"Volkswagen's pollution-control chicanery has not just been victimless tinkering, killing between five and 20 people in the United States annually in recent years, according to an Associated Press statistical and computer analysis."

"At the second annual Our Ocean conference, which opens today in Chile and will address challenges to marine ecosystems around the globe, world leaders will announce the extra steps they are taking to protect the world’s oceans. And the Obama administration is helping to kick things off by announcing plans to create two new marine sanctuaries — one in Maryland, and the other in Lake Michigan."

"The details of the $18 billion BP settlement agreement will be released to the public on Monday."

"House lawmakers will cast a vote on lifting the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports, the next step in an expanding debate over the issue."

"Hopes faded of finding any remaining survivors of a massive landslide in Guatemala that killed at least 73 people, even as families scrabbled through rubble hoping to find the bodies of loved-ones, with hundreds of others still missing."

"Hundreds were rescued from fast-moving floodwaters Sunday in South Carolina as days of driving rain hit a dangerous crescendo that buckled buildings and roads, closed a major East Coast interstate route and threatened the drinking water supply for the capital city."

"A Harvard Kennedy School professor wrote a widely disseminated policy paper last year in support of genetically modified organisms at the behest of seed giant Monsanto, without disclosing his connection, e-mails show."

"The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved an overhaul of the nation’s energy laws on Wednesday, though the legislation shed much of the bipartisan support it once enjoyed."

"Drought, more frequent wildfires and rising temperatures due to climate change are upsetting the delicate balance between life and death conditions for Joshua Tree National Park’s peculiar namesake plant."

"Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blasted Republicans on Thursday for refusing to take up a bill to reauthorize a federal conservation fund."