"DA NANG, Vietnam -- In the tropical climate of central Vietnam, weeds and shrubs seem to grow everywhere -- except here."

"CHICAGO -- At Ming Hin Cuisine in Chicago's Chinatown, a giant shark fin decorates the wall in the main dining room, and shark fin soup is offered on the banquet menu for customers willing to pay the price."

"In the Olympics of pollution, an environmental group has given Kentucky a gold medal of sorts for spewing the most toxic air emissions from its power plants, most of them fueled by coal."

"WASHINGTON, DC -- Eight U.S. biofuel industry organizations have formed a new coalition to defend the nation’s Renewable Fuel Standard and to advocate for domestic production of advanced biofuels. Their first fight is against a movement by members of the House of Representatives who are pressuring the Obama Administration to waive the federal Renewable Fuel Standard."

"In the Soviet playbook for all-out war with the United States, the wasting of U.S. cities by nuclear bombs was to be followed by something equally horrifying: waves of plagues to kill any survivors. Soviet scientists spent decades preparing for the second attack, concocting new kinds of biological weapons more lethal than any ever invented."

"A new survey suggests a popular class-room solution for Canadian and American teachers may be causing problems for Mother Nature. The study from Oregon State University says a quarter of teachers who use live organisms as teaching tools release the species into the wild when the classroom unit is finished, but only 10 per cent of them do it through a planned release program."

"As Royal Dutch Shell PLC seeks to explore for oil this summer in Alaska's northern waters, the Arctic sea ice is melting at a record pace, breaking the record low-ice levels set in 2007, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The one big exception, however, is the Chukchi Sea, where Shell is hoping to explore for oil this summer."

"LONDON -- The world is depleting underground water reserves faster than they can be replenished due to over-exploitation, according to scientists in Canada and the Netherlands."