"TOKYO -- Operators of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant this month will begin a potentially hazardous operation to remove fuel rods from one of the reactor units, a critical step in what is expected to be a decadeslong cleanup of the site of one of the worst nuclear-energy accidents in history."

"TOKYO -- Operators of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant this month will begin a potentially hazardous operation to remove fuel rods from one of the reactor units, a critical step in what is expected to be a decadeslong cleanup of the site of one of the worst nuclear-energy accidents in history."

"Super Typhoon Haiyan -- one of the strongest storms recorded on the planet -- smashed into island after island as it plowed across the central Philippines on Friday, threatening millions of people."

"MONTREAL — Parts of the Chaudière River remain contaminated despite weeks of cleanup operations and the removal of nearly 43 million litres of oily water from the river."

"The Transportation Department hit oil giant Exxon Mobil on Wednesday with a proposed $2.6 million fine for a pipeline rupture in Arkansas earlier this year."

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has clarified that no island composed of debris from the Fukushima tsunami is heading towards the U.S. coast of California."

"Survivors of a deadly earthquake fled their tent shelters Thursday as mass evacuations got under way in the Philippines ahead of a super typhoon that was strengthening in the Pacific Ocean."

"When an asteroid exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February, shattering windows for miles and injuring well over 1,000 people, experts said it was a rare event — of a magnitude that might occur only once every 100 to 200 years, on average."

"EDMONTON -- Geotechnical engineers remained at the Obed Mountain coal mine Sunday trying to determine how one billion litres of murky water leaked from a containment pond into the Athabasca River."

"More than half of all facilities licensed last year by Texas to carry ammonium nitrate lacked either secure fencing or locked storage areas for the potentially explosive chemical compound."