"The European Union and the United States said on Tuesday they were pressing for solutions to concerns China may be exploiting its stranglehold on rare earth metals, crucial in the making of everything from portable phones to wind turbines."

"A federal investigation into contaminated Chinese-made drywall has been a long, hard tug-of-war for U.S. investigators trying to pry information from Chinese government officials and manufacturers. When a team of investigators traveled to China last year, the tug-of-war became physical, with a Chinese official trying to wrest a piece of drywall from an American’s hands."

"The federal government announced the first national emissions and fuel economy standards for heavy vehicles on Monday, one of a series of regulatory steps that the Obama administration is taking to increase energy efficiency and reduce atmospheric pollution in the absence of Congressional action on climate change."

"Pregnant women living in Texas neighborhoods with higher air levels of benzene – a pollutant often released from oil refineries and traffic exhaust – are more likely to have babies with neural tube defects. Women living in the areas with the highest benzene levels had a two times greater risk for their children to be born with spina bifida."

Hydraulic fracturing of underground shale to produce natural gas also releases uranium that is part of the rock, say researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The uranium may pollute groundwater.

"Health and environmental concerns have become a factor in next Tuesday’s Navajo Nation presidential election."

"Criminal enforcement of federal water-pollution laws has continued a more than decadelong slide under the Obama administration, despite pledged improvements, according to U.S. EPA data."

"Prosecutors in Naples are investigating whether members of the local mafia are involved in protests against a new rubbish dump near Italy's third biggest city, a judicial source said on Monday."

"The U.S. Interior Department on Monday approved a permit for the world's biggest solar power project that will provide electricity to up to 750,000 homes."