Contrary to the popular assumption that the new swine flu pandemic arose on factory farms in Mexico, federal agriculture officials now believe that it most likely emerged in pigs in Asia, but then traveled to North America in a human.

But they emphasized that there was no way to prove their theory and only sketchy data underpinning it.

Hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerants are a "natural" cooler widely used in domestic and commercial refrigerators all over the world, except in the U.S. and Canada. HC refrigerants produce less greenhouse gasses than hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) technology, but they aren't approved for the U.S. market - yet.

Contrary to the popular assumption that the new swine flu pandemic arose on factory farms in Mexico, federal agriculture officials now believe that it most likely emerged in pigs in Asia, but then traveled to North America in a human.

But they emphasized that there was no way to prove their theory and only sketchy data underpinning it.

Suzanne Goldenberg

The world

More than 46,000 people die of Acute Lower Respiratory Infections (ALRI) in Bangladesh each year due to Indoor Air Pollution (IAP), acting country representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Andrew Trevett said Thursday.

His findings and those of others set out at a workshop in Dhaka on 15 June revealed that 70 per cent of IAP victims were children under five.

The Asian Development Bank

The cost related to per cubic meter- general use of gas in Bangladesh is exclusively lowest compared to 15 countries in Asia, according to a survey conducted by Japan External Trade Organisation Organization (JETRO), the official trade and investment promotion agency of Government of Japan.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina emphasised joint efforts of the Southeast Asian nations for eradicating poverty through accelerating economic development and facing the challenges stemming from global climate change.

Asia's rapid economic growth in recent years has contributed significantly to climate change and environmental pollution, the head of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned on Tuesday. In response to this, "it is imperative that we escalate our efforts to put the region on a path of low-carbon growth," bank president Haruhiko Kuroda told an ADB forum on climate change.

In a bid to overcome reliance on food imports, countries in Asia and the Gulf have been at the forefront of farmland purchases in the world's poorest continent, where millions survive on subsistence farming.