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Briefs

Genetic material shows promise to treat SARS

By Times wire
Published August 22, 2005

WASHINGTON - Small fragments of genetic material that can silence specific genes are showing promise in battling the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome.

SARS, first recognized in 2002, killed 774 people worldwide before it was brought under control by quarantine, isolating patients and restricting travel.

Since then, researchers have struggled to find a treatment or vaccine before a new outbreak occurs.

Researchers reported in the online edition of the journal Nature Medicine on Sunday that snippets called interfering RNA can reduce an existing infection in monkeys and help protect them from new ones.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio's House Democrats are considering impeachment proceedings against Republican Gov. Bob Taft, who pleaded no contest last week to four ethics violations.

House Minority Leader Chris Redfern said Sunday that Democrats had made no decision yet about whether to seek Taft's ouster. Impeachment would be difficult if not impossible with Republicans controlling both houses of the Legislature. But he said they had asked the Legislature's legal research arm to outline the impeachment process so they understand it when they meet Tuesday to discuss a response.

WASHINGTON - Inmate death rates for suicide, homicide and AIDS are showing substantial declines in jails and state prisons, the government says.

The trend reflects improved medical care and closer attention to separating violent criminals from other offenders.

State prison homicide rates declined by more than 90 percent, from 54 per 100,000 in 1980 to four per 100,000 in 2002, the latest year for which data is available, the Bureau of Justice Statistics said in a report Sunday.

Jail suicide rates fell more than 60 percent, dropping from 129 per 100,000 inmates in 1983 - when suicide was the leading cause of death among inmates - to 47 per 100,000 in 2002.

ATLANTA - Coretta Scott King is slowly recovering from a stroke that had left her unable to walk and barely able to speak, and she has been singing with a speech therapist, her daughter said Sunday.

"It's not in the soprano voice that she has," Bernice King said of her mother, a trained classical singer. "But it's in a voice that's good to hear."

At a prayer vigil at the King Center for the 78-year-old widow of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bernice King said her mother was able to lift her right leg Sunday. About 400 people attended the vigil.

[Last modified August 22, 2005, 01:08:08]