Pretrial discussions began on Wednesday in a rare public interest lawsuit whose plaintiffs include non-governmental environmental organizations.

The three plaintiffs — Friend of Nature, Chongqing Green Volunteers Union and the Qujing environmental protection bureau — exchanged evidence with Luliang Chemical Industry, the defendant, on Wednesday, said Chang Cheng, a program officer of Friend of Nature.

The exchange and discussion will last at least three days, Chang said.

Certain amendments have been proposed to the new Punjab Environmental Protection (Amendment) Act, 2012, the other day.

Secretary (Environment) Iqbal Saeed Wahla chaired a meeting at EPD office and presented the proposals to the media and experts on environment.

Mr Saeed said the proposals would be forwarded to the law department after holding a few brainstorming sessions with all the stakeholders.

Maharatna major NTPC’s maiden overseas venture at Khulna in Bangladesh has now run into an environment hurdle due to its proximity to the world’s largest mangrove forest Sunderbans.

Environmentalists in Bangladesh have already moved court asking the project to be scrapped as it comes within 14 kilometres of Sunderbans. The 1320MW (2X660MW) project is a 50/50 joint venture between NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board and both the parties have signed a memorandum of understanding recently.

Although Pakistan has opened up its borders for enhanced trade with India, water disputes remain unresolved which several analysts, including US officials as noted in Wikileaks, believe may well be the reason for a war between the two countries.

India has already announced it would complete 330-megawatt Kishanganga hydroelectric project by 2014 despite the fact that the issue is pending in the International Court of Arbitration (ICA)/ neutral expert at The Hague in the Netherlands.

A high-level team of water commissioners from India and Pakistan and members of the International Court of Arbitration on Thursday inspected the 330-megawatt Kishanganga Hydro Power Project in north Kashmir's Bandipura district.

The seven-member team, including a hydrologist, reached Gurez where they inspected the proposed dam site near Malik Kadal, a Kashmir news agency quoted a senior official as saying.

The team has come to inspect the project before the next hearing of the International Court of Arbitration being held at The Hague later this month.

The small village in North-West Delhi with a population of about 11,000 has been seeking consolidation of the land holdings and increasing the “Lal Dora” limits to create more space for villagers to build their houses. The villagers also do not have any proof of land ownership.

In the absence of consolidation and the expansion of Lal Dora, several villagers who have no land earmarked for residential purposes have been forced to construct houses on agricultural land, which is illegal.

A trial to apportion blame and damages for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster will now start in 2013 after the New Orleans judge hearing the case scheduled a new start date.

The delay is a boost for BP BP.LN -3.11% PLC, which is facing billions of dollars in fines from the U.S. government for its part in the incident. Federal and state authorities had pressed for a summer trial, arguing that damages payments from the responsible parties were needed to speed up Gulf Coast restoration efforts.

Chevron Corp went to federal court in Miami on Friday seeking to force an Ecuadorean bank to release records of alleged bribes the company says were paid to an independent expert in a multi-billion dollar environmental lawsuit against the oil company.

The company is seeking records of eight bank accounts at the Banco Pichincha, an Ecuadorean bank with a branch in Miami that Chevron says was a conduit for $360,000 in "illicit payments" to the independent expert, Richard Cabrera.

Citing global warming, environmental groups are asking a federal judge to call a halt in Wyoming to one of the largest coal-mining plans ever approved by the U.S. government.

In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians said the federal Bureau of Land Management failed to consider the impact of greenhouse gases that will be emitted when coal from four government mineral leases in Wyoming is burned in power plants across the nation and in Asia.

The U.S. government said a trial to assign blame and damages among BP Plc and others over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill should not be delayed until after a hearing over a $7.8 billion settlement of private party claims.

BP has asked U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans to delay any trial over the spill until after he holds a Nov. 8 fairness hearing over the settlement of more than 125,000 economic, property and medical claims.