Massachusetts

Study: Y chromosome can fix own genes

Proving perhaps that nature has a sense of humor, scientists have discovered that the Y chromosome — the one that makes a man a man — has a remarkable ability to make do-it-yourself repairs.

It can fix many of its genes on its own, rather than using the standard technique that involves cooperation between chromosomes.

That ability may help keep the Y chromosome from rotting away over millions of years of evolution.

The work by scientists at the Whitehead Institute and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis appears in today’s issue of the journal Nature. It is the first comprehensive and detailed analysis of the genetic code of the Y chromosome.

The work is “a landmark for the history of sex determination,” said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Washington, D.C.

Detained youths’ rights violated, group says

Some of the thousands of children who are detained by the U.S. government after fleeing their own countries are held in conditions that should “shock the conscience” of all Americans, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

The Amnesty International survey, sent to 115 facilities believed to house children in immigration proceedings, represents the first nationwide glimpse at the system, Schulz said, adding the results “should shock the conscience of all who care about children and the values upon which this nation was founded.”

Among the findings from secure facilities, which accounted for 23 of the 33 respondents:

• 83 percent said they routinely restrain children with leg irons or handcuffs when taking them outside
• 61 percent reported strip-searches of children in their care
• Two-thirds of all the respondents don’t explain to children why they have been detained and that they have the right to judicial review of their detention.

Washington, D.C.

Candidate Kerry opens 10-point N.H. lead

Presidential candidate John Kerry has opened a 10-point lead over rival Howard Dean in a poll of likely voters in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, according to a survey released Wednesday.

Once statistically tied for the lead, Kerry has moved ahead with 28 percent while Dean has lost ground and stands at 18 percent, the American Research Group poll found.

Kerry held a commanding lead among registered Democrats likely to vote — 31 percent to 16 percent — over Dean, the former Vermont governor. Among undeclared voters, or independents, Dean led Kerry, 26 percent to 15 percent. Independents can vote in the Democratic primary in the state.

Almost a fourth of those polled, 23 percent, were undecided, a slight increase from May. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut was at 11 percent, and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri was at 10 percent.

Rome

Bill passed to suspend premier’s bribery trial

Italy’s lower house of parliament passed an immunity bill Wednesday that will suspend Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s bribery trial just as it was nearing a verdict.

The bill approved by the Chamber of Deputies spares the top five public officials from prosecution while in office.

Most of the center-left opposition left the Chamber in protest before the secret ballot.

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is expected to sign the bill into law soon, meaning the case against Berlusconi will likely be suspended before Italy takes over the European Union presidency July 1.

Berlusconi, a billionaire media magnate, is accused of bribing judges to sway a ruling in the sale of a state-held food conglomerate SME in the 1980s, a decade before he went into politics. He has denied the charges and says he is the victim of left-leaning prosecutors in Milan.

Netherlands

U.S. lawyers barred in war crimes defense

The United States has barred American lawyers from representing war crimes suspects at the U.N. tribunal for Yugoslavia, a court document said Wednesday.

An executive order is aimed at cutting off support to about 200 people and organizations in the former Yugoslavia blacklisted by the U.S. government. It outlaws providing goods, services and funds to those people.

In Washington, Treasury Department spokesman Taylor Griffin said that the list of banned activities included providing legal services to people on the blacklist. However, Griffin said lawyers could apply for permission from the government to represent Balkan war crimes suspects.

The list, published on a U.S. government Web site, includes all the suspects in proceedings at the Yugoslav tribunal, including former President Slobodan Milosevic and his family.

Jordan

King’s allies triumph in parliament elections

Allies of King Abdullah II have won more than half of the seats in Jordan’s parliamentary elections, final results confirmed Wednesday. Muslim fundamentalists returned to the legislature as the largest opposition bloc.

The victory by allies of King Abdullah II had been expected, since Jordan’s political culture favors the tribal leaders who owe allegiance to the ruling Hashemite dynasty.

The leading opposition party, the Islamic Action Front, won 18 of parliament’s 110 seats, according to final results posted on the interior ministry’s Internet site and read over the state television.

Prominent among Islamic Action Front winners was Hayat al-Museimi, the top-scoring female candidate in the elections. The law reserves six seats for the female candidates who get highest returns.

The elections were the first in six years.