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Disgraced scientist indicted

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean prosecutors indicted disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo Suk on Friday on charges of fraud, embezzlement and bioethics violations in a scandal over faked stem cell research that shook the scientific community. The 52-year-old scientist faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Five members of Hwang's research team were indicted on lesser charges, prosecution official Lee In Kyu said.

Hwang was hailed worldwide as a stem cell pioneer and treated as a national hero until investigations late last year showed that he had fabricated key data, which had given hope for breakthrough treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Stem cells are basic human cells that can develop into nearly any kind of tissue.

Elsewhere ...

Poland: State television will not broadcast ads for alcohol, contraceptives or even lingerie when Pope Benedict XVI visits later this month, said Zbigniew Badziak, head of advertising for Telewizja Polska, the state-run network operating three channels. Suggestions of sex will also be banned, he said Friday. Poland is the homeland of Pope Benedict's revered predecessor, Pope John Paul II, and state television imposed similar bans during his visits.

Nepal: The new and increasingly assertive interim government detained five of the king's top officials on Friday, and a government-appointed commission set up to investigate the royal crackdown on prodemocracy protests last month recommended an even riskier step: suspending the country's security chiefs. The seven-member Cabinet of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala did not say why they had arrested the king's officials, including the former home and foreign ministers. But the decision came roughly three weeks after King Gyanendra, following debilitating street protests, ceded control to an elected parliament.

West Bank: About 5,000 Hamas followers gathered Friday in Nablus to donate money and jewelry to their cash-strapped government. A telethon, broadcast on television with Hamas officials fielding calls, received pledges from as far as Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Officials did not say how much money it raised, but it was at most a tiny fraction of the tens of millions of dollars the government needs. The Hamas-led government has been under increasing economic pressure since taking office in March, with the United States, European Union and Israel cutting off funding.

[Last modified May 13, 2006, 08:30:03]