from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

In late September the Indian Supreme Court placed a ban on new GM field trials - but then made an exception in response to an application from Delhi University to allow field trials of a GM mustard. What the Court wasn't told was that the GM crop contains Terminator-style genes that represent a serious threat to crops and the environment (ASIA).

Also being economical with the truth are New Zealand gene-bashers who are willfully ignoring scientific evidence in an attempt to push through approvals for their GM brassicas (AUSTRALASIA).

Those of you who are celebrating the fall of Donald Rumsfeld in the US might be interested in news of a class action lawsuit for racketeering against the former president of Searle Pharmaceuticals, a company owned by Monsanto (THE AMERICAS).

Claire [email protected]
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

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CONTENTS
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GM AND HEALTH RESEARCH - CORRECTION
ASIA
LOBBYWATCH
AUSTRALASIA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
AFRICA
CATHOLIC CHURCH

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GM AND HEALTH RESEARCH - CORRECTION
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In last week's Weekly Watch we included details of a very important new paper by Traavik and Heinemann, "Genetic Engineering and Omitted Health Research..." Unfortunately, a draft version of the paper had been circulated. A final and correct version of the paper is now available as a pdf: http://www.biosafety-info.net/file_dir/719762120455431f1a3942.pdf

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ASIA
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+ TERMINATOR-STYLE FIELD TRIALS IN INDIA
The case brought before the Supreme Court in India by Aruna Rodrigues and her co-petitioners has already led to a temporary ban on new GM field trials in India, starting from 22 September.

But on 13 October, the Supreme Court, in response to an application from Delhi University, agreed to make an exception. Based on the evidence before it, the Supreme Court agreed to allow Delhi University to conduct field trials of their new GM mustard.

Aruna Rodrigues has now brought forward startling new evidence that suggests that in making its application to the Supreme Court, Delhi University may have suppressed important scientific information.

Rodrigues' Reply Affidavit draws on the expert evidence of 3 leading international scientists, and it states unequivocally that the GM mustard in question contains a Barnase and Barstar system, making it potentially a Terminator-style plant that can spread sterility to its many wild and cultivated relatives worldwide.

The petitioners are therefore calling for no exception for GM mustard, i.e. a total ban on *all* GM field trials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7251

+ INDIA: SUPREME COURT ISSUES NOTICE
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Indian government of another public Interest lawsuit seeking a moratorium on commercialization of GM crops until a competent regulatory structure and rules were put in place.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7249

+ FARMERS' UNION STOPS IMPENDING CONTAMINATION FROM ANOTHER GM RICE PLOT
The leading farmers' union Bhartiya Kissan Union (BKU) and the President of the Panchayat of Rudrapur village lodged a police complaint against Mahyco-Monsanto, the government's department of biotechnology, and the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, for various violations found in a GM rice plot in Rudrapur village of Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh. BKU say the village and district authorities were not informed about the trial, grain from the trial was left lying unattended, volunteer plants were growing in the plot, and the trial was not monitored.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7237

+ BT BHINDI TRIAL VIOLATIONS
Gross violations of regulatory guidelines have occurred in a field trial of Bt bhindi (okra) in the Gulbarga region of Karnataka, according to an investigation by Indian TV station NDTV. The farmer who leased the land for the trial of the GM crop had eaten some of the crop and even sold some in the market, even though Bt bhindi has not been cleared for human consumption. "I sold some in the Guntur market but I didn't get much for it. We ate some but did not find it tasty, so stopped eating it," said Koteswara Rao, farmer. In addition, the village authorities had no information on the field trial.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7246
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7252

+ INDIA'S REGULATORS ADMIT GAP IN SYSTEM
As numbers of GM crop field tests grow - there are 85 trial sites in India - activists and regulators are cautioning that the regulatory mechanism needs to run to the village level, to keep pace with new trial sites.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), whose activists torched a Bt rice trial field in Karnal last week, alleged that seeds had been left unattended after harvesting at a Bt rice trial field in Gorakhpur and grains removed for storage in a rented room in a village. The field, the BKU claimed, was leased to Mahyco by an absentee landowner.

After the Karnal incident, Greenpeace said it had lea