Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Aug 25 2006 (IPS) – The revelation that commercial rice in the United States was found to be contaminated with an unlicensed genetically engineered strain shows how easily the food supply in the United States and in countries importing U.S. food can be tainted, watchdog groups say.
The long grain rice that was found to contain trace amounts of genetically engineered (GE) Liberty Link Rice 601, produced by the agro-chemical giant Bayer CropScience and never intended for commercial release, was immediately banned in Japan.

The United States is responsible for 12 percent of the global rice trade and many countries rely on U.S. rice to feed their people.

The main importers of U.S. rice are Mexico, Central America, Saudi Arabia, Canada and So…

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 24 2006 (IPS) – Argentina has begun hiring engineers, chemists, physicists, technicians and communications and environmental experts in its nuclear industry, which has been paralysed since the 1990s. But in the face of this enthusiasm, activists are wondering if there will be more safety and transparency this time around.
Although one of the arguments for resurrecting nuclear power in the country is the need to curb climate change, caused by burning fossil fuels, most environmentalists say nuclear energy is potentially hazardous, and creates a long-term latent threat in the form of radioactive waste.

But nuclear experts are convinced that atomic energy is the cleanest and safest source of energy in the world. And the Néstor Kirchner …

Fulgence Zamblé

ABIDJAN, Nov 28 2006 (IPS) – Education officials in Côte d Ivoire are revising how children are taught about the dangers of HIV/AIDS in the West African country, this as statistics from June 2006 show prevalence in schools to be at four percent.
The national HIV prevalence rate is 4.7 percent, also according to the 2006 figures down from seven percent in 1991.

In the past, we contented ourselves with mentioning the wearing of condoms or with skimming over the issue during class, Méa Kouadio, a technical advisor to the national education minister, told IPS. But now, he added, officials are urgently promoting abstinence for young people and condom use by adults through a new curriculum adopted for the 2006-2007 school year.

The new programme…

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Mar 14 2007 (IPS) – The people of Nigeria s oil-rich Niger Delta are poor not because they do not have resources but because they do not have political power. Those who wield power in Nigeria are building skyscrapers in Lagos and Abuja while there is nothing in the Niger Delta. It is the same at the global level.
These are the words of Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, deputy director of the Millennium Campaign for Africa based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. In the past week, he participated in an Anglican Church conference entitled Prophetic Witness, Social Development and HIV and AIDS which examined progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury who heads the 77 million Anglicans, also attended…

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 16 2007 (IPS) – The Brazilian capital woke up to another red April Monday. Eight hundred landless peasants occupied the headquarters of the government office in charge of land distribution, while 1,000 indigenous people camped out on the Ministries Esplanade, demanding better healthcare and the formal demarcation of their territories.
Demonstrations by indigenous and rural people have been spreading all over Brazil ever since last week, as part of Indigenous April and the Campaign for Land Reform led by the Landless Workers Movement (MST).

Tuesday, Apr. 17 is International Peasant Struggle Day, which marks the anniversary of a 1996 massacre in Eldorado de Carajás, in Brazil #39s eastern Amazon region, when the police opened fire on a p…