A possible cancer cluster near Spartansburg, S.C., has residents suspecting it was caused by illegal disposal of chemical wastes from a Hoechst chemical plant nearby.

"France, Spain and other Mediterranean nations forced the European Union to retreat Thursday from an ambitious plan to save the threatened and prized bluefin tuna."

"In the aftermath of a deadly gas explosion in San Bruno this year, a Sacramento school district is considering the unthinkable: Closing a school in the middle of the school year and transferring all its students to another campus or campuses."

"The Texas agency that regulates industrial pollution should be more responsive and transparent to the public, according to a state analysis released Thursday."

"The British Beekeepers' Association hastoday announced plans to end its controversial practice of endorsing pesticides in return for cash from leading chemical manufacturers."

"The activist group Environment Maryland released a report today urging Maryland and the federal government to make big poultry companies more accountable for controlling polluted runoff from farms where their birds are being raised."

"Enough plutonium and uranium to make 775 nuclear weapons has been removed from the BN-350 fast reactor in Kazakhstan, built to breed plutonium for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program, and placed in a secure storage facility to keep terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons."

"Key Senate Democrats continue to hope they can pass a renewable electricity standard and other smaller energy bills this year despite the dwindling time and interest in the lame-duck session."

"Congress may lose its best chance to pass a suite of public lands proposals that would protect more than 2 million acres of federal lands as wilderness if it fails to move an omnibus measure in the lame-duck session, conservation groups say."