s egg under laboratory conditions, said the Mail.
The egg was then placed in a laboratory dish and soaked in a chemical solution which fooled it into thinking it was a newly conceived embryo.
The cells then began to develop into an embryo, according to the Daily Mail.
Since the first embryo was cloned last November, the company is thought to have made many more, incinerating them all, in line with U.S. research lines, before they reached the age of 14 days, said the newspaper.
COLOGNE, Germany, June 17 (AFP)
The Kosovo crisis, particularly with Russia demanding a role in peacekeeping, is expected to dominate a G8 summit here this weekend of leaders of the world�s seven major industrialized nations plus Russia.
Aside from the current stand-off in Kosovo with Russian paratroopers blocking NATO access to Pristina airport, there is the more long-term issue of rebuilding the war-shattered Yugoslav province.
US President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin are scheduled to discuss these matters directly but there were doubts as to whether Yeltsin would make it to Cologne for his planned one-day appearance on Sunday amid persistent concerns over his health.
Russia will be represented throughout the meeting by Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, who is to arrive on Friday.
Germany, current president of the Group of Eight that joins the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized states of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States with Russia, hosted a ministerial conference in Cologne last week on a stability pact for reconstruction in the Balkans.
As G8 host, it will place this subject high on the agenda at the summit from Friday to Sunday. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has said Europe is ready to take responsibility for reconstruction but it is not yet clear how much this will cost or how it will be shared.
The heads of state and government will also debate how to reduce the debt of the world�s poorest nations and help Russia resolve its economic problems.
Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will assure his G8 partners that Tokyo is ready to take further economic measures to revive the Japanese economy, a government spokesman said in Tokyo Wednesday.
In Moscow Thursday, Yeltsin said he �categorically disagrees� with NATO over a Russian-controlled sector in Kosovo and would continue pressuring Washington on the issue.
Yeltsin�s comments came as Washington and Moscow officials huddled in Helsinki to decide what role Russia will take in an international peace force for Kosovo, dubbed KFOR.
Russia is pressing for the right to operate its own sector in the Serbian province, a demand Washington and its allies view as tantamount to a partition of Kosovo.
The G7 leaders will first debate financial issues in more detail with the finalisation of a plan to reduce the 214 billion dollars in debt of the world�s 40 poorest and most indebted nations.
Russia is not involved in the financial discussions. The summit will begin Friday afternoon with a G7-only session.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told parliament Wednesday that the Cologne meeting must send a �clear signal� of support to Russia to avoid political and economic isolation, but stressed that Germany will not give any new aid until Moscow carries out necessary economic reforms.
�We are ready to help Russia, materially, when Russia is ready to help itself,� Schroeder said.
Meanwhile, the debt forgiveness plan does not go far enough for many pressure groups, who are seeking immediate outright cancellation of the entire debt and planning a human chain protest in Cologne on Saturday.
During the protest, rock star Bono, leader of the group U2, and Honduran bishop Oscar Rodriguez, president of the Latin American Episcopal Council, will present a petition calling for the total cancellation of the debt.
The G8 leaders will also be discussing reforms of the international financial system to better forestall and cope with future crises.
But while G7 members say much progress has been made on several issues, there is unlikely to be agreement on transforming the International Monetary Fund�s policy-making interim committee into a body with decision-making powers � a project dear to France, but opposed by the United States.
The world leaders are also expected to discuss a new round of global trade liberalisation talks under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) due to be launched in the United States in November.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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