The agricultural giant, Syngenta, has petitioned the USDA to grant its new genetically modified corn a non-regulated status. Some experts fear that the strain, meant solely for producing ethanol, could end up in the food supply.

"A highly contagious fungus that destroys tomato plants has quickly spread to nearly every state in the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic, and the weather over the next week may determine whether the outbreak abates or whether tomato crops are ruined."

The UN-based International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which regulates ocean shipping, agreed Friday to voluntary proposals aimed at cutting carbon emissions.

An abandoned river -- the Trinity -- runs through Dallas. Storms wash old industrial poisons into it via ditches. As poisons accumulated in its sediments, fish became dangerous to eat. "So people stayed away, and over time, it no longer mattered which came first -- the toxic fish or the abandoned river."

The cap-and-trade climate bill which is the focus of West Virginia protests is packed with help for the coal industry.

The mysterious, miles-long "blob" found floating in the Chukchi Sea is not an oil spill or alien life-form, according to early tests, but an unusual algal bloom.

"A Great Lakes study linking a pesticide in fish to diabetes adds to the growing chorus of studies suggesting that environmental contaminants may play a role in the widespread disease."

Winds are whipping up wildfires in a British Columbia community where housing subdivisions have encroached on surrounding forests in recent years. Thousands of people are being evacuated from their homes.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to India will bring a $10-billion deal to sell U.S. nuclear reactors to that country -- but probably not break the impasse on whether India will join other nations trying to limit greenhouse emissions.