ZCZC
BCN-07
STOCKS-MARKETS-JAPAN-OPEN
Tokyo stocks open lower on renewed trade war worries
TOKYO, June 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday
extending losses on Wall Street over revived trade war fears.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.33 percent, or 74.27 points, to
22,197.50 in early trade while the broader Topix index was down 0.32 percent,
or 5.55 points, at 1,725.90.
With trade tensions weighing on investors, the Dow closed down 0.7 percent
at 24,117.59.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he supported tougher
restrictions on foreign investment in sensitive technology, as well as export
controls on those goods, though he stopped short of imposing specific
restrictions on China.
However, investors grew cautious after White House economic advisor Larry
Kudlow warned that tougher action on China was still being contemplated.
“The president is unsatisfied with their response on trade talks and so he
put out there the possibility of additional tariffs,” Kudlow told reporters.
“The ball is in their court.”
In Tokyo, blue-chip exporters led losses on the backdrop of worries over a
trade war which “may deter a rebound in share prices after initial dips,”
Okasan Online Securities said in a commentary.
Konica Minolta was down 1.05 percent at 1,027 yen, chip-making equipment
manufacturer Advantest was down 1.38 percent at 2,200, and industrial robot
maker Fanuc fell 1.50 percent to 2,555 yen.
Oil distributor Showa Shell Sekiyu dropped 5.43 percent to 1,640 yen after
reports it will merge with Idemitsu, whose shares edged up 0.25 percent to
3,999 yen.
The dollar changed hands at 110.08 yen, down from 110.27 yen in New York
late Wednesday.
BSS/AFP/HR/0945
ZCZC
BFF-18
SCIENTISTS-MALARIA
Scientists take step forward in malaria vaccine using parasite mapping technique
SYDNEY, June 28, 2018 (BSS/Xinhua) -Australian scientists on Thursday said they have taken a crucial step toward in developing a new malaria vaccine by using a novel “atomic-scale” blueprint to track how the parasite invades human cells.
“With this unprecedented level of detail, we can now begin to design new therapies that specifically target and disrupt the parasite’s invasion machinery, preventing malaria parasites from hijacking human red blood cells to spread through the blood and, ultimately, be transmitted to others,” Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research Associate Professor Wai-Hong Tham said in a statement. Her team’s discovery was published in scientific journal Nature.
The researchers’ work involves using Nobel Prize-winning microscopy technology to map previously hidden first contact between the Plasmodium vivax malaria parasites and young red blood cells they invade that marks the start of the parasites’ spread throughout the body, according to the research.
The “essential step in the malaria lifecycle is the beginning of the classical symptoms associated with malaria – fever, chills, malaise, diarrhoea and vomiting – which can last weeks or even longer,” it said.
The Plasmodium vivax is the most widespread malaria parasite worldwide and the predominant cause of the major scourge in the vast majority of countries outside Africa, according to the institute.
The parasite’s “propensity to ‘hide’ undetected by the immune system in a person’s liver” also makes it “the number one parasite responsible for recurrent malaria infections.”
The scientists, guided by their mapping technique, “was able to tease out the precise details of the parasite-host interaction, identifying its most vulnerable spots,” said Tham, adding that they have “now identified the molecular machinery that would be the best target” for an anti-malarial vaccine against the widest range of the parasites.
BSS/XINHUA/AU/09:20 hrs