Chopped pig pancreas may not sound appetizing. But most cystic fibrosis patients eat a refined version of it each breakfast, lunch and dinner

The lead outside investigator on a crucial trial of two widely used anti-cholesterol drugs said in an e-mail message in July that Merck and Schering-Plough, the companies that make the drugs, were deliberately delaying the release of the trial results "to hide something."

Eike Batista, a Brazilian mining entrepreneur, says he owes the success of his business, built from scratch and now worth billions, to following the basic rules of mining exploration that he learned as a young man digging for gold. "In mining, you go to some crazy place, you set up a camp, you start looking for water and energy and this way you can build anything," Batista said. "That's the mind-set. That's my life. That's how I learned to build things from zero."

Representatives from more than 160 countries began formal negotiations here Monday on a treaty to mitigate climate change, with the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, urging governments to help in "saving the planet." The talks, which are scheduled to conclude at the end of 2009, come three months after a rancorous meeting in Indonesia that exposed deep fissures in how countries plan to battle global warming.

Food prices are soaring, a wealthier Asia is demanding better food and farmers cannot keep up. In short, the world faces a food crisis and in some places it is already boiling over. Around the globe, people are protesting and governments are responding with often counterproductive controls on prices and exports - a new politics of scarcity in which ensuring food supplies is becoming a major challenge for the 21st century.

PARIS: As concern over global warming grows, the nuclear industry is stepping up efforts to portray itself as a viable source of clean energy. Governments are increasingly receptive, including the British government, which last year backed the construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants. Antinuclear environmentalists say that approach is like avoiding an oncoming truck by driving off a precipice. Worldwide, there are about 440 nuclear reactors in operation.

PARIS: Spare a thought for the world's poor and hungry when you tune into the next episode of U.S. recession watch this week. Sky-high food prices are prompting one country after another to curtail exports in favor of domestic supply, a trend India joined Friday hard on the heels of Vietnam with a sharp increase in export prices for rice, a national staple in both countries. Cameroon, smarting from food price riots that rights groups say left as many as 100 people dead last month, announced cutbacks in official travel abroad to help finance wage rises for state employees.

A meeting of United Nations member states in Bangkok on Monday to discuss climate change is the first in a series this year at which the action plan adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, will be translated into concrete steps on the road to a new global climate change agreement. We, the president of Indonesia and the prime ministers of Poland and Denmark, have decided to join forces in a coordination group at the highest political level. Our goal is to facilitate an ambitious climate change agreement in Copenhagen in 2009.

Though a consumer may not be able to tell the difference, a striking red and blue Thomas the Tank Engine made in Wisconsin is not the same as one manufactured in China - the paint on the Chinese twin may contain dangerous levels of lead. In the same way, a plump red tomato from Florida is often not the same as one grown in Mexico. The imported fruits and vegetables found in our shopping carts in winter and early spring are grown with types and amounts of pesticides that would often be illegal in the United States.

HANOI: Rising prices and a growing fear of scarcity have prompted some of the world's largest rice producers to announce drastic limits on the amount of rice they export. The price of rice, a staple in the diets of nearly half the world's population, has almost doubled on international markets in the last three months. That has pinched the budgets of millions of poor Asians and raised fears of civil unrest.