NAFTA purports to be the world's first environmentally friendly trade treaty, but its critics claim it has made Mexico dirtier. There is evidence on both sides : a

Tony Blair's stubborn defence of genetically modified food has puzzled some political obsevers. The prime minister is not noted for his eagerness to take on the combined weight of public opinion and

On the roads of North Carolina it is not unusual to see cars sporting bumper stickers that pointedly proclaim "Tobacco pays my bills" or "I smoke and I vote." This state in United States leads in the

Many people worry that there are too many Chinese. The real worry is that in future there will be too few : a

For weeks during the spring, US Congress wrangled over a tobacco bill that would have forced the industry to pay billions towards the cost of treating sick smokers. At first the bill demanded $368.5

Earlier this year, the Makahs-a tribe of about 2,000 people living in the north-west corner of Washington state-won permission from the International Whaling Commission to kill five migrating grey

An emerging market in fish quotas is making some fishermen very rich and helping to solve the problem of over-capacity in the industry : a

If your spinal cord is severed, you will never walk again, because your brain can no longer tell your legs what to do. Or so the thinking goes. Yet at the annual meeting of the National Neurotrauma

The Cuban government blames the poor state of the country's health service to the American trade embargo. Recent takeovers of non-American pharmaceutical and other medical companies by American ones

California used to be America's chief propangandist against smoking, but Masschussets is now back in front. Tobacco consumption in the state dropped by 31% between 1992 and early 1997, more than