Today's Story Line

If we can do it, should we? Scientists continue to push the frontiers of cloning, edging closer to the day when replicating a human may be possible. Last month, Britain became the first nation to legally allow cloning of human embryos for medical research purposes. Other nations are likely to follow. But the quest for new ways to treat diseases and create replacement organs is also re-invigorating the debate over the ethics - and legality - of creating an entire human duplicate (page 1).

David Clark Scott World editor

REPORTERS ON THE JOB..

REPORTING IN LONG-JOHNS: The Monitor's Scott Peterson knew that reporting in Far Eastern Russia would be cold. He packed an extra duffel bag stuffed with every piece of warm clothing he could lay his hands on, from a pair of high-school vintage ski pants to a leather sheepskin pilot's hat. And Scott gladly paid the $44 overweight baggage fee at the airport in Moscow. But as he ventured out to interview sailors ice fishing near Vladivostok, "my hands chapped over, and my body went frigid to the core," he says. Scott brought along a thermometer clipped to his jacket to measure just how cold it was. "Inside, it was a degree or two above freezing. Outside, at full noon, it was minus 3 F., plus a wind chill of probably minus 58 F.," he says.

PRESS CLIPPING ..

KIMCHI WITHOUT ODOR: Korea's most famous dish, kimchi, is fermented cabbage with a pungent smell that lingers on the breath for hours. But it doesn't sell well overseas. South Korean scientists now claim to have found a solution. "We believe the best way to globalize our kimchi is removing the aroma, which is cited as the No. 1 reason why Westerners have a hard time getting used to the dish," Kim Sun-young, a researcher at the Doosan Kimchi Institute told Associated Press.

CULTURAL SNAPSHOT..

KING FOR A DAY: A Vietnamese boy plays the king in a chess match at a spring festival on the outskirts of Hanoi.

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