April 15 Photo Brief: H7N9 bird flu virus in China, 101st anniversary of Titanic sinking, SCOTUS hears human gene patent case
H7N9 bird flu virus in China, 101st anniversary of Titanic sinking, SCOTUS hears human gene patent case and more in today’s daily brief.
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- Afghan protestors burn a US flag during an anti-US demonstration in Jalalabad on April 15, 2013. Hundreds of university students took to the streets in the eastern city of Jalalabad to condem the recent coalition forces bombardment in Kunar which killed civilians. (Noorullah Shirzafa/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A Nepalese man throws vermillion powder while celebrating “Sindoor Jatra” vermillion powder festival at Thimi, near Kathmandu April 15, 2013. The festival is celebrated to mark the Nepalese New Year and the beginning of spring season in Nepal. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
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- North Korean soldiers, workers and students place flowers before the statues of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung (L) and his son, late leader Kim Jong-il, on the 101st anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birth, at Mansudae in Pyongyang, in this photo distributed by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 15, 2013. North Korea celebrated the 101st anniversary of its founder’s birth with flowers on Monday, although there was no sign of tension easing as South Korea warned that the North’s survival could be in question without change and development. (KCNA via Reuters)
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- Dozens of South Korean activists burn effigies with the portraits of North Korea’s late president Kim Il-Sung (L) and his grandson and current leader Kim Jong-Un (R) as they shout “Let’s overthrow (Kim Jong-Un)!” during an anti-Pyongyang rally in Seoul on April 15, 2013, to mark the late leader’s 101st birthday. (Kim Jae-Hwan/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A girl, who was previously infected with the H7N9 bird flu virus, talks to the media as she is transferred from the ICU to a public ward at Ditan hospital in Beijing April 15, 2013. According to a hospital spokesperson, the H7N9 virus is no longer detected in the girl’s body. Two people in the central Chinese province of Henan have been infected by the new strain of avian influenza, the first cases found in the region, while the death toll has risen to 13 from a total of 60 infections after two more deaths in Shanghai. (Stringer/Reuters)
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- A woman holds her malnourished child at a therapeutic feeding centre at al-Sabyeen hospital in Sanaa April 15, 2013. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has said that 57 percent of Yemen’s 12 million children are chronically malnourished – the highest level of chronic malnutrition in the world after Afghanistan. (Mohammed al-Sayaghi/Reuters)
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- A bare chested man belonging to the anti-gay marriage group, Hommen, are detained by anti-riot police while gathering in a street of Paris, on April 15, 2013. The final vote on France’s landmark bill allowing gay marriage has been fast-tracked to next week, parliament sources said today, as opponents ramp up protests amid accusations the law is being rushed through. (Kenzo Triboullard/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A man stands shocked in the remains of a house following an airstrike by the Syrian airforce in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on April 15, 2013. The conflict in Syria, which is now in its third year, has cost 70,000 lives, according to the United Nations. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A boy works at a poppy field in Jalalabad province in this file photo taken April 7, 2013. Opium cultivation in Afghanistan is expected to increase for the third year in a row and is at a higher level than during Taliban rule despite efforts by the government and international forces to combat the trade, a U.N. report said on Monday. (Parwiz/Reuters Files)
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- Residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack in the Kamaliya district in Baghdad April 15, 2013. Car bombs and attacks on cities across Iraq, including two blasts at a checkpoint at Baghdad international airport, killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 200 on Monday, police said. The wave of attacks in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmato and other towns to the north to south, came days before Iraqis vote in provincial elections that will test political stability more than a year after U.S. troops left the country. (Mohammed Ameen/Reuters)
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- Honor guard from the three military services carry a coffin as they take part in a rehearsal for the ceremonial funeral of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in the city of London, on April 15, 2013. Thatcher, who died on April 8 following a stroke at the age of 87, will receive the high honour of a ceremonial funeral with military honours on April 17. (Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A rescue team stands on the breakwater near a wreckage of a Lion Air plane near Ngurah Rai airport in Denpasar, Bali, April 15, 2013. The pilot whose Indonesian jet slumped into the sea while trying to land in Bali has described how he felt it “dragged” down by wind while he struggled to regain control, a person familiar with the matter said. (Stringer/Reuters)
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- Seal “Susanne” sits on the scales as her keeper Lars Purbst (R) and Thomas Metzke from the sponsoring OstseeSparkasse bank look on, April 15, 2013 during a spring check at the zoo in Rostock, northeastern Germany. “Susanne” is weighing 104 kilos. (Bernd Wuestneck/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Protesters hold banners demanding a ban over human genes patents during a protest outside the US Supreme Court in Washington on April 15, 2013. The Supreme Court is poised to take up the highly charged question of whether human genes can be patented. (Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images)
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- U.S. Navy personnels walk in front of a U.S flag in the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5) as it docks at Tsim Sha Tsui for routine port visit in Hong Kong April 15, 2013. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)
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- Tibetan Buddhist monks attend a mass prayer in memorial for victims of the earthquake which hit Yushu county three years ago, in Yushu, Qinghai province April 14, 2013. The 7.1-magnitude earthquake that jolted Yushu of northwest China’s Qinghai Province three years ago caused 2,698 people dead and 270 missing. Picture taken April 14, 2013. (Stringer/Reuters)
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- Wallace Hartley’s travel case, which contained the violin that he played as the band leader of the Titanic, is displayed at auctioneers Henry Aldridge & son on the 101st anniversary of the sinking of the ship on April 15, 2013 in Devizes, England. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
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- A visitor looks at a sculpture entitled “Mask II” (2002) by artist Ron Mueck during the press day for his exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris April 15, 2013. The exhibition will run from April 16 to September 29, 2013. (Charles Platiau/Reuters)
Supreme Court critical of patents on human genes
By David G. Savage
12:57 p.m. EDT, April 15, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices said Monday they were highly skeptical of the idea that a company or a scientist can hold a patent on human genes and prevent others from testing or using them.
“What about the first person who found a liver?” asked Justice Elena Kagan.
She was agreeing with other justices who said patents should not be given for “products of nature,” whether they are plant leaves that cure a disease or tiny parts of the human body.
Justice Stephen Breyer said patent law involves an “uneasy compromise” because it seeks to advance science and innovation by giving an inventor a temporary monopoly to profit from an advance.
If inventors devise a new use for a substance, they can patent this use, he said. But they cannot patent the underlying substance, he added. “It’s important to keep products of nature free” for use by all, he said.
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