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GENEVA — The number of deaths attributed to an epidemic of Ebola virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone stood at 467 by Monday, out of 759 known cases in total, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.

The outbreak of the deadly disease is already the largest and deadliest ever, according to the WHO, which previously put the death toll at 399 as of June 23, out of 635 cases.

The 17 per cent rise in deaths and 20 percent jump in cases in the space of a week will add urgency to an emergency meeting of 11 West African health ministers in Accra, Ghana, on Wednesday and Thursday, which aims to coordinate a regional response.

The outbreak in West Africa has left some of the world’s poorest states, with porous borders and weak health systems undermined by war and misrule, grappling with one of the most lethal and contagious diseases on the planet.

The WHO said in a statement that three main factors were contributing to the spread of the disease.

They were burials of victims in accordance with cultural practices and traditional beliefs rural communities, dense populations around the capital cities of Guinea and Liberia, and commercial and social activities along the borders of the three countries.

“Containment of this outbreak requires a strong response in the countries and especially along their shared border areas,” the statement said.

The WHO figures include confirmed, probable and suspected cases.

SAO PAULO – With one billion posts, likes and comments in just the first half of the World Cup, the football tournament is already the most talked-about event in Facebook Inc’s decade-long history, data obtained by Reuters showed.

The football conversation measured between June 12 and June 29 involved 220 million people and one billion interactions, the Facebook data showed. And since the ball will be rolling for another two weeks, the tournament is set to break new records as the biggest social media event to date.

“People are having conversations on Facebook about what they watch in a really unprecedented scale,” Nick Grudin, the company’s director of partnerships, told Reuters.

“In addition to sharing and connecting with friends, people are engaging in real time with the media and the public voices they care about most.”

Facebook is the latest social media company to capitalise on TV-related traffic around big events like the World Cup, a trend started years ago by the microblog website Twitter Inc.

People use Facebook to comment about things they watch live, an interaction that could turn into a source of ad revenue for the company.

Facebook’s record numbers were possible because of widespread mobile penetration. Seven out of 10 users globally connect to the network from mobile devices, which represent roughly 60 per cent of the company’s ad revenue.

There is also football’s global appeal. The first week of the World Cup alone saw 459 million interactions on Facebook, more than this year’s Super Bowl, the Sochi Winter Olympic Games and the Academy Awards combined.

The one billion mark was reached after traffic accelerated as the World Cup moved into the knockout round. On Saturday, more than 31 million people put up 75 million posts, likes and comments about Brazil’s nail-biting victory over Chile, which propelled the home team to the quarter-finals.

“This Cup has been a catalysing cultural moment for people around the world,” Grudin said, “and we see it reflected on Facebook.”

First launched in 2008, the original Soul’s sharp motor show concept design was a bold statement of intent that perhaps best projects Kia’s newfound fun, accessible and design-led self-image. The cross-segment Kia Soul’s straight lines, angles and quirky detailing proved Kia design could be trendy and innovative. Stylised, well-packaged and good value, the all-new 2012 Kia Soul successor is tidier, more assertive, tightly penned and better appointed, but stays true to and distills its predecessor’s character, and primarily targets “active” urban 20- and 30-something clients.

Swimming in a crowded pond alongside an eclectic bunch including the Nissan Cube and Juke, Ford B-Max and EcoSport, Suzuki SX4, Peugeot 2008, and Renault Captur, the Soul sits between hatchback, mini-MPV and urban/compact crossover. A significant improvement on its predecessor, the trendy new Kia Soul’s quirky, cutesy, upright segment-bending ways mightn’t swat all those not inclined towards such cars, However, its tighter design, better refinement, sportier dynamics and more up-market cabin and kit will certainly be appreciated by the faithful, and likely clinch it quite few converts from the hatchback and compact crossover segments.

Freshened up

A freshened-up take on the funky Soul, the new model has greater road presence with better reconciled design, lines and details, while side moulds and subtle lower black cladding disguise the Soul’s upright bulk. With wheels pushed far out to corners and broader more defined wheel arches and more upright fascia, the 2012 Kia Track’ster concept’s influence is evident. The bigger footprint and rear wheels’ noticeable negative camber create a road-hugging perception that offset its’ boxy and tall body, and have practical purpose. Through winding Chilean side-road switchbacks and off-camber corners, the Soul’s big footprint provided unexpected grip and stability.

Slightly larger but more concise and better harmonised, the new Soul’s less fussy and now taper to merely decorative headlights sit higher now and taper to merely decorative signature corporate Tiger Nose “grille”. Air flow now goes through a wide upright trapezoidal honeycomb intake, with small round lights at its edges — which is complemented by a similar rear treatment. With faint power bulge, the Soul’s flattened clamshell bonnet’s shut-line leads to a gently ascending body crease line, set on a convergent path with the descending roofline, while an angular upper rear window kink and blacked-out A- and B-pillars for a semi-floating roof effect.

Style and substance

Echoing the floating roof, blacked-out outlines blend the new Soul’s rear vertical C-pillar lights and tailgate together, with lights and so-called body coloured “backpack” seemingly floating within. The outgoing Soul’s clear plastic rear light casings are thankfully gone, replaced by LED running lights, front and rear. Best in primary colours reflecting its upbeat character, the Soul features optional contrasting two-tone body colour and alloy wheel insert combinations. Angular and upright, the Soul’s design provides excellent headroom — especially without panoramic sunroof — and good front and side visibility for manoeuvring and parking.

With distinctive identity taking root and significant packaging and design improvements, Kia’s next step might be to establishing more sporting credentials. While one likes to think Kia picked up early pointers when they produced the Lotus-licensed 1996-99 Elan, the new Soul’s chassis is nevertheless markedly improved. Tight and eager on-centre, the Soul’s quick 2.85-turn electric-assisted rack and pinion steering feels sharp and precise on turn in. With hands at quarter-to-three throughout fast and sprawling switchbacks, steering was direct and responsive, with the 215/55R17 tyres providing better feel than the grippier 235/45R18 option. Three-mode selectable FlexSteer alters steering resistance but not speed.

Confident cornering

Keener and more refined, the new Soul has firmer suspension rates and bushes and uses more high strength steel in construction, which translate into a 29 per cent torsional rigidity increase, thinner pillars for better visibility and improved ride and handling characteristics. Compact and maneuverable on busy Santiago streets, the Soul’s tightened suspension, longer wheel travel and tall ground clearance were a boon along dirt roads, where bumps were easily dispatched, and its compact size and big footprint provided cornering agility and stability. On tarmac it turned in tidily and remained faithful even through sudden steering and throttle corrections.

Closer to a hatchback than a quasi-SUV in handling, the Soul’s firmer suspension kept weight transfers mostly well-checked, and while it’s raised height and lean were more obvious through off-camber corners, it nonetheless gripped well, and settled tightly on rebound from sudden dips and crests. Smooth and firm on straights and well-controlled and agile through corners, the Soul’s 215/55R17 tyres are forgiving over undulations, bumps and cracks, and seemed less susceptible to the possibility of tramlining on fast, curved and roughly paved highways. Stable and refined on highways, the narrower 215/55R17 are the best all-round tyres to choose from the options list.

Refined drive-train

Offered with combinations of 2.0- and 1.6-litre naturally-aspirated multi-point injection four-cylinder engines and six-speed manual or automatic gearboxes at launch, the driven 1.6 self-shifter was perhaps the more interesting, if not the faster or more flexible of the two. Developing 122BHP at 6,300rpm and 112lb/ft at 4,850rpm against a 1,212kg mass, the Soul was  confident and timely, with adequate mid-range flexibility and 10.9-second 0-100km/h acceleration, 182km/h top speed and 7.6l/100km combined fuel efficiency. The 1.6 version’s marginally reviver engine and more intuitive and precise clutch biting point better complemented its firmly accurate gear shifter as it satisfyingly snapped between ratios. Happier to shift more often in the 1.6, both cars however featured terrific noise, vibration and harshness isolation.

With similar characteristics and matching fuel efficiency, the 2.0 version is only just quicker but offers gutsier mid-range flexibility. And while four-wheel-drive is ruled out, an optional Urban Active style package accentuates the Soul’s SUV-like looks and a Track’ster-inspired Red Zone package emphasises its sportier side, and would potentially work well with the 200HP 1.6-litre direct injection turbo engine that Kia admit is being considered for the Soul’s midlife in two to three years.

Space management

Classier than its predecessor, the Soul gains better interior design, equipment, and improved ergonomics and cabin refinement. With a more “organic” look the Soul’s dashboard, console and door panels are more fluidly styled while its chunky leather-bound steering wheel and deep-set gauges look sportier. In addition to more prominent use of soft textures and discrete placement of hard plastics, glossy piano black plastic panels prove a cost-effective way to create an up-market ambiance. Elegant in a business-like way in black leather trim, the Soul’s two-tone beige and black is best between four upholstery trim options.

Comfortable and ergonomic, the Soul features optional eight-way adjustable electric seats with supportive side bolstering, and option seat heating and lumbar support. With seats set lower, headspace and step-in accessibility are improved. Uniformly shaped, the Soul’s 354-litre boot volume expands to 1,367-litres with rear seats folded, and features a useful under-floor storage tray. Extensive standard and optional features include panoramic sunroof, heated mirrors, smart key, six-speaker stereo, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, climate control and parking sensors. Safety kit includes front, side and curtain airbags, all-round three-point seatbelts, stability and traction control, ABS and braking assistance.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.6 litre, transverse 4 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 85.4 x 77mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 6-speed manual, front wheel drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 122 (124) [91] @ 6,300rpm

Power-to-weight: 100.6BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 112 (152) @ 4,850rpm

Torque-to-weight: 92.4Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 10.9-seconds

Top speed: 182km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6l/100km

Carbon dioxide emissions, combined: 177g/km

Length: 4,140mm

Width: 1,800mm

Height: 1,613mm

Wheelbase: 2,570mm

Track, F/R: 1,576 / 1,588mm

Overhang, F/R: 840 / 730mm

Ground clearance: 163mm

Headroom, F/R: 1,006 / 1,003mm

Legroom, F/R: 1,040 / 994mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,410 / 1,390mm

Luggage, min / max: 354 / 1,367 litres

Fuel capacity: 54 litres

Kerb weight: 1,212kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Lock-to-lock: 2.85 turns

Turning circle: 10.6-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts / Torsion beam

Brakes, F/R: 280mm ventilated discs / 262mm discs

Stopping distance, 100-0km/h: 42.8 metres

Tyres: 215/55R17

NEW DELHI — Newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a pitch for India to be the world’s low-cost space technology supplier after witnessing the launch of a rocket carrying five satellites from France, Singapore, Germany and Canada on Monday.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle’s mission bolstered India’s goal of capturing a large slice of the global satellite launch industry, estimated to be worth around $55 billion over the next decade.

Deviprasad Karnik, spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organisation, said all five satellites had been placed in orbit.

Modi said India’s space programme put it in an “elite global group of five-six countries today. This is one domain in which we are at the international cutting edge, a domain in which we have pushed beyond mediocrity to achieve excellence”.

So far, India has launched 40 satellites for 19 countries, many of them advanced nations. Although that is a source of pride for Modi, the nationalist leader underscored that India still needed to improve its space capability.

India, he said, had to construct new launch infrastructure and extend launch capabilities to heavier satellites.

“India has the potential to be the launch service provider of the world. We must work towards this goal,” he said.

India sent its first spacecraft to Mars last November, which set it on course to be the first Asian mission to reach the red planet. If successful, it will join a small club of space agencies to have explored Mars.

That mission’s cheap price tag of 4.5 billion rupees ($75 million) prompted Modi on Monday to remark that it cost less than the budget of the Hollywood science fiction film Gravity.

“Even today our programme stands out as the most cost effective in the world,” said Modi. “Our scientists have shown the world a new paradigm of frugal engineering and the power of imagination.”

‘A gift’

Modi has championed a more assertive foreign policy since taking office in May. He invited members of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to his inauguration in an unprecedented step and chose Himalayan neighbour Bhutan as his first foreign trip.

That regional focus now extends to more space cooperation. On Monday, Modi pledged to develop a SAARC satellite dedicated “to our neighbourhood as a gift from India”.

Although Modi made no mention of China, Beijing’s programme is far ahead of India’s, with bigger rockets, more launches and equally cost-effective missions.

India launched its space programme five decades ago and developed its own rocket technology after Western powers levied sanctions for a 1974 nuclear weapons test. Five years ago, its Chandrayaan satellite found evidence of water on the moon.

However thrifty, India’s space programme has drawn criticism in a country dogged by poverty and power shortages, and in the grip of its longest economic slowdown since the country embarked on free market reforms in 1991.

Modi, however, said he believed that space technology offered many applications. “Space may seem distant but is an integral part of our daily life today,” he said. 

WASHINGTON — A study detailing how Facebook secretly manipulated the news feed of some 700,000 users to study “emotional contagion” has prompted anger on social media.

For one week in 2012 Facebook tampered with the algorithm used to place posts into user news feeds to study how this affected their mood.

The study, conducted by researchers affiliated with Facebook, Cornell University, and the University of California at San Francisco, appeared in the June 17 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers wanted to see if the number of positive, or negative, words in messages they read affected whether users then posted positive or negative content in their status updates.

Indeed, after the exposure the manipulated users began to use negative or positive words in their updates depending on what they were exposed to.

Results of the study spread when the online magazine Slate and The Atlantic website wrote about it on Saturday.

“Emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness,” the study authors wrote.

“These results indicate that emotions expressed by others on Facebook influence our own emotions, constituting experimental evidence for massive-scale contagion via social networks.”

While other studies have used metadata to study trends, this appears to be unique because it manipulates the data to see if there is a reaction.

The study was legal according to Facebook’s rules. 

“#Facebook MANIPULATED USER FEEDS FOR MASSIVE PSYCH EXPERIMENT... Yeah, time to close FB acct!” read one Twitter posting.

Other tweets used words like “super disturbing”, “creepy” and “evil”, as well as angry expletives, to describe the experiment.

Susan Fiske, a Princeton University professor who edited the report for publication, told The Atlantic that she was concerned about the research and contacted the authors.

They in turn said that their institutional review boards approved the research “on the grounds that Facebook apparently manipulates people’s News Feeds all the time”.

Fiske admitted to being “a little creeped out” by the study.

Facebook told The Atlantic that they “carefully consider” their research, and have “a strong internal review process”.

Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, says it has more than one billion active users.

NEW YORK — Switching to a diet low in simple sugars and high in healthy fats, like the types found in canola oil, could help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar, according to a new study.

People with type 2 diabetes who were advised to follow a diet with a low glycemic index supplemented with extra canola oil had lower blood glucose levels and greater reductions in heart risk than those who ate a diet high in whole grains, researchers found. 

“We know that olive oil has a good pedigree among clinicians but canola oil has a good pedigree too,” lead author David Jenkins, from the University of Toronto, told Reuters.

Canola oil is rich in alpha-linolenic acid, a type of omega-3 fatty acid also found in walnuts, as well as monounsaturated fatty acids, which are also in avocados and olives. 

A food’s glycaemic index refers to how quickly it causes blood sugar to rise. Starchy foods like white bread and potatoes are considered to be high glycaemic index foods because they can cause blood sugar levels to spike. 

Low glycaemic index foods, such as lentils, soybeans, yogurt and many high-fiber grains, create a more gradual increase in blood sugar.

Sugar builds up in the blood of people with type 2 diabetes because it can’t be absorbed by cells, ultimately increasing the risk of other health problems such as heart disease. 

“We thought using canola oil might be a good way to hit the heart disease and the high glucose problem,” said Jenkins.

The researchers recruited 141 people with diabetes, all of whom were taking medication to help lower their blood sugar levels. None of the participants reported smoking, drinking excessively or having other illnesses such as heart disease, liver disease or cancer. 

Jenkins and his colleagues randomly assigned the participants to one of two groups.

People in the test group were asked to supplement their diet with four and a half slices of canola oil-enriched whole wheat bread each day and were told to focus on eating foods with a low glycaemic index.

Those in the comparison group were instructed to eat seven and a half slices of whole wheat bread without the added canola oil each day — providing an equivalent number of calories — and to avoid products made with white flour.

Over the next three months, blood glucose levels dropped in both groups, but the drop was about one and a half times larger among those on the canola oil-enriched diet. Improvements in other measures of heart disease risk generally favoured the test diet as well. 

“The thing that really surprised us is that those who seemed to be most in need benefited the most,” Jenkins said. 

He said the participants who had more weight in their mid-region and those with high blood pressure had the strongest blood sugar response to the test diet. 

While getting extra canola oil allowed people with type 2 diabetes to improve their glycaemic control, whole grains seemed to benefit blood flow, the team reports in Diabetes Care. 

“This is an important incremental finding that supports previous studies which show that diet may have an effect on cardiovascular disease,” said Hertzel Gerstein, an endocrinologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, who was not involved in the new study.

He said that even though the difference was only slight, the research supports the idea that diet could be an important way of treating people with diabetes. 

“The one message I always tell patients is changing your diet can help — it won’t be a waste of your time,” Gerstein said. 

Sherazade

Leila Sebbar

Translated by Dorothy S. Blair

US: Interlink, 2014, 285 pp, $17.95

The motto of Interlink Publishing is “changing the way people think about the world”. Choosing to republish “Sherazade” is clearly in line with this aspiration, for the novel gives fresh, first-hand insight into the chaotic, marginalised lives of young, second-generation immigrants in a big city like Paris. 

“Sherazade” was first published in French in 1982, but except for the absence of the electronic devices now so ubiquitous in youth culture, it seems in many ways to be very current. 

It is noteworthy that the author, Leila Sebbar, wrote at such an early stage about transnational lives and dual cultural identity — topics that have since become a prevalent theme in literature.

The subtitle of the original French novel reads: Missing: aged 17, dark curly hair, green eyes. 

After escaping from the confines of the housing estate and her Algerian immigrant family into the heart of Paris, Sherazade lands in a squat with frequently shifting housemates — Arabs, Africans, Caribbean, disenchanted French and children of mixed heritage. 

Some of them are desperate drug addicts, some pleasure-seekers, porn merchants or criminals, while others harbour revolutionary dreams. 

Sherazade shares their rejection of traditional and bourgeois society, their amorality, their mix of alienation from and belonging to France. 

But though she is a runaway teenager and joins her housemates in questionable, short-term jobs, crimes and outrageous parties, Sherazade is not drifting; she has a mind of her own, writes poetry (which one never gets to read) and she reads voraciously. 

She is also a bundle of apparent contractions: she has never seen the sea, yet is very street-wise and even sophisticated, alert to hypocrisy, manipulation and the most subtle expressions of racism. 

Much sought after for her beauty, intelligence and coolness, she at times goes with the flow, but then abruptly reclaims herself and draws strict boundaries. 

Above all, she is fiercely independent and permanently rebellious: “I go where I want to, when I want to, and my place is everywhere,” she tells her buddies at the squat when they tell her some places are too dangerous for her. (p. 92)

Yet she senses that something is missing in her life. 

Inspired by childhood memories of Algeria, especially of her grandfather, she wants to travel there. 

The many hours she spends at the public library are all about discovering her Arab heritage. 

While learning from her French friend, who is an avid Orientalist in the scholarly sense, and being  deeply moved by Orientalist paintings at the Louvre, she rebuffs the “neo-Orientalist” advances of rich Parisian yuppies who attempt to seduce young Arab and African girls for their exoticism. 

This is the story of a young woman searching for self-definition. Following her path to self-realisation, the reader is exposed to the underground world of transnational youth as well as to many references to the Algerian Revolution, to French and Algerian culture, to Orientalist paintings and French film.

The author’s writing style makes the story seems especially real and immediate. Sebbar reels off raw sensations, random occurrences and direct conversations at a rapid, sometimes dizzying, pace that approximates stream of consciousness. 

She also knows well the settings she describes. Born in Algeria to a French mother and an Algerian father, and having lived in Paris for many years, Sebbar straddles the two worlds between which her protagonist and other characters rotate.

In this book, one does not find out if Sherazade gets to Algeria or not, but Sebbar has written two sequels, “Les Carnets de Sherazade” (Sherazade’s Notebooks) and “La Fou de Sherazade”, which have yet to be translated into English.

Sally Bland

WASHINGTON — NASA sent a saucer-like vehicle high into the sky Saturday to test technology for a future Mars landing, but its parachute tangled when deployed and the spacecraft splashed into the Pacific Ocean.

The test began when the US space agency attached its “Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator” vehicle to a helium balloon the size of a football field, the largest ever deployed, at a military base on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The balloon carried the saucer high into the sky starting at 1840 GMT.

NASA television broadcast the event live.

After some 2.5 hours of ascent, when the balloon reached a height of 36,600 metres, it detached the saucer, which fired its rocket engine and rose to 54,900 metres travelling at 3.8 times the speed of sound.

At that point the engine was cut off and NASA began its first test — deploying a doughnut-shaped inflatable device around the saucer dubbed the “Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator”.

This successfully slowed the saucer’s descent to 2.5 times the speed of sound.

As the saucer plunged towards Earth, NASA began its second test — deploying a giant parachute 36 metres in diameter.

The new technologies are being tested at extremely high altitudes similar to those in Mars’ upper atmosphere.

To land on Mars NASA has been using a parachute system first used in the 1970s, but with heavier spacecraft larger parachutes are needed.

The mammoth parachute should have helped the saucer complete a gentle landing on the Pacific Ocean. Instead it failed to fully deploy and the saucer plunged into the water.

The parachute “does not look like it deployed that well”, said Dan Coatta, one of the mission specialists, interviewed on NASA TV. “It deployed, but it did not fully inflate.”

Despite the parachute failure, NASA was satisfied with the $150 million test.

“What we saw is a very good test,” said Coatta, noting that everything went well up to the point of the parachute test.

“This is an opportunity to look at the data and learn what happen and apply that for the next test,” he said.

NASA has two more flights planned to further test the new landing technology.

Strong winds had forced NASA to postpone the flight, originally scheduled for a two-week launch window in early June.

MIAMI — A team of top Google executives is visiting Cuba to promote open Internet access, according to a dissident blogger who says she met the group in Havana.

The team, led by Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, met with Cuban officials as well as independent people in the technology and digital field, according to a report on the independent news website 14ymedio.com, which was started last month by blogger Yoani Sanchez.

Google is on an official two-day visit “to promote the virtues of a free and open Internet”, the report said.

Schmidt appeared to confirm the report when he retweeted a message on Twitter posted by Sanchez about the visit.

Neither Google nor the Cuban government made any official statement about the executives’ presence in Cuba.

Cuba does not allow open Internet access. Only 2.6 million out of a population of 11.2 million have Internet access, almost entirely limited to government-run centres, foreign companies and tourist hotels. Most of those who do have access are only been able to explore a limited, state-controlled basket of approved websites.

Schmidt, who was Google’s chief executive from 2001 to 2011, is becoming more visible on issues involving technology and world affairs. His mandate as executive chairman involves government outreach, thought leadership and building partnerships and business relationships, according to the company.

Schmidt was accompanied by Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas, as well as two other staff, Sanchez said.

Google Ideas describes itself as a “a think/do tank that explores how technology can enable people to confront threats in the face of conflict, instability or repression”, according to its website.

Schmidt and Cohen are the coauthors of The New Digital Age, published last year, and have a track record of speaking with leaders of countries that restrict free speech to advocate for a free and open Internet.

Schmidt was the first high-profile tech executive to visit Myanmar last year in the wake of reforms that prompted Western nations to ease sanctions following decades of military dictatorship.

The Google delegation in Havana met with students and was given a tour of Havana’s University of Information Sciences on Saturday, according to 14ymedio.

PARIS — A new “supercooling” technique keeps rat livers alive three times longer than before, boosting hopes for easing shortages of human transplant organs, scientists said Sunday.

The method involves cooling the livers while flushing them with oxygen and nutrients, and preserving them in a solution containing a form of antifreeze.

The livers can be conserved at temperatures below zero degrees celsius yet not freeze and thus suffer cell damage.

All rats given livers “supercooled” for three days (72 hours) were healthy after three months, a benchmark for survival.

Of those who received livers stored for 96 hours, 58 per cent survived to the three-month mark, said study results published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Rats that received transplant livers preserved with current methods survived only for hours or days.

“To our knowledge, this is the longest preservation time with subsequent successful transplantation achieved to date,” said study co-author Korkut Uygun of the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Centre for Engineering in Medicine.

“If we can do this with human organs, we could share organs globally, helping to alleviate the worldwide organ shortage.”

Existing technology can preserve human livers well for up to about 12 hours outside the body.

Since the 1980s, donor organs have been preserved at temperatures at or just above freezing in a solution that reduces metabolism and organ deterioration.

The new method saw the addition of protective, anti-freeze ingredients to the preservation solution.

In a three-step technique, a perfusion machine was used to flood the livers with oxygen, nutrients and protective compounds before they were cooled and submerged in the preservation solution, whose temperature was then lowered to -6^oC at which the tissue was stored for either three or four days.

After supercooling, the temperature was gradually increased back to 4^oC and the livers reflushed with oxygen and nutrients before being transplanted, the study paper said.

“The next step will be to conduct similar studies in larger animals,” said Rosemarie Hunziker of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), a body of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) which supported the work.

The method will have to be thoroughly tested and refined before it can be considered for use in humans.

Some 120,000 people are waiting on donor organs in the United States alone, said the study authors.

“Extending even further the time a liver can survive outside the body would provide many benefits,” according to a NIBIB statement.

“It would allow more time to prepare the patient and ease logistics at the donor hospital site, reduce the urgency of rushing the organ to its destination, and expand the donation area to allow for transcontinental and intercontinental transplantations.”

This would boost the chances of patients finding better donor organ matches and reduce costs.