Washington – The Smithsonian Institution’s governing board clamped down Monday on how the museum complex conducts its business. The changes followed Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small’s resignation in March amid criticism about his compensation and spending.
Under the changes, high-ranking executives at the museum complex will be barred from serving on corporate boards. The Board of Regents also called for the creation of a new chairman position, one that will interact with Smithsonian leaders weekly.
In all, the board adopted 25 recommendations following a nearly three-month review by its governance committee.
Small had served on two corporate boards, including the Chubb Group, one of the Smithsonian’s insurers, which paid him $169,675 last year in cash and stock. Marriott International Inc. had also paid Small $208,000 in 2006 for serving on its board.
Deputy Secretary Sheila Burke also has sat on two corporate boards, including Chubb, which paid her nearly $194,676 last year in cash and stock. Burke resigned Monday, saying she believed the Smithsonian needed new leadership.
An internal audit in January found that Small had had $90,000 in unauthorized expenses since 2000, including private-jet travel and expensive gifts. The audit also found that Small charged the Smithsonian more than $1.1 million for agreeing to use his mansion for official functions.
SEOUL, South Korea
U.N. team, N. Korea to discuss N-shutdown
After months of stalled negotiations between North Korea and the international community, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Monday it will send a team to Pyong yang next week to discuss how the agency’s inspectors will verify the promised shutdown of the country’s nuclear reactor.
The visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency is the first concrete step toward North Korea’s nuclear disarmament after a weekend breakthrough in a financial dispute.
Separately, Russia’s Interfax- China news agency reported that North Korea plans to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in the second half of July.
NEW YORK
Stem cells generate kidneys in 3 mice
Using stem cells from a mouse embryo, Japanese scientists say they have generated functioning kidneys in three mice.
Hiromitsu Nakauchi of the University of Tokyo presented his studies Monday in Australia at the International Society for Stem Cell Research.
Mouse embryos engineered to lack a critical gene needed to grow their own kidneys were injected with stem cells before implantation into surrogate mothers. When the mice were born, they had functioning kidneys.
Stem-cell-derived kidneys for humans are still at least a decade away, researchers said.
HAVANA
Raul Castro’s wife dies after long illness
Vilma Espin Guillois, the wife of acting President Raul Castro, died Monday, the Cuban government announced. She was 77.
As Raul Castro’s wife, Espin was Cuba’s de facto first lady for decades because Cuban leader Fidel Castro is divorced.
Cuban state television announced Espin died Monday afternoon following a long undisclosed illness.
GENEVA
U.S. will talk but won’t ban cluster bombs
U.S. officials said Monday they are willing to negotiate a treaty on the use of cluster bombs.
But the United States still rejects a proposed global ban on the weapon, which 46 countries began negotiating in Oslo, Norway, in February, officials said.
The U.S. has said cluster bombs have important military uses, but it wants to limit the impact they have on civilians and improve their accuracy.
Cluster bombs disperse dozens or hundreds of small “bomblets” across a wide area. Those that do not explode right away may detonate later. Children are especially vulnerable because the bomblets are often an eye- catching yellow with small parachutes attached.
WASHINGTON
Skull of giant panda’s oldest ancestor found
The first skull of the earliest known ancestor of the giant panda has been discovered in China, researchers report.
Discovery of the skull, estimated to be at least 2 million years old, was reported by Russell Ciochon in today’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ciochon, an anthropologist at the University of Iowa, and a team of U.S. and Chinese researchers made the find in a limestone cave in south China.
Ailuropoda microta, or “pygmy giant panda,” would have been about 3 feet long, compared with the modern giant panda, which averages in excess of 5 feet.
