Snippets
• 17 Chinese fisherfolk, who were arrested and convicted for poaching in Philippine waters off Palawan, have been pardoned by President Arroyo as they were "first-time offenders'.
• Hong Kong utility CLP Holdings Ltd hopes to build a terminal for liquefied natural gas by 2010 to cut air pollution by up to 20 per cent from 1997. Cost? US $400 million to US $800 million. This would be Asia's largest facility outside Japan.
• A yellow fever epidemic is suspected to have killed 14 in Mali's Kayes region. Four of the blood samples sent to the World Health Organization have tested positive. There is no treatment for the disease. Around 50 per cent of those who contract it die.
• Five Singapore-based companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to form the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions Group. Aimed at mitigating the effects of global warming, the group will take up projects for wastewater management, flyash recycling, and generation of greenpower.
• South Africa's first phase II HIV vaccine trials were launched by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a charitable group, and US-based Targeted Genetics Corporation. South Africa has the highest caseload of HIV in the world.
• The Haryana State Transport Department's bus fleet at the Gurgaon depot is expected to run on biodiesel within the next two months. At present, 20 of the 173 buses in the depot run on biodiesel.