EPA exemptions at heart of dust-up. Utahns plan to raise their concerns with the EPA's new plans to exempt some big dust-makers from new air-pollution controls. [News Source]

Sacred places and mining subjects of federal scrutiny. The protection of places considered sacred by tribes living near the U.S./Mexico border and the health risks associated with mining in relation to arsenic and diabetes are the focus of new federal funding and a separate federal report. [News Source]

Expatriate environmentalist making waves. Douglas Tompkins is fighting to keep the wild lands of Chilean Patagonia wild, and he's taken on everyone from Chile's military to multinational companies. [News Source]

Nothing holy about this smoke. Smoke has been a main topic of conversation in Stara Zagora since last summer when a very strange yellow cloud covered the city's atmosphere, and cases of asthma and bronchitis boomed. [News Source]

Time honours Indian eco warriors. Among the top environmentalists worldwide whose efforts have been highly commended by Time magazine are India's Sunita Narain and Bhure Lal. [News Source]

Vietnam to cut diesel, gasoline sulphur content. Vietnam plans to cut the sulphur content in diesel and gasoline for both transport and industrial use to reduce air pollution, potentially from next month despite opposition from fuel importers. [News Source]

Proposal made to handle gas leak in Chongqing. China's State Administration of Work Safety has made a four-point proposal on how to handle the gas leak in Gaoqiao. [News Source]

Chinese village suffers second gas blast, 11,500 people evacuated . There were no reports of deaths in the latest accident on Saturday in China's Chongqing municipality, although state media said the local river had been polluted and farmers expressed fears for their livestock. [News Source]

Baled, Burned and Buried. For more than a year, citizens of Sofia, Bulgaria have been witnessing the hopeless tackling of the waste management crisis. [News Source]

Iceland aims to bury global warming. Iceland is now planning to test another natural resource - its basalt rocks - to see if they can be used to safely bury carbon dioxide gas emissions before they harm the atmosphere. [News Source]

CSE calls for environment and health-related research agenda. An international Health and Environment Conference organised here in India by Centre for Science and Environment set out an agenda for urgent research and policy action on health-environment linkages. [News Source]