In The News

Lonely at the Top

Clyde Prestowitz September 13, 2003
Although the US experienced an outpouring of sympathy from much of the world after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, over the past two years it has encountered much resistance to its leadership on issues from Iraq to free trade. The US has lost any goodwill it received after the attacks, says former Reagan administration official and author Clyde Prestowitz, because Washington has pursued a...

Rich Will Pay If WTO Lets Poor Down

James Wolfensohn September 7, 2003
In advance of this week's WTO meeting in Cancun, World Bank President James Wolfensohn writes that the current Doha round of trade talks offers a real opportunity to improve the lot of developing nations. For this to happen, though, he says that both rich and poor countries have to understand what it means to give and take. "Rich countries must show leadership by reducing protection...

Brussels Blocks Austrian Attempt to Create GM-Free Zone

Andrew Osborn September 3, 2003
A movement against genetically-modified crops in Europe appears to be no match for the powerful US biotechnology lobby. The European Union, bowing to pressure from the US representatives to the World Trade Organization, is well on its way to lifting its 5-year old moratorium on GM crop approvals. The latest battle was won by pro-GM forces this week when the EU Commission told Upper Austria that...

SARS: Down but Still a Threat

August 31, 2003
In a recently released report on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) the Central Intelligence Agency says that although the Sars wave has been overcome it has not been eradicated. Despite the announcement by the World Health Organization that on 5 July the disease was contained, the agency says that many health experts fear it could return again in the fall when cooler temperatures return...

To Be or Not to Be at Cancun

Ernesto Zedillo August 29, 2003
World trade has increased nearly twenty-fold over the past fifty years, bringing unprecedented prosperity – but mostly to developed countries. As the development round of the World Trade Organization draws closer, many key issues – including agricultural subsidy reform and essential drug access – remain unresolved and deeply contentious. According to Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center...

Coping With the Newest Threat to Global Health - Fat

Derek Yach August 26, 2003
Obesity is as great a threat to global health as malnutrition, says Derek Yach, the Representative of the Director-General of the WHO. One billion people -or one out of six --are overweight worldwide - the same number as are malnourished - and some 300 million of those are clinically obese, leading to a global rise in chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes....

Antitobacco Trend Has Reached Europe

Lizette Alvarez August 11, 2003
A sip from a pint and a drag on a cigarette are almost ritualistic in pubs across Ireland. Yet, come January 1, the Irish government will impose a ban on smoking in pubs and perhaps permanently change an age-old part of Irish culture. Ireland will be the first country to impose such a ban in Europe. However, its strict new law is merely the most recent development in a growing wave of anti-...