green light given: The Central Electricity Authority has granted the final techno-economic clearance (TEC) to the North-Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) to execute the 1500-megawatt Tipaimukh Hydro Electric Project. The Rs 5163.86-crore venture was cleared after Mizoram granted a no-objection certificate. Manipur too fell in line earlier. The six-phase project -- sited downstream of the confluence of Tuivai and Barak rivers on Manipur's contiguous border with Mizoram -- is slated for completion in 2011.
natives restive: Aborigines are protesting the Australian government's recent decision to "compulsorily acquire" an area in the south Australian desert for the construction of the National Low Level Radioactive Waste Repository. They say that radioactivity will contaminate groundwater.
affliction identified: The sudden outbreak, which resulted in the death of around 112 children and affected another 196 in Andhra Pradesh, has been diagnosed as viral meningoencephalitis or brain fever. The disease spreads through mosquitoes. Similar cases have been reported from Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh.
damage control: Canada's agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief and health minister Anne McLellan have announced a new measure to enhance food safety controls for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease. It requires tissues, which could contain the disease-transmitting agent, to be removed from cattle at slaughter. The discovery of a single cow infected with the fatal disease in May has halted all sales of Canadian beef to the US.
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