Three Texas oil control specialists have arrived safely back in the United States after they capped a huge, potentially explosive oil spill in southeast Nigeria. Contrary to media reports, the company for which they work says the three men were not held hostage by Nigerians upset over the spill at an abandoned Royal Dutch/Shell well in the Niger Delta.

Two of the world's leading environmental and agriculture groups reported today that almost half of the world's 17,000 major nature reserves, which are intended to protect wildlife from extinction, are being heavily used for agriculture. They also report that extreme malnutrition and hunger are pervasive among people living in at least 16 of the world's 25 key biodiversity hotspots, where wildlife is most at risk.

A 44-gallon drum of fuel and a funnel is the roadside symbol of the government's deregulation of Zimbabwe's fuel supply industry. The move has not resulted in chains of new service stations criss-crossing the country, but rather illicit boot sales of fuel that has raised serious safety and environmental concerns, industry sources told IRIN.

Huge stocks of toxic pesticide waste are a serious problem in almost all developing countries and in many countries in transition. More than 500 000 tonnes of old and unused pesticides that have been banned or have expired threaten the environment and the health of millions of people in these countries, FAO warns in a new report. The figures are dramatically higher than previous estimates of around 100 000 tonnes.

THE Land Bank's commitment to weed out corruption in its ranks was illustrated last Friday when the Scorpions anticorruption unit arrested the bank's former Tzaneen branch director, Sydney Khando, for alleged fraud involving R24m.