Sarkozy, who last week faced criticism from rivals and the church for saying people could be born paedophiles, defended those comments and told the left-leaning Liberation daily that some characteristics, including sexual preferences, were innate.

“I was born heterosexual. I have never questioned myself about the choice of my sexuality. That is why the church’s position, which consists of saying ‘Homosexuality is a sin’, is shocking,” he said in the interview.

“One doesn’t choose one’s identity ... One has the identity that one has.”

Sarkozy, like his centrist presidential rival Francois Bayrou, has said he is opposed to gay marriage in principle but promised new financial rights and wider options for adopting children. – Reuters

Thai King pardons Swiss jailed for royal insult
CHIANG MAI, Thailand (April 12, 2007): Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej has pardoned a Swiss man jailed for 10 years for defacing royal images, prison chief Chuchart Chailert said today.

“His Majesty has granted him a pardon and we released him on Tuesday (April 10),” said the head of the prison in the northern city of Chiang Mai where 57-year-old Oliver Rudolf Jufer was sent after being sentenced last month.

“He now feels guilty about what he has done and is grateful for the royal pardon,” Chuchart told Reuters on the eve of the Thai New Year.

The pardon for Jufer, who immigration police said was due to leave for Switzerland today, was not a surprise. King Bhumibol has said forcefully in public he is not above criticism and who usually pardons people jailed for lese majeste.

Jufer, a longtime resident of Thailand, was arrested in Chiang Mai for spraying black paint on several portraits of King Bhumibol, 79, whom many Thais revere as semi-divine, and Queen Sirikit.

He was initially jailed 20 years, but the judge reduced the term because Jufer, facing up to 75 years in prison, pleaded guilty. – Reuters

Senate votes to ease Bush stem cell limits

WASHINGTON (April 12, 2007): The Democratic-led U.S. Senate voted yesterday to lift a key restriction by President George W. Bush on the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

But Congress is not expected to muster the two-thirds majority votes to override a promised Bush veto, leaving the emotionally charged issue to resurface in next year’s presidential and congressional races.

The Senate passed legislation to eliminate a nearly 6-year-old Bush restriction, 63-34, with 17 Republicans and two independents joining 44 Democrats in voting aye.

Bush vetoed a similar bill last year. It would expand federal funding of stem cell research, which is now limited by the president to batches available as of August 2001.

Democrats vowed to lift this restriction in winning control of Congress in November from Bush’s fellow Republicans.

Advocates and a majority of Americans back embryonic stem cell research. Proponents say it offers major hope for cures for such ailments as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries.

But the testing requires destruction of days-old embryos that is condemned by many anti-abortion advocates.

Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and chief sponsor of the bill, urged Bush “to reconsider his threat to veto it”.

“There are some 400,000 leftover, unwanted embryos in fertility clinics across America,” Harkin said. “All we are saying is, instead of throwing those leftover embryos away, let’s allow couples to donate a few of them, if they wish, to create stem cell lines that could cure diseases and save lives.”

VETO VOW

Bush reiterated his vow to veto the bill, but said he would sign into law an alternative measure that the Senate passed 70-28 shortly afterward with mostly Republican
support.

This measure would encourage research on certain forms of stem cells but not beyond Bush’s 2001 restrictions. Critics called the measure a sham that would merely let lawmakers say they voted for stem cell research.

But proponents said it would provide a needed step forward by allowing research on some embryos that can no longer develop into fetuses.

“I strongly support this bill, and I encourage the Congress to pass it and send it to me for my signature, so stem cell science can progress, without ethical and cultural conflict,“ Bush said.

Shortly after taking office in 2001, Bush issued an executive order that permitted for the first time federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. But he limited it to batches available as of that August.

The bill first passed by the Senate yesterday would lift this restriction, but keep in place one that prohibits use of federal funds to create embryos via cloning or other technology.

To override a veto, a two-thirds majority vote would be needed in the Senate and House of Representatives. In January, the House passed a similar bill, but far short of a two-thirds margin.

Yet Republican and Democrat backers predicted such legislation will eventually become law.

“He (Bush) is not going to be president forever,” said Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat.

Stem cells are a kind of master cell for the body, capable of growing into various tissue and cell types. Scientists hope to use the cells from embryos to repair damaged tissue. – Reuters

Tale of Teeny Ted said to be world’s smallest book

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (April 12, 2007): Canadian researchers said on yesterday they have produced the world’s smallest published book, a story of a turnip contest that will require readers to use an electron microscope.

The book, titled “Teeny Ted from Turnip Town”, measures 0.07mm by 0.10mm and was made using a focused gallium-ion beam to carve out spaces around each letter on pieces of crystalline silicon, according to Simon Fraser University.

That is smaller than the head of a pin which is about 2mm, according to the researchers.

The book is tinier than two cited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s smallest, a copy of the New Testament of the King James Bible, made in 2001, and a 2002 production of Anton Chekhov’s “Chameleon”, the researchers said.

Each of the “nanobooks” is made up of 30 microtablets. The story is described by the Vancouver university as a “fable about Teeny Ted’s victory in a turnip contest at the annual country fair.” – Reuters

Doc: Maradona determined to cure his addictions

BUENOS AIRES (April 12, 2007): Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona feels
surprisingly well and is determined to cure his addictions after his release from a two-week hospital stay for alcohol-abuse treatment, doctors said yesterday.

Maradona will be at home for a couple of weeks and then may go to a Swiss clinic for further treatment, his doctor Alfredo Cahe said at a news conference, flanked by three other doctors from the team that treated him.

“This time Diego has heard the wake-up call. He’s going to do something positive for himself,” said Cahe, who has been Maradona’s doctor for 31 years.

Maradona, 46, was hospitalised for alcohol-induced hepatitis and was sedated for days to help ease his withdrawal. He lost some 15 pounds (7 kg) during the hospitalisation, octors said.

In a telephone interview with local sports channel TyC, Maradona said he would go on Sunday to the stadium of his beloved former club, Boca Juniors, to watch the “superclassic“ game against archrival River Plate.

“I’m going with my IV, my doctor, in an ambulance, whatever’s needed (...) on Sunday we’re going to win,” he said, slurring his words as he spoke from a Buenos Aires suburb.

Alcohol is just the latest of the damaging addictions that have plagued Maradona in the decade since his retirement from professional soccer.

Known as one of the game’s greatest players, the Argentine icon has undergone rehabilitation for cocaine abuse and had a stomach stapling operation to lose weight.

Cahe said he was surprised at how well Maradona was doing after the damage to his liver.

“The hand of God has always helped him,” Cahe said, referring to one of Maradona’s most famous moments. Maradona’s crowning glory came in 1986 when he led Argentina to its second World Cup triumph.

Part of that victory was a notorious goal he referred to as partly "the hand of God" after he appeared to punch the ball into the net in a game against England.Referees allowed the goal to stand.

Cahe said he would like Maradona to spend some time alone, surrounded by friends of his choosing, who make him happy.

Treating addiction is a question of taking things one day at a time, he added.

In the past, Maradona has been surrounded by drug dealers and economic leeches. - Reuters