According to an article in Scientific American, most cars don't need anything more than the 87 octanes delivered by regular gas, and a few years ago, a spokesman for Porsche admitted that the fancy German cars, all of which come with recommendations to use premium fuel, "will run on regular fuel without damaging the engine." Some critics even suggest that car makers use a premium recommendation (rather than a premium requirement) as a kind of status add-on, making the car seem fancier.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Scientists in Bangladesh have been reappraising forecasts of eventual inundation of sprawling, crowded delta regions as seas rise in a warming world. According to several reports, a fresh satellite analysis shows that new lands formed by sediment carried from the crumbling Himalayas are adding to Bangladesh’s land area — at least for now.

POLLUTION / DEGRADATION

Eight days before the 2008 Summer Olympics kick off in Beijing, the city's air quality is still so unpredictable that officials were forced Thursday to announce emergency contingency plans.

A man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly claimed in hoax Internet videos that he had poisoned millions of bottles of baby food, some with cyanide or rat poison, because he wanted to kill black and Hispanic children.

CONCERT ADS GO UP IN SMOKE
The Indonesian unit of Philip Morris International yesterday pulled promotional material for a Jakarta concert it was sponsoring by singer Alicia Keys after complaints from anti-smoking campaigners.

First, smokers had to move outside the building. Then it was 25 feet from the building entrance. Now it has come to this: Starting today, Montgomery College is banning tobacco anywhere on campus -- inside or outside.

Historic legislation that would remove toxic chemicals from toys and put a more powerful and better-funded cop on the beat to police the safety of consumer goods is on the verge of becoming law.

These are good times to be in oil. Even Target Gallery artist-in-residence Julie Camarata has petroleum on the brain. The 27-year-old Knoxville, Tenn., native spent the last two weeks installing "Slick" at the gallery in Alexandria. An oil price ticker screens on a gallery wall, updating the going rate for a barrel of light crude. "The bright colors and the really sensual surfaces help me describe that oil is necessary and seductive and also dangerous... in terms of emissions and solid waste," the artist says.

WATER SUPPLY

A group of six Washington area environmental organizations says the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority's lead-testing procedure violates federal regulations and artificially lowers lead readings. The organizations have put their complaint in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency.

FOOD SAFETY

Food industry representatives and public health officials called on members of Congress to address failures in the nation’s response to the salmonella outbreak linked to fresh produce.

CONSERVATION

Once limited to dense urban environments, bike commuting has found a small but devoted following in the New York City suburbs.

ANIMAL RIGHTS

ENERGY POLICY

Can This Planet Be Saved?  (NY Times)
By PAUL KRUGMAN
The skirmish over drilling is the opening to a much bigger fight over environmental policy.

The Cost of Oil Subsidies  (NY Times)
Oil subsidies are misguided and mainly benefit energy- intensive industries and the well-off.

OIL PRICES

As political heat rises over high oil prices, Exxon Mobil yesterday announced the biggest quarterly profit of any corporation in U.S. history, breaking its own previous record with $11.68 billion in earnings during the second quarter.

Letter: Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has introduced legislation to require oil and mining companies to disclose payments to host governments around the world, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced a companion bill yesterday. The Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act would apply to all foreign and domestic extractive companies registered in the United States. By passing this legislation, Congress can help ensure that oil wealth is not synonymous with autocratic rule, while addressing the instability in producing countries that has helped spur the rise in the cost of oil. --RAYMOND C. OFFENHEISER, President, Oxfam America.

According to an article in Scientific American, most cars don't need anything more than the 87 octanes delivered by regular gas, and a few years ago, a spokesman for Porsche admitted that the fancy German cars, all of which come with recommendations to use premium fuel, "will run on regular fuel without damaging the engine." Some critics even suggest that car makers use a premium recommendation (rather than a premium requirement) as a kind of status add-on, making the car seem fancier.

NUCLEAR POWER

While environmentalists proclaimed it “a sad day” and prepared to appeal the decision, the Navajo president, Joe Shirley Jr., hailed the decision as much needed to improve conditions on the vast reservation across parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

A panel of experts hired by the owners of the Indian Point plant in Westchester County to assess the safety of its nuclear reactors has found that while the plant is safe, its relationships with its neighbors are “unhealthy,” and parts of the place look so run down that it shakes public confidence.

The French power giant EDF walked away from a $23.8 billion deal to buy British Energy in a U-turn that could delay Britain’s plans to relaunch its nuclear program.

SUSTAINABILITY

Storing energy is a crucial but expensive component of plans to turn intermittent sources of energy, like wind and sun, into reliable replacements for coal and natural gas. But two new scientific papers show progress in materials science and chemistry that could cut the cost.

WORLD HUNGER

Harvesting Money in a Hungry World  (NY Times)
By VICTOR DAVIS HANSON
The revolution in the way we envision the economics of agriculture should be reflected in the global efforts to ensure freer trade in food.  Hanson, a former raisin farmer and a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, is the author of “Fields Without Dreams” and “The Land Was Everything.”

A new report on agricultural potential in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia by a National Academies panel listed nine techniques and technologies that could substantially boost the desperately lagging yields of many farms in those struggling regions, and nine more that had great potential.Without advances, the chances of the human population heading toward 9 billion without significant hard knocks are slim, particularly when climate change is thrown in to the mix.

African governments trying to help their populations cope with rising food prices should carefully target measures to help poor families and avoid waste, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Friday."In our view the best way is to try to help the poor by direct income support, targeted safety nets like food-for-work programs, and to avoid general subsidies which waste resources and don't help the poor," he told a meeting in Mauritania.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Libya and the United States have reached a deal that would settle terrorism claims that have threatened to disrupt investments there by United States oil companies.

China on Thursday issued a strong rebuke of President Bush for meeting with five Chinese dissidents in the White House this week, saying he had "rudely interfered" with China's internal affairs and sent a "seriously wrong" message to others who criticize the country.

After the Glittering AIDS Bill  (NY Times)
The Bush administration needs to do as much to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus at home as it is doing globally.

 Half a dozen prostitutes swarm Angel Cabrera's car as he inches along the traffic-choked streets of downtown Tijuana on a balmy Friday evening.

AND FURTHERMORE...

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This news summary has been prepared for you by:

 Carole Ashkinaze
Editor / Writer / Communications Consultant

Washington, D.C.
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