FOOD AID IMPASSE
The Zimbabwe and US governments are still locked in negotiations over a consignment of genetically modified food aid. Last week, New 杏吧原创 revealed that Zimbabwe was refusing thousands of tonnes of maize offered by the US Agency for International Development via the World Food Programme. One compromise may be to convert the grain to flour before letting it into the country, or local authorities could mill it before distribution. But the details of the delivery arrangements are yet to be worked out.
AUSTRALIAN TSE FEARS
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A zoo cat in Melbourne may have died from a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, the type of prion disease that causes BSE in cattle and scrapie in sheep. The death of the Asiatic golden cat is worrying because Australia is thought to be free of TSEs. But the cat was probably infected in a European zoo before it was transferred in 1998.
INTERNET DISSIDENT JAILED
According to the news agency AFP, a Chinese dissident has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for downloading 鈥渞eactionary鈥� material from the Internet. The conviction is thought to be the first of its kind in China, says the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong. Li Dawei, a former police officer, was convicted of downloading about 500 鈥渞eactionary articles鈥� and compiling them into 10 volumes.