"A water shortage described as the most critical since the earliest days of Iraq's civilisation is threatening to leave up to 2 million people in the south of the country without electricity and almost as many without drinking water."

"Wild animals normally are killed by cancer only in rare cases. But scientists are finding that some deadly cancers in animals--including Quebec's belugas, California sea lions and North Sea flounder--seem to be triggered or accelerated by environmental contaminants."

One key chemical tool used to control mosquito-spread malaria in the developing world -- DDT -- has harmful environmental consequences. Now a new article in the journal Nature tells of research on chemicals that may promise to be effective mosquito repellants by blocking the insects' ability to detect carbon dioxide.

"Archaeologists who study early hunter-gatherer societies are discovering that even the simplest cultures altered their environments, whether they meant to or not."

"Illegal fishing is depleting the seas and robbing poor nations in Africa and Asia of resources, but a lack of global cooperation is undermining efforts to track rogue vessels, an environmental group said on Tuesday."

Until last August, the Swiss-made reusable aluminum bottles that were an eco-icon, were lined with an epoxy containing trace amounts of BPA, which the Canadian federal government considers a toxic substance.

Chinese companies like Suntech are using government subsidies to leap ahead of the U.S. in the solar panel market.

"Paint with dangerously high lead levels is still being sold for household use worldwide, putting hundreds of millions of young children at risk of permanent brain damage," new research shows.

"UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to visit a Norwegian island deep inside the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole, to see firsthand the effects of climate change, his spokeswoman said."

"A mysterious disease that has reduced honeybee populations in Europe and the United States could be caused in part by a virus, according to research."

"European police agency Europol expects further arrests in connection with suspected carbon credit tax fraud after Britain's tax office said two more people were arrested in London late on Wednesday, bringing the total to nine."

"In an age of angst about security and Arctic sovereignty, it's no mean feat piecing together an oceanographic expedition involving scientists from the United States, Russia and elsewhere and launching the whole affair from a northern U.S. port."

A simple brass plaque in Tarusa, Russia, stands as a reminder of an epic tale of scores of nuclear disasters in the former Soviet Union that were hidden, or never completely reported.

"Midwestern Democrats, who want duties placed on countries who don't limit greenhouse gas emissions, are at odds with Obama."

In Brazil's epicenter of deforestation, an environmental group is offering farmers cash to let the forest stand. The question is whether they can make more by clearing the land and farming it.