• Stavanger Aftenbladet, Stavanger, Norway, on Iran’s nuclear program • Chicago Tribune, on Terri Schiavo and court proceedings • Chicago Tribune, on the prospect of an avian flu pandemic Stavanger Aftenbladet, Stavanger, Norway, on Iran’s nuclear program Russia and Iran
• Stavanger Aftenbladet, Stavanger, Norway, on Iran’s nuclear program
• Chicago Tribune, on Terri Schiavo and court proceedings
• Chicago Tribune, on the prospect of an avian flu pandemic
Stavanger Aftenbladet, Stavanger, Norway, on Iran’s nuclear program
Russia and Iran have signed a contract that is to supply Iran’s first nuclear reactor with fissionable material.
… In this way, Russia manages to sell high technology it knows; gain influence as a major power; and mark a certain distance from the United States.
From its side, Iran obliges itself to return spent fuel so it cannot be used for weapons production, and the Iranians have agreed to let the International Atomic Energy Agency inspect reactors and deliveries.
At the same time are reports … that the Bush administration is close to joining the European line of negotiations with Iran, and promises of economic gain if they refrain from developing atomic weapons.
If so, that is a positive and very interesting political change by the United States.
Chicago Tribune, on Terri Schiavo and court proceedings
The battle over the fate of Terri Schiavo apparently will go on for a while longer. The parents of the brain-damaged Florida woman persuaded a judge on Friday to keep her feeding tube in place until at least March 18, time needed for medical tests that they say could prove she is not in a persistent vegetative state.
If there is new evidence that could shed light on her condition, then by all means the courts should grant the time to compile and assess it. But skeptics are certainly justified in wondering if this latest development is a step toward a final resolution, or yet another attempt to avoid one. …
The judge who issued the stay acted in response to a recent study published in the scientific journal Nature, which indicated that some patients with serious brain damage may have more awareness than previously believed—which the authors noted might be relevant to Terri Schiavo’s case. Given that surprising discovery, it makes sense to see if brain-imaging technology can detect more mental activity than doctors have found up to now.
At the same time, it could confirm the previous evaluation.…
It’s worth keeping in mind that what the courts have ruled is not that Michael Schiavo should get to decide what happens to his wife. They’ve ruled, in essence, that the decision belongs to Terri Schiavo herself, and that her wish was not to live in this condition. As this case proceeds, it’s her preference, and not anyone else’s, that should prevail.
Chicago Tribune, on the prospect of an avian flu pandemic
The prospect of an avian flu pandemic has served to remind the U.S. and the world that the forces of nature can be far more lethal than anything created by man. The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that the risk of pandemic poses the “gravest possible danger” to the world as the virus has become “entrenched, endemic and versatile.”
The U.S. isn’t on the brink of an avian flu epidemic, Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reassured this week. But the experts agree it is only a matter of time before some new, virulent strain of influenza will threaten the world. The government is gearing up to test the first doses of an experimental vaccine, is stockpiling anti-viral drugs and has boosted disease surveillance. …
What makes entirely new flu strains like the bird flu so deadly is that most people have no immunity. Humankind is virgin territory, and the virus becomes an engine of death and disease with horrific consequences. …
