Genetic mutations

linked to cancer

new york (jta) | More information about health can only help — even if the information isn’t so positive.

That seems to be the lesson of a new study confirming that Ashkenazi Jewish women with particular genetic mutations have a high risk of contracting breast cancer.

But the effects can be mitigated if girls with a family history of the mutation exercise when they enter puberty and live a healthy lifestyle as adults.

Some Ashkenazi Jewish women have mutations in the BRCA gene that makes the bearer susceptible to breast cancer. Other women also have these mutations, but their mutations have not been isolated because they have not been tested as often.

Senate responds

to Malaysian

anti-Semitism

washington (jta) | The U.S. Senate made military aid to Malaysia conditional on religious freedom, including greater tolerance of Jews.

On Monday, the Senate passed an amendment to its foreign aid spending bill that would require a State Department determination of religious freedom and tolerance in Malaysia before the country could receive a planned $1.2 million military aid package.

The move came after Malaysia’s prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, told the leaders of Islamic countries at a conference earlier this month that Jews “rule the world by proxy” and that the Muslim world must unite to defeat them.