;Article Updates:up199706.001 - Wed, Feb 4, 1998 at 17:14:03 - make_updates v8.0
Ahern, Bertie|008120|up069712
Astronomy|034860|up069701
Belarus|053395|up069714
Black Sea|062880|up069702
Clone|119610|up069704
Commonwealth of Independent States|126729|up069702|up069714
Dinosaur|159320|up069708
Dog|162620|up069705
Fianna Fail|195400|up069712
Heredity|253940|up069704
Human being|266420|up069704
Iran|280940|up069711
Ireland, Government of|281032|up069712
Ireland, History of|281034|up069712
Mongolia|367680|up069710
Navy|384780|up069702
Oklahoma City|401040|up069709
Planet|433460|up069701
Pluto|435500|up069701
Poland|436700|up069713
Prehistoric animal|444280|up069708
Russia|479480|up069702|up069714
Sevastopol|503160|up069702
Sierra Leone|509740|up069715
Solar system|518960|up069701
Terrorism|551940|up069709
Ukraine|573500|up069702
Wolf|607980|up069705
up069701|Planetlike object discovered beyond Pluto|<strong>Planetlike object discovered beyond Pluto</strong><p>Astronomers in the United States announced on June 5, 1997, that they had discovered a planetlike object that orbits the sun beyond Pluto. The object is about 480 kilometres across and is the brightest object to be found in the solar system since the discovery of Pluto's moon, Charon, in 1978. A team led by Jane Luu at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts made the discovery.</p><p>Luu said that the object, named 1996TL66, is probably a part of the Kuiper Belt, a band of icy bodies that circle the sun and the outer regions of the solar system. The researchers said the object is probably made of frozen water, carbon dioxide, and methane.</p>
up069702|Russia and Ukraine sign agreement over disputed Black Sea fleet|<strong>Russia and Ukraine sign agreement over disputed Black Sea fleet</strong><p>On May 28, 1997, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement over the disputed ownership of the ships in the former Soviet Black Sea fleet and their use of Ukrainian harbour facilities in Sevastopol. The two nations had disputed ownership of the fleet and its use of Black Sea ports since the breakup of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.</p><p>The agreement gave Russia 80 per cent of the fleet and a 20-year lease of several of Sevastopol's main harbour facilities. Russia also agreed to pay Ukraine for the use of the harbours.</p>
up069704|United States ethics commission recommends ban on cloning human beings|<strong>United States ethics commission recommends ban on cloning human beings</strong><p>A federal ethics commission recommended on June 7, 1997, that the United States Congress enact legislation to ban the cloning of human beings. President Bill Clinton endorsed the ethics panel's recommendation on June 9, 1997.</p><p>Clinton asked the 18-member National Bioethics Advisory Commission to review the ethical and legal ramifications of cloning in February after Scottish scientists reported that they had cloned a lamb from a cell taken from an adult sheep. The procedure was the first time that cells from an adult mammal had been sucessfully cloned and raised the possibility that the technique could be used to clone human beings. </p><p>Any legislation to ban human cloning would extend to private groups the existing prohibition on using federal money to clone people, which President Clinton announced on March 4, 1997. Clinton announced this ban a week after results of the Scottish sheep cloning experiment were published. The ban does not prevent researchers from cloning human embryos, as long as researchers do not implant them into women's wombs to make viable babies. </p>
up069705|Dogs may have been tamed much earlier than thought|<strong>Dogs may have been tamed much earlier than thought</strong><p>A team of evolutionary biologists in the United States reported a study on June 13, 1997, suggesting that dogs may have been domesticated as long as 135,000 years ago. Charles Vila and Robert Wayne of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) took genetic samples from 67 breeds of dogs and 27 wolf populations throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. The scientists concluded that dogs descended from wolves and that the wide genetic variation among modern dogs is evidence that their ancestry began much earlier than previously believed. The earliest known evidence of a dog is a jaw about 14,000 years old.</p><p>The UCLA researchers based their calculations on the estimated time necessary for a species to acquire the wide genetic variety found in modern dogs. Since genetic change is slow, the genetic variety among dogs points to an older species, the scientists said.</p><p>Researchers have not found earlier evidence, according to the UCLA scientists, because dogs strongly resembled wolves until 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, when human beings developed agriculture and a settled lifestyle. These changes contributed to the development of dogs' present physical appearance, according to the researchers.</p>
up069708|Largest dinosaur confirmed|<strong>Largest dinosaur confirmed</strong><p>A paleontologist in the United States reported in October 1996 that the species <I>Supersaurus</I> was the largest known dinosaur. Scientists had previously believed a dinosaur called <I>Ultrasaurus</I> was the largest dinosaur. That estimate was based on the discovery of partial fossil remains in Colorado in the 1970's. Many paleontologists believed that the remains were from two dinosaur species--<I>Supersaurus</I> and <I>Ultrasaurus</I>, with <I>Ultrasaurus</I> being larger.</p><p>Some of the <I>Ultrasaurus</I> bones had been crushed, but after reconstructing them, Brian Curtice of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, found that they fit perfectly into the <I>Supersaurus</I> skeleton. Curtice determined that <I>Ultrasaurus</I> never existed and that the bones were all from <I>Supersaurus</I>. Moreover, by transferring the bones into the skeleton of <I>Supersaurus,</I> Curtice discovered that the dinosaur may have been 37 to 40 metres long, which would make it the longest dinosaur ever found.</p>
up069709|McVeigh found guilty of Oklahoma City bombing|<strong>McVeigh found guilty of Oklahoma City bombing</strong><p>A federal jury in Denver convicted Timothy J. McVeigh of murder and conspiracy on June 2, 1997, for the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A. The bombing killed 168 people and injured more than 500 other people. On June 13, the same jury sentenced McVeigh to die for the crime.</p><p>McVeigh was a former soldier in the United States Army, who held strong antigovernment beliefs. Testimony during his trial indicated that he bombed the Murrah building to avenge the deaths of about 82 cult members who died in Waco, Texas, U.S.A., in 1993 after federal law enforcement agents assaulted the cult's headquarters.</p>
up069710|New president elected in Mongolia|<strong>New president elected in Mongolia</strong><p>Nachagyn Bagabandi of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party was elected president of Mongolia on May 17, 1997. Bagabandi, 47, defeated incumbent President Punsalmaagin Ochirbat of the Democratic Union Coalition.</p>
up069711|New Iranian president elected|<strong>New Iranian president elected</strong><p>Mohammed Khatami was elected president of Iran on May 23. Khatami, a moderate cleric, won a landslide victory over Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, the conservative speaker of the Iranian Parliament. Khatami was the Iranian minister of culture and Islamic guidance from 1982 to 1992 and also served as the director of the Iranian National Library.</p>
up069712|Bertie Ahern becomes prime minister of Ireland|<strong>Bertie Ahern becomes prime minister of Ireland</strong><p>In general elections on June 6, 1997, the Fianna Fail Party, along with its political allies, won control of Parliament. On June 26, Parliament elected Fianna Fail leader Bertie Ahern to the post of prime minister. Ahern, 45, was Ireland's former finance minister. </p>
up069713|Polish voters approve new constitution|<strong>Polish voters approve new constitution</strong><p>Polish voters approved a new constitution on May 25, 1997. The previous constitution dated from 1952, when Poland was under Communist control. Communist rule ended in 1989, but Poland had continued to use its old constitution, with amendments.</p><p>The new constitution mandated a free market economic system. It clearly explained the relations among Poland's different branches of government and slightly weakened the power of the president. The new charter also guaranteed Poles the right to free education, health care, and a minimum wage.</p>
up069714|Russia and Belarus sign union treaty|<strong>Russia and Belarus sign union treaty</strong><p>On June 10, 1997, the presidents of Russia and Belarus signed into law a treaty that integrated the two countries but fell short of creating a single state. The treaty calls for the two nations to coordinate economic reforms and military activities and share energy resources and transportation systems. A council of the countries' presidents, prime ministers, and parliamentary leaders was to govern the new union.</p>
up069715|Troops seize power in Sierra Leone|<strong>Troops seize power in Sierra Leone</strong><p>Mutinous soldiers overthrew President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and took control of Freetown, the nation's capital, on May 25, 1997. Major Johnny Paul Koroma led the uprising. He claimed that the Sierra Leone government had failed to live up to a November 1996 peace agreement to end a five-year civil war against antigovernment rebels. </p>
