"The ground east of the Rockies is far more likely to shake this year with damaging though not deadly earthquakes, federal seismologists report in a new risk map for 2016."

"With the ice cover down to 14.52m sq km, scientists now believe the Arctic is locked onto a course of continually shrinking sea ice".

"A $2.5-billion transmission line carrying wind power to the U.S. Southeast is coming -- whether state regulators there like it or not."

"You'll soon know whether many of the packaged foods you buy contain ingredients derived from genetically modified plants, such as soybeans and corn."

"Dozens of groups are pressing Ottawa to join more than 50 countries in banning asbestos, a move the Liberal Party supported while in opposition."

"Wyoming regulators downplayed health concerns, glossed over ambiguities and made unsubstantiated claims about the source of contamination in their study of the polluted drinking water east of Pavillion, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency review shows."

"More than 60 years after they disappeared from their natural New Mexico habitat, river otters are thriving in the state once again."

"Descendants of a bison herd captured and sent to Canada more than a century ago will be relocated to a Montana American Indian reservation next month, in what tribal leaders bill as a homecoming for a species emblematic of their traditions."

"The U.S. Geological Survey reports that a volcano on Alaska's Aleutian Islands erupted Sunday afternoon and sent ash 20,000 feet into the air."

"Poland on Friday gave the go ahead for large-scale logging in the Bialowieza forest intended to combat a spruce bark beetle infestation, despite scientists, ecologists and the EU protesting the move in Europe's last primeval woodland."