"BP shareholders are fleeing the company’s stock amid growing uncertainty about the ultimate bill for cleanup costs, lawsuits, fines and damage to the oil giant’s reputation."

A new viral disease that destroys cassava crops is spreading explosively in East Africa. Cassava, the world's third largest source of calories, is eaten by some 800 million people in Africa, South America, and Asia.

"United Nations peacekeepers in Congo have used helicopters to airlift endangered baby gorillas to a sanctuary after they were rescued in a conflict zone where they faced being captured or eaten."

"Identifying and implementing a worldwide strategy to combat the illegal traffic in electronic waste was the focus of an INTERPOL Global E-Waste Crime Group meeting which concluded today."

"Actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio has joined with WWF-US in a new global campaign to save endangered tigers. With only an estimated 3,200 tigers left in the wild, WWF and DiCaprio today announced that the Save Tigers Now campaign will run during the Chinese Year of the Tiger, 2010."

"Australia will initiate legal action in the International Court of Justice in The Hague against Japan's so-called 'scientific' whaling in the Southern Ocean, three Rudd government ministers announced today."

"To reduce trade in illegally harvested wood, a global initiative was launched today in Washington that brings together conservation groups, government agencies, corporations and business associations with a stake in promoting legal forest product supply chains."

"When the word water appears in print these days, crisis is rarely far behind. Water, it is said, is the new oil: a resource long squandered, now growing expensive and soon to be overwhelmed by insatiable demand. Aquifers are falling, glaciers vanishing, reservoirs drying up and rivers no longer flowing to the sea. Climate change threatens to make the problems worse."

"US researchers claim to have identified a new potential cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in honeybees." They think a synergistic effect of two pathogens -- a fungus and a family of viruses -- may be the culprit.