"STOCKHOLM — Population growth and water stress are driving Earth to a food and environmental crunch that only better farming techniques and smarter use of the ecosystem will avert, a UN report issued on Monday said."

"A deadly brain-eating amoeba killed a man in his early 20s - the third death linked to the rare parasite this summer, health official said."

"Four people on average are killed in unprovoked attacks a year, yet humans kill 100 million sharks annually, say marine biologists."

"LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -- Today, for the first time since 1997, the governors of both California and Nevada attended the annual Lake Tahoe Summit, and they pledged their cooperation in returning clarity to the clouded waters of the famous lake."

"Unwilling to fix leaky water mains in Crestwood, a south suburb known for its penny-pinching ways, village leaders secretly supplemented their supplies for more than two decades with a community well they knew was contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals."

Bottled water companies seem to be actively marketing their products to minority groups. Latinos and African Americans spend a higher portion of their income on bottled water than whites do, and surveys say this is because they view tap water as risky. There is evidence that public drinking water systems in minority communities are either lacking or less safe.

"Every summer, hordes of beach-goers seeking California sunshine are attracted to the Central Coast. Clad in bikinis and swim shorts, they hit the beach only to be greeted with a sobering surprise: a dense layer of coastal fog rolling off the bay."

"NO wonder they are called conveniences. Flush toilets swirl human waste down the drain quickly and neatly. But the convenience comes with a rising price for all that follows the flush — a cost that is often paid by municipal water and sewage treatment systems.

Now some groups are rethinking the venerable technology of the flush toilet, particularly for regions that lack such systems or for places where waste water treatment plants, many of them aging, are overburdened by the demands of fast-growing populations.

On Horn Island, off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, there are still mats of oil from last year's Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster. BP will be returning to clean them up.