International

Swiss Freeze Biotech Rollout

Swiss citizens backed a five-year moratorium on commercial release of genetically modified plants and animals, despite opposition from their government and industry groups. Fifty-five percent of the voters backed the moratorium. The ballot initiative followed the collection of 100,000 signatures opposing a 2004 law approving commercial release of genetically engineered crops. "All the farmers' organisations were behind this proposal, which they see as a chance for Swiss agriculture," Daniel Ammann, a spokesman for the pro-moratorium coalition, told Reuters.

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Not So Tough On Drugs After All

Professor Andrew Herx-heimer, emeritus fellow at the UK Cochrane Centre, told the British Medical Journal that changes to the British drug industry's voluntary code of practice were minimal. "This is very competent window dressing but not much has changed at all," he said.

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Lobbying Europe

Brussels, home to the European Commission, has also become home to "over 15,000 lobbyists (more than one for every European Commission official) but just 10 per cent of these represent environmental and social groups," according to a recently-released report. "A massive industry of corporate lobbying has grown up in Brussels with overwhelming influence on European trade policy.

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Socially Responsible Union Busting

The global mining giant Rio Tinto is lobbying the Australian government to amend draft legislation to ensure individual common law agreements with its workers override collectively bargained labor awards and certified agreements.

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