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. …
Health care might become a major plank of the World Bank's list of projects. This year, the Bank will lend at least US $60 million for "micro-nutrient projects" in various countries to combat vitamin a, iodine and iron deficiencies. The biggest project, to be funded along with un agencies, is …
A US $131 million-suit has been slapped on pharmaceutical giant Glaxo by 400 former patients. They claim that between 1944 and 1987, Myodil, a medical dye used in spinal x-rays, caused severe side effects like damaged nerve roots, acute pain and even partial paralysis. They also allege that Glaxo did …
Although a great deal of hype surrounds the Israel-Jordan peace treaty signed in mid-October envisaging cooperation in many areas, adequate water supply still seems a distant mirage for Jordan. With fast dwindling underground water resources and stringent water rationing, the only straws which Jordan can clutch at is, Israel's commitment …
There has been a new twist to global efforts for combating aids. Brazil, Thailand and Uganda plan to begin large-scale trials of 2 hiv vaccines although the us had called a halt to its experimental vaccine trials earlier this year. The present controversial decision was taken at a World Health …
Russia's poor environmental record has come under severe global scrutiny after the Komi oil spill in October, branded third largest in history, and roughly 8 times the volume of the Exxon Valdez spill. Though experts contest the size of the spillage -- ranging from the us Department of Energy's estimate …
High-altitude cleaning efforts in the Khumbu region of Nepal have made trekking more pleasurable now, reports Himal. The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) is supervising a programme that ensures that garbage is not dumped at campsites and along the trek route. The SPCC is preparing rubbish pits, providing tourist information …
Now Americans can windowshop to glory without stepping out of their homes. Shopping Network (HSN) and America Online Inc (AOL), the 2 front-runners in the television retailing and computer-networking industry, are gearing up to sell goods in cyberspace. The HSN has bought the Internet Shopping Network and the AOL Inc …
Yet another burning oil slick, the third-largest reported in history, threatens the ecologically-fragile Arctic. The 60,000-tonne slick in the Russian province of Komi has reportedly originated from leaks in a 47-km pipeline managed by Komineft, a Russian oil company. According to US officials, the spill, releasing 8 times the oil …
Tourism is dealing a body blow to the Maldivian government's waste management, as it leads to piling up of garbage every year. LTU, a Germah airline, has offered help in an innovative way. As passengers arrive in the Maldives, it issues them 30 litre garbage bags. The waste that the …
ON OCTOBFR 16, 1994, musicians in Paris, Bombay, Jakarta and Singapore played the tune, We are the world, in perfect unison, while people in the 4 cities watched them on giant video screens. This was possible thanks to the world's longest optical fibre submarine communication cable that was inaugurated in …
The gradual shrinking of the Aral Sea -- the world's 4th-largest inland waterbody -- has set alarm bells ringing in the Central Asian states that once formed part of the Soviet Union. Unresolved regional tensions over water use and ownership, and an indifferent international attitude, do not augur well for …
A British chemical company, Thor Holdings, has been hauled up to the London High Court by 2 workers in South Africa suffering from severe mercury poisoning, and by the family of a man who died from exposure to the metal. It is on the mat for alleged negligence in allowing …
DESPITE efforts to prevent the spread of malaria, the disease strikes as many as 300 to 500 million people each year and claims over a million lives. Not only have the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite -- Plasmodium -- become increasingly tolerant of pesticides, the parasite"s defence mechanism also …
THE dawning of the free market era in Russia has plunged Siberia into a vortex of contradictions. Although the region is a treasure house of natural resources such as diamonds, gold, silver and oil, its mining towns - established by the Soviets to harness the abundant wealth - are on …
Singapore's squeaky clean has suffered a body ith a recent govern d kclosure that the has a serious pollu 1rOhlein. In,.-nid ber, the island's cnvi ncrit ministry said that air pollution had reached an unhealthy level and advised people with serious heart and lung ailments to stay indoors. Singapore authorities, …
In late September, Vulcan and Tavurvur - 2 volcanoe near the port of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, spewed out dense smoke and poisonous fumes, throwing the country into a panic, Suffocated residents were forced to flee the port, whid was covered with volcanic ash about a metre deep. The …
IN 1877 Italian astronomer Giovanni pwelli observed on the planet curious markings that he called 11channels). The discovery caused r to wonder if these channels A the creation of intelligent kas. In the 1890s, American Omer Percival Lowell went so far maest that the channels were is of crop fields …
When Rafiki, a sea lion protected by the US government, was shot in the head at point blank range while swimming in the Monterey Bay in California, she became the latest victim of spiteful violence against endangered species. US wildlife officers say that some people have developed this strange penchant …
About 170 million litres of water are wasted every day in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo. The National Water Supply and Drainage Board supplies 236.39 million litres of water every day to metropolitan Colombo and 263.67 million litres to the suburbs. The bulk of this is wasted as residents of poor …
The Japanese must learn to consume less water or they might soon have to do without it altogether. This is the warning has been issued by the National Land Agency in Japan. Following an unusually dry monsoon the Land of the Rising Sun is reeling under what is being described …
