Washington: Federal funds approved for stem cell research project

The Bush administration has approved the first federally funded project using stem cells obtained from fetuses aborted up to eight weeks after conception, expanding the scientific promise of stem cell research and complicating the ethics debate that surrounds it.

The decision, made quietly in late May, came nearly a year after President Bush limited funding for stem cell research with days-old human embryos. By medical definition, an embryo starts to be called a fetus in the period leading up to about 8 weeks of development.

On May 20, the National Institutes of Health awarded the first funds $150,000 for research on stem cells from fetuses to the team of stem cell pioneer John Gearhart at Johns Hopkins University.

Kuwait: Iraq agrees to return looted national archives

Within six weeks, Iraq will return Kuwait’s national archives that were looted during the 1991 invasion, a U.N. envoy said Saturday.

The return of the archives is seen as the sole achievement of the two days of talks between U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri that ended Friday in Vienna.

Kuwait maintains that during Iraq’s seven-month occupation in 1990-91, Iraq took archives from the foreign ministry, prime minister’s office and other government departments, and a significant quantity of military hardware plus valuable museum pieces.

New York: King of Pop accuses Sony of racism, exploitation

Multiplatinum singer Michael Jackson, already feuding with his record company, charged Saturday that the recording industry was a racist conspiracy that turns profits at the expense of performers particularly minority artists.

Jackson, 43, spoke at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in Harlem. Sharpton and attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. recently formed a coalition to investigate whether artists are being financially exploited by record labels.

Sony Music issued a statement calling Jackson’s comments “ludicrous, spiteful and hurtful. It seems particularly bizarre that he has chosen to launch an unwarranted and ugly attack on an executive (Sony Music chairman Tommy Mottola) who has championed his career … for many, many years.”

Iraq: Farrakhan visits Baghdad

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan arrived Saturday in Baghdad for a two-day visit to discuss steps that could be taken to avert a possible U.S. military campaign against Iraq.

“Our purpose here is to see the people of Iraq, hopefully the leadership, and to see what we can do to possibly stop a war,” Farrakhan told reporters on his arrival. Farrakhan opposes U.N. sanctions against Iraq.

Farrakhan already has been to Qatar, Yemen and Lebanon as part of a Middle East tour.

The U.N. Security Council and the United States accuse Iraq of trying to rebuild its banned weapons programs and of supporting terrorism.