World Vignettes

Calling Mars through the InternetGENEVA: Mankind will soon be using the internet to communicate with other planets, starting with Mars, o...

Calling Mars through the Internet
GENEVA: Mankind will soon be using the internet to communicate with other planets, starting with Mars, one of the Net8217;s founding fathers has told the Internet Society8217;s annual meeting.

Vinton Cerf told delegates on Wednesday that quot;interplanetary internet gatewaysquot; to send information and instructions into outer space were foreseeable in several years time.

The first gateway could be set up in orbit around Mars, allowing orders to be sent from earth to robots working on the surface of the red planet, and the robots to send information back, he said.

Dozens of clones
NEW YORK: An international team has cloned not one mouse, but dozens, from adult mice, American researchers have said. Ryuzo Yanagimachi of the University of Hawaii and colleagues said on Wednesday they had cloned several generations of mice and hoped their method would prove to be a breakthrough for both animal breeding and basic scientific research.

quot;We have about 50 clones,quot;Yanagimachi said in a telephone interview. Their method, which they call the Honolulu technique, is different from the technology used to create Dolly, the cloned sheep in 1996.

Can8217;t be gay amp; 16
LONDON: The British House of Lords has voted decisively to overturn a massive House of Commons vote in favour of lowering the age of consent for gay men from 18 to 16.

On a free vote, the Lords yesterday agreed by 290 votes to 122, a majority of 168, to strike out the measure from the Crime and Disorder Bill. The government must now decide whether to jettison the proposal from its bill, or risk not having the entire bill passed before Parliament goes into summer recess on July 31.

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The Labour Government appealed to the Hosue of Lords earlier on Wednesday not to reject the bill. quot;I hope they Lords will allow the decision made by the Commons by overwhelming majority to go ahead and allow the criminal Justice and Disorder Bill in place to tackle crime in every community up and down the country,quot; HomeOffice Minister Alun Michael had told the BBC.