Original Post Text:
A mouse that can speak? A monkey with Down's Syndrome? Dogs with human hands or feet? British scientists want to know if such experiments are acceptable, or if they go too far in the name of medical research.

The Academy of Medical Sciences has launched a study to look at the use of animals containing human material in scientific research.

Using human material in animals is not new. Scientists have already created rhesus macaque monkeys that have a human form of the Huntingdon's gene so they can investigate how the disease develops; and mice with livers made from human cells are being used to study the effects of new drugs.

But scientists say the technology to put ever greater amounts of human genetic material into animals is spreading quickly around the world -- raising the possibility that some scientists in some places may want to push boundaries.

Religious groups are among those that are uneasy about the trend. One Catholic cardinal, Keith O'Brien of Edinburgh, has branded such work "Frankenstein science."

Martin Bobrow, a professor of medical genetics at Cambridge University is chairman of a 14-member group looking into the issue.

He says: "Do most of us care if we make a mouse whose blood cells or liver are human? Probably not. But if it can speak? If it can think? Or if it is conscious in a human way? Then we're in a completely different ballpark."

What do you say?

The Academy of Medical Sciences has launched a study to look at the use of animals containing human material in scientific research.

Using human material in animals is not new. Scientists have already created rhesus macaque monkeys that have a human form of the Huntingdon's gene so they can investigate how the disease develops; and mice with livers made from human cells are being used to study the effects of new drugs.

But scientists say the technology to put ever greater amounts of human genetic material into animals is spreading quickly around the world -- raising the possibility that some scientists in some places may want to push boundaries.

Religious groups are among those that are uneasy about the trend. One Catholic cardinal, Keith O'Brien of Edinburgh, has branded such work "Frankenstein science."

Martin Bobrow, a professor of medical genetics at Cambridge University is chairman of a 14-member group looking into the issue.

He says: "Do most of us care if we make a mouse whose blood cells or liver are human? Probably not. But if it can speak? If it can think? Or if it is conscious in a human way? Then we're in a completely different ballpark."

What do you say?

Waves of H1N1 swine flu spread by some three million pilgrims travelling to and from Mecca for next month's haj threaten to pile pressure on healthcare systems around the world, disease experts said on Thursday.

"No region can be considered free from risk," said the U.S. and Arab experts, including Saudia Arabia's deputy minister for preventative medicine, in a study in the journal Science.  The pilgrimage itself, in the last week of November, provides perfect conditions for the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, which is transmitted in droplets and by physical contact.

"The density of pilgrims, the nature of the rituals, and the shoulder-to-shoulder contact recommended during prayers provide a perfect transmission atmosphere," wrote Shahul Ebrahim of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Ziad Memish of Saudi Arabia's health ministry.

Around 3 million pilgrims from more than 160 countries take part in the haj in the holy city of Mecca most years, including up to 2 million who travel from abroad.  Memish and Ebrahim also said that after the event, around 45,000 pilgrims from Europe and more than 15,000 from North America will pass though major global airline hubs on their way home, further increasing the risk of spreading the virus.

Read the full story here.

(Photo: Flu shot, 26 Oct 2009/Ralph Orlowski)

Several Muslim countries have imposed restrictions on the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia because of worries about a major outbreak of H1N1 flu.

Here are some details from our Factbox:

* EGYPT:
-- The most populous Arab state has decided to restrict umra and haj pilgrims to those over 25 and under 65. Egypt also plans to inoculate pilgrims against the H1N1 virus.
-- Egypt was the first Arab country to say that the haj and the ritual of umra were a threat to its citizens' lives.

* IRAQ:
-- The health ministry says haj travel is forbidden for sick people, pregnant women, people above 65 years of age, children under 12 and obese people.
-- It says it has assigned 330 doctors to go with people on the haj. While there, Iraqis will be assigned to 18 compounds where food will be prepared for them and in each compound there will be a clinic. Before going on haj one must have a checkup.

* MOROCCO:
-- Morocco plans no restriction on travel for haj if the situation does not deteriorate in Saudi Arabia but has made it mandatory for its more than 30,000 pilgrims to get the anti-flu vaccine.
-- Authorities will allow pilgrims to travel for haj only when they have had their passports stamped by health officials to prove they have had their vaccination, officials said.

* OMAN:
-- Oman issued an order on July 6 telling high-risk groups to postpone haj.

* TUNISIA:
-- Tunisia has barred its citizens from making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca for the first time because of a lack of swine flu vaccines, the government said earlier this month.
-- The Ministry of Religious Affairs said a batch of H1N1 flu jabs would not arrive before mid-October, too late to ensure candidates for the pilgrimage, or haj, are vaccinated.
-- Tunisia is the first country formally to cancel the pilgrimage.

(Photo: Swine flu precautions in Kuala Lumpur, 29 July 2009/Bazuki Muhammad)

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Here are some of the main findings:

* ABORTION TRENDS:

-- The rate of safe abortions dropped between 1995 and 2003 to 15 from 20 per 1,000 women aged 15-44, but unsafe abortions declined only slightly -- to 14 from 15 per 1,000 women aged 15-44. The overall rate fell to 29 from 35 per 1,000 women.

-- Globally around 70,000 women die each year from the effects of unsafe abortions, a figure that has barely changed in the last 10 years. An estimated 8 million women annually experience complications and need medical treatment, but only 5 million actually get that care.

(Photo: Anti-abortion protester in London, 27 Oct 2007/Toby Melville)

-- Contraceptive use has increased in many parts of the world, particularly Latin America and Asia, contributing to a decline in the worldwide unintended pregnancy rate to 55 per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in 2008 from 69 per 1,000 in 1995.

-- A number of countries in which abortion was highly restricted in the 1990s have now liberalised their laws. Since 1997, 22 countries or administrative areas within countries have changed abortion laws. In 19 of those, restrictions were eased.

* ABORTION NUMBERS: (In millions)

               TOTALS           SAFE           UNSAFE:
            1995    2003    1995    2003    1995    2003
 WORLD      45.5    41.6    25.6    21.9    19.9    19.7
 AFRICA      5.0     5.6    n/a      0.1     5.0     5.5
 ASIA       26.8    25.9    16.9    16.2     9.9     9.8
 LATIN AMERICA &
 CARIBBEAN   4.2     4.1     0.2     0.2     4.0     3.9
 EUROPE      7.7     4.3     6.8     3.9     0.9     0.5
 OCEANIA     0.1     0.1     0.1     0.1     n/a     0.02
 N.AMERICA   1.5     1.5     1.5     1.5     n/a     n/a

Sources: Reuters/Guttmacher Institute

Click here for our news story on this report: Unsafe abortions kill 70,000 a year, harm millions.

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That dreaded time has come. The School Sports Day season is upon us --  and with it comes the mother of all challanges -- the Mums' Race.

When I say challenge, it's not so much the distance, or speed, but the ludicrous array of dilemmas it throws up.

Should you do it at all? Are you setting a bad example by racing against others, or does the lesson of taking part override any question about the morality of trying to beat fellow human beings to the finish line?

Or should you politely ignore Megaphone Man's  invitation, despite having enjoyed watching your own and other people's children gamefully and un-selfconsciously crawling through tunnels, racing around cones and leaping over obstacles for the past two hours.

Should you win, and embarrass yourself and your child? Or should you lose, and embarrass yourself and your child? 

Should you run in sandals, a strappy top and a floaty skirt, and risk what Janet Jackson once described as a "wardrobe malfunction", or slip on the running spikes and lycra and shrug off the sneers of those less well-prepared?

Well, it's summer, and the children are only young. So the best strategy is probably to go barefoot, in the middle of the pack, balancing a bean bag on your head and laughing all the way.

After my son proudly produced his first hand-written book, delightfully entitled "Imfmashen about plarnts" and peppered with details about "leevs" and "roots " and "barc", my sympathy for children (and teachers) across the English-speaking world
deepened.

How is it possible that the spelling such words as "cough" and "although" and "through" should be so similar when they sound so different?

In some ways, it would seem a shame to reduce our often beautiful and eccentric language to a series of text-message-like phonetics, but when you consider the cost of
teaching spelling to our children --  the SSS estimates it at an eye-watering £18 million a year in Britain alone -- the argument gains some weight.

In other languages, like Spanish, learning the alphabet gives you immediate access to be able to read, spell and pronounce every word -- even those you have never come across and don't understand.

And with Spanish competing with English as the world's most dominant language, is it time for the English-speaking world to modernise or die.