"The world's most high-profile climate change  sceptic is to declare that global warming is 'undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today' and 'a challenge humanity must confront', in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby."

"KABUL, Afghanistan — Blood tests have confirmed that a mysterious series of cases of mass sickness at girls’ schools across the country over the last two years were caused by a powerful poison gas, an Afghan official said Tuesday."

"India's supreme court has reopened the Bhopal  toxic gas leak case in response to a government petition seeking harsher punishment for officials from Union Carbide, the chemical company responsible."

"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 'needs to fundamentally reform its management structure and strengthen its procedures,' finds a report issued today by the InterAcademy Council, an Amsterdam-based organization of the world's science academies."

The UK's Telegraph newspaper apologized to IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri and retracted an entire article accusing him of conflict of interest after an independent audit cleared him. The news discredited voices in the fossil-fuel-funded climate denial movement, who have promoted smears against climate science as the mainstream media have unskeptically echoed them.

"Flood-ravaged Pakistan ordered nearly half a million people to evacuate towns Thursday as the United Nations vowed to forge ahead with relief operations despite threats against foreign aid workers."

"The weather pattern known as El Niño, which can bring heavy rains to Southern California, has doubled in intensity and warmth and shifted westward over several decades, according to scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."

"A British beekeeper said on Wednesday he may have discovered a strain of honey bee immune to a parasite that has been gradually wiping out populations of the vital insect worldwide."

"The United States on Tuesday offered to help major economies such as China and India develop shale gas, a rapidly growing sector in North America which US officials bill as a clean alternative." The motives may be as much geopolitical as environmental.