Asian Correspondent Environment News

Famous faces help boost animal rights in China

By AP News Tue, Feb 21, 2012 8:10PM UTC

BEIJING (AP) — Celebrities like basketball star Yao Ming have helped energize China’s animal rights movement by speaking out against shark fin soup and bear bile tonics, an animal welfare group said Tuesday. Jill Robinson, who established the Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation in 1998, said she’s seen interest in animal rights snowball in China...

China starts program to beef up nuclear safety

By AP News Tue, Feb 21, 2012 1:39PM UTC

SHANGHAI (AP) — China’s National Energy Administration plans to beef up safety at nuclear power plants after months of assessments and inspections in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster. The administration said in a statement on its website that 13 research and development projects involving the China National Nuclear Corp. and other state-run companies and...

Aussies break underpants world record

By Rowena Dela Rosa Yoon Mon, Feb 20, 2012 3:33PM UTC

Joining in an eco-friendly and sustainability campaign should be fun and easy. Over the weekend, Aussies claimed to have beaten Britain’s Guinness Book of Records on “The Most Jammed Underpant” when it crammed 80 people into oversized underwear. The event was one of the fun highlights of the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne which runs February 11-26. The...

The Tampakan Copper and Gold Project: Whose mine is it anyway?

By Edwin Espejo Mon, Feb 20, 2012 7:34AM UTC

Sagittarius Mines Inc. general manager Mark Williams said the company had already spent more than US$360 million on the initial development of the US$5.9 billion Tampakan Copper and Gold Project. When allowed to go to commercial production, the mining project will reportedly contribute an average of one percent to the annual gross domestic product of...

Can India really build toilets for 800 million people in a decade?

By Bala Murali Krishna Sat, Feb 18, 2012 1:24AM UTC

“Women demand mobile phones…not toilets. That is the mindset we have,” Jairam Ramesh on Friday told a conference in the Indian capital debating the Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals. India’s national news agency, Press Trust of India, characterized the remark as a lament. It must be so because Ramesh is not the telecom minister (though he...