NOTE: Multiple items.
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+ MONSANTO FRONT GETS $5.4M FROM GATES FOUNDATION TO HELP OVERCOME REGULATIONS
The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, which exists cheek by jowl with Monsanto - its main financial backer, was recently awarded a $5.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "The funding will help the center secure the approval of African governments to allow field testing of genetically modified banana, rice, sorghum and cassava plants that have been fortified with vitamins, minerals and proteins."
http//www.truthabouttrade.org/content/view/13106/54/&cid=0&usg=AFQjCNEVHX8E_Gr7UgmHTMsMeeO995JN_Q

+ IS GM FOOD THE FUTURE FOR AFRICA?
The cover story in the latest edition of New African by Khadija Sharife deals with Sir David King's claim that GM is the technology to feed Africa. Excerpt only on the net:
http://www.africasia.com/newafrican/na.php?ID=2031
See also Khadija's article on Genetic Colonialism
http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/khadijasharife/2008/12/23/from-mendel-to-machiavelli/

+ GM FOOD AID CHALLENGED IN ETHIOPIA
An article in the Times of Malta says that the week before Christmas, when we were busy with holiday menus, Ethiopians were challenging GM food aid flown in to the hungry nation from the United States.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090104/environment/genetically-modified-foods

+ BIO-EARN PROMOTING BIOTECH IN ETHIOPIA
http://www.waltainfo.com/walnew/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5904&Itemid=45

+ SOLUTION TO AFRICA'S HUNGER IS POLITICAL
http://www.agbios.com/main.php?action=ShowNewsItem&id=10353

+ UGANDA: GM CASSAVA READY FOR FIELD TRIALS
http://allafrica.com/stories/200901070050.html

+ MONSANTO SAYS GM COTTON SEED OUT IN BURKINA FASO
Monsanto says it has released its GM Bollgard II cotton seed for commercial cultivation in the West African nation of Burkina Faso.
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN0854279120090108

+ NIGERIA: GM NOT ANSWER TO FOOD CRISIS
http://allafrica.com/stories/200901020674.html

+ GM OPPONENTS "PLAYING WITH HUMAN LIVES"
Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, director of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tubingen, Germany, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1995, has given an interview lambasting critics of GM to the German news site Focus-Online. The interview shows even Nobel Laureate biologists can have a distorted and technically inaccurate view of what GM entails, and are happy to attack organics without ever setting foot on an organic farm!
The German version is available here.
http://www.focus.de/wissen/wissenschaft/gentechnik/tid-12634/interview-die-setzen-auch-menschenleben-aufs-spiel_aid_350759.html
The English translation by John Rosenthal is here
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/biotech-opponents-are-playing-with-human-lives/

+ SOUTH AFRICA: BIOWATCH'S BATTLE OVER COURT COSTS CONTINUES
http://allafrica.com/stories/200812240042.html

+ NEW REPORTS FROM THE AFRICAN CENTRE FOR BIOSAFETY
*GMOs in South Africa - 2008 Overviews
http://www.biosafetyafrica.net/portal/images/ACB/files/gmosbooklet.pdf
*Public participation in context of Patent Laws in South Africa
http://www.biosafetyafrica.net/portal/images/ACB/files/public%20participation.pdf
*Agrofuels in South Africa - projects, players and poverty  http://www.biosafetyafrica.net/portal/images/ACB/files/agrofuelsbooklet%281%29.pdf
*Marine Bioprospecting - key challenges and the situation in South Africa
http://www.biosafetyafrica.net/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=239&Itemid=63