Seeking to secure supply of coal for its upcoming future projects to meet the energy targets, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), has decided to hunt for coal blocks in South Africa, Mozambique and Indonesia. NTPC's aggressive posture for securing fuel supplies comes close on the heels of its competitors in the private sector Reliance Power and Tata Power having secured coal blocks in Indonesia and exploring similar options in other countries.

It looks a bit like the coolers used to keep drinks fresh on a sunny day but the chill box being tested in sweltering Mozambique serves a higher purpose -- saving lives from malaria. The new cool box is intended to keep malaria medicines at 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) or below in impoverished rural areas without electricity where temperatures can reach 45 degrees Celsius. As the world marks Malaria Day on Friday, its developers hope the cool box will help save some of the one million lives lost to malaria worldwide every year -- 6,000 of them in Mozambique alone.

As UN efforts to save the forests grind on, a range of alternatives is on offer

At the end of 2000, WHO declared that leprosy had been eliminated as a global public-health problem. Elimination is defi ned as a prevalence, per 10 000 population, of less than one patient diagnosed with leprosy and registered for treatment. The global prevalence fell from 5

Mozambique formally took over the Cahora Bassa dam from its former ruler, Portugal, on November 27. Mozambique had to pay Portugal us $700 million for control of the dam, which is the second

a vaccine against malaria, responsible for over a million deaths in the world annually, has shown some promise in tackling the disease in Africa. A study conducted in Mozambique showed that

New malaria vaccines

>> A shortage of health care workers is paralysing the health system in Southern Africa. The shortfall has imperilled the lives of millions in Lesotho, Malawi and Mozambique, particularly in rural

Mozambique plans to upgrade an existing dam construction plan to avoid repeats of the flooding from the Zambezi river which has devastated the country in recent weeks. In the first phase, it

Mozambique is facing its worst floods in six years. Sweeping waters have so far claimed about 100 lives, forcing over 60,000 to flee submerged areas in central Mozambique's Zambezi River Valley. The

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