International

"SHANGHAI/HONG KONG --  Chinese authorities slaughtered over 20,000 birds at a poultry market in Shanghai on Friday as the death toll from a new strain of bird flu mounted to six, spreading concern overseas and sparking a sell-off in airline shares in Europe and Hong Kong."

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), the operator of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, said a cooling system for one of its spent fuel pools at the crippled nuclear station stopped today."

"Scientists taking a first look at the genetics of the bird flu strain that recently killed two men in China said Wednesday that the virus could be harder to track than its better-known cousin H5N1 because it might be able to spread silently among poultry without notice."

"Canada has become the first country to drop out of the UN convention to combat desertification."

"The Arctic Ocean reached the most frozen it's going to get this year on 13 March. Now the melt season begins, predicts the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The seasonal stats were gloomy. The max sea ice area of 2013 was was 5.84 million square miles (15.13 million square kilometers). That's the sixth lowest extent on record and a whopping 283,000 square miles (733,000 square kilometers) below the 1979 to 2000 average maximum."

"Energy subsidies cost governments from the U.S. to Egypt $1.9 trillion, discourage private investment and help wealthy consumers more than the poor, according to a study by International Monetary Fund staff."

For a while, the Naga Viper was the hottest pepper in the world. Today, breeding peppers for hotness is an area of military research.

"Environmentalists and beekeepers are calling on the government to ban some of the country's most widely used insect-killing chemicals."

"A controversial offshore wind project off the coast of Aberdeen has been approved by the Scottish government. The 11-turbine European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre is bitterly opposed by US businessman Donald Trump, who has complained that it will the spoil the view from his nearby golf course."

Products so toxic they are banned in the United States -- lead paint is just one example -- are still being legally exported by U.S. corporations to other countries, where they may harm unsuspecting customers.