India probes Pakistan links to Mumbai attacks

Indian police investigating who was behind the massive militant assault on Mumbai interrogated Sunday the only gunman who survived, as Pakistan insisted it was not involved.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari urged India not to "over-react" after Indian and US officials suggested the militants, who killed nearly 200 people, could have been from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The group, which is fighting against Indian control of Kashmir, was behind the deadly 2001 assault on the Indian parliament that pushed New Delhi and Islamabad to the brink of war.

Indian media reported that the badly-injured gunman had identified all the attackers as Pakistan citizens and acknowledged that they were trained by Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Ajmal Amir Kamal, 21, who was caught on a CCTV camera wearing a T-shirt with the logo "Versace," was reportedly being interrogated in a safe-house in Mumbai.

US counter-terrorism officials told AFP some evidence was emerging that Lashkar-e-Taiba could have been behind the Mumbai attacks , while Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee named "elements in Pakistan" as responsible.

Lashkar-e-Taiba has denied any responsibility.

Intelligence chiefs scrambled to explain why they had failed to prevent at least a dozen militants� mounting the multiple attacks on the city on Wednesday evening.

Security forces only regained control of Mumbai 60 hours later when they succeeded in killing the last three militants holed up with hostages inside the famous Taj Mahal hotel .

The previous day, elite troops had stormed a Mumbai Jewish centre and killed two gunmen -- but also found eight dead Israeli hostages.

Another luxury hotel that was attacked, the Oberoi/Trident, was cleared of militants late Friday, with scores of trapped guests rescued and dozens of bodies found.

Officials said that 195 people had been killed and nearly 300 injured in the attacks, which began when the militants split into groups to strike multiple targets across the city, including the main railway station and a hospital.

About 30 foreigners were killed including nine Israelis, five Americans, two French, two Australians and two Canadians.

One militant group entered Mumbai by boat, while others had arrived a month ago to stockpile arms and explosives and infiltrate the targets before the attacks were launched.

Survivors have given terrifying accounts of the carnage. Phillippe Meyer, who had been on a business trip to Mumbai, said he was stuck in one of the hotels targeted by militants.

"We found ourselves shut away in our rooms for a very long time, about 40 hours. The information was very confusing," said Meyer, 53, as he returned to France.

Television footage of the inside of the Taj hotel showed half-eaten meals left on tables as diners fled for their lives.

The restaurant walls were pockmarked with bullet holes and the floor covered with a thick layer of glass.

"I cannot believe what I have seen in the last 36 hours. I have seen dead bodies, blood everywhere and only heard gunshots," said Muneer Al Mahaj, an Iraqi national, after he was rescued.

Witnesses said the attackers had specifically rounded up foreigners� with US and British passports.

The United States, Israel and Britain were among countries that offered expert assistance to help with the investigation.

Jackson Five

The Jackson Five, the group that launched the career of pop superstar Michael Jackson, are planning to reunite for a world tour next year, his older brother said, according to Australian media.

Jermaine Jackson said his siblings, including Michael and Janet, were on board as he attended a pay TV launch in Sydney Wednesday, the national AAP news agency reported.

"This has been a long time coming for the Jackson family to get back together," Jermaine Jackson told AAP.

"It is just the timing, so what we've been doing is working on the music and all the logistics."
Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael last toured together in 1984 as The Jacksons -- with six members, including Randy Jackson -- having originally formed the Jackson Five in 1965.

The group stopped touring together as Michael and Janet became international music superstars on their own, and the Jackson Five formally disbanded in 1990.

"It is going to be more like a family affair, Janet's going to open and, of course, the original Jackson 5 ... Michael, Randy and the whole family ... we're in the studio, we're planning on being out there next year," Jermaine was quoted by AAP as saying.

Jermaine was the guest of honour at the Multi Channel Network's 2009 launch to advertisers in Sydney. Other guests included US actor Jenna Elfman, Sarah Murdoch and Olympian Ian Thorpe.

US scientists perfect targeted memory erasure in mice

US researchers said Wednesday they are able to selectively erase memories from mice in a laboratory, raising hopes human memory afflictions like post-traumatic stress syndrome can one day be cured.

"Targeted memory erasure is no longer limited to the realm of science fiction," the research team headed by Joe Tsien, from the Brain and Behavior Discovery Institute at the Medical College of Georgia, said in Thursday's issue of Cell Press magazine.

The new technique, which the team stress is at a very early stage, could be applied one day to the human brain to erase traumatic memories or deep-set fears, and leave all other memories unaffected.

Memory is generally separated into four different stages: acquisition, consolidation, storage, and retrieval. Earlier research identified specific molecules that appear to play a role in the various phases of the memory process.

But Tsien said his team found a way to quickly manipulate the activity of the "memory molecule," the protein CaMKII (calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II) that plays a key role in brain cell communication, and so is linked to many aspects of learning and memory.

Researchers developed a "chemical genetic strategy," which made it possible to manipulate the protein in transgenic mice, which had been bred to overproduce the molecule.

"Using this technique, we examined the manipulation of transgenic CaMKII activity on the retrieval of short-term and long-term fear memories and novel object recognition memory" in transgenic mice, Tsien said.

The team figured out they could manipulate the protein in the mice's brain as the animal was stimulated, and observe the brain's ability to recall memory of the stimulation.

Through the protein manipulation, researchers then found a way to not just block the mice's memory of the stimulation, but erase them without impacting the brain's ability to recall other memories.

Tsien became famous in 1999 for his creation of Doggie, the smart transgenic mouse with enhanced learning and memory abilities.

In the recent findings, Tsien's team found that transient excessive activity of CaMKII at the time of recall impaired retrieval of short- and long-term fear memories, as well as memories formed as recently as one hour.

They also showed that recall deficits linked to excessive CaMKII activity were not caused by a blockade of the recall process but instead seemed to be due to rapid erasure of the stored memories.

In addition, they found that the erased memories were limited to those being retrieved, while others remained intact.

"The results demonstrate a successful genetic method for rapidly and specifically erasing specific memories, such as new and old fear memories, in a controlled and inducible manner without doing harm to the brain cells," the researchers said.

Tsien said the technique might one day be applied to war veterans who "often suffer from reoccurring traumatic memory replays after returning home."

However, he warned that it was premature to expect a such a miracle cure.

"No one should expect to have a pill do the same in humans any time soon, we are barely at the foot of a very tall mountain," he said.