By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Human therapeutic cloning has moved a step closer after U.S. researchers said they had successfully created embyonic stem cells from monkey embryos.
In what would be a world-first breakthrough, scientists told a stem cell research conference in the Australian city of Cairns this week that they had successfully created two batches of embryonic stem cells from cloned rhesus monkey embryos.
"We've been looking for this evidence for a long time," Australian stem cell pioneer Alan Trounson from the Melbourne-based Monash University Stem Cell Centre told Reuters.
"It's very important to have this, to know that we can do this, because it may result in a lot of new cell lines than can help us understand some complex diseases."
Previous efforts to obtain embryonic stem cells from cloned primate embryos have failed. Korean cloning scientist Woo Sook Hwang lost his job over fabricated successes using human eggs.
But Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Centre in the United States said he had succeeded using modified Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, or SCNT, in which an egg cell nucleus is removed and replaced with a donor nucleus.
The cell eventually forms an early embryo, or ...   more »

By CNN's Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance
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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia has staged a remarkable comeback in recent years. Gone are the days, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the Kremlin depended on Western handouts to keep its fragile economy afloat. (Special Report: Eye on Russia)
The country has emerged as the world's biggest energy producer. It supplies Western Europe with more than a third of its natural gas, and pumps more oil than Saudi Arabia. It truly is an energy superpower.
High commodity prices have swelled the Kremlin's coffers. Russia now has the third largest reserve of foreign currency in the world -- by far the biggest in Europe. It's established a stabilization fund, now worth more than 116 billion dollars. It is paying off its foreign debts, ahead of schedule.
There is a growing middle class, as wealth once held only by a few oligarchs begins to trickle down to ordinary Russians. Within a few decades, at current rates of growth, Russia could emerge as a powerful economy, with Europe's biggest market.
But this remains a nation fraught with problems and uncertainty. The fast pace of economic growth has left a dangerously ...   more »

By Lou Dobbs
CNN
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- America's once-proud public school system -- the great equalizer of our democratic society -- is failing an entire generation of students. Millions of high-school students are donning their caps and gowns this month, but a new Education Week report reveals that more than 1.2 million students will fail to graduate high school this year. Half of our black and Hispanic male students are dropping out of public high schools.
Nowhere is the news for our young people worse than in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit's economy has been devastated by so-called free trade policies and awful management decisions. Tens of thousands of jobs are disappearing, and too many mothers and fathers have never attended a parent-teacher conference. Detroit's community is in pain, and the city's future is uncertain. And despite the best efforts of local and state leaders, hope is in short supply.
The Education Week report shows Detroit's public high schools will graduate only 25 percent of their students. Cleveland, Ohio, and Baltimore, Maryland, will graduate less than 35 percent; Dallas, Texas, New York and Los Angeles, California, about 45 percent. In fact, 10 of our nation's biggest cities will ...   more »