Free Republic

Japanese scientists said Thursday they had successfully cloned the ancestral bull of a luxurious brand of beef, possibly opening the way to distribute cloned beef. At the start of the Year of the Ox, researchers announced they had kept frozen for 13 years the testicles of a bull named Yasufuku, the progenitor of the expensive Hida-gyu brand of beef in central Gifu prefecture. The researchers at Kinki University and Gifu's livestock research institute said they had cloned four Yasufuku calves between November 2007 and July 2008, although two of them died afterward. "Yasufuku's testicles were frozen for a decade without...

(Japanese) Cultists Fearing Microwave Attack Whitewash RoadsideGIFU, Japan -- Some 40 members of a bizarre cult have taken over a 200-meter stretch of road in Gifu Prefecture, covering up crash barriers and roadside trees with huge white cloths, it was learned Tuesday. Members of the 'Panawave' cult confront local residents in Gifu Prefecture. Officials of Hachiman and Yamato, the two central Japan towns that manage the Omami road, have urged members of the Fukui-based cult, the "Panawave Laboratory," to move out but they have refused to comply. "One of us fell ill while we were heading to Yamanashi Prefecture...