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Singapore – Rice production in Southeast Asia – arguably the region’s most important industry – has received a major boost with the endorsement of three new strategies by the Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry of the ten-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

A pioneering international alliance that aims to ensure that poor people in Africa and Asia get a greater share of the benefits from local forests will hold its first full meeting in Uganda next week.

Governments meeting this week are being urged to take a new approach to intellectual property rights to reflect the needs, customs and views of indigenous communities in developing nations.

This article tries to shed some light on the possible collaboration between organized criminal groups dealing with drugs, and terrorists, and thereby seeks to explore the linkages between the two global wars – the war on terrorism and the war on drugs.

Summaries of newsworthy papers from Nature and Nature Research Journals include Prime cuts – Nature Immunology and A new tool to analyze bacteria in microbial ecosystems – Nature Methods

Summaries of newsworthy papers include Protein monitors arrested eggs for DNA damage, Mount St Helens rock causes ‘drumbeats’, Drug promise for renal disease, By their teeth ye shall know them, Corals take a battering, Watching proteins unfold, Superconducting silicon, Hessian ware recipe

As the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit in Mae Sot, Thailand, celebrates its twentieth anniversary, Prof Francois Nosten reflects on the success of the unit, based amongst the region's refugee camps.

MCSv6 introduces a new Network Address Translator (NAT) traversal solution that allows clients behind NAT to automatically send and receive multimedia data. The solution transientsly detects the user's settings and allows the user to successfully send and receive data.

Summaries of newsworthy papers include Nanomaterials for imaging and therapy – Nature Materials, High times for memory – Nature Neuroscience, An unexpected mechanism of pain – Nature Neuroscience, Auditory repetition and dyslexia – Nature Neuroscience

The December issue of Nature Immunology presents a Focus on special immune proteins that detect the presence of invading pathogens in various hosts. The Focus will go live on 16 November at http://www.nature.com/ni/focus/innateproteins/.

Around 60 percent of the world population reside in this Asia Pacific region, where 50 percent of the world’s disaster was recorded during past past two decades. This publication aims at identifying areas of mitigating flood, cyclone and storm surge disaster.

A detailed analysis of Neanderthal DNA provides a unique insight into the genetic changes that accompanied the transition from early hominid to modern man. The study, reported in this week’s Nature, paves the way for a Neanderthal genome-sequencing effort.

Researchers have discovered two mutations in the H5N1 avian influenza virus that enable it to recognise human receptor proteins. The amino acid changes, might prove useful molecular markers for assessing the pandemic potential of H5N1 samples.

Treatments for muscular dystrophy, Five grand challenges for safe nanotechnology, Predicting the endpoint of earthquake ruptures, Infant burial by early modern humans, Discovery may help defeat gypsy moth, Flushing submarine canyons, Graphene in a spin

The current lack of sustained engagement with Iran harms US interests in a critical region of the world...Direct dialogue with Tehran on specific areas of mutual concern should be pursued.

Richard Mukabana has collected empirical data that dispels the myth that bush clearing can control mosquitoes and has assembled crucial evidence that provides a basis for amending a policy that is not practical or effective in tropical Africa.

The lack of success in learning English among pupils in rural schools has contributed much to the rural-urban divide in Malaysia.

Summaries of newsworthy papers include Molecule required for bone repair identified – Nature Genetics, Problems with a potential Alzheimer disease treatment – Nature Neuroscience

The social and economic development of a country is closely linked with the understanding and application of science and technology by its people. Science centres and museums play a vital role in communicating basic scientific information to the people and help them make informed choices.

Climate change: New Antarctic ice core yields detailed climatic insights, Infectious disease: SIV endemic in wild gorillas?, Neuroscience: How to keep a steady eye, Astronomy: Moon’s surface shaped by ‘recent’ gas release? and finally… Chillies and spiders share similar scare tactics

IUBAT practices a seed-model of KBAD providing repayable loans to students enabling them to break out of poverty trap which if extended in wider scale in any society, could lead to community self reliance.

The Environment is a major concern in many Asian countries. ResearchSEA is launching Focus on The Environment to highlight the experts and research related to the Environment.

The possibility of higher concentration of contaminants in buses and air-conditioned buildings pose potential health problems to users and occupants.

The eye can provide a very reliable way of diagnosing cerebral malaria, researchers in Malawi have shown. By looking at the changes to the retina, doctors are able to determine whether an unconscious child is suffering from this severe form of malaria or another, unrelated illness, leading to the most appropriate treatment.

Summaries of newsworthy papers from Nature and Nature Research Journals include: DNA sequencing reveals bacterial evolution in the lab, Kidney disease caused by mutation may be reversible, Benefits of fever, Redefining receptor organization – again.

More than one hundred Nobel laureates have written to Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi to express their concern over the death-penalty case of 5 Bulgarian nurses, and a Palestinian doctor, accused of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV in 1998.

The eBario project wins gold medal at Commonwealth Innovation Award. The research project uses innovative application of ICTs with the goal of continually sustaining social and economic programs in a rural community in Sarawak which does not have the basic amenities such as electricity, water and telecommunications.

The hepatitis C virus infection is estimated to affect 170 million people around the world. The researchers aim was to analyse if the new induction therapy with twice-daily IFN-ß is better than once a day CIFN therapy for a period of 6-months for chronic hepatitis C.

An unprecedented look at the prospects for science and technology in the Muslim world is offered in Nature's News section this week.

Having your cake and eating it too, ‘Silver bullet’ strategies due a rethink, Rock-solid support for ‘Snowball Earth’ theory, The benefits of sleeping around, Tiny mirrors chill out, New sonic hedgehog receptor, Maize fungal genome deciphered, ‘Export’ protein structure unveiled, Policing every egg you lay