A genetically modified form of a grass is worrying the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) enough that it is running its first full environmental impact assessment of a GM plant.

Rats fed on a diet rich in genetically modified corn developed abnormalities to internal organs and changes to their blood, raising fears that human health could be affected by eating GM food.

Thirty years after hostilities ended between the US and Vietnam, relations remain strained by one of America's most notorious actions, the use of the chemical Agent Orange.

With 86 percent of the country below the poverty line, the southern African nation of Zambia seems an unlikely candidate to face down the United States - and corporate giant Monsanto - over genetically modified seeds.

Environmental lobby group Biowatch South Africa scored a victory today when the Department of Agriculture was ordered to reveal details about Genetically Modified crops grown locally or brought into the country.

Monsanto, the US agro-chemical company, is to pay Dollars 1.5m in penalties to the US government over a bribe paid in Indonesia in a bid to bypass controls on the screening of new genetically modified cotton crops.

It may well be dangerous - and it is about to enter our food chain.

The Vietnam War ended in 1975, but the scourge of dioxin contamination from a herbicide known as Agent Orange did not.

The US biotechnology company Monsanto has abandoned its plans to introduce genetically modified wheat to the world market despite spending seven years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing the crop.

Other biotech food crops continue to edge closer to commercialization, whilst Monsanto shelves its plans for Genetically Modified Wheat.

Denmark has imposed widespread bans on the spraying of glyphosate in response to research showing that the sprays have been contaminating the countrys groundwater.

Premier Bob Carr announces the ban on the production of GM food crops (such as canola, clover, mustard and field peas) until 2006 in New South Wales, Australias most populous state.

Decades after the U.S. dusted Vietnam with herbicides, scientists and civilians tally the damage.

PCBs drenched Alabama town, but no one was ever told.