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Heralding a New ERA of Increased Life Expectancy and Good Health

Improving human health has been enormously helped by deciphering the human genome. Yet if we are to better understand physical processes, for example the onset of disease or the impact of ageing, we need to know more about how genes are actually organised and expressed, as well as their sequence. Problems with this control mechanism, referred to as our ‘epigenome’ have been implicated in common…

EU funded scientists build genome-based ‘reference library’ for blood diseases

EU-funded researchers with the BLUEPRINT are collecting and analysing critical blood cell data in order to develop innovative new therapies for blood-related disorders.

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A new paper on how genome data (information regarding the genetic material of an organism such as DNA) can be made open-access – while at the same time ensuring that appropriate levels of privacy are maintained – has…

New Post has been published on http://www.voiceofarewa.com/2014/05/26/uncertainty-as-iraq-election-results-revealed/

Uncertainty as Iraq election results revealed

Iraq’s High Electoral Commission will have up to 30 days to address allegations of voter impropriety [Reuters]

Negotiations begin to set up coalition government, while PM Maliki’s future remains uncertain despite big election win.

Baghdad and Erbil, Iraq - Iraq’s incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s apparent victory in parliamentary elections at the end of April has given him a leading role in forming the next government, but it will not necessarily secure him a third term in office.

On Monday, Iraq’s electoral results were published in national newspapers. The tally was accompanied by a warning that only three days remain to lodge electoral disputes. The results will be considered final when the Iraqi High Electoral Commission, and the country’s High Court, have addressed the accusations of impropriety.

“The period to receive the appeals of election results has started,” said an IHEC official, who declined to be named. “All these procedures are expected take 20-30 days, so the final results are expected to be announced by the end of June or the beginning of July,” the official added.

RELATED: Iraq’s Maliki ‘set to win elections’

Meanwhile, political manoeuvering began as political parties will seek to form a large enough coalition bloc to form a government. Possible court rulings that would adjust the election results are not expected to affect the alliances.

Based on the IHEC results published on Monday, Maliki’s State of Law coalition won 92 seats in the newly elected parliament. Smaller parties headed by State of Law members who ran under separate electoral lists secured another eight seats, allowing Maliki to claim that he seized at least 100 of the 328 seat parliament.

The Islah party, led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, one of Maliki’s prominent allies, secured six additional seats. The Fadhila party, another State of Law ally, won a further six seats. If they were to form a political alliance, State of Law and other Shia parties could create a 170-180 seat bloc.

In Baghdad, more than 700,000 people voted for Maliki’s State of Law list. On Friday, the party nominated him as their only candidate for prime minister.

Shia Muslim parties, including al-Islah and al-Fadhilah, are in talks with Maliki’s State of Law coalition to revive the “National Alliance” that formed the 2010 administration. Under constitutional rules, this would create a big enough bloc to nominate a prime minister and form a new government.

“The priority now is to revive and strengthen the Shia National Alliance and reunite all Shia factions in one bloc to be the biggest in the next parliament,” a senior Shia leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity and is familiar with the talks, said.

“If Shia blocs are unified, the next parliament and government will be strong and the ceiling of Kurdish and Sunni demands will be lower,” Abdulwahid Tuama, an independent political analyst, told Al Jazeera.

His rivals, however, including fellow Shia Muslims sympathetic to the State of Law alliance, strongly oppose Maliki’s bid for a third term.

“We do not support Maliki for another term and we asked the National Alliance to nominate someone else,” said Mohammed al-Hamdani, a senior Sadrist leader. “He did not serve the people and did not deliver on his promises to the other political blocs.”

INFOGRAPHIC: Iraqis displaced from Anbar

Sunni parties performed poorly in the election as they ran during a time of deep internal divisions. The leading Sunni Mutahidoun list, headed by parliamentary speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, won only 23 seats across the country.

Some Sunni blocs have expressed willingness to work with Maliki if he agreed to their demands. “We have no red line against any candidate, including Maliki,” said Qassim al-Fahdawi, an MP and former governor of Anbar province, which has been rocked by sectarian violence in recent months.

Al-Fahdawi said the new government should release innocent people who were jailed during Maliki’s rule, a key Sunni grievance, and cancel a law that removed members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party from powerful state positions, which many see as discriminating against Sunnis.

Maliki may also need the help of the Kurds to form a new government. Kurdish parties won 62 seats in the new parliament, but relations between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad have become increasingly strained as the Kurds push for more financial independence.

Kurdish officials in Erbil said that talks over forming a government will also need to focus on solving pending issues between the Kurdish region and the capital, such as management of oil, territory and budgets. Since January, the central government has been withholding the Kurds’ share of the national budget over their plans to sell oil independently.

On May 23, Kurdistan’s Ministry of Natural Resources announced it had exported crude oil from Kurdistan to world markets via Turkey, without Baghdad’s consent. Iraq’s oil ministry responded by declaring legal action against Turkey.

“If indeed Turkey is allowing for the sale of oil on international markets without Baghdad’s consent, then there is very little that Baghdad could do to encourage the Kurds to support a third term [for Maliki],” said Zaid al-Ali, a political analyst and author of the book The Struggle for Iraq’s Future.

Kurds, however, feel that Maliki did not honour commitments he made when they backed him for a second term in 2010; among them, an agreement over the passing of an oil and gas law.

Opponents also fear Maliki’s tendency to consolidate power through the security forces, said al-Ali. “That will make it very difficult to convince any potential partners of his trustworthiness,” he said.

New Post has been published on http://www.voiceofarewa.com/2014/05/01/iraq-vote-count-under-way-in-poll-hailed-by-us-and-un/

Iraq vote count under way in poll hailed by US and UN

Official results are not expected until later this month

Vote counting is under way in Iraq after the country’s first parliamentary poll since US troops withdrew in 2011.

The UN and US have hailed the running of the poll, held amid a heavy security presence with hundreds of thousands of soldiers deployed to polling stations.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, who is seeking a third term, declared that his victory was “certain”.

The election comes at a time of heightened sectarian tensions and spiralling violence in the country.

Dozens of attacks on election day left 14 people dead, according to officials.

This figure was lower than in the two preceding days, thanks to a security clampdown during the vote – including a vehicle ban in Baghdad.

Correspondents say that, after a week in which 160 people died, the authorities will probably consider the vote a success, despite the deaths.

Official results are not expected until later in May.

‘Powerful rebuke’

In a statement on Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry praised the “millions of Iraqis” who “courageously voted” in the polls.

He said the vote was a “powerful rebuke to the violent extremists who have tried to thwart democratic progress and sow discord in Iraq and throughout the region”.

The UN Security Council commended Iraqis “for demonstrating their commitment to a peaceful, inclusive and democratic political process” and urged Iraqi leaders to form a government “as soon as possible”.

Prime Minister Maliki told reporters he was confident of his victory and declared the elections a “big success”, after casting his vote in Baghdad on Wednesday.

His State of Law alliance – a mainly Shia bloc – is seen as the front-runner in the polls with analysts saying the strongest challenge is likely to come from rival Shia factions.

Mr Maliki is expected to be a pivotal figure in the coalition-building process which will follow the election.

It took nearly 10 months to assemble a government after the last election in 2010, and a similar period of negotiation is also expected on this occasion.

Turnout

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said voting had taken place in only 70% of Anbar on Wednesday, with no polling stations open in the insurgent-held city of Falluja.

Voting was also limited in the provincial capital, Ramadi, where troops have been waging street battles for months. Provisional estimates put turnout at about 60% in those areas that voted.

Twenty-two million people were eligible to vote in the elections, with 276 political entities and 9,000 candidates contesting the 328 seats in the Council of Representatives.

There were more than 50 attacks on polling stations and people on their way to vote in northern and western Iraq, AFP news agency reported.

Last year, the death toll in Iraq was the highest since the peak of the sectarian insurgency in 2006 and 2007.

About 2,000 people have been killed in the first three months of this year, during which Sunni tribesmen and militants linked to the jihadist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have taken control of parts of Anbar province.