In The News

The Spreading Bird-Flu Menace Reaches Europe

October 21, 2005
After killing millions of fowl and more than 60 people in Asia, the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has arrived uninvited on Europe's doorstep. Outbreaks in Turkey, Romania, Russia, and possibly Greece threaten to sweep through the European Union, forcing EU ministers to think about how to tackle an epidemic that could decimate the poultry industry – or worse, set off a global flu epidemic that...

Emergency Measures Set on Dengue Fever

Wayne Arnold September 29, 2005
Avian influenza might claim more headlines, but dengue fever is claiming more victims, killing at least 990 people across Southeast Asia this year alone. First identified three centuries ago, dengue fever spread throughout Asia during World War II – one of the more insidious forms of globalization to stem from that conflict. The prohibition of DDT for use against mosquitoes in the New World...

Annan: Summit Expressed Global Unity

Kofi Annan September 23, 2005
The results of the UN's recent world summit are widely derided as a disappointment. Yet they are a significant show of global unity, argues Kofi Annan – and a significant improvement over the pre-conference status quo. Annan writes that observers should not underestimate the difficulty of achieving international consensus – nor should they underestimate the consensus that was actually...

A Pocket-Sized Famine Fighter

Esha Bhandari September 14, 2005
Last year, reports of an impending famine in Niger did little to rouse action within the global giving community. Though thousands have died from the predicted food shortage, many thousands have been saved, thanks to the work of one woman's company. Until recently, Fatchima Cissé ran a small nutritional food company in her native Niger, selling to relief agencies at no profit. With help from...

International Cooperation at a Crossroads

September 7, 2005
This month, world leaders will gather to review progress since the 2000 Millennium Declaration, a pledge to eliminate global poverty. Though much progress has been made, according to the United Nations 2005 Human Development Report, much work remains – particularly in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The report focuses on three "pillars of cooperation,"...

Death in the Sun

Dan Glaister August 9, 2005
California is well recognized for its wealth of agriculture, but the large number of illegal immigrants who drive the industry are rarely seen or acknowledged. Often forced to work under alarming conditions and minimal wages, an estimated 11 million undocumented aliens work in agriculture across the United States. Although in the past, state authorities have paid little attention to heat-...

Containing a Pandemic

August 5, 2005
For quite some time, virologists have been issuing warnings about the possibility of an outbreak of pandemic influenza. Now they are focused on the strain of avian influenza (bird flu) currently endemic in Asia and are investigating measures to prevent widespread deaths, should the virus mutate and attain human-to-human transmission capability. Two papers recently published in Science and...