Excerpt: 'The United States is set to launch a prize system to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for tropical diseases.

Sixteen tropical diseases, including sleeping sickness, leprosy and malaria are listed as eligible for the scheme.

Under the system, companies producing a drug or vaccine for a tropical disease can apply for a Priority Review voucher, which allows them a shorter approval time for another drug at a later date.

The shorter approval process would take ap more...

Excerpt: 'The United States is set to launch a prize system to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for tropical diseases.

Sixteen tropical diseases, including sleeping sickness, leprosy and malaria are listed as eligible for the scheme.

Under the system, companies producing a drug or vaccine for a tropical disease can apply for a Priority Review voucher, which allows them a shorter approval time for another drug at a later date.

The shorter approval process would take ap more...

Lead: 'Advocates of open source software have hailed a court ruling protecting its use even though it is given away free.' The article continues: 'The US federal appeals court move overturned a lower court decision involving free software used in model trains that a hobbyist put online. The court has now said conditions of an agreement called the Artistic Licence were enforceable under copyright law. 'For non-lawgeeks, this won't seem important but this is huge,' said Stanford Law Professor Larr more...

'The small Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives has begun setting up a pioneering system which it hopes will make it one of the first countries whose citizens bank primarily using mobile phones. '

The World Science Festival in New York City (www.worldsciencefestival.com.) at the end of May, 2008 'drew some 25,000 people, and an estimated 100,000 people attended the festival's science street fair that weekend.' The New York fair can be compared with other festivals such as the Genoa Science Festival (http://festivalscienza.it), the Trieste International Science Media Fair (http://www.festrieste.it/), Science Week Ireland (http://www.scienceweek.ie/), the Edinburgh International Science Fes more...

'Member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) attending the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) in Geneva from June 23 to 26, 2008, began a comprehensive review of issues relating to the international patent system. The meeting was attended by 85 member states and 24 observer delegations and was chaired by Mr. Maximiliano Santa Cruz of Chile.'

'The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr. Kamil Idris, met with the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, Mr. Kurmanbek Bakiev, during an official visit to that country on June 16 and 17, 2008 to mark the 15th anniversary of the opening of the Kyrgyz State Patent Service. Dr. Idris also met with the Prime Minister, Mr. Igor Chudinov, and a number of senior representatives from government and academia.'

'Africa still relies heavily on expensive satellite connections to gain access to the Internet, according to a report released this month (July 23).
Over 80 per cent of African Internet use is routed through satellite connections, says the report by the South Africa-based telecommunications analysts BMI-TechKnowledge, who work in 40 African countries.'

As the economy globalizes, and as first-class creative minds go abroad, stay abroad or are produced abroad, other nations may challenge the United States' role as the leader in innovation and creativity. The prospect of that challenge tomorrow — more than the loss of jobs today — is what the debate over America's economic future ought to be about.

“Digital Opportunities for All: Preparing Students for 21st-Century Skills” is the theme of the 2008 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education. Funded by the Kingdom of Bahrain, the US$50,000 prize is divided between two winners. The deadline for submissions is 31 August 2008.