Australian scientists have found a use for old telephone directories and plastic milk containers. They are turning waste paper and thermoplastics into a substitute for

The European Commission backed proposals to keep agricultural support prices largely unchanged and to implement a slight reduction in the Common Agricultural Policy budget for 1998-99 to

Photodynamic therapy-in which drugs that become toxic when exposed to light are used to destroy tumours-is a highly promising cancer treatment. But it is effective only against relatively flat and

The European Commission unveiled plans for an international charter aimed at establishing principles governing business on the internet. It would encourage cooperation between governments on legal

The French government has confirmed the permanent closure of the controversial Superphenix nuclear reactor, the largest fast reactor ever built, dealing a blow to the country's powerful nuclear

Lukoil's licence to explore oil deposites in the Russian sector of the northern Caspian Sea has been put in jeopardy by Yuri Skuratov, Russia's prosecutor general, who said this week that oil

The British stage beetle is set to join the elephant and rhinoceros in the pantheon of protected species, as ministers seek to thwart to lucrative international trade in the endangered

The world has a quarter of a billion child workers and their numbers are set to rise, according to an International Labour Office report

Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical group, announced a research agreement that could bring DeCode Genetics, Iceland's first biotechnology company,$200m over five years. The two companies aim to discover

It has been little short of a revolution. Over the past few decades, medical technology has advanced through a series of dazzling innovations, ranging from heart transplants to test tube babies.