The US government is getting ready for the possible arrival of bird flu, and has held “significant planning sessions” in case of an outbreak, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said yesterday in Berlin.

It was the European Union versus the rest of the world as global trade talks remained deadlocked today, with the EU defending itself from a barrage of criticism that its refusal to further open its farming markets threatened to torpedo the entire World Trade Organisation meeting.

HUNGER and malnutrition kill nearly six million children a year, and more people are malnourished in sub-Saharan Africa this decade than in the 1990s, according to a UN report released yesterday.

Hunger and malnutrition are killing nearly six million children a year, and more people are malnourished in sub-Saharan Africa this decade than in the 1990s, according to a UN report released today.

The ivory-billed woodpecker, once prized for its plumage and sought by American Indians as magical, was thought to be extinct for years. Now it’s been sighted again, and conservationists are exulting.