In The News

Tainted Soybeans Raise Fears About ‘Biopharming’

Mike Toner November 17, 2002
The discovery in a Nebraskan grain elevator of genetically modified crops for chemicals amongst crops meant for the nation’s food supply has led to the quarantine of a half-million bushels of potentially contaminated soybeans. This is the latest in a series of incidents in which the government has been forced to take drastic measures against the potential contamination of the nation’s food...

Gates Urges IT, Education, Telecom Funds

November 13, 2002
On his four-day tour of India, Bill Gates encouraged investment in India’s information technology sector. Though Americans and Europeans tend to emphasize the recent slowdown in the information technology industry, Gates expressed faith in India’s potential for growth in that area. He dismissed concerns that the Linux operating system would pose a threat to his own company, Microsoft. Gates...

Debate on Intellectual Property

Steve Lohr October 14, 2002
Based on the economic history of the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, and other nations, the borrowing of ideas – and the making of improvements upon them – is essential to building strong domestic industries. Each of these countries owes a great deal of its economic success today to earlier eras in which foreign patents, copyrights, and trademarks received little or no protection. Now,...

Malaysia Lures Sick and Wealthy Foreigners

Reme Ahmad September 19, 2002
With hospital costs 14 times less than in the US and 65% less than in neighboring Singapore, Malaysia is promoting a new type of tourism – one where a hospital stay is included. Health tourism, as it is known, is becoming increasingly popular among the wealthy, who may travel to foreign countries to have surgeries performed at a fraction of the cost of their home country. Malaysian hospitals...

Merck Seeks Wider Coalition on Aids

James Lamont September 12, 2002
US pharmaceutical Merck is following in the foot steps of other multi-national corporations like Anglo-American and DeBeers, who have decided to provide anti-retroviral drugs used to combat HIV/Aids to their workers. While Merck has partnered with Botswana and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to provide treatment, the company’s chief executive is calling for a “larger coalition” of UN...

China Raises Estimates of HIV-AIDS Cases to 1 Million

Elisabeth Rosenthal September 6, 2002
China's "closed attitude" toward its growing AIDS epidemic opened slightly today when officials acknowledged that at least a million Chinese were infected with the disease and appealed for international assistance. Officials also admitted that the Chinese government had been aware of the growing AIDS problem as early as 1995. This confession was issued in compliance with the...

Brussels Refuses to Back GM Food For Africa

James Lamont August 22, 2002
As globalization extends its reach, the use of technology becomes an issue that affects both advanced and developing nations. The United States has been supplying southern African countries with genetically modified (GM) crops as famine relief. But some NGO’s believe that the US is trying to use southern Africa’s poverty to push for global acceptance of genetically modified food. Although the WHO...