4 | NewScientist | 20 June 2009

HOPES that the Iranian election might usher in a government that is more open to persuasion on nuclear issues hung in the balance this week.

A less combative approach to Iran by the US, brought about by the Obama administration, coupled with the presidential candidacy of the moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi in Iran, raised hopes among many that Iran might change its uranium enrichment plans, as the UN has

requested, if Mousavi were to win.In an interview with Time

magazine last week, Mousavi said he is open to negotiation over Iran’s nuclear enrichment in relation to “concerns about the diversion of this program toward weaponization”. The incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has to date refused to do so.

Iran in the balance Ahmadinejad was declared the winner on Saturday 13 June with a majority of over 60 per cent, but as New Scientist went to press, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had called for a recount in an attempt to placate mass protests sparked by what opposition supporters viewed as a rigged election. Some commentators think it is unlikely to change the outcome.

If Ahmadinejad remains in power, the prospects of Iran halting its enrichment activities do not look promising. Earlier this month, the IAEA reported that Iran had increased the number of enrichment centrifuges by 25 per cent since February, and is now producing fuel-grade uranium almost twice as fast as last year.

Though the IAEA has found no environmental evidence of further enrichment to weapons-grade material, it has asked for more cameras to monitor the growing enrichment process. It also wants to inspect a formerly secret reactor at Arak, as well as plans for a new reactor. Iran has so far refused these requests.

Mass circumcision

OVER half a million men are to be offered circumcision in Swaziland and Zambia to curb the spread of HIV. It is the first time circumcision has been proposed on this scale in AIDS hotspots.

Circumcision can cut a man’s risk of HIV infection by 60 per cent, and in the past African men have queued up to be circumcised . The new programme is funded to the tune of $50 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , enough for 650,000 procedures.

Under the programme, these will only be carried out by fully trained medical professionals, which could help prevent men from being harmed.

“It’s great news, and this is exactly what’s needed,” says Catherine Hankins, chief scientific adviser at UNAIDS . She stresses however that circumcision alone won’t rule out infection with HIV, and that circumcised men should take additional precautions such as wearing condoms and limiting their numbers of sexual partners.

–Time out for seal research –

Terminator targets parksCONSERVATION projects in California’s

state parks face a bleak future if plans

by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

to tackle the swelling state deficit of

$24.3 billion go through.

His swingeing cuts would

include funding for 80 per cent of

the 270 sites run by the California

Department of Parks and Recreation .

Those earmarked for closure include

world-famous attractions such as the

giant sequoias at Calaveras Big Trees

State Park in the Sierra Nevada.

If the parks close, activities

such as the removal of invasive plants

and efforts to prevent catastrophic

fires would also go. In Calaveras,

this involves cutting down fir trees

to stop any fires engulfing the

sequoias. “That’s work that would

have to stop,” says Rick Rayburn,

chief of natural resources at

the parks department.

California’s state parks also host

at least 120 field research projects

each year. These include a four-

decade study of a breeding population

of elephant seals (pictured) at the

Año Nuevo State Natural Reserve

by researchers at the University

of California, Santa Cruz. “We’re

concerned that we’ll be locked out

of our research sites,” says Steve

Davenport, who manages the site for

the university.

In an attempt to keep the parks

open, the state legislature’s budget

committee on Monday backed a

proposal to fund the parks through a

$15 surcharge on vehicle registration

fees paid by motorists – but it is not

clear whether the proposal will pass.

“Mir Hossein Mousavi said he was open to negotiation over Iran’s uranium enrichment programme”

VACCINE companies will now plough

all their resources into making a

vaccine against H1N1 swine flu,

following a decision by the World

Health Organization to declare the

virus an official pandemic on 11 June.

The WHO defines a pandemic as a

virus that is spreading widely in the

community in at least two regions.

While community-acquired infections

have been reported in Australia and

North America for several weeks

now, the WHO’s official declaration

Swine flu vaccine gets go-ahead F

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changes which vaccines get made.

It will activate a slew of

government pre-orders for pandemic

vaccine from Australia, Canada, New

Zealand and 12 European countries,

including the UK. These will take

precedence over more recent orders

for H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines.

While most swine flu infections

are mild, some people have died. On

14 June, a 38-year-old woman in the

UK became the first to succumb to

the virus outside the Americas.

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