INDIA-ENVIRONMENT

Indian villager Fooliben Shambhaji, holding her child, blows air to properly ignite her traditional village stove made of mud at her residence in the village of Keiyal, some 50 Kms. from Ahmedabad on November 29, 2012. For hundreds of millions of Indian women, cooking the family meal is a daily, dangerous chore. Sweating over smoky open stoves they put their lives and their children at risk every day. But some are benefiting from a scheme providing cleaner, more efficient stoves. Its part of a global initiative backed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to provide 100 million clean cookstoves to the homes of those who need them -- an estimated three billion people or 40 percent of the world's population. AFP PHOTO/Sam PANTHAKY (Photo credit should read SAM PANTHAKY/AFP via Getty Images)