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  • 14/11/2003

gm on the platter: The US government has recently issued a notice to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for failing to comply with safety laws when it allowed offsprings of animals used in a genetic experiment to be sold as food. The pigs had genes from different species; the university claims that their offsprings were normal. According to some consumer groups, the incident reveals gaps in government's oversight. They are calling for penalties.

all-encompassing hypocrisy: The US department of treasury has recently ruled that scientific journals based in the US cannot edit papers submitted by authors from Iran unless they have the government's permission. The policy, described in a letter sent recently to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, stems from rules prohibiting US organisations from engaging in trade with Iran. Although the trade embargo has been in place since 1997, it is for the first time that the treasury has spelled out how it would affect publishers. Editing is a "service' that requires a special license, notes the department's office of foreign assets control, which enforces the trade sanctions.

cancer in the air: A group of workers who claim they have developed cancer because of their jobs in the electronics industry would soon initiate a landmark legal action in the US state of California. Three former IBM workers claim they were exposed to dangerous chemicals because of their work in the so-called

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