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GLOBAL NEWS WIKILEAKS: US THREATENED "RETALIATION" TO BULLY EU INTO ACCEPTING GM CROPS Reecuns to a French pledge to represent the "common interest" in considering biotech foods, a former US ambassador recommended publishing a "retaliation list" of European locations where genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were being grown, in the hope that activists would destroy them and “cause some pain" for officials, a leaked US diplomatic cable shows. In the confidential communication dated 14 December 2007, the then US Ambassador to France, Craig Roberts Stapleton, recommended creating the list if France and the European Union continued to ban biotech seeds. “Mission Paris recommends that he US government] reinforce our negotiating position with the EU on agricultural biotechnology by publishing a retaliation list when e extended ‘Reasonable Time Period’ expires,” Stapleton wrote. In December 2010, more than one million Europeans signed a petition demanding that the EU halt the approval of new genetically modified crops. The petition was later dismissed by the EU Commission he dying of the upper and lower epidermis. This would eventually result in the death of parts of the eaves, the study found. The researchers also discovered hat Wi-Fi radiation could slow the growth of corn cobs. In the Netherlands, about 70 per cent of all trees in urban areas show he same symptoms, compared with only 10 per cent five years ago, the study found. Trees in densely orested areas are not affected. (Source: The Daily Mail, London, 25 November 2010, http://tinyurl.com/4jugzav) on procedural grounds. In the last 12 years, only two organisms have been licensed for seeding across Europe, and one of them was a potato that triggered the recent mass petition against the crops. The world's number-one multinational biotechnology firm, Monsanto, isn't happy about that. The Nation's Jeremy Scahill revealed in September that the world's top producer of genetically modified seeds hired US security contractor Blackwater to “infiltrate activis groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm". Meanwhile, other cables released by WikiLeaks show that, behind the scenes, Spain has been a key ally o the US in defending genetically modified crops. Another cable sent to the Vatican on 19 November 2009 indicated that Pope Benedict XVI also supports genetically modified crops, but will not admit it in public. "Vatican officials remain largely supportive of genetically modified crops as a vehicle for protecting the environment while feeding the hungry, but—at least for now—are unwilling to challenge bishops who disagree," the cable explained. (Source: The Raw Story, 20 December 2010, http://tinyurl.com/2ujebo3) former BACTERIA USED TO TURN CELLS INTO COMPUTERS esearchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have engineered E. coli bacteria with the key molecular circuitry that will enable genetic engineers to program cells to communicate and perform computations. The work builds into cells the same logic gates found in electronic computers and creates a method to make circuits by "rewiring" communications between cells. This system can be harnessed to turn cells into miniature computers, according to findings reported in the journal Nature. That, in turn, will enable cells to be programmed with more intricate functions for a variety of purposes, including in agriculture and in the production of pharmaceuticals, materials and industrial chemicals, according to Christopher A. Voigt, PhD, a synthetic biologist and an associate professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy's Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and the senior author of the paper. "The purpose of programming cells is not to have them overtake electronic computers,” said Voigt. "Rather, it is to be able to access all of the things that biology can do ina reliable, programmable way." (Source: ScienceDaily.com, 8 December 2010, http://tinyurl.com/3a7lybm) (a Ce NEXUS ¢ 9 FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011 www.nexusmagazine.com