Recent News

By Category: Policy & Initiatives

UN lauds international cooperation in eradicating deadly cattle plague

(UN News Centre) The lessons learned from the elimination of rinderpest, a deadly cattle plague that has threatened the livelihoods of herders and rural families for millennia, can be applied to tackling other major challenges, such as hunger and extreme poverty, a senior United Nations official said today. Jacques Diouf, the Director-General of the Food Read More »

June 27, 2011
| Filed under Europe, North America, Agriculture, International, and Policy & Initiatives
Share

House Lawmakers Reintroduce Bill Aimed at Preventing WMD Attack

(HS Today) House lawmakers renewed their effort Friday to pass a bill to implement the recommendations of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Commission, which warned that a WMD attack, most likely using biological agents, would likely occur somewhere in the world by 2013 without significant action to prevent it.

June 27, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biotechnology, and Policy & Initiatives
Share

Blog: Addressing the threat of weapons of mass destruction

(The Hill – Blog) Our enemies have made no secret of their desire to use weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States. Last year, the Committee on Homeland Security received testimony from former Senators Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and Jim Talent (R-Mo.), the Commissioners of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Read More »

June 21, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biological Weapons, and Policy & Initiatives
Share

U.S. Considers Alternatives to BWC Verification Protocol

(GSN Daily News) A senior U.S. diplomat said the Obama administration remains opposed to a verification protocol for the Biological Weapons Convention but is open to other measures that would strengthen confidence in the disease nonproliferation regime, Arms Control Today reported in its June edition (see GSN, April 12). (Jun. 20) – U.S. special representative Read More »

June 21, 2011
| Filed under North America, International, and Policy & Initiatives
Share

CDC director worries about impact of budget cuts

(Washington Post) Thomas R. Frieden took over as the director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in June 2009. Before moving to the CDC, Frieden, a physician with extensive experience with both communicable and noncommunicable diseases, served as commissioner of the New York Health Department from 2002 to 2009.