The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
French multinational Lafarge's limestone quarries in Meghalaya, which supply raw material to its cement plant across the border in Bangladesh have been shut down by the government. This comes nearly a year after an official of the Union Ministry of Environment and forests (moef) found that the mining lease area …
>> Sicko, Produced and directed by Michael Moore, 125 minutes, USA Michael Moore has penchant for turning polemics into cinema. And good cinema at that. His first film, Roger and Me, delineated the economic plight of small us town in the wake of General Motors' decision to close down its …
We couldn't fathom why a friendly scientist should refuse an interview, even on e-mail. And instead want to write down answers and fax them back. Having heard from Jean Pierre Petit, the renowned French astrophysicist-artist, recently on a tour to India, we now know why. Excerpts from a 12-page fascimile …
Settlement with Naveda: The US Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency has announced a US $60.7 million Clean Air Act settlement with a Las Vegas-based company Nevada Power. As per the settlement, the company will improve air quality at its Clark power generating station by reducing air pollutants …
toxic organic compounds of tin, called organotins used as plastic stabilisers, catalysts, preservatives, and anti-fungicides in paints, enter the environment and pose a threat to human health because of their toxicity and long life. So far, they remained untraced as there was no way to detect organotins in the environment. …
best space songs: The European Space Agency is holding a contest to see who can come up with the best playlist for astronauts on the International Space Station. The winner will have their 10 songs sent up to the Internatonal Space Station on an iPod when the Jules Verne Automated …
in a recent meet in Germany's Potsdam city on March 16-17, 2007, g8 countries and five other major developing countries agreed to launch the Potsdam Initiative aimed at preventing biodiversity loss due to climate change. It was for the first time that developing nations took part in the annual g8-ministerial …
E-mail as PIL Treating an e-mail as a public interest petition, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court recently issued notices to the state government. The case resulted after the court's chief justice, B A Khan, received an e-mail from Arun Shirgaonkar, an Indian official serving with Qatar embassy, in December …
Green and white trams will soon be ferrying passengers across Paris. The reintroduction of trams is an effort to cut down the city's growing pollution and traffic congestion. Under the initial phase of the US $570 million project, the trams will ply in an eastwest direction, on the left bank …
• Tonnes of deadly toxic waste, which killed 10 people and made thousands ill in Ivory Coast were recently shipped out of the country in sealed containers, bound for a treatment plant in France. • who, in its recent report, has noted that many deaths caused by TB in developing …
On July 27, a group of Greenpeace activists entered a field of genetically engineered maize in southern France and carved a giant "crop circle' with an "X' in the field. The action, taken to mark the field as a contamination zone, was in response to a ruling by a French …
The eu has agreed in a compromise that its six-year us $65 billion budget for scientific research will fund embryonic human stem-cell research, so long as it does not involve destruction of embryos. The decision avoided an all-out ban on embryonic research, for which some countries had been pushing. The …
The Blue Lady touched Indian shores in the first week of July. The 38,000-tonne ocean-liner's year-long search for a breaking yard has been dogged with controversies, with groups such as the Ban Asbestos Network of India claiming that "it contains 1,200 tonnes of asbestos and unknown quantities of other toxins'. …
a recent study has thrown light on how the chikungunya virus attained epidemic proportions in the Indian Ocean region since September 2005. A team of researchers at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, has spotted several changes in the genetic makeup of the little-known virus that may have helped it proliferate. …
The French government's plan to build a new nuclear reactor near the port of Cherbourg in Normandy province has sparked large-scale protests in the country. Between 12,500 to 30,000 anti-nuclear people took to the streets to protest against Electricit
high price: A French court has imposed the highest-ever marine pollution fine of about us $980,000 for a 61-km fuel slick, off the French coast, in 2005. The captain and the owner of the container ship Maersk Barcelon had deliberately discharged contaminated water into the sea, while it was passing …
For the third time, Le Clemenceau has been forced to turn back and return to France. The French government summoned the decommissioned ship back even though France's defence minister argued that there were no suitable scrapyards in Europe. Clemenceau had been waiting outside Indian territorial waters for permission to dock …
The French farm ministry recently found abnormally high levels of cadmium in animal feed. The ministry said the cadmium, which causes serious liver and kidney damage, has been sourced to a 120-tonne batch of imports of the feed ingredient zinc sulphate from China. A company based in France's Brittany province …
Regardless of the amount of hazardous asbestos contained in Le Clemenceau, India imports thousands of tonnes of asbestos and asbestos products every year. Asbestos is imported to India in three categories: • Articles of asbestos cement; • Fabricated asbestos fibres; and • Friction material and articles thereof with a basis …
