Blood Feud

		LATEST COVER STORY Asia's Tomb Raiders  Spirited Away  How to Raid a Tomb  Moving the Loot October 20, 2003 Issue Past Covers Bali Remembered Oct. 13, 2003 ----------------- What Went Wrong? Oct. 6, 2003 ----------------- What's Next Sept. 29, 2003 ----------------- Japan's Koizumi Sept. 22, 2003 ----------------- The Saudis Sept. 15, 2003 ----------------- Dyslexia Sept. 8, 2003 ----------------- U.S. in Iraq Sept. 1, 2003 ----------------- Asian Journey August 18-25, 2003 ----------------- Cool Japan August 11, 2003 ----------------- Gloria Arroyo August 4, 2003 ----------------- Women in China July 28, 2003 ----------------- Asian Longevity July 21, 2003 -----------------   ASIA  Malaysia: Mahathir steps down  Essay: Last of the strongmen?  Korea: Roh's Woes NOTEBOOK  Japan: Baseball's losers win  China: Blood Feud  N. Korea: Suspicious accident  Milestones  Verbatim  Letters GLOBAL ADVISOR  Travel: Lowdown on the high life  Check In: Best airport lounge  Concorde: A piece of history  Berlin: Underground art  DIY: Taking kids abroad  Style: Bespoke, not broke  Food: Lambrosia CNN.com: Top Headlines

Talk about a good premise for a biomedical thriller: villagers in a poor Chinese province are used as guinea pigs by an American university collecting genetic material. That's how the story was played last week in China. The Xinhua news agency reported that trusting villagers in Anhui province had blood and other fluid samples taken during a research project headed by Harvard Universitybut weren't told why.

In fact, last week's story recycled four-year-old allegations that caused Harvard to suspend its research into hereditary links in a range of diseases. Since the program ended in 1998, four separate...