"Oil-price swings have doubled this year as unrest spreads through the Middle East, source of one- third of global crude supply, hampering producer and consumer efforts to stabilize the world’s biggest commodity market."

"Strict curbs on soot and ozone air pollution would limit global warming by 0.5 degree Celsius (0.9 F) in a step toward achieving tough world climate goals, a U.N.-backed study showed on Friday."

"A wave of charged plasma particles from a huge solar eruption has glanced off the Earth's northern pole, lighting up auroras and disrupting some radio communications, a NASA scientist said."

"Japan abandoned the rest of its whale hunting season in Antarctic waters Friday citing repeated harassment by Sea Shepherd activists, after netting only a fifth of its targeted catch of 850 whales."

"Climate change could put trillions of investment dollars at risk over the next 20 years, a global study released on Wednesday said, calling for pension funds and other investors to overhaul how they allocate funds."

"Extreme rainstorms and snowfalls have grown substantially stronger, two studies suggest, with scientists for the first time finding the telltale fingerprints of man-made global warming on downpours that often cause deadly flooding."

"Japan has suspended its annual whale hunt in the Antarctic for now after a hardline anti-whaling group gave chase to its mother ship and it may call the fleet back home, a government official said."

"A new study suggests the Arctic is headed for a permafrost meltdown that will release greenhouse gases equal to half the emissions of the entire industrial age."

"Monarch butterfly colonies in Mexico more than doubled in size this winter after bad storms devastated their numbers a year ago, conservationists said on Monday although the migrating insect remains under threat."

"Rising demand for powdered rhino horn in Vietnam and China has driven the price as high as US$50,000 per kilogram, roughly equal to the street price for cocaine in the UK, says a international wildlife conservation organization headquartered in the hamlet of Kingsfold, West Sussex."