"The Goldman Environmental Foundation today announced the six recipients of the 2011 Goldman Environmental Prize - a group of grassroots leaders who are taking on tough challenges to protect the environment and their communities, often at great personal risk."

"Japan has raised its assessment of the accident at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the worst rating on an international scale, putting the disaster on par with the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, the Japanese nuclear regulatory agency said on Tuesday."

"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."