Environment news

• Nigerian launches offensive against militants in Delta oil hub

  27-08-2016 20:46
  By Tife Owolabi YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria's military said on Saturday it had launched a new offensive against militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta, killing five and arresting 23. Armed groups have claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on oil and gas pipelines in the southern region, reducing the country's oil output by 700,000 barrels day. "In the course of the operation, five militants that attacked the troops were killed in action, while numerous others were injured a
  
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• Juno probe makes close pass of Jupiter

  27-08-2016 18:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The US space agency’s Juno probe makes its first close approach to Jupiter since going into orbit in July.
  
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• 'I was born to do this': national park rangers on their triumphs and tragedies

  27-08-2016 17:27 via theguardian.com
  
  As the National Park Service turns 100, longtime rangers reflect on tasks ranging from teaching rescue missions – and the sexism many female rangers faceAndrea “Andy” Lankford often came close to death during her twelve years as a ranger for the National Park Service. But there was nothing quite as horrific as the time she ended up with parts of a human brain in her hand. Continue reading...
  
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• Dead Sea Transforms Deathly Dress Into Gorgeous Salt-Encrusted Jewel

  27-08-2016 17:23
  
  A gorgeous new exhibit reveals just how salty the Dead Sea is. Artist Sigalit Landau submerged a 1920s-style long, black dress in Israel's Dead Sea for two months in 2014. Landau has been inspired by the Dead Sea's unique environment for past artwork, including salt-crystal-encrusted lamps, a salty hangman's noose and a crystalline island made of shoes, according to the artist's website.
  
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• Iraq says still set on expanding oil output to gain market share

  27-08-2016 17:11
  By Maher Chmaytelli BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq is willing to play an active role within OPEC to support oil prices but will not sacrifice its goal of expanding market share and will continue to ramp up output, its oil minister said on Saturday. Jabar Ali al-Luaibi, on a visit to the southern oil city of Basra, renewed calls for local and international oil companies in Iraq to increase production and announced plans to double crude storage capacity at the country's southern export terminals to 24 m
  
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• Ditch the car: how to visit America's national parks without the congestion

  27-08-2016 15:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Traffic congestion has become part of the experience of visiting popular national parks in the US. Now, more parks are beefing up their public transport optionsRead our series: National Park Service turns 100If you’ve ever visited an iconic national park like Yellowstone, Yosemite or Glacier, your first glimpses of arresting, postcard-perfect vistas were probably framed by a car window. That’s how I first glimpsed Yosemite’s Half Dome. After driving through the tunnels on Big O
  
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• Tories’ failure to halt ivory trade ‘risks extinction of elephants’

  27-08-2016 15:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigners attack broken election pledge to shut down domestic marketThe UK is putting elephants at risk of extinction through its broken promises on the ivory trade, according to campaigners. Before the last election, the Conservative party pledged to shut down the UK’s domestic ivory market: at the time 30,000 elephants a year were being slaughtered for their tusks. But no action has been taken.While bans on the international trade in ivory exist, a failure to observe similar measures a
  
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• Japan pledges $30 billion for Africa over next three years

  27-08-2016 14:59
  By George Obulutsa NAIROBI (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told African leaders on Saturday that his country will commit $30 billion in public and private support for infrastructure development, education and healthcare expansion in the continent. Resource-poor Japan has long been interested in tapping Africa's vast natural resources, even more so since dependence on oil and natural gas imports jumped after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster shut almost all of Japan's nuclear rea
  
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• Iraq willing to play active role in propping up oil prices - minister

  27-08-2016 13:39
  Iraq is willing to play an active role within OPEC to support oil prices, its oil minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi said on Saturday, without clarifying whether it was prepared to back a possible agreement to freeze output. "Iraq is seeking to play an active role in order to support oil prices while preserving a share that is proportionate to its reserves," the minister said during a visit to the southern oil city of Basra, according to oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad. Iraq wants to "strengthen OPE
  
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• Exlusive - Iraq plans to sell oil through Iran if talks with Kurds fail

  27-08-2016 13:34
  By Stephen Kalin BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government would consider selling crude through Iran should talks with the autonomous Kurdish region on an oil revenue-sharing agreement fail, a senior oil ministry official in Baghdad told Reuters. Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) plans to hold talks with the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), possibly next week, about Iraqi oil exported through Turkey, Deputy Oil Minister Fayadh al-Nema said in an interview on Friday evening.
  
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• Iraq willing to play role in propping up oil prices - minister

  27-08-2016 13:16
  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq is willing "to play a role" within OPEC to support oil prices, Iraqi oil minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi said on Saturday in the southern oil city of Basra. "Iraq is seeking to play a role in order to support oil prices while preserving a share that is proportionate to its reserves," the minister said, according to oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; editing by David Clarke)
  
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• Japan's Abe pledges $30 billion for Africa over next three years

  27-08-2016 12:24
  By George Obulutsa NAIROBI (Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told African leaders on Saturday that his country will commit $30 billion in public and private support for infrastructure development on the continent. Resource-poor Japan has long been interested in tapping Africa's vast natural resources, even more so since dependence on oil and natural gas imports jumped after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster shut almost all of Japan's nuclear reactors. Abe, in the Kenyan capital Nai
  
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• Probe set for science pass of Jupiter

  27-08-2016 12:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The US space agency’s Juno probe at Jupiter is about to make its first close approach to the planet since going into orbit in July.
  
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• Large blue butterfly thriving in UK since reintroduction

  27-08-2016 09:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Numbers of the endangered butterfly, once pronounced extinct in the UK, have reached their highest level in 80 years, according to conservationistsA butterfly once pronounced extinct in the UK has been seen in record numbers this year, according to conservationists.There were over 10,000 adult large blue butterflies in Gloucestershire and Somerset – the largest concentration of the species known in the world. Continue reading...
  
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• Summer: Earth's Seasonal Secrets review – a cute, cuddly hour of absolute cliches

  27-08-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Watching wildebeest, zebras, bears and penguins doing what we’ve seen them doing countless times before was 60 minutes of your life you will never get back“Autumn is just round the corner, so you’d better make the best of the good times while they are here,” says narrator Andrew Scott at the close of Summer: Earth’s Seasonal Secrets (BBC 1). Advice that will have come an hour too late for many viewers who would have been far better off going outdoors to catch the dy
  
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• Daylight encounter hungry pine marten

  27-08-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Strathnairn, Highlands Its rich chocolate fur looked luxuriant, and it was easy to see why it was so much prized in the middle ages as a trimming for robes of stateMid-afternoon, and I watched the pine marten hunting a woodland bank, sniffing and listening for prey such as voles. Above it was ripening the rich crop of rowan berries that would augment its diet in late autumn. It must have been hungry to be out hunting at this time of day, as pine martens are normally nocturnal. No doubt the poor
  
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• Plan bee: Minnesota sets broad limits on chemicals blamed for bee decline

  27-08-2016 03:01 via theguardian.com
  
  But farmers are concerned they will not be able to protect crops from insects if they cannot use neonicotinoidsMinnesota’s governor on Friday ordered the broadest restrictions yet in a US state on the use of agricultural pesticides that have been blamed for hurting bees, fuelling concerns that farmers there will not be able to protect crops from insects. Governor Mark Dayton issued an executive order that requires farmers to verify they face “an imminent threat of significant crop lo
  
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• BP, Shell evacuating some staff from U.S. Gulf on storm threat

  27-08-2016 02:17
  HOUSTON (Reuters) - Oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell said on Friday they have started securing facilities and evacuating non-essential personnel from their drilling rigs and platforms in U.S. Gulf of Mexico as a precaution against a storm threat. All other producers in the area said they were still monitoring the weather and had not evacuated anybody. The National Hurricane Center said a disturbance near Cuba has a 20 percent chance of developing into a cyclone in the next 48 hours. (Reportin
  
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• World's largest marine reserve created off Hawaii

  27-08-2016 02:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  US President Barack Obama expands a national monument off Hawaii, creating the world's largest marine reserve.
  
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• Brazil police seek graft charges against ex-president Lula

  27-08-2016 00:03
  By Eduardo Simões and Daniel Flynn SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Federal police in Brazil urged prosecutors on Friday to bring corruption charges against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his wife, Marisa, according to police documents seen by Reuters. The investigation into the popular predecessor and mentor of suspended President Dilma Rousseff forms part of a sweeping anti-corruption probe into political kickbacks from contracts at state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA. The
  
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