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Shays Wants Hearings on Morning After Pill
Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) plans to request that House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) hold hearings into the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) failure to decide on the status of the "morning-after" pill. The FDA has put off action on an application from Barr Laboratories, the makers of Plan B, to permit sales of the emergency-contraceptive drug without a prescription.
"Hearings are long overdue" on why the FDA has not ruled on the drug despite the overwhelmingly recommendation of two agency advisory committees in 2003, Shays said at a press briefing today that also included Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.) Joe Crowley (N.Y.) and Jay Inslee (Wash.).
"The FDA has failed to take action on approving Plan B for over-the-counter status, despite scientific data that shows it would be safe," he said. Opponents of abortion rights oppose changing the drug's status and argue that, in some cases, it acts as an abortifacient. Shays added that any hearings likely would not be held until next year.
WTO Threatens Last Ancient Forests
Hong Kong - Environment activist Greenpeace warned the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Friday that further opening of forestry trade threatens the remaining ancient forests, particularly in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Brazil.
"Liberalisation in the forestry sector must be halted immediately," Greenpeace said in a statement following a study into the forestry trade.
"Liberalisation is likely to magnify destruction of rainforests and increase illegal and unsustainable robbing, particularly in the poorest countries."
The call came ahead of the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong next week, which is likely to be bogged down by differences over farm trade among its nearly 150 members.
The Doha round of global free trade talks aim at lifting hundreds of millions of people in the developing world out of poverty through increased trade.
"The biggest problem is there is a lot of illegal logging," Daniel Mittler of Greenpeace told Reuters. "Especially the Asian forests are increasingly destroyed for exports to China."
Greenpeace's latest study illustrated how the WTO had systematically stalled political action aimed at preventing the destruction of forests.
The "World Trade Organisation is pushing for less regulation rather than more ... which would take us exactly into the wrong direction."
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