MORE THAN one-third of China's population suffers from iodine deficiency and two provinces, Xinjiang and Jiangxi, are the worst hit. Five million Chinese are said to be mentally retarded and children

"EMPTY boxes, empty promises", read a sign put up by the Washington Apple Commission, to protest against Japan's "unfair" ban on American apples, at a recent food exhibition in Osaka. The

The Soviet Union and now Russia has dumped large quantities of radioactive waste into the sea, according to the report of a commission set up by Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Opposing the pharmaceutical sector's arguments for a more liberal drug policy, several voluntary groups demand all prescription drugs in India should be subject to price controls. The groups met in

A hieroglyphic script in which the earliest Central American texts were written has been partly deciphered, thanks to an engraved slab found by fisherfolk.

A US based Tibetan organisation says not only is China intending to build a nuclear reactor near Lhasa, but is also setting up sites for missiles targeted at India on the Tibetan plateau.

Though a deadly gas leak two months ago caused nine deaths, Century Rayon is back in full production despite orders from the Maharashtra environment ministry and the state pollution control board

SCIENTISTS have found in the foothills of the Andes mountains the remains of what they contend is the earliest dinosaur. Unlike its giant descendants, the discovery by a US-Argentinian team

AS THE first president of the International Green Cross (IGC) -- an organisation that has been set up to help victims of human-made disasters and is to have offices at Geneva and The Hague --

Inefficient use funds, not lack of resources, is responsible for the failure of scientific departments to meet their targets, says a recent CAG report.