"Nine blackened tankers are scattered around the site. Part of the rail is mangled, warped, and burned black."

"Every woman in this story is confoundingly non-descript. Short hair, often grey. Conservative dress. Unmarried; soft-spoken. Most are well into their 70s, and all will tell you that their way of life is dying out. They will also tell you, with surprising conviction, that the world is in peril."

"MOSCOW -- Eleven Nobel Peace Prize laureates urged Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to drop piracy charges against 30 people detained over a Greenpeace protest last month at an Arctic oil rig."

"Under a new global treaty that limits the use of mercury, some light bulbs will be banned. Some batteries, thermometers and medical devices will be banned too. But mascara is exempt."

"SYDNEY -- Nearly a hundred wildfires burned across Australia's most populous state on Thursday, 18 of which were out of control, as unseasonably hot temperatures and strong winds fanned flames across the parched landscape, officials said."

"This year’s World Food Prize laureates called on a hungry world to embrace the seeds they helped develop, despite controversy that threatens to limit the reach of biotech crops."

"Three researchers who played prominent roles in developing genetically modified crops — Mary-Dell Chilton of Syngenta, Robert T. Fraley of Monsanto and Marc Van Montagu of Belgium — were awarded the World Food Prize on Thursday at the Iowa Capitol. The music- and history-filled ceremony highlighted the prize’s biggest and most controversial week yet."

"When it snowed in Flagstaff, Ariz., recently, thousands of people woke up and turned up their electric heating, and Arizona Public Service saw electricity demand reach a morning peak. To meet the demand, the company used the previous afternoon’s sunshine."

"Tesoro Logistics LP detected anomalies during an inspection of its 20-year-old North Dakota pipeline just days before the line ruptured and spilled 20,600 barrels of oil onto farmland, the company said on Thursday."

"ROSS, N.D. — While three generations of the Sorenson family have made their livelihood growing wheat and other crops here, they also have learned to embrace the furious pace of North Dakota’s oil exploration. After all, oil money helped the Sorensons acquire the land and continue to farm it."

"Chaos has erupted as Chief Aaren Sock and council members from Elsipogtog First Nation are among at least 40 people arrested by riot-gear-clad police raiding a Mi'kmaq blockade protesting shale gas exploration in New Brunswick."