NewsDigest
Company decodes human DNA
■ Celera Genomics
cracks pattern before
Human Genome Project.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A pri
vate company mapping the human
genetic blueprint said Thursday it has
y completed a major step: decoding all
of the DNA pieces that make up the
genetic pattern of a single human
being.
The milestone puts the company,
Celera Genomics of Rockville, Md.,
far ahead of an international govern
ment effort to map the human
genome using a different method.
“We’ve now completed the gene
sequence plan of one human being,”
said Craig Venter, chief scientist for
the company. He said the human
being was an unidentified male,
adding, “By the end of next week, we
will have finished the gene sequence
for a female.”
There are about 3 billion DNA
subunits in virtually every human
cell. This DNA contains about
100,000 genes. The gene sequencing
done thus far lines up small segments
of the DNA.
Assembly of the entire genome
will involve putting these segments
in proper order.
This process, said Venter, will
take several weeks. But he said the
Celera work is far ahead of a similar
effort by the government-funded
Human Genome Project.
“We don’t want to declare
absolute victory yet, but call me in
three 6r four weeks when it is all
assembled,” said Venter.
Dr. Francis Collins, the Human
Genome Project’s chief, said, “I’m
happy to hear that Celera has com
pleted this part of their business plan.
We look forward to hearing how the
assembly process goes and ultimate
ly seeing the sequence made avail
able” to the public.
Venter said the ordered sequence
of the human genes will not be
released to the public until it has
been completely assembled.
“I don’t believe a genome is done
until there is an attempt to identify
the genes and the linear sequence
along all of the chromosomes,” he
said. “We will not have that complet
ed until later this year.”
The announcement by Celera
•• We’ve now completed the gene
sequence plan for one human being.”
Craig Venter
chief scientist of Celera Genomics
drew a quick response from Wall
Street investors. Shares of PE Corp.,
Celera’s parent company, rose 26 7/8
points to 139 7/8 by midaftemoon.
President Clinton’s press secre
tary, Joe Lockhart, said the Celera
announcement “marks a ... signifi
cant point in what the president has
talked about extensively as ... one of
the most important scientific devel
opments of our time.”
The Human Genome Project is
expected to complete a “rough draft”
of the human gene sequence this
spring, but this will not be assembled
into a finished order for several more
years.
The federal project is using a dif
ferent method than that used by
Celera, which is using a technique
developed by Venter.
But, in contrast to Celera, the
federal project is releasing to the
public the genetic sequences as they
are identified. The federal project
thus far has put on the Internet the
codes for about 2.3 billion subunits
of the DNA.
Clinton recently announced that
the United States and Britain have
agreed to share data from their
efforts to decode the human genetic
pattern.
A U.S.-British statement urged
private companies to follow the lead
of government laboratories in shar
ing data.
To decode the genetic sequence,
Venter said his company drew speci
mens from 30 different people. One
specimen was then used to draw up
the completed sequence. A male was
chosen because only males have at
least one copy of all the chromo
somes, including the X and Y sex
chromosomes.
Cult leaders issued
warrants for murder
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) -
Uganda issued arrest warrants
Thursday for six doomsday cult
leaders believed to have survived
their sect’s fiery end, which killed
hundreds of their followers.
Police have failed to identify
the bodies of Joseph Kibwetere,
Credonia Mwerinde, Dominic
Kataribabo and three less promi
nent leaders among the cult’s dead,
although many of the victims’
corpses were burned or rotted
beyond recognition.
“We believe they are alive and
in hiding,” said Erasmus Opia, act
ing director of the Criminal
Investigation Division in
Kampala. “We have no evidence
to the contrary.”
The six have been charged
with murder, said Richard
Buteera, director of public prose
cution. Police have uncovered at
least 924 bodies at several cult
compounds.
The suspects face death by
hanging if caught and convicted.
Uganda also has obtained
international warrants through
Interpol, in case any have fled the
country, Opia said. No sightings of
the cult leaders have been reported
since the March 17 fire at the
sect’s chapel - and investigators
have given no sign of having clues
as to their whereabouts.
An explosive chapel fire in
Kanungu burned 530 people alive,
revealing to the world the deadly
activities of the doomsday cult. •»>
Subsequent searches of sect
compounds in southwestern
Ugandan villages turned up 394
bodies, many of them children,
piled in mass graves and thrown
into a pit latrine.
Buteera said there wasyio
breakthrough that led to flie
charges - only an accumulation of
details already disclosed.
“We now have enough infor
mation to take this action,” the
prosecutor said.
Only one sect follower is
known to have survived the church
fire, a 17-year-old boy who
slipped out that morning.
Among those with warrants
against them, Kibweter^j a 64
year-old excommunicM^d Roman
Catholic, was known as “The
Prophet” to his followers, and the
sect’s official leader.
Mwerinde, however, was sus
pected to be the true mastermind
of the cult. Known as “The
Programmer,” the 48-year-old ex
bar worker wielded clout in part by
claiming to have direct contact
with God and the Virgin Mary.
Kataribabo, 32, was an excom
municated Roman Catholic priest.
Some local residents believe he
died in the gasoline-fueled fire at
the church.
American citizen
accused of spying
■ Man’s arrest is latest
in series of spy arrests in
Russia and the U.S.
MOSCOW (AP) - U.S. officials
said Thursday they were following
closely the case of an American citizen
arrested in Moscow on spying charges,
but said the man did not have diplomat
ic immunity and couldn’t say when he
might be released.
The case was the latest in a string of
spying arrests in Russia and the United
States and seemed likely to further
strain already tense relations between
the two countries.
Russian authorities arrested the
man Wednesday on suspicion that he
developed contacts with Russian scien
tists in an effort to steal state secrets,
Russia’s Federal Security Service said.
His name was not released.
An official at the U.S. Embassy,
speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the man was being held at the
Lefortovo prison in Moscow. U.S. State
Department spokesman James Rubin
said earlier that the American had not
complained of any mistreatment.
The U.S. Embassy official said
Russian authorities had not filed formal
charges but were investigating whether
the American was guilty of espionage.
He said a Russian lawyer has been
appointed for the man, who was in
Russia on business when he was arrest
ed.
A Russian citizen whose name was
also kept confidential by the police was
arrested after leaving the American’s
office, the Federal Security Service
said. It said the American was believed
to be interested in missile designs. He
had cultivated contacts with Russian
scientists and a search revealed he had
“technical drawings of various equip
ment,” security officials said.
Several Western television net
works reported that the American is
named Edmond Pope.
A former Navy captain by that
name worked for three years with
Pennsylvania State University’s
Applied Research Laboratory, which
does research projects for the U.S.
Navy. He left in 1997 to found a com
pany called CERF Technologies
International, which “has commercial
contacts with organizations in Russia,”
a university spokesman said.
The spokesman said Pope, while
working at the lab, had been an “assis
tant for foreign technology” who devel
oped contacts between Russian and
American research institutes and
worked on converting technology for
commercial uses.
When asked if Pope was the
American arrested, the U.S. Embassy
official said he could not confirm the
name.
In an article with the journal Penn
State Agriculture dated three years ago,
Pope was described as a “foreign tech
nology specialist” who obtained a light
weight, highly sensitive spectrometer
from a Russian scientist.
NetJralskan
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■ Washington, D.C.
New device may help those
with rare stomach condition
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
government has approved a novel
pacemaker-like device to zap the
stomachs of a few thousand
Americans a year who are at risk of
literally starving to death from a mys
terious stomach disorder.
Patients with severe gastropare
sis cannot eat, sometimes even drink,
because of continual nausea, vomit
ing and pain. Their stomachs do not
chum properly to move food down
the digestive tract. Until now, the
sickest patients have survived only
with feeding tubes inserted into the
intestine or total intravenous nutri
tion.
The Food and Drug
Administration approved Medtronic
Corporation’s Enterra implant to
help patients by zapping the stomach
muscle with tiny electric shocks.
The shocks are supposed to stim
ulate nerves lining the stomach that
control how it digests food.
■ Pakistan /
Former prime minister
gets life prison sentence
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -
Pakistan’s former prime minister on
Thursday received a life prison term
but escaped the death penalty for try
ing to down a passenger plane carry
ing the man who unseated him in last
year’s army coup.
An antiterrorist court found
Nawaz Sharif guilty of hijacking and
terrorism for the events of Oct. 12,
when he refused to let a commercial
airliner with army chief Gen. Pervez
Musharraf aboard land in Pakistan.
The army deposed Sharif the same
day.
The court acquitted Sharif of two
other charges - attempted murder
and kidnapping.
Prosecutors had sought death
sentences for all the defendants, and
both sides quickly said they will
appeal.
■ Washington, D.C.
Gonzalez’s father declares
love for his son
WASHINGTON (AP) - On U.S.
soil, Juan Miguel Gonzalez said
Thursday he was “truly impatient” to
reclaim his son Elian, but his hopes
for a quick transfer of custody were
dashed when government negotia
tions with the 6-year-old Cuban boy’s
Miami relatives broke down.
The father declared his love for
son Elian and chastised those who
are trying “to obtain political advan
tage” from the custody battle over the
shipwreck survivor.
Gonzalez received immediate
assurances that the U.S. government
is eager to reunite him with his son.
■ Washington, D.C.
General accused of sexual
harassment gets office job
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
two-star general accused of sexual
harassment by the Army’s highest
ranking female had been chosen for
the No. 2 job in the Army office
responsible for investigating
wrongdoing, officials said
Thursday.
Since the accusation was leveled
last fall, Maj. Gen. Larry G. Smith’s
move into the job of deputy inspector
general has been on hold, even
though the Army publicly refUses to
say that he is the subject of investiga
tion.
The accusation of sexual harass
ment was made by Lt Gen. Claudia
Kennedy, the Army’s only female
diree-star general and its top intelli
gence officer.