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To: tejek who wrote (191506)	6/23/2004 3:05:26 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575181

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 · Last updated 11:10 a.m. PT Beheading stirs debate in South Korea By HANS GREIMEL ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER SEOUL, South Korea - The beheading of a South Korean hostage set off demands, including from the president's own party, for the country to stop sending troops to Iraq. The stunned nation awoke Wednesday to television images of a blindfolded Kim Sun-il kneeling in an orange jumpsuit before his masked captors and news that he was later decapitated. President Roh Moo-hyun denounced the killing and stood by his government's plan to send 3,000 additional troops to Iraq beginning in August. But the slaying underlined divisions on the domestic front. "This incident was shocking and tragic, but it mustn't shake our decision and principle to send troops to Iraq," the country's biggest newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, said in an editorial. "In times like this, the president and the government must focus and not allow the deployment issue to once again divide the public." But civic groups called for a cancellation of the deployment, and students hung black-and-white mourning banners and built funeral altars on campuses while pledging to step up their campaigns against the troop dispatch. About 2,000 protesters rallied at a candlelight vigil Wednesday night to mourn Kim and oppose the troop dispatch. Many held placards reading "Bush and Roh killed Kim Sun-il" or "We don't want to die. Korean troops get out." A group of 50 lawmakers, many from Roh's ruling Uri Party, submitted a resolution to parliament Wednesday urging the government to reconsider the deployment. "It is impossible to implement the task of peace and reconstruction at a time when not only the troops, but also ordinary civilians, are under threat - as witnessed by the killing of Mr. Kim Sun-il," the resolution said. The government in Seoul has portrayed the troop dispatch as a way of strengthening ties with the United States and winning its support for a peaceful end to the standoff over North Korea's nuclear programs. But many South Koreans oppose the mission, which was originally scheduled for April and has been repeatedly delayed. The 3,000 troops are earmarked for the northern city of Irbil, and will be joined by 600 South Korean medics and engineers now in southern Iraq. When complete, South Korea will be the biggest coalition partner after the United States and Britain. Kim's kidnappers had demanded that Seoul scrap the deployment and pull out the 600 medics and engineers. "The government was irresponsible," said Park Bong-ju, a 28-year-old office worker. "This tragedy happened because of the government's plan to send troops. We must cancel a dispatch plan and withdraw soldiers who are already in Iraq." For others, the killing seemed to strengthen the backing for the military mission. "I don't think the government should cancel its troop deployment," said Cho Hang-duk, a 42-year-old office worker. "This is time for the nation to tighten its unity and show to the world we stand together in a difficult time." Kim's fate has gripped the country since Sunday, when a video released by his captors showed the hostage pleading for the government to end its involvement in Iraq, screaming "I don't want to die." Kim, 33, was a Christian and once considered doing missionary work in the Arab world. seattlepi.nwsource.com

To: tejek who wrote (191506)	6/24/2004 3:30:59 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 1575181

Mutation Found in 'Muscle Man' Toddler Wed Jun 23, 8:53 PM ET Add Health - AP to My Yahoo! By LINDA A. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Somewhere in Germany is a baby Superman, born in Berlin with bulging arm and leg muscles. Not yet 5, he can hold seven-pound weights with arms extended, something many adults cannot do. He has muscles twice the size of other kids his age and half their body fat. DNA testing showed why: The boy has a genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth. AP Photo Yahoo! Health Have questions about your health? Find answers here. The discovery, reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites), represents the first documented human case of such a mutation. Many scientists believe the find could eventually lead to drugs for treating people with muscular dystrophy and other muscle-destroying conditions. And athletes would almost surely want to get their hands on such a drug and use it like steroids to bulk up. The boy's mutant DNA segment was found to block production of a protein called myostatin that limits muscle growth. The news comes seven years after researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore created buff "mighty mice" by "turning off" the gene that directs cells to produce myostatin. "Now we can say that myostatin acts the same way in humans as in animals," said the boy's physician, Dr. Markus Schuelke, a professor in the child neurology department at Charite/University Medical Center Berlin. "We can apply that knowledge to humans, including trial therapies for muscular dystrophy." Given the huge potential market for such drugs, researchers at universities and pharmaceutical companies already are trying to find a way to limit the amount and activity of myostatin in the body. Wyeth has just begun human tests of a genetically engineered antibody designed to neutralize myostatin. Dr. Lou Kunkel, director of the genomics program at Boston Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics and genetics at Harvard Medical School (news - web sites), said success is possible within several years. "Just decreasing this protein by 20, 30, 50 percent can have a profound effect on muscle bulk," said Kunkel, who is among the doctors participating in the Wyeth research. Muscular dystrophy is the world's most common genetic disease. There is no cure and the most common form, Duchenne's, usually kills before adulthood. The few treatments being tried to slow its progression have serious side effects. Muscle wasting also is common in the elderly and patients with diseases such as cancer and AIDS (news - web sites). "If you could find a way to block myostatin activity, you might slow the wasting process," said Dr. Se-Jin Lee, the Johns Hopkins professor whose team created the "mighty mice." Lee said he believes a myostatin blocker also could suppress fat accumulation and thus thwart the development of diabetes. Lee and Johns Hopkins would receive royalties for any myostatin-blocking drug made by Wyeth. Dr. Eric Hoffman, director of Children's National Medical Center's Research Center for Genetic Medicine, said he believes a muscular dystrophy cure will be found, but he is unsure whether it will be a myostatin-blocking drug, another treatment or a combination, because about a dozen genes have some effect on muscles. He said a mystotatin-blocking drug could help other groups of people, including astronauts and others who lose muscle mass during long stints in zero gravity or when immobilized by illness or a broken limb. Researchers would not disclose the German boy's identity but said he was born to a somewhat muscular mother, a 24-year-old former professional sprinter. Her brother and three other close male relatives all were unusually strong, with one of them a construction worker able to unload heavy curbstones by hand. In the mother, one copy of the gene is mutated and the other is normal; the boy has two mutated copies. One almost definitely came from his father, but no information about him has been disclosed. The mutation is very rare in people. The boy is healthy now, but doctors worry he could eventually suffer heart or other health problems. In the past few years, scientists have seen great potential in myostatin-blocking strategies. Internet marketers have been hawking "myostatin-blocking" supplements to bodybuilders, though doctors say the products are useless and perhaps dangerous. Some researchers are trying to turn off the myostatin gene in chickens to produce more meat per bird. And several breeds of cattle have natural variations in the gene that, aided by selective breeding, give them far more muscle and less fat than other steer.