STEALING POWER

The Supreme Court has ordered a high powered panel to probe charges of corruption against the the Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board chairperson for power theft and swindling. Electricity theft, leading to bungling of over Rs 750 crore and a dubious coal purchase deal involving Rs 123 crore are the major charges to be probed by the panel. Power theft by industrial, residential and commercial consumers were allegedly appropiated to rural subscribers who were offered uninterupted power supply, according to the petition.

PLEA AGAINST PROBE

The Tamil Nadu government has appealed before a divisional bench of the Madras High Court, seeking to set aside a single judge order for a CBI probe into the Tirupattur sandalwood smuggling case, involving a ruling party MLA, G Shanmugan. The state government has contended that "in the absence of any actual interference either in the political or official levels of the investigation by the crime branch CID, any unfounded apprehension about the likelihood of the interference is no ground for the transfer of the probe to the CBI."

China

For the first time, China looks serious towards the environmental problems. It has recently put the environment protection issue in the government's priority list, which is at par with agriculture, forestry, water conservation, energy, transport and telecom, says Qu Geping, director of the National Peoples Congress Resources and Environment Sub-committee.

VIETNAM

VENEZUELA

Luis Giusti, president of Petroleos de Venezuela (pdvsa), the state oil company, announ-ced that the company will produce an average of 3.6 million (m) barrels per day (b/d) - 42 per cent above its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (opec) quota of 2.538m b/d.

BANGLADESH GETS AID

The us will provide an additional amount of us $500,000 to support the implementation of the second phase of the plan to eliminate child labour in garment industries of Bangladesh, said Andrew James Samet, us deputy under secretary. The amount will be spent over the next two years to support the education of child workers eliminated from garment industries. At present, about 10,000 former child workers in the garment sector are receiving primary education from organisations.

THE PHILIPPINES

Rice lands release up to 14 per cent of the world's methane emissions that cause global warming. Now, Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute (irri) is studying ways to reduce methane emissions. An irri researcher, Noel Nocon, has said that the research project is determining what rice land conditions induce methane emissions, including types of fertilisers and rice varieties.

Saving a reserve

A project to develop a biosphere management programme for the Gulf of Mannar biosphere reserve has been planned by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (mssrf). Estimated to cost us $6-8 million, the project will be aided by the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Development Programme.

Health hazard

A new strain of bacteria which causes tuberculosis (TB) and is resistant to traditional anti-TB drugs is emerging as a major hazard in Nepal. The new strain of bacteria called Multi Drug-Resistant strain can side-step all the major drugs that are in regular use to fight the deadly infectious disease. Doctors and health officials involved in TB-control programmes in the country say that the new strain is responsible for most number of deaths among adults in Nepal.

WORLD BANK'S WOES

The World Bank has expressed concern over Bangladesh's increased spending on defence. The bank's recent draft report on public expenditure said that "there is creeping increase in defence expenditure, which already accounts for 17-18 per cent of current spending". "This is questionable in view of the tremendous poverty alleviation task facing the country." Defence spending by Bangladesh has doubled in six years since 1990-91. The bank also questioned the large increase in government spending in other areas such as growing subsidies and interest payments.