Warnock supports select committee on cloning
Baroness Warnock, the peer who chaired the original inquiry into human fertilisation, would support a select committee inquiry into therapeutic cloning. As the House of Lords prepared to debate legislation to allow stem cell research, Lady Warnock said: “One wants to make absolutely sure that cloning of whole human beings is illegal and cannot ever be done in this country."
Financial rescue for Huntingdon lab
Huntingdon Life Sciences, the drug testing laboratory targeted by animal activists, has agreed a financial rescue package that will give it working capital for at least another year. Its new US backers have been granted anonymity by the Financial Services Authority.
Slow progress for illiterate adults
Literacy courses are failing to improve the spelling and punctuation of adults who can barely read or write. Research by the Basic Skills Agency on 2,000 people with the literacy ability of a nine-year-old found that their reading age improved after 20 weeks’ tuition but they fared less well with their writing.