Short items

Defying Glaxo’s bullies 
Animal rights extremists have used home addresses of share holders to post thinly-veiled threats to investors in GlaxoSmithKline , threatening to publish their addresses on an internet site. The pharmaceuticals company quickly took out an injunction to prevent any such action. GSK chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier who had been due to step down in October 2007, has announced he will now stay on until May 2008. 
FT.com, 9 May 2006, Reuters, 17 May 2006  

Unprecedented politicisation of prestigious prize 
The winner of this year’s Aventis science book prize, David Bodanis, has donated his ?10,000 prize money to the family of the late UK government scientist David Kelly. Alluding to Kelly’s death following comments he made to a journalist about Iraq war intelligence Bodanis said, ’[Kelly] was aware of what was really going on and the government lied and tried to feel they could suppress the truth. Events have clearly shown that they were wrong and he was right.’ 
Guardian Online, 17 May 2006  

Drug mistake kills five 
Five people in China’s Guangdong province have died after being given injections made by a Chinese pharmaceutical company. The Armillarisni A injection was produced by the Qiqihar No 2 Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd. According to the state food and drug administration, the company purchased propylene glycol from a drug dealer as an auxiliary material for producing Armillarisni A. The propylene glycol was actually diglycol, an industrial material which causes acute kidney failure if taken by humans. 
Xinhua news agency, 16 May 2006