The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on a petition seeking total ban on the use and manufacturing of plastic bags throughout the country while citing the example of some states which had successfully implemented such a ban.

The notice was issued on a PIL by NGO, Karuna, the Society for Animals and Nature, raising various environment related issues arising out of the large-scale use of plastic bags.

Junk food, in all its tasty and tempting forms, will soon be on its way out of school canteens.

The growing number of cases of Hepatitis-B infection at Pramadom, Mallasserry, Thengumkavu and surrounding villages, near here, is causing concern for the district administration and the Health Department.

L. Anithakumari, Deputy District Medical Officer for Communicable Disease Control, told The Hindu here on Monday that nine cases had been confirmed through ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test in the past three months. Thirty more cases tested positive in the antigen card test.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will disburse Rs.35 crore to implement 165 projects as the first-phase relief and rehabilitation package for victims of diseases caused by the aerial spraying of endosulfan.

Rs.117-crore outlay. The decision comes as part of the Rs.117-crore outlay earmarked to implement as many as 224 projects for which administrative sanctions have been received.

The World Health Organisation said Monday it was ‘concerned’ about an outbreak of a mysterious skin disease in central Vietnam which has killed 19 people, mostly children.

“Delayed implementation of accelerated disease control in India” has led the country to account for “47 per cent of estimated measles mortality in 2010” stated a paper published today (April 24) in The Lancet . At 36 per cent, even the World Health Organisation (WHO) African region accounted for lesser mortality than India.

The high number recorded in India stands out, as the global measles mortality had decreased by 74 per cent in 2010.