Globetrotting — Oral vaccine for diabetes

STOCKHOLM: Swedish scientists have claimed a major breakthrough in developing oral vaccines for diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatism...

STOCKHOLM: Swedish scientists have claimed a major breakthrough in developing oral vaccines for diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatism. Laboratory researches in Gothenburg have yielded encouraging and positive results, a renowned Swedish scientist told a medical conference at the southern university town of Lund recently. The vaccine should be ready for full-scale testing on humans within two to three years.

Insurance trial

REDWOOD CITY: A judge has meted out initial life insurance payments to the mother and stepmother of the seven-year-old pilot who was killed while trying to set a cross-country flying record. Judge Judith Kozloski on Tuesday awarded more than one million dollars of the benefits even as trial continued over the remaining 7,50,000 dollars. The legal battle stems from the deaths of Jessica Dubroff, her father, Lloyd Dubroff, and a flight instructor as Jessica tried to become the youngest pilot to fly across the United States in April 1996.

Norway flare-up

OSLO: Norway has summoned Iran’s top diplomat in Oslo to protest a renewal of a death order against writer Salman Rushdie, in the latest flare-up of the dispute between the two countries. Norwegians have long suspected that the Iranian government was involved in the 1993 shooting of the Norwegian-language publisher of Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses. In 1995, Oslo downgraded diplomatic relations with Tehran. Norway has repeatedly demanded that Iran rescind the 1898 death order.

Femme fatale

BRINDISI: Police in this port city in Italy arrested the sister of an imprisoned mobster on Wednesday, the latest indication that Italian women are taking on bigger roles in organised crime. Maria Rosaria Buccarella, 42, had been sought for four months, Italian news reports said. Investigators suspect her of taking charge of a clan of the Sacra Corona Unita (United Sacred Crown), a crime syndicate in southeast Italy, after her brother Salvatore was arrested a few years ago, said police official Luigi Carnevale.

Disney’s wife

LOS ANGELES: Lillian Disney, the widow of Walt Disney and a leading patron of the arts, has died at 98. Disney died on Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles from complications following a stroke, said friend family friend Michael Broggie. The former Lillian Bounds was married to the studio chief for 41 years. She was her husband’s primary sounding board. He would tell her all his revolutionary ideas. She often served as a counterbalance, refusing to go along with some of his more daring ideas.