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• MCD fails to give city modern toilet blocks

  Despite mak ing numerous foreign junkets to study the subject of sanitation, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is yet to give the city even the minimum number of toilet blocks. Though the MCD has been indulging in big talks to give the city the modern toilet blocks managed by foreign companies, it's the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), which has less than 10 per cent of Delhi under its jurisdiction, having modernised 94 of toilet blocks in the south of Rajpath area and in the next six months will create another 100 of them in the north of the Rajpath areas.

  • 13/02/2008

  • Asian Age
  • • Toilets
    • Urban Sanitation
    • Delhi

• HIV infections hit record 1,048 in Japan in 2007

  The number of people reported infected with HIV in a year in Japan reached a record high of 1,048 in 2007, while that of people reported to have developed AIDS came to 400, bringing the total to 1,448, preliminary data released Tuesday by the government's AIDS Surveillance Committee showed.

  • 13/02/2008

  • Japan Today (Japan)
  • • AIDS

• Subir Roy: When will we ever learn? (editorial)

  The name Gore Vidal takes up more than two-thirds of the space on the cover of my old paperback collection of some of his essays. For good reason, as the same cover has New Statesman, a considerable thunderer in those days, describing Vidal as "America's finest essayist'. In it is a little gem, his 1974 essay, "What Robert Moses Did to New York city', which educated Indians worried about the urban blight afflicting their country can read with benefit.

  • 13/02/2008

  • Business Standard
  • • Urban Environment
    • Urban Transport
    • Roads
    • Cycles
    • Delhi

• Hell befell them with change of govt

  Two adjoining villages in haor areas of Karimganj and Itna upazilas in Kishoreganj could be saved if the work started by a previous government could be completed. Vast areas of Chong Nowagaon village in Karimganj upazila and Shimulbag in Itna upazila have been eroded by Dhono river, rendering about 300 families homeless in last several years. Locals said, they fell victim when the then Ershad government in 1988 dug a four kilometer cannel, locally known as Katakhal, in the haor at Boribari union in Itna upazila to link Dhono and Ghorautra rivers to the reduce waterway distance.

  • 13/02/2008

  • Daily Star
  • • River Pollution
    • Bangladesh

• Waste Management Profit Up on Gains

  Waste Management Inc., the nation's largest garbage hauler, said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit rose 26 percent on tax benefits and the sale of some operations, though higher fuel prices cut into income. The company said earnings rose to $309 million, or 61 cents per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31 versus $246 million, or 46 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue increased to $3.36 billion from $3.28 billion in the year-ago period.

  • 13/02/2008

  • New York Times (New York)
  • • Renewable Energy
    • Garbage
    • Waste Treatment

• Plan to ban 2-stroke vehicles in district towns, cities

  The caretaker government plans to ban two-stroke vehicles in all the district headquarters and metropolitan cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to hazardous global warming. "Government is thinking about making cities and district towns clean by getting rid of two-stroke engine as it causes massive air pollution,' Raja Devasish Roy, special assistant to chief adviser on Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and Forest Affairs, told UNB. He said the government will take steps to create awareness among the people against the use of two-stroke engines.

  • 13/02/2008

  • Daily Star
  • • Air Pollution
    • Vehicular Pollution
    • Green House Gases
    • Bangladesh
    • Two Wheelers

• Thermax to focus on water treatment business

  After power equipment, engineering major Thermax is strengthening its presence in the water treatment business. "If power is the theme today, we believe the next big story would be water,' said Managing Director and Chief Executive M S Unnikrishnan, in a post-press meet chat with Business Standard. The water infrastructure in SEZs and new cities could come through public-private partnership.

  • 13/02/2008

  • Business Standard
  • • Groundwater Pollution
    • Water Treatment Technology
    • Air Quality Monitoring
    • India

• Japanese technology to be used for sewage treatment

  Eco Bio Blocks being used in the treatment of sewage water as part of a pilot project launched in Alandur Municipality on Monday.

  • 13/02/2008

  • Hindu (Chennai)
  • • Sewage Treatment Technology
    • Vector Control
    • Bio Vector Control

• Play enacted to spread awareness on bird flu in Manipur

  Theatre artistes are adding to the State's efforts to create mass awareness for the prevention of bird flu in Manipur. Artistes of the Courtyard Theatre staged Aruba Echel (Clear Stream) at Iboyaima Shuman Leela Shanglen Place compound here to send a message across that poultry farming on scientific lines is safe. The play depicts that thousands of unemployed youths could take up poultry farming, cattle farming and piggery and makes a decent living.

  • 13/02/2008

  • Sentinel (Guwahati)
  • • Animal Diseases
    • Avian Flu
    • Manipur

• In Bopodi, PMC deprives residents of toilet facility

  Forty persons, including women from nine families living, at survey number 2A/8 on Bhau Patil Road in Bopodi are using nearby open ground as public toilet facility. This was after the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) demolished a public toilet they were using for last 25 years without making any alternate arrangement on January 18. The toilet was constructed by the PMC on a private land. NCP corporator Anil Bhosale later purchased the land and asked builder Ravindra Sankala to develop the site.

  • 13/02/2008

  • Indian Express (Mumbai)
  • • Toilets
    • Urban Sanitation
    • Pune (D)

• Atmospheric stabilization and the timing of carbon mitigation

  Stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations below a pre-industrial doubling (~550 ppm) is a commonly cited target in climate policy assessment. When the rate at which future emissions can fall is assumed

  • 13/02/2008

  • Climatic Change
  • • Carbon Dioxide
    • Atmosphere
    • Climate Mitigation
    • Emission Targets
    • Carbon Sinks

• New Yamuna bridge to cut snarls

  New Delhi: A new river bridge coming up on the Yamuna, connecting Geeta Colony with Shanti Van, is likely to be thrown open for traffic by April. For east Delhi residents, the commissioning of the project will provide an alternative route to the heart of the city

  • 12/02/2008

  • Times Of India (New Delhi)
  • • Yamuna
    • Urban Development
    • Road Transport
    • Bridges
    • Delhi

• Budget session to begin on February 25

  The budget session of Parliament will begin on February 25 with President Pratibha Patil addressing the joint session of both Houses at 11 am, it was officially announced here on Monday. While railway minister Lalu Prasad will present the rail budget for 2008-09 on February 26, finance minister P Chidambaram will present the general budget on February 29. The three-month session will witness a total 35 sittings with a break from March 21 to April 14. The session will end on May 9. TNN

  • 12/02/2008

  • Times Of India (New Delhi)
  • • Economic Development
    • Parliament
    • Delhi

• GAIL to clean up air in Goa, K'taka

  The country's hottest tourist destination, Goa, will go green as gas utility GAIL has suggested extending its proposed Dabhol-Bangalore pipeline to the state for supplying the environment-friendly fuel. The state-owned firm also plans to start supplying piped gas in kitchens of Karnataka and help launch CNG (compressed natural gas) services for automotive use in the state, according to chairman U D Choubey.

  • 12/02/2008

  • Times Of India (New Delhi)
  • • Vehicular Pollution
    • CNG
    • Natural Gas
    • Goa
    • Karnataka

• World's first green city' in UAE desert

  London: The construction work on the world's first "green city' has started in the Gulf. Masdar City, on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi city in the United Arab Emirates, will be zero-carbon, zero-waste and car-free. The city will be built at a cost of

  • 12/02/2008

  • Times Of India (New Delhi)
  • • Climate Change
    • Green Spaces
    • United Arab Emirates

• MCD to seek help from youths for 2010 Games

  New Delhi, February 11 The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is planning to reach out to youth in the Capital seeking their help during the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Officials in the MCD

  • 12/02/2008

  • Indian Express (New Delhi)
  • • Habitat And Urbanisation
    • Municipal Bodies
    • NGO
    • Delhi

• Scientists find new HIV receptor

  SAN FRANCISCO, FEBRUARY 11: US Government scientists have discovered a new way that HIV attacks human cells, an advance that could provide fresh avenues for the development of additional therapies to stop AIDS, they reported on Sunday. The discovery is the identification of a new human receptor for HIV. The receptor helps guide the virus to the gut after it gains entry to the body, where it begins its relentless attack on the immune system.

  • 12/02/2008

  • Indian Express (New Delhi)
  • • Medical Research
    • AIDS
    • N C America

• Ski village in present form not acceptable: Dhumal

  Shimla, February 11 : It seems the $300 million Himalayan Ski Village project in Himachal Pradesh is heading for some real trouble. A day after his visit to Manali, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the project lacks transparency. "We will take into account all aspects, including its clearance from the Union Ministry of Defence, Environment and Forests before giving the go- ahead to the project.'

  • 12/02/2008

  • Indian Express (New Delhi)
  • • Tourism
    • High Court
    • Shimla (D)

• NE horticultural show gets under way

  All the colours of the season are on display in their brilliant best at the Assam Engineering Institute Playground, which is hosting the North East Regional Horticultural Show - 2008 organised jointly by the Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board, Assam Horticultural Society and the Directorate of Agriculture and Horticulture, Government of Assam.

  • 12/02/2008

  • Assam Tribune
  • • Horticulture

• Ministry considers emission curbs on traffic magnets

  The Environment Ministry is considering requiring measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for large-scale projects such as building shopping centers in suburban areas that lead to a sharp increase in road traffic, ministry sources said Sunday. Aimed especially at reducing the rising emissions in the transportation sector, the ministry wants to include the provision in a bill it plans to submit during the ongoing Diet session to revise the law on promoting measures to deal with global warming, the sources said.

  • 12/02/2008

  • Japan Times (Japan)
  • • Green House Gases