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ISLAMABAD: The registrar of Pakistan's Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal lodged by Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto against her ...

ISLAMABAD: The registrar of Pakistan8217;s Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal lodged by Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto against her conviction for graft on technical grounds, officials said. The registrar said in an order that Bhutto, who is currently abroad, must surrender herself before the court. Lawyers for the former premier filed the appeal on her behalf two days before the expiry of a stipulated 30-day period allowed under the law to challenge the April 15 conviction on charges of corruption.

Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari were sentenced to five years in jail on charges of receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks from a Swiss firm in return for a 1994 pre-shipment trade cargo inspection contract.

NEW YORK: Scientists have found an enzyme in worms that helps them live longer 8212; a discovery that raises hopes of finding treatments for Alzheimer8217;s and other human diseases associated with ageing. The next step is to determine whether a similar enzyme exists inhumans.

8220;The finding gets us closer to understanding what8217;s involved in the aging process and where we can intervene,8221; said Anna Mccormick, a biochemist at the National Institute on Ageing.

The research was led by biologist Martin Chalfie at Columbia University. The findings were published in today8217;s issue of the journal Nature. The researchers studied a nearly microscopic roundworm known as caenorhabditis elegans. When it is well-fed, it survives only about three weeks, but it can withstand food shortages in a larval state for at least two months.

PARIS: In A judicial twist, the judge investigating the man known as Carlos the Jackal is to go before a court next month to answer a complaint filed by Carlos, a lawyer said.

The Venezuelan-born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez filed a complaint against France8217;s leading anti-terrorism judge for 8220;violation of secrets of the investigation8221; for allegedly allowing a journalist to accompany him on an investigative trip to Romania.

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A court hearing has been setfor June one. Ramirez was sentenced to life in prison in December 1997 for the murder of two French secret agents and an informer in the 1970s. Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere is investigating Ramirez8217;s alleged role in four terrorist attacks.

The complaint was filed after publication in November 1998 of an article in Le Figaro magazine, a weekly, that provided an account of Bruguiere8217;s trip to Romania to seek information about Ramirez, according to lawyer Francis Vuillemin.