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President Barack Obama avoided using the word genocide on Friday when describing mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, and welcomed efforts by Turkey and Armenia to normalize relations. Barack Obama | TurkeyAs a presidential candidate, Obama, who took office in January, had described the killings of Armenians as genocide, but he referred to them as "atrocities" on Friday."Ninety four years ago, one of the great atrocities of the 20th century began," Obama said in a statement released by the White House. "Each year, we pause to remember the 1.5 million Armenians who were subsequently massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire."Armenian American groups criticized Obama for not keeping a campaign pledge to stick to the genocide characterization.Despite his careful word choice, Obama said his position on the killings was unchanged."I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not changed," he said. "My interest remains the achievement of a full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts."Turkey and Armenia said this week they had agreed on a road map to normalize ties after a century of hostility that traces its roots to the 1915 mass killing and deportation of Armenians, which Armenia says was genocide."I also strongly support the efforts by Turkey and Armenia to normalize their bilateral relations," Obama said. "Under Swiss auspices, the two governments have agreed on a framework and road map for normalization.
I commend this progress, and urge them to fulfill its promise."Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks but denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it amounts to genocide. Turkish officials have warned that any new attempt in the U.S. President Obama has sent a clear message to America and the world that his administration will not sacrifice long-term strategic allies for short-term political gains."U.S. Representative Adam Schiff criticized Obama."We will persevere until it is the policy of the United States to recognize genocide wherever and whenever it occurs, and to do all in its power to prevent this scourge from tarnishing the human race ever again," Schiff said.(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; editing by Will Dunham) Barack Obama Turkey.
*I am in no way insinuating that any member or employee of Zenit St Petersburg Football Club is racist, or racially inclined. It's that UEFA has just lain down and forgotten all it's been preaching about racism in football.I'm sure most people have seen over the past few years, UEFA's campaign of "Kick Racism Out of Football," but I can't but help feel, UEFA just undid all their hard work by allowing Zenit to compete.Anyone who can be bothered to look, and even those who aren't are well aware that coach Advocaat will not sign any non-white players because the fans do not tolerate them. And UEFA is allowing these fans' team to compete why?Because now, you have every Zenit St. Petersburg fan running around, convinced that they're all white bigoted strategy is the right one, where in the world today, it is not, nor should it be tolerated as such.Congratulations to UEFA on failing the ethnically diverse, and good people in general, and commiserations to Rangers Better luck next year.Both of you..
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The global economic and financial crisis is disproportionately hurting developing countries, which will have to deal with the fallout long after advanced economies, Group of 24 nations said on Friday. NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While a mother of an autistic child is pregnant, she develops an immune response to her fetus's brain. As part of that immune response, her body develops antibodies that can attack the fetal brain. Now, in new research in mice, scientists have discovered that the mother's fetal brain antibodies are circulated back to the fetus through the placenta, possibly triggering inflammation in the brain that could eventually result in autism.
HealthAt the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Harvey Singer and colleagues took antibodies from human mothers of autistic children and injected them into pregnant mice, exposing the unborn mice pups to the antibodies as they circulated through the placenta. A second group of pregnant mice was injected with antibodies from mothers of non-autistic children. A third group of pregnant mice got no injections at all.According to the researchers, autistic-like symptoms developed in the mice exposed before birth to the antibodies from the mothers of autistic children. For example, the affected mice behaved more anxiously, spent less time in open spaces, and were more hyperactive. They were also more easily startled by loud noises and were less social.The differences between these mice and the pups that were not exposed prenatally to antibodies from mothers of autistic children became more pronounced as the animals moved from infancy to adulthood.
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