COMMUNICATION: Andean Satellite in Orbit this Year

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.

CANADA-COMMUNICATIONS: Radio Canada on chopping block

Fans and employees are hoping they can stave off the government axe and keep Canada's international radio service on the air.

ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Natural Gas Fuel Approved

Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso authorised the use of natural gas as vehicle fuel Friday, a measure which will reduce pollution in the big Brazilian cities and broadening South American energy integration.

CULTURE-LATINAMERICA: Youth in Cyberspace

Latin American youth has not been slow in joining the ever-growing traffic on the world's information highway - Internet - or in adopting the most modern trends of the sonsumer society.

CULTURE-LATINAMERICA: Youth in Cyberspace

Latin American youth has not been slow in joining the ever-growing traffic on the world's information highway - Internet - or in adopting the most modern trends of the sonsumer society.

AGRICULTURE-ASIA: After Pests, Scientists Wage War on Weeds

Plant researchers who worked on natural pest control are now waging biological warfare against weeds, hoping this will dampen excessive use of chemical herbicides and save on water used to flood rice fields across Asia.

AGRICULTURE-ASIA: After Pests, Scientists Wage War on Weeds

Plant researchers who worked on natural pest control are now waging biological warfare against weeds, hoping this will dampen excessive use of chemical herbicides and save on water used to flood rice fields across Asia.

ENVIRONMENT: New patents on fish and people stir up a storm

The Hagahai -- a small tribe in the South Pacific -- and salmon from the Atlantic Ocean will share something in common next year: the right to sell genetic material from their bodies will be owned by U.S. corporations.

ENVIRONMENT: New patents on fish and people stir up a storm

The Hagahai -- a small tribe in the South Pacific -- and salmon from the Atlantic Ocean will share something in common next year: the right to sell genetic material from their bodies will be owned by U.S. corporations.

BIODIVERSITY: U.S. ‘Mutant’ Soybeans Will Draw Fire At Jakarta Meet

Objections to U.S. plans to export genetically-engineered soybeans to Europe will be raised at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-2) which opened in Jakarta, Indonesia this week.

BIODIVERSITY: U.S. ‘Mutant’ Soybeans Will Draw Fire At Jakarta Meet

Objections to U.S. plans to export genetically-engineered soybeans to Europe will be raised at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-2) which opened in Jakarta, Indonesia this week.

BIOTECHNOLOGY: ‘Gold Rush’ Long Over, But ‘Gene Rush’ is On

Farmers and indigenous people in developing countries are now wide awake to the huge profits being reaped by transnational companies involved in 'biopiracy', and with the help of NGO activists, are finally fighting back.

BIOTECHNOLOGY: ‘Gold Rush’ Long Over, But ‘Gene Rush’ is On

Farmers and indigenous people in developing countries are now wide awake to the huge profits being reaped by transnational companies involved in 'biopiracy', and with the help of NGO activists, are finally fighting back.

NIGERIA-COMMUNICATIONS: Pot Holes On Information Highway

Nigerians struggling to join the super information highway face the most basic of problems -- telephones that work and a regular electricity supply.

NIGERIA-COMMUNICATIONS: Pot Holes On Information Highway

Nigerians struggling to join the super information highway face the most basic of problems -- telephones that work and a regular electricity supply.

GUYANA: Utilities Commission Orders Telecom Rates Reduction

Guyana's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has ordered the transnational company running the country's telecommunications system to reduce its overseas rates by up to 50 percent.

HONG KONG: Software Pirates Do Brisk Trade at ‘Golden Arcades’

Computer software pirates at Hong Kong's famed 'Golden Arcades' shopping centre are doing brisk business in pirated CD-ROMs, selling the software at dirt cheap prices, and defying efforts to clamp down on the illegal trade.

DEVELOPMENT-COMMUNICATIONS: Third Wave Hits Third World

Deep in the Sierra Madre of southern Mexico, small coffee farmers can - at least in theory - electronically harvest information on agriculture, biology and markets from around the world. But they need about 1000 dollars- worth of computer equipment and a phone line, items to which few have access.

AFRICA-TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Call Waiting For Africa

If South Africa's well-financed phone network is discounted, the continent today has by far the worst telecommunications system in the world.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Rich And Powerful On The Line At Telecom 95

Telecommunications will be the developing world's route to the global market, and the quadrennial industry gathering in Geneva -- Telecom 95 -- is where the transnational corporate giants will be making sure they get their cut.

INFORMATION-ASIA: Clash of Cultures in Cyberspace

The paradox of the Information Age is that authoritarian governments and some of the pioneers of Internet both find themselves advocating restrictions on the use of the information superhighway. The reason: too much freedom.