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Laboratory equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific has settled a lawsuit brought by the estate of Henrietta Lacks, a long-deceased cancer victim whose “immortal” cells have lived on to fuel biomedical research for decades, lawyers for the estate have said. The story of Lacks, a young African American woman who died in Baltimore in 1951, was made famous in Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which became a movie in 2017 featuring Oprah Winfrey. The HeLa cell line, the first to survive and reproduce indefinitely in lab conditions, has been cultivated in vast quantities and used in...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has never been a friend to Israel. Today, speaking at the 2012 Saban Forum on US-Israel Relations, a liberal organization, she railed against Israel for supposed insensitivity, lack of empathy, and lack of generosity with regard to the Palestinians – even as the Palestinians unilaterally violated all agreements with Israel and attempted to declare statehood, and within days of Hamas firing rockets on Israeli population centers and bombing a bus. Here’s what she said: So, look, I’m not making excuses for the missed opportunities of the Israelis, or the lack of generosity, the lack of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior counterterrorism official said on Wednesday his agency lacks "Google-like" search capability that could have identified the suspect in the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing. The National Counterterrorism Center, the agency charged with reviewing disparate data to protect against attacks, does not have a computer search engine that could have checked for various spellings of the alleged bomber's name and his birthplace in Nigeria, the center's chief told a Senate hearing on security reform. "We do not have that exact capacity," said Michael Leiter, adding that the agency is working on solutions that could be in...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon hasn't made the case for exemptions from three environmental laws or provided examples of how military operations have been impeded by them, a congressional report said Friday. The Government Accountability Office report came after the Navy lost in court over training exercises it was conducting under an exemption to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Environmentalists contended that the Navy's use of sonar could harm whales off the Southern California coast, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled March 2 that the Navy had to limit the sonar use. In a written response included in...

WILMINGTON, Del. - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, in an indirect swipe at President Bush, said Thursday the overwhelming attitude that the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction reflects a lack of leadership. The nation's bleak mood was evident in the most recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll in which only 21 percent said they believe things in the U.S. are heading in the right direction, the worst mark since the AP-Ipsos poll began in December 2003. Speaking at a Flag Day rally in Wilmington, Del., Giuliani told more than 200 supporters: "What we're lacking is strong, aggressive, bold leadership like...

Bird flu mixed with human flu lacks punch 18:04 01 August 2006 NewScientist.com news service Peter Aldhous Combining genes from the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus with those from a common human flu virus does not seem to create strains with instant pandemic potential, researchers have found. H5N1 meets two of three requirements for a pandemic strain: it is highly pathogenic and unfamiliar to most people’s immune systems. If it also acquired the ability to transmit easily from person to person, H5N1 would threaten millions of lives. One way this could happen is if the virus swapped genes with human...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA lacks the money to support vigorous science research while building the international space station and returning astronauts to the moon, according to a report released Thursday by the National Research Council. The end result, the scientists warned, will be further erosion of the nation's leadership in scientific research. "NASA is being asked to accomplish too much with too little," said the document, prepared by a panel of scientists at the request of Congress. The proposed 2007 budget for the space agency could weaken programs for space and earth science, jeopardize national research goals and stunt...

WASHINGTON - A former colleague of John R. Bolton says President Bush's nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations "has none of the qualities needed for that job." Bolton "has all the qualities needed to harm the image and objectives in the U.N. and its affiliated international organizations. If it is now U.S. policy not to reform the U.N but to destroy it, Bolton is our man," Frederick Vreeland, a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, said in an e-mail to the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The administration stood firm Monday in its support of Bolton....

Clinton Book Lacks Salacious Details Readers Want 9 minutes ago By Mark Egan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans waiting to read Bill Clinton's take on the affair with Monica Lewinsky that rocked his presidency must wade through 773 pages of turgid prose to find a recollection remarkably devoid of details. Four-fifths of the way into his memoir "My Life," released on Tuesday by Alfred A. Knopf, the former president recalls his infamous affair with the White House intern. Clinton writes that in 1995, "I'd had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions between...

<p>FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante abruptly shifted strategy Sunday, moving away from his previous position that his campaign was simply a fallback in case Gov. Gray Davis is recalled.</p> <p>At a rally here of 2,500 Bustamante supporters, the lieutenant governor made little mention of "No on recall."</p>