Tasting DNA-Altered Salmon That May Hit US Plates

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Deep in the rain forests of Panama, in a secret location behind padlocked gates, barbed-wire fences and over a rickety wooden bridge, grows what could be the most debated food product of our time.


It may look like the 1993 hit movie "Jurassic Park," but at this real-life freshwater farm scientists are altering the genes not of dinosaurs -- but of fish.


They are growing a new DNA-altered saltwater fish in the mountains, far from the sea -- a salmon that could be the first genetically altered animal protein approved for the world to eat. If it is approved, this would be a landmark change for human food.


But it is one critics call "Frankenfish."


"The idea of changing an animal form, I think, is really creepy," said Gary Hirshberg, founder of Stonyfield Farm, an organic dairy farm. "When you move the DNA from a species into another species ... you create a new life form that's so new and so unique that you can get a patent for it."


And until now, AquaBounty, the multinational biotech company that for 20 years has been developing this giant fish, has kept it under close wraps.


The press has never been invited to its Prince Edward Island laboratory on the Canadian maritime coast, and its fish farm location in Panama has been kept secret out of fear of sabotage.


The Food and Drug Administration has seen it, but few from the outside. In fact, the last public tour of any kind was four years ago.










AquaBounty Creates 'Fort Knox for Fish'


ABC News was given exclusive access to see the facilities up close and an opportunity to taste this mysterious fish that FDA scientists say "is as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon," although have yet to officially approve it for public sale.


Ron Stotish, the president and CEO of AquaBounty Technologies, the company that created and hopes to market the eggs of this salmon to independent fish farms around the world, told ABC News it has employed bio-security measures, creating a "Fort Knox for fish," to ensure safety for the fish and prevent cross-contamination with the wild.


Entry to both facilities begins with body suits and iodine baths for shoes, which serves to keep the fish safe from germs.


Inside these protected tanks, America gets the first up-close look at the final product, the fish that has the food police up in arms.


"These are very healthy, beautiful Atlantic salmon," Stotish said.


With one big difference -- the growth rate of a regular salmon compared to that of an AquaBounty genetically modified fish.


While the AquaBounty fish do not grow to a size larger than normal salmon, they get to full size much faster, cutting costs for producers.


A normal-size 1-year-old Atlantic salmon averages 10 inches long, while the genetically modified fish at the same age is more than two times larger, coming in at 24 inches.


Salmon is the second most popular seafood in America. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average size of an Atlantic salmon is 28 inches to 30 inches and 8 pounds to 12 pounds after two years at sea.


How do they accomplish the accelerated growth?


"They differ by a single gene," Stotish said.


But, it's that single gene change that makes the DNA-altered salmon grow much faster than a normal Atlantic salmon, because it's really three fish in one.


AquaBounty scientists have taken a growth gene from the Chinook salmon and inserted it into the DNA of the Atlantic salmon because Chinooks grow fast from birth, while Atlantics do not.


"Salmon in their first two years of life grow very slowly," Stotish said.






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Boehner, House GOP leaders offer ‘fiscal cliff’ counterproposal

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House GOP leaders endorsed a debt-reduction plan Monday that would raise tax collections by $800 billion over the next decade, but they refused to budge on higher tax rates for the wealthy, the central issue dividing Republicans and Democrats.


In making a counteroffer to President Obama, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other senior Republicans suggested that a framework laid out by Democrat Erskine Bowles last year could serve as a starting point for talks aimed at averting the year-end “fiscal cliff.”

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Police raid highway operator over Japan tunnel collapse

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TOKYO: Japanese police on Tuesday raided offices belonging to a highway operator over a weekend tunnel collapse that killed nine people.

More than eight officers from the Yamanashi Police Department entered the office of NEXCO in Hachioji, western Tokyo, a spokesman for the highway operator said.

"We are fully cooperating with the authorities over the accident," the spokesman told AFP.

Police also plan to raid more of the company's offices in connection with the tragedy at the Sasago tunnel, which passes through hills near Mount Fuji, Japanese broadcaster NHK said.

On Monday, the Japanese government ordered inspections of ageing highway tunnels following the accident as suspicion over the cause of the accident centred on decaying ceiling supports.

- AFP/fa/ck



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Patels clearly hold the key

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AHMEDABAD: Ever since former Congress chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki formulated KHAM - a political axis comprising kshatriyas, harijans, adivasis and Muslims - that helped Congress a record 149 seats in 1985 - Patels have steadily gravitated towards the BJP. The Congress has not tasted power in Gujarat after 1990 thanks to rising Patel power.

In all, there are 148 Patel candidates in fray representing the three main players - BJP, Congress and GPP. Leuvas, a Patel sub-caste which Keshubhai Patel represents, dominate at least 40 out of the total 182 seats in Gujarat, mostly in Saurashtra, south and central Gujarat. Leuva Patels constitute anything between 20% to 50% votes in these 40 seats. Kadva Patels are in large numbers in north Gujarat. With Keshubhai threatening to make a dent into BJP's vote share, mainly due to the clout he enjoys in his community, BJP has also fielded a large number of Patels. But BJP's Patel leaders like Purshottam Rupala, Anandiben Patel and RC Faldu are no match to Keshubhai.

Modi tried his best to rope in Naresh Patel, a community leader who has become a rallying point for the economically powerful community, which now wants to re-gain its lost political glory by helping both the GPP and Congress.

Besides, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, which has a large following among Patel farmers, is aggressively campaigning against Modi. VHP leader Pravin Togadia, himself a Leuva Patel, is likely to make matters worse for the Gujarat CM.

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Mars Rover Detects Simple Organic Compounds

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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has detected several simple carbon-based organic compounds on Mars, but it remains unclear whether they were formed via Earthly contamination or whether they contain only elements indigenous to the planet.

Speaking at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, Curiosity mission leaders also said that the compound perchlorate—identified previously in polar Mars—appeared to also be present in Gale Crater, the site of Curiosity's exploration.

The possible discovery of organics—or carbon-based compounds bonded to hydrogen, also called hydrocarbons—could have major implications for the mission's search for more complex organic material.

It would not necessarily mean that life exists now or ever existed on Mars, but it makes the possibility of Martian life—especially long ago when the planet was wetter and warmer—somewhat greater, since available carbon is considered to be so important to all known biology.

(See "Mars Curiosity Rover Finds Proof of Flowing Water—A First.")

The announcements came after several weeks of frenzied speculation about a "major discovery" by Curiosity on Mars. But project scientist John Grotzinger said that it remains too early to know whether Martian organics have been definitely discovered or if they're byproducts of contamination brought from Earth.

"When this data first came in, and then was confirmed in a second sample, we did have a hooting and hollering moment," he said.

"The enthusiasm we had was perhaps misunderstood. We're doing science at the pace of science, but news travels at a different speed."

Organics Detected Before on Mars

The organic compounds discovered—different combinations of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine—are the same or similar to chlorinated organics detected in the mid-1970s by the Viking landers.

(Related: "Life on Mars Found by NASA's Viking Mission?")

At the time, the substances were written off as contamination brought from Earth, but now scientists know more about how the compounds could be formed on Mars. The big question remains whether the carbon found in the compounds is of Martian or Earthly origin.

Paul Mahaffy, the principal investigator of the instrument that may have found the simple organics—the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)—said that while the findings were not "definitive," they were significant and would require a great deal of further study.

Mahaffy also said the discovery came as a surprise, since the soil sample involved was hardly a prime target in the organics search. In fact, the soil was scooped primarily to clean out the rover's mobile laboratory and soil-delivery systems.

Called Rocknest, the site is a collection of rocks with rippled sand around them—an environment not considered particularly promising for discovery. The Curiosity team has always thought it had a much better chance of finding the organics in clays and sulfate minerals known to be present at the base of Mount Sharp, located in the Gale Crater, where the rover will head early next year.

(See the Mars rover Curiosity's first color pictures.)

The rover has been at Rocknest for a month and has scooped sand and soil five times. It was the first site where virtually all the instruments on Curiosity were used, Grotzinger said, and all of them proved to be working well.

They also worked well in unison—with one instrument giving the surprising signal that the minerals in the soil were not all crystalline, which led to the intensive examination of the non-crystalline portion to see if it contained any organics.

Rover Team "Very Confident"

The simple organics detected by SAM were in the chloromethane family, which contains compounds that are sometimes used to clean electronic equipment. Because it was plausible that Viking could have brought the compounds to Mars as contamination, that conclusion was broadly accepted.

But in 2010, Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center and Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico published an influential paper describing how dichloromethane can be a byproduct of the heating of other organic material in the presence of the compound perchlorate.

They conducted the experiment because NASA's Phoenix mission had discovered large amounts of perchlorate in the northern polar soil of Mars, and it seems plausible that it would exist elsewhere on the planet.

"In terms of the SAM results, there are two important conclusions," said McKay, a scientist on the SAM team.

"The first is confirming the perchlorate story—that it's most likely there and seems to react at high temperatures with organic material to form the dichloromethane and other simple organics."

"The second is that we'll have to either find organics without perchlorates nearby, or find a way to get around that perchlorate wall that keeps us from identifying organics," he said.

Another SAM researcher, Danny Glavin of Goddard, said his team is "very confident" about the reported detection of the hydrocarbons, and that they were produced in the rover's ovens. He said it is clear that the chlorine in the compounds is from Mars, but less clear about the carbon.

"We will figure out what's going on here," he said. "We have the instruments and we have the people. And whatever the final conclusions, we will have learned important things about Mars that we can use in the months ahead."

Author of the National Geographic e-book Mars Landing 2012, Marc Kaufman has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including the past 12 as a science and space writer, foreign correspondent, and editor for the Washington Post. He is also author of First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth, published in 2011, and has spoken extensively to crowds across the United States and abroad about astrobiology. He lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife, Lynn Litterine.


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Suspect Allegedly Told Cops He Traveled to Kill

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A man charged in the death of a teenage barista in Alaska told police that he traveled the country with the sole purpose to kill strangers because he "liked to do it," prosecutors said today.


Vermont and federal prosecutors detailed the meticulous and cold-blooded murder of Bill and Lorraine Currier in Essex, Vt., last year and said the information came from Israel Keyes before he killed himself in an Alaska jail cell Sunday. Keyes provided details that only the perpetrator would know, police said.


Keyes, 34, the owner of an Anchorage construction company, was in jail charged with the February murder of Samantha Koenig, 18. While in jail he had been confessing to at least seven other killings in Washington, New York and Vermont.


Now that he is dead, investigators are wondering how many more killings Keyes might be responsible for and why he committed the crimes.


"He provided some motivation, but I don't think it's really [possible] to pigeonhole why he did this," Tristram Coffin, U.S. Attorney in Vermont, said at a news conference today. "He described to investigators that this was a volitional act of his. He wasn't compelled by some uncontrollable force, but it was something that he could control and he liked to do it. Why someone likes to act like that, nobody knows."










Missing Alaska Barista Had Past Restraining Order Watch Video







Authorities described the murders of the Curriers in great detail, offering insight into how the twisted killer traveled to murder, his criteria for choosing random victims and his careful planning of of the murders.


"When [Keyes] left Alaska, he left with the specific purpose of kidnapping and murdering someone," Chittenden County State Attorney T. J. Donovan said at the press conference. "He was specifically looking for a house that had an attached garage, no car in the driveway, no children, no dog."


The Curriers, unfortunately, fit all of Keyes' criteria. He spent three days in Vermont before striking. He even took out a three-day fishing license and fished before the slayings.


In June 2011, Keyes went to their house and cut a phone line from outside and made sure they did not have a security system that would alert police. He donned a head lamp and broke into their house with a gun and silencer that he had brought with him.


Keyes found the couple in bed and tied them up with zip ties. He took Lorraine Currier's purse and wallet as well as Bill Currier's gun. He left the man's wallet.


He put the couple in their own car and drove them to an abandoned farmhouse that he had previously scoped out. Keyes tied Bill Currier to a stool in the basement and went back to the car for Lorraine Currier.


"Keyes saw that Lorraine had broken free from the zip ties and observed that she was running towards Main Street," Donovan said. "He tackled her to regain control of her."


Keyes took Lorraine Currier to the second floor of the farmhouse and tied her up. He rushed to the basement when he heard commotion and found that Bill Currier's stool had broken and he was partially free.






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Norquist still calling cadence in GOP ranks

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At times, it has seemed that Republican lawmakers eyeing a fiscal compromise with President Obama were moving closer to a public split with Grover Norquist, author of the famous no-new-taxes pledge that has defined conservative politics for decades.


Yet Norquist, whose influence in the conservative movement spans well beyond his well-known fixation on taxes, remains an unwavering force in the GOP debate — and even some of the most prominent lawmakers publicly flirting with a break from Norquist have assured him in private that they remain loyal soldiers in the anti-tax cause.

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Slovenia's former premier Pahor elected president

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LJUBLJANA: Slovenia's centre-left former prime minister Borut Pahor became the country's fourth president on Sunday, scoring a comfortable second-round victory despite his support for the government's unpopular austerity measures.

With 99.99 per cent of ballots counted, Pahor had 67.44 per cent of the votes, ahead of the incumbent Danilo Turk with 32.56 per cent, the central electoral commission said.

49-year-old Pahor, who was backed by the centre-left opposition Social Democrats (SD), also received the votes of the centre-right ruling parties in the second round.

He appeared to have won voters over with a populist US-style campaign -- and by admitting that some of his decisions as prime minister had been wrong.

Pahor was ousted as premier by a no-confidence vote in 2011, but during his presidential campaign, he capitalised on his image as a good-looking, relaxed, people's politician.

"This victory is only the beginning of a new hope, a new time," Pahor said after exit polls earlier on Sunday gave him victory. He was "overwhelmed" by the support he had received, he said.

Earlier, he had told reporters: "If I succeed, that result will send a strong message to Slovenian politicians that collaboration and unity are needed to overcome the (economic) difficulties."

Voter turnout in the second round however was 41.95 per cent, the lowest ever at a presidential election since Slovenia declared independence in 1991.

Pahor became the favourite to take over the largely ceremonial presidential post after a surprise win in the first round on November 11, when he pushed Turk into second place.

Unlike Turk, he had defended the austerity measures introduced by Prime Minister Janez Jansa's centre-right government, arguing that there was no other option.

The belt-tightening is aimed at cutting the public deficit this year to 3.5 per cent of GDP.

The cuts, including to public sector wages and welfare benefits, have brought thousands of protesters out into the streets in recent weeks.

The prime minister was among the first to congratulate Pahor on his win.

"During the campaign debates, he said things that were not popular but had to be said, and despite that he received such support," Jansa told journalists on Sunday.

Earlier, Jansa's ruling Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) tweeted: "This evening is marked by hopes that the new president will bring more collaboration."

At a debate last week, Pahor had called for more cooperation with the government, adding: "We should not lose any more time speculating about possible alternatives (to austerity)."

Slovenia, once seen as a star new member of the European Union, is suffering one of the deepest recessions in the eurozone. The problems with its banks have raised fears it may need a bailout.

The European Commission has predicted the country's output will shrink 2.3 per cent this year and 1.6 per cent in 2013.

Turk had hoped to capitalise on the wave of protests against austerity measures.

"This government has been unsuccessful, it is arrogant, and it should make big changes," Turk said as he voted Sunday, urging it to "listen to protesters."

On Sunday evening however, he admitted defeat in a speech to supporters. Clearly disappointed, he regretted the low turnout.

"I failed to convince more citizens to cast their votes and to give me their support," he said.

Turk, long a thorn in the side of the government, ran as an independent candidate, but with backing from the largest centre-left opposition party, Positive Slovenija (PS).

Although Slovenia's president has little power, analysts say the prime minister will benefit from collaborating with the head of state.

This could be particularly important if the opposition and unions succeed in calling referendums to try to block new reforms.

Those reforms include a controversial IMF-backed plan to create a "bad bank", a financial institution that would take over risky debt held by state-owned banks to restore trust in their balance sheets.

A week after the first-round vote, 30,000 people attended a rally in Ljubljana called by Slovenia's main unions to protest at austerity cuts, and several other demonstrations have followed.

On Friday, police in Ljubljana used tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators, detaining more than 30 people after violence erupted at the end of a largely peaceful rally.

Some 1.7 million were eligible to vote on Sunday.

- AFP/xq



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FDI in retail to safeguard international market mafias' interest: BJP

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ANI Dec 1, 2012, 03.28PM IST

NEW DELHI: India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said retail reform is a step taken by the Congress led-federal government to safeguard the interests of the international market mafias at the cost of national interest.

BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday that voting inside the parliament would decide as to who is in favour of national interest and who is working for international interests.

"The government feels that their responsibility is to safeguard the interest of international market mafias instead of national interest and for saving the interest of international market mafias, the government is ready to compromise with national interests. Now, the parliament will decide as to who is in support of international market mafias and who are supporting national interests," said Naqvi.

The government's decision to allow foreign supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart had triggered protest not only from opposition parties but also from some of its allies.

BJP had sought debate on the issue of allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector, under the rule that entails voting after discussions.

Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister Office (PMO), V Narayanaswamy said the government would answer all the queries raised by the opposition parties in the parliament and will explain the benefits of allowing FDI in retail sector.

The lower house of parliament has set December 04 and 05 as the date to vote and debate on FDI. The dates for the upper house are yet to be decided.

Narayanaswamy said the government is confident of becoming victorious in the debate.

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

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