THE villagers at Xinwuli, Hunan, direct us through a 1000-year-old maze of cobblestone paths to the family home of one of their minor celebrities, Li Zi'an. Li's mother, a dignified woman named Chen, shuffles out on her spindly legs to greet us. "I don't know what my son is doing, only that he's working in Guangzhou and this spring festival he didn't come home," she says.

THE Eddington report contains the right approach to reducing greenhouse emissions from transport, but the assumptions it makes deserve to be challenged. They are, in some cases, far too timid, in other cases over-optimistic and, in general, heavily biased towards business as usual. Eddington's approach, which is correct, is to propose a bundle of changes that could lead to a reduction in emissions from transport. These changes are: reducing travel demand, boosting public transport share, improving vehicle technologies, and increasing vehicle occupancy.

DEMOCRAT presidential candidate Barack Obama has said he would consider putting former US vice-president Al Gore in a cabinet-level position or higher if he wins the presidency. His offer came as polls showed him closing the gap with rival Hillary Clinton in the next primary state to vote, Pennsylvania. A woman at a town hall meeting in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, asked Senator Obama whether he would consider asking Mr Gore, now a climate change campaigner, to join his cabinet

NEW York drivers are fuming after Mayor Michael Bloomberg edged closer to securing a congestion tax in the city. It now rests with state politicians to endorse the plan by Monday. If it passes, the Bloomberg congestion tax would introduce a daily charge of $US8 ($A9) for drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street. Mr Bloomberg has pushed the plan for more than a year. He won his way after the Democrat-dominated New York City Council this week voted strongly in favour of the measure, pioneered in London.

RESEARCH from the US has poured cold water on the common belief that drinking eight glasses of water a day will improve your health. Experts have claimed drinking more water can clear toxins, keep organs healthy, ward off weight gain and headaches and improve skin tone. But these claims are not backed by solid evidence, the researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found. Dr Dan Negoianu and Dr Stanley Goldfarb said that most people did not need to worry about drinking eight glasses of water a day.

IF THE Victorian Government is the main tenant in La La Land, then the Productivity Commission's latest report, Towards Urban Water Reform: A Discussion Paper must be the rent book. Its drift is plain. There is no problem with water supply that a competitive market couldn't fix. "Ultimately, it is possible to envisage an evolution to a fully decentralised urban water market involving many retailers and wholesalers offering different forms of product (for example price and security). However, an important caveat is that such arrangements do not operate elsewhere in the world."

A LEADING brewer's attempts to cash in on demand for green products has landed it in hot water after marketing claims that its beer is better for the environment were challenged.
The competition watchdog has been asked to investigate ads calling Cooper's Australia's greenest beer and encouraging drinkers to walk to the pub to save greenhouse gas emissions.

The Rudd Government's Green Paper on carbon trading uses adjectives like "smoother", "gradual", and "measured" to describe the scheme's implementation because cutting Australia's emissions by 60 per cent in four decades is going to produce profound structural change, and, inevitably, political repercussions. Like a dentist poised above you, drill in hand, the Government wants to warn us that the process will be difficult, and reassure us that it will no more painful than absolutely necessary.

HOME owners may soon have to reveal the energy efficiency of their homes when they put them up for sale, potentially affecting the value of millions of homes.

Melbourne petrol prices have hit an all-time high of 164.9 cents a litre today. As crude oil futures dipped below $US129 a barrel this morning, the city's unleaded petrol prices surpassed last week's record high of $162.9. The average price so far today is 149.9 cents per litre of unleaded fuel - almost 20 cents above the average of 130.4 cents paid by motorists in May last year, according to the RACV. The lowest price is 145.9 cents in Highett and Moorabbin. Motormouth director Alan Cadd said today's record high reflected crude oil price spikes over the past fortnight.