A western Indian state has declared war on animal poaching, allowing forest guards to shoot hunters on sight to curb attacks on tigers, elephants and other wildlife.

The government in Maharashtra says injuring or killing suspected poachers will no longer be considered a crime.

Europe yesterday warned at climate talks in Bonn that efforts to forge a new global pact to avert environmental disaster were in danger of floundering, and some pointed fingers at China.

Nine days into talks meant to set the stage for a United Nations gathering in Qatar in December, where countries must adopt an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, negotiators complained that procedural bickering was quashing progress hopes.

Storm lashed four upazilas of Kurigram and Lalmonirhat districts early yesterday and on Tuesday night, damaging over 3,000 thatched and tin-roofed houses and injuring at least 28 people.

Our Kurigram correspondent reported that at least 600 houses were damaged as storm swept 20 villages in four unions of Rajarhat upazila early yesterday.

Locals said the storm hit the village of four unions at around 12:00am and lasted for an hour.

Nissan Motor announced Wednesday it will launch global production of an all-electric van, the e-NV200, as early as next year in the Spanish city of Barcelona, creating 700 jobs.

The Japanese carmaker said it would invest 100 million euros ($126 million) in Spain to start production in its 2013 financial year at its Barcelona plant, which already makes the fuel-powered NV200.

Three people were killed and 20 others injured as storm lashed 10 villages in two upazilas of Lalmonirhat district yesterday morning.

The deceased were identified as Renuka Rani, 38, wife of Khitish Chandra Roy of Chalbala village, Shafiqul Islam, 35, son of Monir Uddin of Kakina village, and Shamsul Islam, 42, son of Entazur Rahman of Gopalroy village.

Shafiqul and Shamsul died as trees fell on them while Renuka was killed by lightning during the storm, said Amiruzzaman, officer-in-charge of Kaliganj Police Station.

Several hundred acres of cultivable land in the district loses fertility every year as brick kilns are collecting huge quantities of earth from the topsoil of agricultural lands for making bricks.

Consequently, the affected lands remain uncultivable and fallow for years, affecting overall crop production.

The situation sees a worsening trend due to lack of strong monitoring from the district and upazila administrations.

The Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday fined a power plant in Chittagong Tk 10 lakh for polluting and hampering the biodiversity of Halda river through discharging furnace oil into the river.

DoE Director (Enforcement) Mohammed Munir Chowdhury gave the sentence to the project director of a 100 megawatt Peaking Power Plant in Hathazari.

On April 11 this year, around 1,600 litres of furnace oil went into Halda river through Changkhali canal for the negligence of the power plant authorities, said a DoE press release.

The cabinet yesterday approved a draft bill that aims to stop misuse of surface, ground and river water and preserve and manage water resources in an integrated manner.

Redirecting and intercepting the normal flow of rivers and blocking any river branches are illegal under the proposed law. It says the owner of a piece of land adjacent to any river will not have the ownership of the riverbed and foreshore.

A Malaysian researcher known for finding new amphibian species said Friday his team had discovered at least one new species of frog in studies he said highlight Borneo's rich biodiversity.

Indraneil Das of the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak said the brown frog is just 4-5 centimetres (1.6-2.0 inches) long and makes a distinctive high-pitched chirp.

His team discovered the frog during an expedition to the rainforests of Mount Singai in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island in September 2010. They later found another of the same species in nearby Kubah National Park.

The health ministry has taken up an initiative to provide training to a group of youths to build them up as future leaders of the health sector of Bangladesh in the context of climate change.

The Climate Change and Health Promotion Unit under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has selected, through an application process, around 100 dedicated youths, all university students, referred to as the 'Youth Think Tank'.