Obama seeks funding for medical research
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is calling for an investment to move away from one-size-fits-all-medicine, toward an approach that tailors treatment to your genes.
The White House said Friday that Obama will ask Congress for $215 million for what he’s calling a precision medicine initiative. The ambitious goal: Scientists will assemble databases of about a million volunteers to study their genetics and other factors such as their environments and the microbes that live in their bodies to learn how to individualize care.
As Obama put it in his State of the Union address, he wants the U.S. “to lead a new era of medicine, one that delivers the right treatment at the right time.”
Judge questions legality of no-fly list
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal judge is expressing skepticism about the constitutionality of the government’s no-fly list.
Government lawyers defended the list at a hearing Friday in federal court in Alexandria. The government has been trying to get the suit tossed out for the last four years, but Judge Anthony Trenga again questioned the lack of a meaningful opportunity for people to challenge their status.
An Alexandria man, Gulet Mohamed, challenged his placement on the list and its constitutionality in 2011.
Saudi Arabia delays blogger’s flogging
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Authorities in Saudi Arabia delayed the planned flogging of a blogger convicted of insulting Islam for a third straight week Friday in the face of growing international pressure against the punishment, according to rights group Amnesty International.
Raif Badawi underwent the first of what were supposed to be 20 weekly flogging sessions of 50 lashes each on Jan. 9 in the Red Sea city of Jiddah. Two subsequent planned floggings were postponed after doctors in the kingdom examined the 31-year-old and determined he should not face the punishment as scheduled.
Amnesty spokeswoman Sara Hashash told The Associated Press that the London-based rights group had been informed that Friday’s planned flogging also did not happen.
Jordan seeks news on hostages’ fates
TOKYO – The fates of a Japanese journalist and Jordanian military pilot were unknown Friday, a day after the latest purported deadline for a possible prisoner swap passed with no further word from the Islamic State group holding them captive.
Jordan has said it will only release an al-Qaida prisoner, Sajida al-Rishawi, from death row if it gets proof the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, is alive and so far has received no such evidence from the hostage-takers.
Associated Press
