royal dutch/shell and Exxon Corp may never be the toast of "green' activists, but they can take comfort from a new report ranking them tops in the oil industry when it comes to the environment.

A tobacco company will have to pay US $81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer

Top environment officials from China and

Analysing the contents of containers suspected of carrying toxins has become easier

EPA investigators find serious lapses in the US air pollution control programme

In its pamphlet, the EPA underplays the health risks due to pesticides

Giant redwood trees seem to water their own habitat

It seems that cleanliness has been overrated

Lightening never strikes in the same place twice, says a popular myth. But the scientists believe otherwise. They say lightening strikes actually depend on vegetation. D Dissing and David Verbyla,

FROm next year, us power plants will be forced to test the coal they burn for traces of mercury. The us Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will also require a selected number of plants to test