GENET news: Misc

15.04.2008

Anti-GE international activists in Indonesia freed

Three harrowing days after they were hijacked by the police, and with their passports confiscated, the 15 international activists attending the WORA events in Jakarta, Indonesia to highlight the threats of genetically engineered (GE) rice, were today freed.
Speaking over the phone, Sarojeni Rengam (PAN AP, Malaysia) who was one of the detainees, said that ”the unconditional release was possible due to the tremendous support from the People’s Food Sovereignty Coalition (KRKP), Women’s Solidarity (Solidaritas Perempuam), Alliance of Agrarian Reform Movement (AGRA), the Indonesian Human Rights Commission for Social Justice, Gita Pertiwi and other Indonesian NGOs.

03.04.2008

U.S. farmers feeling Roundup spike

A decade after Monsanto introduced bio-engineered seed that made crops immune to Roundup -- and revolutionized farming -- the price of the herbicide in the last year has doubled. [...] ”All the farmers that use Roundup are trying to buy it,” said Rex Manning, who buys chemicals and fertilizer for Stoneville experiment station in Mississippi. ”I heard one fellow was trying to buy 1,000 gallons, and they wouldn’t sell it to him. They told him they had to wait to see what the final price was going to be.”

26.03.2008

Genetic modification joins lust on mortal sins list

A senior member of the Vatican has drawn up a new list of mortal sins, and science features prominently. Not all of science of course, but Catholic researchers might face some tough choices. In an interview with the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, senior cleric Gianfranco Girotti, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary which is in charge of confession, was asked ”What are the new sins in your opinion?” Along with drug use and social injustice he listed genetic manipulation and experiments on humans.

05.11.2007

GMO giant Monsanto named a top employer by Science Magazine

According to the recent 2007 Top Biotech and Pharma Employers survey conducted by Science magazine, Monsanto Company has been ranked as one of the top 10 employers in the biotechnology industry, making it the only agricultural company on the list. This is Monsanto’s first appearance on the list.

24.10.2007

Stiff sentence for killer of US-born nun upheld

The 27-year sentence handed down to the hired killer who murdered U.S.-born nun and activist Dorothy Stang in 2005 was upheld by a court in Brazil. [...] ”The fact that he was convicted so swiftly was really a new thing for the Brazilian justice system, because in the last few years, 1,600 rural workers have been killed in the struggle for land, and no sentences have been handed down in the huge majority of cases,” said Marina dos Santos, one of the national leaders of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), which is fighting for faster, more effective land reform.

28.09.2007

Support for biotechnology continues to be high among Canadians

During today’s launch of the fourth annual National Biotechnology Week (NBW) in Winnipeg, BIOTECanada released the results of its third annual poll of Canadians’ understanding of biotech. Results indicate the majority of Canadians support the use of products and processes that involve biotechnology. ”Beer, cold water detergent, door frames and pajamas all have something in common: biotechnology. Biotech truly is an everywhere technology,” said Peter Brenders, president & CEO, BIOTECanada. ”Our polling data indicates over 80 percent of Canadians support the use of products and processes that involve biotechnology.”

24.09.2007

Drug resistance gene has spread from East Coast to Midwest

A resistance gene that allows bacteria to beat an important class of antibiotics has started to appear in microorganisms taken from Midwestern patients, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Less than a decade ago, scientists first noticed the BlaKPC gene in bacteria taken from East Coast patients. They found bacteria with an active copy of the gene could defeat carbapenems, a relatively young family of antibiotics that works on a wide variety of bacteria. Physicians generally reserve carbapenems for use in the most critically ill patients.

15.09.2007

Sound Science: Most science studies appear to be tainted - by sloppy analysis

We all make mistakes and, if you believe medical scholar John Ioannidis, scientists make more than their fair share. By his calculations, most published research findings are wrong. Dr. Ioannidis is an epidemiologist who studies research methods at the University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece and Tufts University in Medford, Mass. In a series of influential analytical reports, he has documented how, in thousands of peer-reviewed research papers published every year, there may be so much less than meets the eye. These flawed findings, for the most part, stem not from fraud or formal misconduct, but from more mundane misbehavior: miscalculation, poor study design or self-serving data analysis.

13.09.2007

Major international biotechnology research laboratory opens its doors in South Africa

South Africa today became the first country in Africa and only the third in the world to host a laboratory of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB). South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki this morning officially opened the third ICGEB Component at the Institute for Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM) at the University of Cape Town, where the laboratory will be housed. The two other existing international Components are in Trieste, Italy, and New Delhi, India. The ICGEB is an inter-governmental organisation that operates in close contact with the United Nations (UN) Common System as a centre for excellence for research and training in biotechnology and genetic engineering with special attention to the needs of the developing world.

11.09.2007

U.S. government officials warn business they will vigorously prosecute cases of foreign bribery

Paying bribes to win business overseas may be common practice in many countries, but it’s becoming increasingly risky for U.S. companies and their executives. ”People are going to jail because of these kinds of things,” said Mark Mendelsohn, deputy chief of the fraud section at the Justice Department. [...] And the bribe doesn’t even have to be successful,” said Mr. Mendelsohn, referring to a prosecution of Monsanto for paying $50,000 to an official in the Indonesian Ministry of the Environment in 2002.

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