Gandhian social worker Indu Tikekar passes away

"Only if science and development turn away from 'morbid technology,' can we hope to sustain harmony between nature and human beings," Indu Tikekar wrote in Santulit Paryavaran aur Jagrit Adhayatma (Balanced Ecology and the Awakened Spirit), one of her last books. This was an abiding concern for this passionate Gandhan social worker, fondly called Indu tai by many.

NEWS SNIPPETS

• Researchers in Kenya and Britain say they are creating a global map to pinpoint locations where malaria is most likely to strike. They say it will help fight the mosquito-borne disease by enabling individual countries to work out infection rates and required drugs. The map should be complete within the next 18 months, the researchers say.

IN SHORT

thrown out: Tamil actress Radhika has been expelled from the primary membership of AIADMK, the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu "for acting against the interests of the party". She appeared in a controversial advertisement which gives a clean chit to colas. The Coke advertisement appeared in the beginning of October. Its script and sequence of scenes is similar to an earlier one starring the popular Bollywood actor, Aamir Khan and telecast widely.

NEWS SNIPPETS

• Animal rights activists are up in arms over a Halloween contest in New York which offers customers free entry if they eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has denounced the contest. "Insects do not deserve to be eaten alive for a gratuitous marketing gimmick," PETA spokesperson Jackie Vergerio said.

Anti-loggers dominate

Another feather to his cap

Asit K Biswas, an India-born Canadian, has bagged the prestigious 2006 Stockholm Water Prize for challenging the global status quo on water. At present he is the president of the Mexico-based Third World Centre for Water Management.

Ungracious

Cuban Scientist USA

Third time lucky?

in the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombing, the International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea) and its chief Mohamed ElBaradei have received the Nobel peace prize. This is not necessarily a surprise. The reward comes shortly after the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog managed a resolution against Iran, to the satisfaction of Big Brother usa and its handling of post-Chernobyl nuclear safety.

Amidst water managers

On August 22, 2005, participants from more than 100 countries gathered at the Swedish capital, Stockholm, to deliberate development of water resource infrastructure, water supply and sanitation, and pollution management. The occasion: the Stockholm Water Week. Organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (siwi) since 1991, this annual event has become a common platform for experience-sharing among water professionals, decision-makers and activists from all over the world.

Hype buster

Consumer Journalism Africa