Food Safety:  U.S. Border Inspectors to Receive Increased Training

Beginning this fall, all U.S. border inspectors will receive training in detecting signs of agricultural terrorism, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner said yesterday (see GSN, July 31).

Currently, only 2,000 out of 18,000 border inspectors are trained to look for suspicious crops or livestock, Bonner said.  In October, however, training for all new inspectors will include agricultural issues, including agricultural terrorism, according to the Associated Press.

“We’re very much committed to protecting American agriculture,” Bonner said, “but we can be more effective” (Gene Johnson, Associated Press/Tacoma News Tribune, Aug. 13).

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Radiological Weapons:  Georgian Environmental Experts to Search for Radioactive Materials

A 25-member team of experts from the Georgian Environment Ministry is set to travel to the Pankisi gorge next week to search for radioactive materials, according to Civil Georgia (see GSN, Oct. 23, 2002).  The International Atomic Energy Agency will help fund the search (Civil Georgia, Aug. 8).

IAEA officials will be searching for electrical generators that contain radioactive elements that were reported missing, the Associated Press reported.  A “dirty bomb” could potentially be produced if the generators were stripped of the radioactive material (Associated Press, Aug. 7).

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Conference on Disarmament:  China, Russia Try to Open Space Dialogue

In an effort to break a long-standing deadlock at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, China and Russia yesterday announced that they are willing to discuss space arms control issues, even if those talks are not focused on producing a formal treaty (see GSN, June 27).

“We naturally would prefer a negotiating mandate on space and not a discussion approach,” said Russian Ambassador Leonid Skotnikov.  The Russian ambassador and Chinese Ambassador Hu Xiaodi said, however, that they are willing to compromise to move talks forward.

The current proposal was put forward earlier this year by leading diplomats from Algeria, Belgium, Chile, Colombia and Sweden, who were all looking for a way to move the conference forward (see GSN, Jan. 24; Alexander Higgins, Associated Press/Moscow Times, Aug. 8).

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