SCIENCE: Inventive Women Get Their Rewards

From biotechnology to new headscarves, the creativity of women was on display at the 'Female Invent 2003 Awards' in London.

HEALTH: SARS as ‘Global Pandemic’

With reports that SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) can survive for up to 24 hours on inanimate surfaces, turning any object into a potential transmission source, it looks like the virus might indeed be the global pandemic suggested by health experts. But what exactly does that mean?

RIGHTS: Costa Rica Promotes Global Ban on Human Cloning

Costa Rica will present the first initiative for a United Nations treaty intended to ban human cloning, coinciding with a move by the European Parliament Thursday to ban the creation of human embryos, including through cloning techniques, for medical research.

IRAQ: India’s Scientists Mix Technology, Politics to Protest War

As the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq rages into a third week, India's scientific elite, located in this global science and technology hub, is leading efforts to pull a wide cross-section of society into a growing, nationwide movement against the conflict.

BRAZIL: Developing Countries Seek ‘Non-Aligned’ Digital TV System

Brazil's aim to enter into partnerships with China and other developing countries to create their own digital TV system is part of a nascent ''non-aligned'' movement in technology in the developing world.

JAPAN: Officials Clamping Down on Underage Sex Offered On-line

At first glance, it looks like an innocent posting on the Internet about a teen crush, with red hearts framing the letters.

ARGENTINA: Survivors of Warship Wreck Welcome Nat’l Geo Expedition

A majority of the survivors of the 1982 sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano by the British navy support the National Geographic Society's search for the wreck in the south Atlantic.

ENVIRONMENT: Indian State Plays Pied Piper as Rats Threaten Crops

Every 40 years or so, the lush bamboo forests of India's north-eastern state of Mizoram, which borders Burma, burst into flower, providing a rare spectacle but also triggering off serious food shortages.

SCIENCE-YUGOSLAVIA: No Human Clone for Serbia

The sensational announcement last month that a human clone is to be born in a private clinic by January 15 in Serbia caused an avalanche of denials by local experts and health ministry officials.

SCIENCE-CHINA: Successful Launch Fires Great Leap Forward in Space

With China's first manned flight in space looming large, the state propaganda machine has begun drumming up support for Beijing's secretive space programme, lauding its scientific and patriotic significance and downplaying its budget.

EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: Biggest IT Project to Provide Free Online Learning

South Africa's biggest internet projects, ever undertaken on the African continent, aim to provide every student in Gauteng province - where Johannesburg and Pretoria are situated - and eventually the entire country, with free access to email, the internet and an online learning curriculum.

EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: Biggest IT Project to Provide Free Online Learning

South Africa's biggest internet projects, ever undertaken on the African continent, aim to provide every student in Gauteng province -- where Johannesburg and Pretoria are situated -- and eventually the entire country, with free access to email, the internet and an online learning curriculum.

HEALTH-CUBA: Spirulina ‘Miracle’ Invades Supermarket Shelves

A tiny blue-green algae known as spirulina is taking over Cuba. Approximately 100 tons a year of this sea species serve the island as a raw material for hundreds of products, ranging from hair-loss lotions to skin toning creams, and even as supplements to fight cancer and HIV/AIDS.

HEALTH-CUBA: Spirulina ‘Miracle’ Invades Supermarket Shelves

A tiny blue-green algae known as spirulina is taking over Cuba. Approximately 100 tons a year of this sea species serve the island as a raw material for hundreds of products, ranging from hair-loss lotions to skin toning creams, and even as supplements to fight cancer and HIV/AIDS.

ENVIRONMENT-BOLIVIA: Pipelines Threaten Ancient Strains of Peanuts

The construction of natural gas pipelines from Bolivia to Brazil not only threatens the unique ecosystems and indigenous communities that they traverse.

ENVIRONMENT-BOLIVIA: Pipelines Threaten Ancient Strains of Peanuts

The construction of natural gas pipelines from Bolivia to Brazil not only threatens the unique ecosystems and indigenous communities that they traverse.

SCIENCE-INDIA: Animal Lovers Get Scientists’ Goat

When five men were lynched for skinning a cow at Jhajjar, a small town 50 km west of the Indian capital in October, authorities ordered a post-mortem on the animal to determine whether it had been killed for its hide or was already dead previously.

SCIENCE-INDIA: Animal Lovers Get Scientists’ Goat

When five men were lynched for skinning a cow at Jhajjar, a small town 50 km west of the Indian capital in October, authorities ordered a post-mortem on the animal to determine whether it had been killed for its hide or was already dead previously.

RIGHTS-VENEZUELA: Indians Want Voice in Use of Botanical Database

Indigenous people in Venezuela's Amazon jungle region are demanding that all work on the Biozulua database, in which state researchers have compiled indigenous knowledge on local flora and fauna, be halted until the use to which the knowledge will be put is clearly defined.

RIGHTS-VENEZUELA: Indians Want Voice in Use of Botanical Database

Indigenous people in Venezuela's Amazon jungle region are demanding that all work on the Biozulua database, in which state researchers have compiled indigenous knowledge on local flora and fauna, be halted until the use to which the knowledge will be put is clearly defined.

SCIENCE: Watch Those ‘Beasts’ Beneath Your Feet

Tread respectfully on those little beasts beneath your feet. Tomorrow they might save you.