And while noninvasive paternity tests have been offered over the Internet for about a decade, experts say technology has advanced to the point that such testing can now be done reliably.

The tests analyze fragments of DNA from the fetus present in the mother’s blood.

“I have no doubt that these tests will work clinically,” said Mark I. Evans, a professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and director of Comprehensive Genetics, told the Times.

A paper describing one such test, developed by a company called Ravgen, was published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Meanwhile, genetic researchers at the University of Washington had sequenced nearly the entire genome of an 18-week-old fetus using only a sample of the mother’s blood and a swab of the father’s saliva.

According to a separate report in The New York Times, scientists discovered in the 1990s that about 13 percent of the DNA floating freely in a pregnant woman’s blood, outside her cells, belonged to her fetus. Further, the fetus gets half its DNA from the mother and half from the father.

Taking the genetic testing a step further, early and noninvasive prenatal testing for a number of genetic disorders could be a real possibility very soon, according to www.Care2.com.

However, as the website pointed out that as the cost of analyzing fetus DNA — currently about $20,000 to $50,000 — fell, and as a result possibly became widely available in three to five years, the ethical implications mounted.

For example, about 85 percent of expecting American parents who learned their fetus had Down Syndrome choose to abort.

The cost of blood testing for paternity meantime, was now as low as $950 to $1,650, offered by Ravgen, the Columbia, Maryland based company’s chief executive Dr. Ravinder Dhallan told the Times.

That’s compared with around $500 for a conventional postbirth paternity test.

Another test developed by Silicon Valley company Natera was priced at $1,775, The Times wrote, adding that thousands of the prenatal tests had been ordered since it went on sale last August.

The state-run news agency, MENA, said the 84-year-old former dictator, long suffering from ill-health, was “clinically dead” upon arrival at a military hospital in the upscale Cairo neighborhood of Maadi Tuesday night.

He had reportedly suffered a stroke at Tora prison, where he had served 17 days of a life sentence for failing to prevent the killings of unarmed demonstrators during the popular uprising against his regime last year.

But almost immediately, denials of Mubarak’s death hit the news wires.

Local and foreign journalists, whom have long struggled to obtain access to the secretive leader, tussled with medical definitions to ascertain whether or not the former tyrant was in fact dead.

Did he have a heart attack or a stroke? Did his heart stop or was he brain dead?
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More from GlobalPost: What does “clinically dead” mean?

One of the doctors that treated Mubarak told GlobalPost he had “hours to live” on Tuesday night, but did not give any specifics.
Mubarak is said to have been resuscitated several times since he arrived at Tora prison on June 2.

But the rumors and speculation surrounding the reports of his death illustrate the extent to which Egyptians have not only become exhausted with news of Mubarak’s health, but also the level at which they distrust the media.

Conspiracy theories are rife in Egypt, where state-run media outlets churn out pro-regime propaganda, often blaming “invisible” forces for the country’s political, economic and social woes.

At this rooftop café in central Cairo, almost no one believed the reports — nor did they care.

More from GlobalPost: Does Egypt have a new dictator?

“I don’t give a damn,” said 26-year-old Hatem Al Degheidy, who said he works in corporate finance. “Politically, the game is different now. As an individual, he no longer has any impact. It’s a distraction.”

Earlier this evening, thousands descended on Tahrir Square to protest moves by Egypt’s military rulers to consolidate power ahead of the inauguration of a new president later this month.

Presidential run-off polls were held on Saturday, and the Muslim Brotherhood has declared its own candidate, Mohamed Morsi, the winner. Official results are expected Thursday.

Following the reports of Mubarak’s poor health, the square emptied late Tuesday night in Cairo.

“I’m suspicious that it’s the regime’s way of creating chaos,” said May Kamel, former social media campaign manager for prominent opposition figure, Mohamed El Baradei. “I think it is a way to make it easier for the government to announce that Shafiq has won.”

Ahmed Shafiq is a former regime official and the country’s potential next president.

But it remained unclear whether or not reports of Mubarak’s death — or comatose state — would in fact generate sympathy for those associated with his regime.

“If he’s gone, things will be easier for us — and we can go after his sons,” said Tarek Nawar, a waiter at the café. Mubarak’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal, are also in Tora prison awaiting trial on charges of insider trading.

Many Egyptians view the sons as particularly corrupt.

“But everyone thinks he will live,” Nawar said. “He played squash when he was 80 [years old]. If I did that, I would die.”

Heba Habib contributed reporting from Cairo, Egypt.

The incident came a day after Ai told Reuters that he had received constant telephone calls from police warning him not to travel to the courthouse, telling him “you can never make it. Don’t even try.” Ai also told the news agency that he had been unable to reach his legal consultant, Liu Xiaoyuan, since late Tuesday when Liu had been ordered to meet with state security officials.

A $2.4 million fine for “back taxes” was imposed last year by the tax authorities on a design company, Fake Cultural Development, founded by Ai. He had to pay a $1.3 million bond in January to appeal it, and says the bill is the Chinese authorities’ revenge for his political activism. Last month a Beijing’s Chaoyang District Court agreed to hear Ai’s lawsuit.

According to the BBC, Ai’s wife, who is the legal representative of Fake Cultural Development, is thought to be attending the hearing in Beijing on Wednesday.

An internationally renowned artist and prominent critic of human rights abuses committed by China’s communist-controlled government, Ai was taken into custody last April and kept at a secret location for 81 days as police rounded up dissidents amid calls for an Arab Spring-inspired uprising in China, the Agence France Presse reported.

According to the BBC, a gagging order was imposed on him when he was freed in June, but he continued to tweet and speak with the foreign press. The tax evasion charges followed shortly after, and the Chinese authorities maintain that Fake Cultural Development owes them money which must be paid back.

Less than an hour after polls closed in the final round of Egypt’s first presidential elections on Sunday, the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) issued a constitutional declaration granting itself executive, legislative and even constitutional powers for an indefinite period of time — just days after the supreme court dissolved the first democratically-elected parliament.

According to preliminary but unofficial results, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi secured the most votes by a slim margin, beating out former regime official, Ahmed Shafiq, for Egypt’s presidency.

But that appeared to matter little as the military’s declaration — described by analysts as an 11-hour power grab and perhaps the clearest sign yet that Egypt’s revolution was never complete — strips any new president of all but the most cosmetic of authorities.

The military had pledged to transfer full authority to a civilian government on June 30, but will now hold the sole power to legislate until both a new constitution and a new parliament are formed.

“[The declaration] effectively establishes a state within a state,” Fahmy, a longtime academic writer on Egyptian military affairs, said of the army’s solidified rule. “SCAF will pass the laws that define SCAF. How can you challenge this? It’s a serious blow to the rule of law, and extremely dangerous.”

Egypt’s military rulers, influential but operating largely behind-the-scenes, seized control when former president, Hosni Mubarak, became the target of a series of unprecedented street protests last year.

When the army rolled into the streets atop tanks during the uprising, though vowing not to fire on protestors in their bid to topple the regime, Egyptians euphorically embraced the soldiers as allies in the fight.

As Egyptians saw themselves embarking on a new era of representative democracy, the ageing generals eased Mubarak from power in February 2011, subsequently styling themselves as the custodians of Egypt’s fledgling democracy.

“Circumstances forced the army to take on this role, until the parliament and the constitution both came into force,” said retired Brig. Gen., and military analyst, Mohamed Kadry said.

But since then, the army has battled with pro-democracy activists and Egypt’s largest political party, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, to retain key privileges for the armed forces in a new constitution.

More from GlobalPost: What’s wrong with Mubarak?

Many political figures expected the army, with extensive business holdings and funds, to maintain some sort of special autonomy that shielded at least certain aspects of its operations from civilian oversight.

“Details [of the military budget] must be subject to scrutiny by all ministries whose work is related to that of the military, as well as the president,” Said told GlobalPost. “But any ministry whose work is not related to the military has no need to know military secrets.”

But Sunday’s addendum — which acts as a supplement to the March 2011 constitutional declaration, and follows the granting of sweeping new arrest powers to the military police — stunned even those with long-held suspicions of SCAF’s quest for political supremacy.

“They went way, way further than anyone had thought,” Fahmy said. “The scale and the language used are just unprecedented. They [the military] want to be able to write the constitution, draft laws and to execute them.”

In addition to investing itself with broad, unchallenged authority, SCAF also declared that the council of generals, with its current make-up of 19 members, would remain unchanged with the formation of a new government.

With Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, current de-facto ruler of Egypt, at its head, the council will maintain veto power over declarations of war, and enjoy legal immunity from prosecution if the president requests that the armed forces engage in domestic policing.

Previously, a new civilian president would have automatically become the head of SCAF, and would have held the authority to change its members.

“Tantawi is minister of defense for life,” Fahmy said.

“This severely limits the powers of the president and his relations vis-à-vis the armed forces,” said Abdo Mostafa Abdel Rahman, a member of the FJP’s Supreme Committee in the northern Egyptian province of Damietta. “It is unacceptable.”

The Brotherhood, while ecstatic over Morsi’s reported victory in the presidential race, appeared poised to clash with Egypt’s ruling generals as the political crisis deepened on Monday.

Rejecting the dissolution of parliament last week, lawmakers vowed to march on the people’s assembly building — now guarded by a mixture of police and soldiers — and convene Tuesday’s session in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square.

“All of this, it is a declaration of war on the political forces of this country,” said Amr Daraag, a leading Brotherhood member in the Giza province, included in Greater Cairo.

“We no longer have civilian power invested in any political entity in this country,” he said.

Heba Habib contributed reporting from Cairo, Egypt.

Obama said that they “agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war and the kind of horrific events that we’ve seen over the last several weeks, and we pledged to work with other international actors, including the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and all interested parties in trying to find a resolution to this problem,” reported the AP.

Putin, seated next to Obama, said, “From my point of view we have found many common points on this issue,” according to Reuters.

More on GlobalPost: UN suspends Syria peace mission due to rising violence

The meeting took place in Los Cabos, on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, where developed and developing nations will meet, said Agence France Presse.

Both the US and Russia have been at odds since Putin returned to the presidency and they have differed on their approaches to handling the turmoil in Syria, with Moscow blocking efforts to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power.

More on GlobalPost: Report: Russia sends warships to Syria to safeguard citizens, naval base

The joint statement, which was released after their meeting, did not mention Assad by name. It said, “We are united in the belief that the Syrian people should have the opportunity to independently and democratically choose their own future,” according to the AP.

United Nations monitors have withdrawn from Syria due to rising violence, putting more pressure on Obama and Putin to find a solution, said Reuters.

Many suggested that the tone of rhetoric between Putin and Obama’s administrations marked the end of Obama’s efforts to “reset” ties with Moscow, according to Reuters.

According to the Google data, the company was asked to remove 130 items, including 77 videos on Youtube, because they were deemed defamatory, the paper said. However, only 25 items out of the total 130 had been deemed defamatory by the court system.

Another 25 items, including 24 videos, were considered hate speech.

“This is the fifth data set that we’ve released. And just like every other time before, we’ve been asked to take down political speech,” the TOI quoted Dorothy Chou, senior policy analyst, as writing on the official Google blog. “It’s alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect — Western democracies not typically associated with censorship.”

As far as removing the content was concerned, Google said it complied with 80 percent of the requests received from Indian courts. But for requests made by police or other government agencies, it complied in only 26 percent of the cases. “For the six months of data we’re releasing today, we complied with an average of 65% of court orders, as opposed to 47% of more informal requests,” TOI quotes Chou as writing.