A federal judge on Friday banned the planting of genetically modified sugar beets engineered by Monsanto Co in a ruling that marks a major setback for the biotech giant.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White ruled in 2009 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had approved Monsanto's genetically modified sugar beets without adequate environmental study.
In northeast China, torrential rain and floodwaters have left a trail of destruction. Large swathes of Jilin Province are under floodwater... in addition to thousands of barrels of chemicals that were recently washed into a major river.
Large swathes of land in Yongji County, Jilin Province, are lying under floodwater.
Chinese state-run media reports that thirteen people were killed in the county and 30,000 residents were left stranded after torrential rains hit the region.
Workers scrambled to retrieve thousands of barrels of chemicals washed into the Songhua River by floodwaters.
A total of 7,000 barrels were washed downstream from a factory, only about half were retrieved.
As much as 500 tons of chemicals could potentially be floating down river.
The Songhua River is a major tributary of the Amur River, which forms China's border with Russia for several hundred miles before crossing fully into Russia.
Rains so far this year across large swathes of central and southern China have killed nearly 1,000 people and left hundreds missing.