HEALTH: Beware Of Hasty Judgements On ‘Mad Cow’ Disease

Specialists writing in Britain's leading medical journal have warned against making hasty decisions on the safety of British beef, which has been linked to the spread of a human equivalent of so-called 'mad cow' disease or BSE.

ENVIRONMENT: Safety Works At Chernobyl-Type Plants ‘Insufficient’

Despite a number of modifications, the safety standards of the so-called Chernobyl type reactors still fail to meet those applied to western nuclear power plants, say experts.

HEALTH: Biological Control of Mosquitoes Moves Closer

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have produced a genetically engineered bacteria which could help to control some mosquito larvae.

HEALTH: U.S. Rejects ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ – British Urge More Study

In direct contrast to a new U.S. Defence Department study which rejects the existence of so-called Gulf War Syndrome, a new study of sick British veterans of the 1991 conflict has found evidence of systemic nervous system damage.

HEALTH: Male Contraceptive – Still Some Way to Go

The viability of a hormone contraceptive for men has been established through a four-continent two-year clinical trial conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

HEALTH: WHO Warns South Of Threat From Non-Communicable Diseases

Developing countries should pay more attention to the risks posed by the increasing burden of non- communicable disease (NCD), says the World Health Organisation.

ENVIRONMENT: Mad Cows And Growth Hormones Part Of The Same Problem

The spread of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or so-called 'Mad Cow disease' may have been encouraged by western industry's increasing use of artificial growth hormones to boost profitable milk and meat production.

HEALTH-U.S.: Risk of Cancer High With Treated Dairy Products

Demands for mandatory labeling of dairy products have increased due to results of a recent study on genetically engineered food.

RUSSIA: Russia Supplies U.S. With Rocket Engines

Not only the Cold War, but the Space Race is now officially over. The United States' largest missile manufacturers are turning to Russian rocket scientists to drive a new generation of U.S. satellite boosters.

ENVIRONMENT: Deforestation Does Threaten Local Species

Birds endemic to South America's endangered Atlantic forests are in danger of extinction, even though none has yet died out -- and despite recent theories that try to break the link between rates of deforestation and the pace of extinction.

DEVELOPMENT: Venezuelan Women Engineer Fungus Free Bananas

A Venezuelan team of women scientists have produced a "Queen" banana plant strain resisitant to the voracious yellow sigatoka fungus, meaning fewer chemicals in the environment and advantages for banana growers in the near future.

RUSSIA-SCIENCE: An End to Science?

Russian scientists say the foundations of scientific activity could be ruptured unless the government increased support for suffering scientists and underfunded laboratories.

HEALTH: The Secrets Of Ebola Transmission Are Still a Mystery

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is now waiting for a second wave of Ebola cases in Gabon, according to Dr David Heymann, director of the Division of Emerging Viral and Bacterial Disease Surveillance and Control (EMC) in Geneva.

UKRAINE: Russia Chosen to Build Nuclear Fuel Plant

Ukraine's State Committee for Nuclear Power, Goskomatom, has provisionally awarded a contract for construction of a nuclear fuel assembly plant to the Russian company TVEL, a joint stock firm within the Russian Ministry of Atomic Power.

BRAZIL: Alcohol Fuel Takes a Battering.

Good sugar prices, cheap petrol, South American economic integration and abandonment by the automobile industry and consumers have conspired to push Brazil's Combustible Alcohol Programme (Proalcohol) back onto the shelf.

RUSSIA: How Bad was Radioactive Leak?

Russian officials have confirmed that a cloud containing radioactive steam-gas vapour poured into the atmosphere last week from a damaged reactor - but emphatically deny any radiation danger.

HEALTH: Should Smallpox Virus Be Destroyed?

For the past 15 years, Russian and American scientists have kept under close guard 600 samples of a virus associated with a disease that was once a scourge of mankind.

COMMUNICATION: Andean Satellite Well Underway

A total of 77 businesses in the Andean Pact nations formed an association to get the local satellite Simon Bolivar off the ground within the year, the Venezuelan business coordinator Roberto Smith said Tuesday.

CUBA-COMMUNICATIONS: Government Wary of Internet

The government-controlled media in Cuba, leery of the unfettered flow of information on the Internet, is looking at ways to regulate access to the service.

GUYANA-INFORMATION: Government Moves to Oversee the Internet

Guyana is not yet on the internet, the global computer information network, but its fledgling attempts to do so are already beset by problems at the level of government. In what some consider a strange warning last week, the government vowed to prevent what it termed as any "unauthorised installation" of internet services in this country of 750,000 people. The reason? It wants the service to be introduced in an orderly manner.

COMMUNICATION: Andean Satellite in Orbit this Year /CORRECTED REPEAT/

The five Andean Pact countries plan to try out their communications satellite, the Simon Bolivar, this year, renting space on a Mexican machine until they get their own into the air.