Mugabe's forces flog student protesters
Police firing teargas and supported by helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles moved to crush the start of mass action in Zimbabwe yesterday aimed at forcing the resignation of president Mugabe after 23 years of rule. At least three demonstrators were shot as armoured vehicles with machine gun turrets patrolled city streets. There were unconfirmed reports that two protesters had been killed. At the university campus, troops made student protesters lie on the ground before flogging them with whips, an action reminiscent of paramilitaries in former South Africa under apartheid.
(Times, Guardian, Independent)
Public debate on future of GM crops inadequate
The public debate on the future of genetically modified crops in Britain is inadequate, eight leading organisations have warned. The staging of the debate - due to be launched in Birmingham today - was described as a "catalogue of errors from start to finish" by the Consumers' Association, which said the government had only paid lip service to consumer concerns. The debate, organised by the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission - the GM watchdog, is being staged around six regional conferences.
(Financial Times)
Elite researchers increase lead
Oxford, Cambridge, University College London and Imperial College, show no sign of slowing down in their race away from the rest of the sector when it comes to research funding. Latest figures on university income for 2001-02 published last week by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, together with grant allocations from the funding councils, show that total research funding in the UK rose by 7.3 per cent on 2000-01 to just over £3.5 billion. For the first time, all four in the golden triangle have broken the £200 million barrier and the gaps between them are now almost non-existent.
(Guardian, Financial Times)