| California resident Susan Bushvetz was awarded a million dollars for mistakenly implanting a foreign embryo into her uterus. The baby she gave birth to three years ago was intended for an infertile couple and was conceived in vitro using her husband's sperm and a donor egg. Doctors confused the test tubes with embryos and realized this immediately after the embryo was implanted. But the patient was already 47 years old, and this could be her last chance to get pregnant. So the doctors, with the best of intentions, decided to hide everything. The woman in labor later learned about the medical error from an anonymous clinic employee who suddenly called her. The doctors were forced to tell everything. The injured couple, having learned about this, accused the doctors of fraud and filed a lawsuit, demanding “their” child.
The boy is now temporarily with Mrs. Bushvets, and the biological father has now received the right by court to see him twice a week. In October it will be decided with whom the child will finally stay. A month ago, another 40-year-old mother-to-be suffered about the same thing in Connecticut. The doctor caught up with her in the corridor and informed her about the mistake. However, the persistent woman, who really wanted to give birth to her loved one, only asked if the child’s biological father was healthy. Valentina KULIABINA
On Thursday night, violent clashes between US Marines and the Mahdi Army of the radical Shiite imam Muqtada al-Sadr resumed in the holy Iraqi Shiite city of Najaf in the south of the country. American helicopters are involved in the fighting, one of which, a UH-1, was shot down; two crew members were wounded but alive. The imam, who agreed in May to turn the Mahdi Army into a political organization, is again calling for jihad. He threatens an uprising in Basra, where the British military detained four Shiite activists in a spiritual center the day before. Fierce fighting also took place in the north. The brother of Mullah Krikar, the leader of the extremist group Ansar al-Islam, was killed in the Mosul area.
Yesterday, Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar signed a decree reinstating the death penalty in the country. According to him, the death penalty will be applied for the commission of especially serious crimes, in particular terrorist murders. Alexey SLOBODIN
The academic year in Georgia will now begin every third or fourth Monday of September. This decision was made by Education Minister Alexander Lomaia, who previously headed the Georgian branch of the George Soros Foundation. The minister called the start of classes on September 1 a “Bolshevik tradition”: “The start of the educational process on September 1 was introduced by the communist regime of the former USSR and did not take into account many of the characteristics of Georgia.” The transfer is due both to the climate (at the beginning of September in Georgia it is warm like summer) and to the “requests of the workers.” In the regions, field work is being carried out with the participation of high school students; there are many parents with children at the resorts. For Adjara, the extension of the season will bring considerable sums. The educational process will be divided into three semesters with extended, to the delight of students, New Year and Easter holidays, the number of academic weeks will increase from 34 to 38, and classes will end on July 1. Teachers must report to their place of duty on September 10 instead of the usual twentieth of August. Mikhail VIGNANSKY, Tbilisi
Yesterday, Western countries stepped up security measures against al-Qaeda. The chief of staff of the British Navy, Admiral Alan West, announced al-Qaeda's plans to attack merchant ships that are most vulnerable in the waters of the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar. But al-Qaeda is also suffering losses. In the UK (on a tip from Pakistani intelligence services), 12 Asians were arrested, as well as a certain Al-Qaeda man who was preparing a terrorist attack at Heathrow Airport. Al-Qaeda resident in London Abu Musa Al-Gindi is allegedly among those arrested. Yesterday in New York it was announced the arrest of two imams of a local mosque - Yasin Aref and Muhammad Hussein. They allegedly tried to buy a man-portable air defense system from a person who turned out to be an FBI agent. "TIME FOR NEWS"
Recently, reports have appeared in the Israeli press about certain Israeli plans to carry out “preemptive” strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Such leaks caused alarm in Moscow. This is “an undertaking with the most dangerous consequences, which no sane politician would dare to undertake.” This opinion was expressed by the official representative of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency of the Russian Federation (FAAE) Nikolai Shingarev. Not a single military man, he believes, “will dare to bomb a working energy reactor,” so “such messages can be regarded as a political provocation.” “The logic of war often does not coexist with common sense,” he noted. Mr. Shingarev recalled that during the Iran-Iraq conflict, the nuclear power plant being built by a Western company in Bushehr “was hit by a missile strike, damaging the dome of the reactor hall.” There are currently 1,500 specialists from Russia and other CIS countries working in Bushehr. "TIME FOR NEWS"
Members of the family of the former dictator of Chile, 88-year-old Augusto Pinochet, one after another appear before a Chilean court as witnesses. His eldest son, Augusto Pinochet Iriart, was questioned on Wednesday. He is under recognizance not to leave the place. He is accused, among other things, of falsifying receipts for a VAT refund in the amount of $567,000. Last week, the court demanded that the security service and tax authorities of Chile conduct an audit of Pinochet's own accounts. At the end of July, the US Senate, in its report, accused the American Riggs Bank of fraud in laundering Pinochet’s money in the amount of about $8 million. On Tuesday, even Pinochet’s ex-wife Lucia Iriart testified in the case of concealing accounts. "TIME FOR NEWS"
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