Gandhinagar will be rocking, soon. Huge multiplexes, sprawling homes, synergized town planning schemes that will contain all the modern amenities you can dream of and other entertainment and shopping extravaganzas will invade the silence that envelops Gandhinagar after every sundown now.

EU Environment Chief Raises New Biofuels Condition BELGIUM: April 16, 2008 BRUSSELS - The European Union's environment chief raised new conditions on Tuesday for the use of biofuels in road transport, saying social concerns such as food prices and food security must be taken into account. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas did not explicitly question the EU's target of producing 10 percent of road transport fuel from crops and biomass by 2020, but he made clear that goal must be subservient to strict conditions.

Biofuels Threaten Food Access In Latin America

EU Can Hit Biofuels Goal Without Conflicts - Germany SLOVENIA: April 14, 2008 BRDO - The European Union can achieve its 2020 target to get 10 percent of all transport fuel from biofuels without adding to soaring food prices and harming rainforests, Germany's environment minister said on Saturday. "We can meet the 10 percent target through biofuel production in the European Union (and imports of) raw materials, which do not lead to a conflict with food or rainforests," Sigmar Gabriel told reporters on the fringes of a meeting of EU environment ministers in Slovenia.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged his Japanese counterpart to include the impact of biofuel production on food prices on the agenda of the G8 summit in July, Downing Street said Thursday. "There is growing consensus that we need urgently to examine the impact on food prices of different kinds and production methods of biofuels, and ensure that their use is responsible and sustainable," Brown wrote in a letter to Yasuo Fukuda.

As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation By DAVID STREITFELD Published: April 9, 2008 Paul Devlin works at a bakery in Tampa, Fla. The bakery's owner said the price he paid for flour had doubled since October. Thousands of farmers are taking their fields out of the government's biggest conservation program, which pays them not to cultivate. They are spurning guaranteed annual payments for a chance to cash in on the boom in wheat, soybeans, corn and other crops. Last fall, they took back as many acres as are in Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

Slowing Deforestation May Be Worth $Billions

Fires Main Threat To Amazon In Drier Climate - Study NORWAY: April 8, 2008 OSLO - Fires set by people will be the biggest threat to the Amazon rainforest in coming decades linked to a drier climate caused by global warming, researchers said on Monday. They said swathes of the forest were more likely to be killed by blazes raging out of control than by a more gradual shift towards savannah caused by more frequent droughts predicted by the UN Climate Panel in a 2007 report.

FEATURE - Rubber Trees For Tyre Industry Shrink China Rainforests CHINA: April 8, 2008 XISHUANGBANNA - On a map on ecologist Liu Wenjie's computer, the subtropical southern tip of China's Yunnan province is slowly turning from green to red. Rubber plantations -- shown in red on Liu's computer screen -- have supplanted nearly all the low-lying forest in the prefecture of Xishuangbanna and are now starting to encroach on the highlands.