Denmark

Study: Stem cells could develop into sex cells

Scientists in Britain have shown that stem cells extracted from human embryos can develop in the laboratory into the early forms of cells that become eggs or sperm. The research raises the possibility that one day eggs and sperm needed for infertility treatment could be grown in a dish.

Preliminary experiments also suggest that scientists may eventually be able to use the technique to create a supply of eggs for cloning.

But the more immediate benefit of the work could be a better understanding of why some men and women do not create their own sperm or eggs and whether toxic chemicals in the environment play a role, one of the researchers said before the start of the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. The findings were scheduled to be presented today in Copenhagen.

Many scientists believe that chemical pollutants, such as pesticides, that mimic the action of hormones might interfere with human development at the stage where eggs and sperm – called germ cells – are forming and that this disruption may cause birth abnormalities, infertility and possibly cancer.

Aruba

Police question father of Dutch teenager

Aruban police on Sunday questioned the father of a Dutch teenager held in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager, hoping the island justice official may know something to help solve the mystery of what happened to her, an official said.

Paul van der Sloot, a judge-in-training on the island, was questioned for two hours Sunday afternoon after five hours Saturday night, said Police Supt. Jan van der Straaten.

Joran van der Sloot, 17, was one of the people last seen with Natalee Holloway the night she disappeared. Three other men have been detained, but no one has been charged.

Van der Straaten said the father was asked to come back Sunday because officials were not able to finish the interrogation on Saturday, but declined to give more details.

“He was questioned as a witness, no more or no less,” van der Straaten told The Associated Press.

During Sunday’s interrogation, van der Sloot’s wife, Anita van der Sloot, met with Joran in jail, said van der Straaten.

Holloway, 18, of Mountain Brook, Ala., disappeared in the early hours of May 30, the last day of a five-day vacation with 124 students celebrating their high school graduation. Her U.S. passport and packed bags were found in her hotel room.

Spain

Emigrant vote could swing election balance

The sole surviving politician from Gen. Francisco Franco’s regime was looking for a fifth straight majority for his party Sunday in a close vote that may hinge on the votes of expatriate Spaniards.

With 99 percent of the vote counted, Manuel Fraga’s Popular Party was set to win 37 seats – one short of a 38-majority in the 75-seat Parliament of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. But the result was so close that the final balance of power was not immediately clear.

Fraga has held a majority since 1990, but for many Spaniards, he is a political dinosaur left over from Spain’s right wing past. The election showed the political icon who served as Franco’s information minister and ambassador to Britain still has support in conservative Galicia, home to both him and to the late dictator who ruled Spain between 1939 and 1975.

The latest count indicated that the Socialist party would take 25 seats and the Nationalist Galician Bloc would have 13. With those results, the Socialists and Nationalists could form a majority and remove the 82-year-old Fraga, as they have indicated they would do.

Iran

American plane makes emergency landing

A Northwest Airlines DC-10 made an emergency landing in Tehran on Sunday after an indicator detected a fire in the cargo hold in what turned out to be a false alarm, a spokesman said.

No injuries were reported and the plane later took off and landed safely at its destination in the Netherlands, some eight hours late.

The plane, which was en route from Bombay, India, to Amsterdam, had 255 passengers and crew, according to a spokesman for the Iranian civil aviation authority.

The crew decided to land the plane in the Iranian capital when an indicator detected a fire in the cargo hold, but that was later determined to be a false alarm, said Jeff Smith, a spokesman for Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines.

U.S. carriers do not serve Iran because of American economic sanctions. Washington broke ties with Iran shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution when militants seized the U.S. Embassy and held 52 hostages for 444 days.

The plane spent about seven hours in Iran on Sunday, while officials determined there was no mechanical problem, then bought fuel.