Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
IN US President Bill Clinton's nightmares, an endangered owl species must play a starring role, for he is trapped in the dilemma of protecting it or the jobs of thousands of loggers. The spotted owl once haunted his predecessor, George Bush, but Bush decided in favour of the timber interests …
A SMALL group of Pueblo Indians, living just south of Albuquerque, the largest city in New Mexico, may force city officials to spend a whopping US $250 million to clean up the Rio Grande, so they can be assured of water with the level of cleanliness needed for their religious …
A MALARIA vaccine made in Colombia by synthesising protein segments from the malaria parasite is proving promising in field trials, but its efficacy is still low. Vaccine developer Manuel Patarroyo of the National University of Colombia in Bogota reports the vaccine offers adults 38.8 per cent protection against malaria, but …
FEARS that oil demand would decline because of a US-proposed energy tax have been expressed by delegates at a meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The Clinton administration had proposed the tax in an effort to reduce emission of greenhouse gases. OPEC representatives are worried that the …
AS HEAD of the President's task force on national health-care reform in USA, Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of President Bill Clinton, has her job cut out for her. A majority of Americans want quality health care at a lower cost, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll, and they …
GAYS AND lesbians in their thousands demonstrated in Washington recently, demanding an end to discrimination and escalation of the war against AIDS, and dramatised their protest by lying on the street for five minutes. Not many of the demonstrators, whose numbers greatly exceeded the Vietnam war protest of 1969 and …
WE ARE all conscious of the problems of the global environment. However, if we are to move beyond mere recognition of these problems and address them in unison, it is necessary to reconcile our differing perceptions on the nature of these problems, to understand them in their totality, and then …
AL GORE being elected vice-president of the US has delighted environmentalists elsewhere, for unlike his predecessor Dan Quayle, who once spelt potato with an "e" at the end in a schoolroom appearance, Gore is educated. In Earth in the Balance, a recipient of the 1992 Robert Kennedy Award, Gore stimulates …
TWO HUNDRED years ago, Thomas Malthus had asked at what point man's population would exceed his means of subsistence. The world's population then had not reached 1 billion. Today, a year before the population conference in Cairo, the total number of people in the world is fast approaching 5.5 billion. …
PRETORIA's disclosure of having produced and dismantled six nuclear devices has lent weight to allegations that the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) maintain double standards on nuclear non-proliferation. In a recent televised speech to the South African parliament, President F W de Klerk disclosed his country …
IN SPITE of receiving 150 bids, the response to the first-ever auction of pollution rights, organised recently by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is termed poor. The 150 bids are a benchmark in the US agency's market-based strategy to reduce acid rain. Most of the allowances offered by private …
US BIOTECH shares have fallen 33 per cent since January 1 and many firms face the dismal prospect of going out of business, if investors continue to shy away, afraid that drug price reforms will weaken the industry's profitability. Further deterring investors are US President Bill Clinton's public criticism of …
A TACTFUL reply to seven members of the US congress who had complained about the Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant in Britain, US president Bill Clinton says he will take up the matter after a full review of Washington's non-proliferation policy. The congresspersons had warned the plutonium produced at the L2.8 …
BEIJING is making an all-out effort to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) by the end of this year, despite indications from US trade representatives that it may take longer. The Chinese have been wooing foreign investors by telling them that their entry to GATT is imminent, …
INCREASING the level of oxygen in blood could cure impotency in humans because it would stimulate production of nitric oxide, which causes penile tissue to relax and better engorge blood from the penile artery. This is important because any restriction of oxygen supply to penile tissue because of excessive smoking, …
UNDER pressure from influential figures in the US congress, the Clinton administration has exempted ethanol and methanol from the proposed energy tax. The tax is to be levied at 25.7 cents per million British thermal units, with a surcharge of 34.2 cents per million BTUs on refined petroleum. Oil for …
International Business Machines Corp is all set to produce a line of personal computers that will be quieter and whose display monitors emit lesser radiation. IBM PC Co, a New York-based unit created by the US firm, said its computers, also meant for business users, are being designed to meet …
THE UN Common Fund for Commodities has a problem that many would envy -- too much money. The Amsterdam-based body with 105 members has received $140 million in its first account, with the money earmarked for loans for buffer stock operations. However, the collapse of commodity agreements with economic clauses …
EVEN AS European Community researchers are developing a powerful computerised translation system that promises to break through language barriers, scientists in Japan, Germany and USA are working on a telephone translation system whose implications for world trade are mind-boggling. Both systems are reportedly in the test stage. The EC project, …
WESTERN infants are more likely to become victims of so-called crib deaths because they are far more frequently left alone to sleep than Asian children, a British study shows. Crib deaths -- known formally as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) -- is a phenomenon involving the unexpected and unexplained death …
