Last updated at 9:28 PM on 22nd February 2012

A Christian pastor who converted from Islam is to be put to death for leaving Islam following the ruling of an Iranian trial court, it was reported today.

Youcef Nadarkhani, 34, was arrested over two years ago on charges of apostasy, and has now been put to death by an Iranian court for refusing to renounce his Christianty, according to the pastor’s legal team.

The father-of-two had defied a request by the Gilan provincial court, in Rasht, Iran, to repent, and now faces death by hanging.

Facing execution: Youcef Nadarkhani, left, is pictured with his wife and two children in an undated photograph circulated by religious rights organisations

If the execution goes ahead it would be the first Christian to be officially executed in Iran for religious reasons in 20 years.

The married father-of-two was detained in his home city of Rasht in October 2009, while attempting to register his church.

Supporters of the pastor say he was arrested after questioning the Muslim monopoly on the religious instruction of children in Iran.

Critics have said the execution could be seen as a form of defiance at the sanctions being forced on Iran in the row over its nuclear agenda.

Jordan Sekulow, executive director of The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), told Fox News: ‘This is defiance. They want to say they will carry out what they say they will do.

‘The world needs to stand up and say that a man cannot be put to death because of his faith.

‘This one case is not just about one execution. We have been able to expose the system instead of just letting one man disappear, like so many other Christians have in the past.’

Church officials say there may be as many as 100,000 devoted Christians in the country and that Iran’s leadership is concerned about the spread of Christianity.

Nadarkhani was initially charged with protesting, but charges against him were later changed to ‘apostasy’ – or abandoning Islam – and ‘evangelising Muslims’, which both carry the death sentence.

He was later tried and found guilty of apostasy in September 2010, and sentenced to death by the court in the city of Rasht.

In June this year the Supreme Court of Iran upheld the death sentence but asked the lower court in Rasht, which issued the initial sentence, to re-examine whether or not he had been a practicing Muslim adult prior to converting to Christianity.

Nadarkhani told the court during his first hearing on Sunday that he had no intention of returning to Islam.

He said: ‘Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?’

However, the court said that because Nadarkhani has Islamic ancestry, he therefore must ‘recant his faith in Jesus Christ’.

When the court ordered him to ‘return to the religion of your ancestors – Islam’, Nadarkhani replied: ‘I can not.’

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with with the European Union, France, Great Britain, Mexico and Germany, have condemned Iran for arresting Nadarkhani

Jason DeMars, of advocacy group Present Truth Ministries, said: ‘This law dictates what should be done with apostates, depending on what type of apostasy has been committed.

Mr DeMar added that section 6.225 of Iran’s controversial legislation says that if a person’s parents were Muslims at the time they were trying to conceive a child, and that converts to another religion and renounces Islam, he or she would be a national apostate.

He said: ‘The death sentence is the penalty for national apostate, but after the verdict is pronounced, he or she will be commanded to repent of what he or she has done

‘If he refuses to repent, he will be killed.’

The written verdict of the Supreme Court’s decision also included a provision for annulment of the death sentence if Pastor Nadarkhani recanted his faith.

Although the court found that Pastor Nadarkhani was not a practicing Muslim adult, the court said he remained guilty of apostasy because he had Muslim ancestry.

Nadarkhani’s lawyer, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, told the court that the repeated demand for his client to recant his Christian faith violated Iranian law and its constitution.

The last Iranian Christian convert from Islam executed by the Iranian government was Assemblies of God Pastor Hossein Soodmand in 1990.

However, several other Christians, including at least six Protestant pastors, are reported to have been assassinated in Iran by unknown killers in recent years.

Ever feel the sky is closing in on you – well, you’re right, it is.

Earth’s clouds got a little lower by around one per cent a year on average during the first decade of this century.

That’s the finding by a new NASA-funded university study based on satellite data. The results have potential implications for future global climate.

Getting lower: The cloud level, like those encircling the Mattehorn, has fallen every year since 2000

Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand analysed the first 10 years of global cloud-top height measurements (from March 2000 to February 2010) from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft.

The study, published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, revealed an overall trend of decreasing cloud height. Global average cloud height declined by around one percent over the decade, or by around 100 to 130 feet.

Most of the reduction was due to fewer clouds occurring at very high altitudes.

Lead researcher Roger Davies said that while the record is too short to be definitive, it provides a hint that something quite important might be going on. Longer-term monitoring will be required to determine the significance of the observation for global temperatures.

A cloudy world: The Earth made up of a mosaic of images taken by Nasa’s Terra spacecraft

A consistent reduction in cloud height would allow Earth to cool more efficiently, reducing the surface temperature of the planet and potentially slowing the effects of global warming.

This may represent a ‘negative feedback’ mechanism – a change caused by global warming that works to counteract it.

‘We don’t know exactly what causes the cloud heights to lower,’ says Davies. ‘But it must be due to a change in the circulation patterns that give rise to cloud formation at high altitude.’

NASA’s Terra spacecraft is scheduled to continue gathering data through the remainder of this decade. Scientists will continue to monitor the MISR data closely to see if this trend continues.

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 11:21 PM on 22nd February 2012

Only half of U.S. citizens pay federal income tax, according to the latest available figures.

In 2009, just 50.5 per cent of Americans paid any income tax to the federal government – the lowest proportion in at least half a century.

And the number of people outside the tax system could have climbed even higher since as the economic downturn has continued to bite and unemployment has remained high.

Figures: This graph from the Heritage Foundation shows that half the population of the U.S. pays no federal income tax at all

The decreasing number of taxpayers threatens government revenues, and could also cause resentment from those who believe that welfare recipients are taking money out of the economy.

151.7million U.S. citizens paid no federal income tax in 2009, according to figures compiled by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank.

In 1984, the middle of the Reagan era, 85 per cent of Americans paid federal income tax, meaning just 34.8million people did not.

The figures include children, the retired and others who do not participate in the labour force.

Nonetheless, they largely reflect the sudden jump in the unemployment rate after the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession.

Unemployment rose from around five per cent at the beginning of 2008 to a high of 10 per cent in October 2009.

Crisis: Unemployment has declined slowly under Barack Obama

As well the increased number of jobless people, the reduction in the number of taxpayers is a result of low-income workers taking pay cuts and reduced hours, and therefore slipping out of the tax system.

It also includes people who illegally fail to file a tax return even though they might have earned enough money to do so.

Another finding by the Heritage Foundation shows that 21.8 per cent of U.S. citizens receive financial assistance from the federal government.

This means that 67.3million people – a record high – are ‘dependent on the federal government’, excluding government employees who rely on the public sector for their salaries.

The conjunction of fewer taxpayers with higher welfare payments has led to intense pressure on the public purse, with the national deficit running at $1.3trillion per year.

The Heritage Foundation argues that the reduction in the number of taxpayers will create an electorate dominated by non-taxpayers, who will always support higher taxes and spending because their own money is not at stake.

By Pat Hagan

Last updated at 2:50 PM on 22nd February 2012

Women who sit for up to seven hours a day may be more at risk of developing type two diabetes, new research shows.

It found women who spend the most time sitting down during the week are more likely to show early signs of the disease than those who are more active.

Blood tests revealed they had higher levels of markers that suggest the body is well on the way to developing diabetes.

A study found women who spend the most time sitting down are more likely to show early signs of type two diabetes than those who are more active

But researchers said they found no such link in men who took part in the study at the University of Leicester.

They said the reasons why are not clear but it could be that women are more prone to the damaging effects of sedentary behaviour.

According to the charity Diabetes UK, at the current rate of increase, the numbers affected by type two diabetes in the UK will rise from around 2.5 million currently to four million by 2025 and five million by 2030.

More than a million people are already affected by the condition but do not realise they have it, perhaps because they do not recognise symptoms, such as fatigue, thirst, frequent urination , recurrent thrush and wounds that are slow to heal.

And shocking recent figures suggested 24,000 deaths a year in England alone could be easily prevented if doctors carried out more basic health checks and patients stuck to a healthy diet and took their medicine properly.

WHAT IS TYPE TWO DIABETES?

Type two diabetes occurs when not enough insulin is produced by the body for it to function properly or when the body’s cells do not react to insulin. This is called insulin resistance.

The condition is far more common than type one diabetes, which occurs when the body does not produce any insulin at all.

Around 90 per cent of all adults in the UK with diabetes have type two diabetes.

Symptoms may be controlled by eating a healthy diet and monitoring your blood glucose level.

However, as it is a progressive condition, medication might be eventually required.

SOURCE: NHS

Left untreated, type two diabetes can raise the risk of heart attacks, blindness and amputation. Being overweight, physical inactivity and poor diet are major risk factors for the disease.

A team of researchers from Leicester University recruited 505 men and women aged 59 or over and quizzed them on how much time they spent sitting down during the week. Each volunteer also underwent tests to measure levels of certain chemicals in their blood known to be linked with the onset of diabetes.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, showed the women sat between four and seven hours every day and the men between four and eight hours.

Those women who sat longest had higher levels of insulin, the hormone which regulates blood sugar in the body. Raised insulin levels suggests the body is becoming resistant to the hormone and diabetes is starting to develop,

They also had higher readings of C-reactive protein, leptin, adinopectin and interleukin-6, all chemicals released by fatty tissue in the abdomen and which point to dangerous inflammation.

But the same results were not found in men. In a report on their findings researchers said it may be that women snack more than men during sedentary behaviour, or that men engage in more robust activity once they do get moving.

‘This study provides new evidence that higher levels of sitting time, independent of physical activity, have a deleterious impact on insulin resistance and chronic low-grade inflammation in women but not men.
‘It suggests enabling women to spend less time sitting is an important factor in preventing chronic disease.’

The findings mirror those of a study last year which showed spending ten years or more in a sedentary job almost doubles the risk of some types of bowel cancer. According to some estimates, most adults now spend around 55 per cent of their time at work sitting down.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2104850/Sitting-seven-hours-day-raises-diabetes-risk-women.html#ixzz1llf8JgTE

• Using microbial fuel cell Bacillus stratosphericus generates twice as much electricity as other bacteria
• Could be used to power appliances in developing countries

Bacteria usually found orbiting high above the Earth have been found in a British river – and could be a new power source for the world.

The mysterious organisms, found in the the mouth of the River Wear, in Sunderland, can generate electricity using a special battery called a microbial fuel cell.

The Bacillus stratosphericus – usually found 20 miles above the Earth – is believed to have been brought to the surface by atmospheric cycling, which causes evaporated water rise into the stratosphere and then fall again.

Powerful: Bacillus stratosphericus can generate twice as much electricity as other types of common bacteria

It is a particularly potent form of bacteria which can be used in a microbial fuel cell (MFC) to convert river waste into power and clean water.

It had double the electricity generating potential of other bacteria and scientists from Newcastle University believe they could be harvested and used in the developing world to power appliances.

Inside an MFC, the organisms produce carbon dioxide, protons and electrons when kept in a solution without oxygen.

Liberated electrons form a negatively charged anode while the protons create a positively charged cathode.

Source of power: The mouth of the River Wear in Sunderland where scientists found the bacteria

This produces both charges necessary to produce an electric current.

Microbial fuel cell: How bacteria can generate electricity

Publishing their findings in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, Grant Burgess, Professor of Marine Biotechnology at Newcastle University, said the research demonstrated the ‘potential power of the technique’.

He said: ‘What we have done is deliberately manipulate the microbial mix to engineer a biofilm that is more efficient at generating electricity.

‘This is the first time individual microbes have been studied and selected in this way.

‘Finding B.stratosphericus was quite a surprise, but what it demonstrates is the potential of this technique for the future – there are billions of microbes out there with the potential to generate power.’

Prof Burgess said that, isolating 75 different species of bacteria from the River Wear, the team tested the power-generation of each one using a Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC).

By selecting the best species of bacteria, scientists were able to create an artificial biofilm, doubling the electrical output of the MFC from 105 watts per cubic metre to 200 watts per cubic metre.

While still relatively low, this would be enough power to run an electric light and could provide a much-needed power source in parts of the world without electricity.

The use of microbes to generate electricity is not a new concept and has been used in the treatment of waste water and sewage plants.

Prof Burgess said: ‘This is a very interesting method of collecting energy from what would otherwise be a valueless resource.’

A Chilean avocado may contain the secret to fighting aggressive, antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals all over the world.

A natural substance found in the Chilean rainforest fruit blocks yellow staphylococci bacteria’s ability to reject antibiotics.

These specific bacteria are the most common cause of infection in wounds from an operation.

They develop a resistance particularly quickly – strains that do not respond to treatment have already been found in the USA and Greece.

PhD student Jes Gitz Holler, from the University of Copenhagen, worked with the Mapuche people  in Chile to make the discovery.

He said: ‘I have discovered a natural substance in a Chilean avocado plant that is active in combination treatment with traditional antibiotics.

‘Resistant bacteria have an efflux pump in their bacterial membrane that efficiently pumps out antibiotics as soon as they have gained access.

‘I have identified a natural substance that inhibits the pumping action, so that the bacteria’s defence mechanisms are broken down and the antibiotic treatment allowed to work,’ explains Jes Gitz Holler.

The student gathered specimens of the plant in Chile, where the Mapuche people use the leaves of the avocado to heal wounds. The results have been published in the Journal of Microbial Chemotherapy.

Gitz Holler said: ‘The natural compound has great potential and perhaps in the longer term can be developed into an effective drug to combat resistant staphylococci.

This picture shows staphylococcus aureus cells that are resistant to antibiotics

‘At this time there are no products on the market that target this same efflux-inhibitor mechanism.

‘We want to improve the active substance using synthetic chemistry in the laboratory. That will also ensure sustainable production of a potential drug while protecting rainforest plants.’

The student emphasises that a commercial product will also benefit the Mapuche people. At present there is a written agreement between the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the representative of the Mapuche people, Alfonso Guzmán, PhD, who helped procure the plant material.

Yellow staphylococcus – Staphylococcus aureus – is the most common cause of infection in wounds from an operation. However, the bacteria can be the cause of many diseases, from abscesses and food poisoning to life-threatening infections such as infective endocarditis and sepsis.

The bacteria have been a major problem in hospitals worldwide since the 1940s, and up to now the drug industry has managed to develop new antibiotics in step with the increasingly aggressive behaviour of the bacteria.

Unfortunately, that development appears to be turning: ‘For all intents and purposes, the drug industry is not pursuing research into new antibiotics. It is simply too expensive relative to possible earnings, and there is more money in drugs to treat chronic diseases such as diabetes.

‘Therefore, the bacteria are winning the race – resistance increases and treatment options are scarce. Research will have to find new paths and natural substances are one of them,’ writes Gitz Holler.

The world’s first test-tube burger will be ready to eat within months.

It will look, feel and, it is hoped, taste, like a regular quarter-pounder, its creator Mark Post told the world’s premier science conference.

He plans to unveil the hamburger in October – and hopes celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal will cook it, although he has yet to approach him.

Tasty: A small sample of the lab-grown ‘meat’ which Dutch stem cell scientist Dr Mark Post believes everyone will want to eat

The ‘ethical meat’ will would be kinder to the environment than the real thing, reduce animal suffering and help feed the world’s burgeoning population.

But it will be far from cheap with the prototype burger costing £220,000 to produce.

Professor Post says that ‘everyone’ will want to eat the burgers, which, despite their vast initial cost could eventually be priced to match that of real meat.

However, it remains to be seen whether a public that likes to think of its chops, steaks and sausages as having their roots in nature will take to meat made in test-tubes.

The Maastricht Univeristy professor has spent the last six years trying to turn stem cells – ‘master cells’ with the power to turn into all other cell types – into meat.

Real thing: But the new meat  could be an ethical alternative to beef

He first attempts involved mouse burgers. He then tried to grow pork in a dish, producing strips with the rubbery texture of squid or scallops, before settling on beef.

A four-step technique is used to turn stem cells from animal flesh into a burger.

First, the stem cells are stripped from the cow’s muscle.

Next, they are incubated in a nutrient broth until they multiply many times over, creating a sticky tissue with the consistency of an undercooked egg.

This ‘wasted muscle’ is then bulked up through the laboratory equivalent of exercise – it is anchored to Velcro and stretched.

Finally, 3,000 strips of the lab-grown meat are minced, and, along with 200 pieces of lab-grown animal fat, formed into a burger.

The process is still lengthy, as well as expensive, but optimised, it could take just six weeks from stem cell to supermarket shelf.

Yesterday, Professor Post told the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual conference in Vancouver that he has so far made a strip of beef measuring 3cm by 1.5cm by 0.5cm.

This beef is ‘pinkish to yellow’ in colour – but he is confident of having a full-sized and properly coloured burger by the autumn.

The professor, who is funded by an anonymous but highly-successful benefactor, said: ‘It’s not quite ready, it’s going to be presented in October.

‘We are going to provide a proof of concept, showing that out of stem cells you can produce a product that looks like and feels like and hopefully tastes like meat.

‘Seeing and tasting is believing.’ Sausages and other processed meat products could swiftly follow, although pork chops and sirloin steaks will be much more problematic.

Other possibilities include synthetic versions of the meat from are animals such as pandas and tigers.

Choice: Professor Post hopes experimental chef Heston Blumenthal will have a go at cooking his new invention

Meats could also be made extra-healthy by boosting their content of ‘good’ fats.

Far fewer animals would have to be kept to satisfy the appetite for meat.

The stem cell’s extraordinary ability to grow and multiply means that a cells taken from a single cow could produce a million times more burgers than if the animal was slaughtered for meat.

Researchers say they realise that many will find the idea of eating lab-grown meat unnatural – but point out that the livestock eaten at the moment is often kept in cramped conditions and dosed with chemicals or antibiotics.

However, the fact that the source material comes from animals who will likely have slaughtered means that not all vegetarians will be happy with the product.

The fledgling technology was highlighted in discussion paper about current and future demands on livestock production published recently by the Royal Society, Britain’s most prestigious scientific body.

The paper’s author, Professor Philip Thornton, of the International Livestock Research Institute in Edinburgh, wrote: ‘This is one example of something that could happen in the future that could have a very big impact on agriculture and livestock production.

‘There are some advantages to the idea. For example, you could reduce the number of live animals substantially and that would reduce greenhouse gas production.

‘There might be human health benefits because the health and safety issues associated with meat could be much better controlled.

‘But are people going to eat it? People’s tastes have changed a lot over the years and eventually this may be something that is widely taken up.’

Cautioning about the economic impact on farmers, the professor said: ‘If you are talking about large-scale reductions in numbers of livestock, there are large-scale implications and we’d have to look very carefully to see if the benefits would outweigh some of the problems that might arise.’

It will be at least ten years before the artificial meat is produced on an industrial scale and has satisfied the safety testing necessary for it be placed on supermarket shelves
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2103472/Test-tube-burgers-hit-kitchens-year-scientists-create-meat-taste-quarter-pounder.html#ixzz1llek1hTW