Recent News

By Region: South America

A hinge moment for the BWC?

(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) Although it was an eleventh-hour decision, the Seventh Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) Review Conference in Geneva did manage to produce a consensus final document this past December. As the saying goes, “a win is a win,” and in the end the final document — adopted with less than Read More »

January 31, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Biological Weapons, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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Limited Progress Seen at Biological Weapons Convention Review Meeting

(Global Security Newswire) Delegates to last month’s Biological Weapons Convention review conference achieved consensus on a number of updates to decision-making and trust-building mechanisms for the pact, but agreement was limited in those areas and fully lacking on other matters, official participants and independent experts said. Nations represented at the meeting approved certain reforms to Read More »

January 19, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Biological Weapons, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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BWC Meeting Makes Incremental Changes

(Arms Control Today) As most observers expected, the states-parties did not narrow their differences on contentious issues relating to treaty compliance and verification at the three-week conference in Geneva. Other areas had been seen as more likely to produce agreement. For example, some key states had pushed for a strengthened “intersessional process,” the annual meetings Read More »

January 13, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Countermeasures, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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Paraguay emergency tackles crisis over cattle disease outbreak

(UPI.com) The outbreaks, mostly said to be spreading foot-and-mouth disease on farms but causing other health complications, began last year. Prevention and recovery has been slow and decimated local rural economies in many areas, published data indicated. …

January 10, 2012
| Filed under South America, Agriculture, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Biological indecision

(Malcolm Dando | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) The December 2011 Seventh Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in Geneva was widely expected to significantly strengthen international measures in the prohibition regime against weapons of mass destruction. After all, the review came after a series of constructive annual meetings in the second Intersessional Read More »