THE US Congress approval of less than the requested funding for the world's poorest countries has put the International Development Agency (IDA) of the World Bank in trouble. Though the Clinton

Metropolitan municipalities can now heave a collective sigh of relief. The Centrally-sponsored scheme for infrastructural development of megacities has brought them a welcome respite, burdened as

THE WITHDRAWAL of USA -- the largest consumer of coffee -- is unlikely to invalidate the International Coffee Agreement, which aims at stabilising coffee prices for the benefit of both consumers and

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that do not help in the government's family planning programmes may get debarred from receiving government funds. Since the beginning of October, the government

ZIMBABWE has been dehorning rhinos for almost a year in a desperate attempt to save them from poachers. The country's rhinoceros population has declined from 2,000 a year ago to less than 500 today.

US PRESIDENT Bill Clinton announced on September 29, a sweeping liberalisation of export controls on computers and other high-technology products. This indicates a change in attitude from 1989, when

ECOLOGISTS have opposed the proposed 31-km Colombo-Katunayake expressway, writes Mallika Wanigasundara in a Panos report. They claim it will dislocate approximately 2,500 families, affect the

The Union agriculture ministry's plan to draw up a national fisheries policy for the integrated development of fishing in India has drawn flak from organisations representing coastal fisherfolk in

THIS YEAR'S Nobel prize -- worth $825,000 -- for physiology and medicine has been awarded jointly to UK's Richard Roberts and USA's Phillip Sharp for their 1977 discovery of "split genes". The

SCIENTISTS, physicians and surgeons in Bangladesh have formed a human tissue bank with the aim of persuading the government to remove legal hurdles in collecting human body parts for treatment,