International

"The smoldering international battle over the future of the Kyoto Protocol is a 'legitimately difficult' issue -- but not one that should overshadow the practical work of fighting climate change, U.S. Climate Envoy Todd Stern said yesterday."

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. started the unprecedented and potentially risky measure of allowing water to flood the containment vessels of three troubled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, company sources said."

As the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in the Ukraine arrives, its lessons may remain unlearned.

"Some of Britain's most cherished spring visitors are disappearing in their thousands. Ornithologists say species such as the cuckoo, nightingale and turtle dove are undergoing catastrophic drops in numbers, although experts are puzzled about the exact reasons for these declines."

"The 83-year-old man spoke with tears in his eyes. 'It's all over. It is better to just die.' He had just learned his small farm would be sealed off at midnight April 21 inside the government's no-entry zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant."

"Scientists working on malaria have found a way of genetically manipulating large populations of mosquitoes that could eventually dramatically reduce the spread of the deadly disease."

"Bolivia [Wednesday] marked the International Day of Mother Earth with a ceremony in the Plaza Murillo, the center of political power. An ancient ritual shared center stage with speeches in which authorities in this Andean nation extolled the Law of Mother Earth - the world's first legislation that grants to all nature rights equal to humans."

"As he prepared to visit Chernobyl 25 years after the world's worst nuclear disaster, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outlined a five-step plan to strengthen global nuclear safety."

"The head of the Met Office [the United Kingdom's national weather service] has revealed that he has received death threats from climate change sceptics."

Photographer Bryant Austin's eye -- and imagination -- were so captured by snorkeling close to humpback whales that he set himself to creating life-sized portraits of the creatures.