Claire Keeton  
Exact copy: Dolly, the first cloned sheep. Picture: AP   
I’m surprised [human] cloning hasn’t happened. This is not science fiction   
There are maverick scientists who continue to experiment    
UN report calls for action to prevent human rights crisis
Unless the world bans human cloning it may be just a matter of time until we share the Earth with exact copies. This is according to a major UN policy analysis released this morning.
The report’s authors propose outlawing human reproductive cloning while allowing restricted therapeutic cloning as the most viable “compromise” option for the international community to adopt.
South Africa’s proposed regulations on cloning are in line with this compromise: permitting the use of human eggs to create stem cells for therapeutic and research purposes — but still prohibiting reproductive cloning.
Professor Jacquie Greenberg, the associate professor with the Human Genetics Research Group at UCT, says: “The guidelines are specifically for stem cell use which is what the debate pivots around.”
The Health Department is expected to finalise its regulations on therapeutic cloning, which are governed by the National Health Act, by the end of this year.
A deadlock over cloning at a UN General ...   more »

By PAMELA HESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - A top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information.
Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act.
Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S.
The original law required a court order for any surveillance conducted on U.S. soil, to protect Americans' privacy. The White House argued that the law was obstructing intelligence gathering.
The most contentious issue in the new legislation is whether to shield telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for allegedly giving the government access to people's private e-mails and phone calls without a court order between 2001 and 2007.
Some lawmakers, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appear reluctant to grant immunity. Suits might be the only way to determine how ...   more »