Court to consider pollution case WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court Monday agreed to use a clean-water dispute from South Carolina to clarify how far private citizens can pursue lawsuits against polluters. The court's eventual decision, expected sometime in 2000, is likely to carry great practical importance for environmentalists and the companies they sue over violations of the federal Clean Water Act. Three environmental groups - Friends of the Earth, Citizens Local Environmental Action Network and the Sierra Club - sued Laidlaw Environmental Services in 1992 over its operation of a hazardous waste incinerator in Roebuck, S.C., that discharged wastewater into North Tyger River. The facility was closed in 1998 and is not currently in operation. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558636194-f77> Japanese consider importing wolves NIKKO NATIONAL PARK, Japan (AP) - In the mountains, they strip bark from graceful fir forests and gobble alpine flowers. In the valleys, farmers curse them for trampling fields and eating crops. An explosion in the deer population has become rural Japan's biggest natural headache. Now a growing group of wildlife experts say they have the natural remedy: wild wolves. "It's necessary to have a predator of the deer - it was like that 100 years ago," said a wildlife expert. The pro-wolf movement is still in its infancy - the Japan Wolf Association was formed in 1993 - but already the idea has set off an emotional debate about ecology, economics and even nationalism. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558626302-f80>
