"Three gas pipelines have exploded in an Iranain province south of the capital Tehran, a news agency reported Friday, saying the cause was unknown and giving no details of damage or casualties."
"Rich and poor nations overcame deep divisions on Friday to cut a deal that maps out U.N. climate negotiations for 2011, building on last December's agreement in Mexico and hardening the focus on tougher issues."
Japan on Monday expanded the evacuation zone around its crippled nuclear plant because of high levels of accumulated radiation, as a strong aftershock rattled the area one month after a quake and tsunami sparked the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl."
"A new study confirms that the ocean has been rising in fits and starts since the 19th century -- and that the rate appears to have accelerated in the early 1990s to almost twice the rate of increase that prevailed through most of the 20th century."
"A gene that causes a wide range of bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics has been found in the water supply in Delhi, with worrying implications for the rest of the globe."
"The first round of UN climate change talks since the Cancun summit in December is underway in Bangkok this week."
"Fast food chain KFC is to stop frying chicken in palm oil."
"Each year, an ever larger portion of the world’s crops — cassava and corn, sugar and palm oil — is being diverted for biofuels as developed countries pass laws mandating greater use of nonfossil fuels and as emerging powerhouses like China seek new sources of energy to keep their cars and industries running."
Five top executives at Transocean, the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, gave up some $250,000 of the $898,282 in bonuses they received this month. The firm had been criticized for claiming a "best year" in safety of operations after 11 people died on the rig. One quarter of the bonus amount was explicitly tied to safety.
"United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential assessment prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."
