As well as using wind turbines to provide electricity, and straw-burning plants to provide heating, some islanders have solar panels on their roofs and others warm their homes using geothermal energy and the heat given off by fresh cow's milk.

CNN: Striking a blow for wind power

Parents are being reminded to take more responsibility for their children's safety after five boys, aged 4 to 5 years, suffocated while burning straw in a barn in Guizhou province on Monday night, China Daily says.

BBC: China media: Hacking denial

Some developers are now looking to generate energy by burning straw, which the UK has an abundant supply of and which, as a by-product of agricultural crops, does not have an impact on the food verses fuel debate currently engulfing the biofuel industry.

BBC: Time to encourage biomass growth

There will be a lot of shadow boxing and burning of straw men before this is done.

BBC: Immigration may prove a winning issue for Obama

It recommends they use rice and wheat straw for mulch instead of burning it, rotate their crops, use a range of different seeds, manure their fields, and so on.

ECONOMIST: Punjabis are poisoning themselves