Environment news

• Police blast Standing Rock protesters with water cannon and rubber bullets – video

  21-11-2016 22:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Morton County police use teargas, a water cannon and rubber bullets against demonstrators from Standing Rock in North Dakota on Sunday night. Protesters braved freezing conditions and percussion grenades as they resisted the controversial pipeline with chants of ‘water not oil’. The company working on the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, have almost completed the system, but lack the permission to drill under the riverStanding Rock protest: hundreds clash with police over Dakota A
  
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• Oil rally propels Wall Street to record

  21-11-2016 22:16
  Comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin that raised expectations major oil producing countries could reach a deal to limit output at a meeting next week also spurred the jump in oil prices. "The post-election rally is continuing," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.
  
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• U.S. record high temps could outpace record lows by 15 to 1 before century's end

  21-11-2016 22:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  If society continues to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at the current rate, Americans later this century will have to endure, on average, about 15 daily maximum temperature records for every time that the mercury notches a record low, new research indicates.That ratio of record highs to record lows could also turn out to be much higher if the pace of emissions increases and produces even more warming, according to the study led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Rese
  
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• Help save Australia's orange bellied parrots. There are only 14 left! | First Dog on the Moon

  21-11-2016 22:08 via theguardian.com
  
  The orange-bellied parrot is the most endangered bird in Australia. Fortunately, the Difficult Bird Research Group is coming to the rescue – and you can help!Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published
  Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and printsChristmas is coming! There’s still time to get your fabulous First Dog on the Moon Chrismerchandise. Tea Towels! Books! Brenda Plush Toys!Continue reading...
  
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• The decline in emissions also has negative implications

  21-11-2016 20:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  In large parts of Europe and North America, the decline in industrial emissions over the past 20 years has reduced pollution of the atmosphere and in turn of soils and water in many natural areas. The fact that this positive development can also have negative implications for these regions has been demonstrated by scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in the journal Global Change Biology. According to their findings, declining nitrate concentrations in the riparian
  
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• Canada plans to phase out coal-powered electricity by 2030

  21-11-2016 20:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Environment minister’s goal to make 90% of Canada’s electricity come from sustainable sources starkly contrasts Trump’s pledge to revive US coal industryCanada has announced plans to phase out the use of coal-fired electricity by 2030.The move is in stark contrast to President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to revive the American coal industry. Continue reading...
  
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• OPEC experts' meeting makes progress on output talks

  21-11-2016 20:11
  By Alex Lawler and Rania El Gamal VIENNA/DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC experts have made some progress on the first day of a two-day meeting to nail down details of their plan to cut oil output, OPEC sources said on Monday, with some expressing optimism about the prospect of a final deal. The second meeting of the High-Level Committee began at 0930 GMT. The committee is a technical body comprised mainly of OPEC governors and national representatives - officials who report to their respective ministers.
  
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• Australia failing to protect Great Barrier Reef from shipping disasters, say lawyers

  21-11-2016 20:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Recommendations made after Chinese coal carrier the Shen Neng 1 ran aground are yet to be implementedThe government is failing to protect the reef from the effects of shipping disasters, according to environmental lawyers, who say inaction to secure remediation funds will become a bigger problem as shipping traffic increases.The issue could cause a problem for Australia when it reports to the Unesco world heritage committee within the next two weeks, on the state of the reef and how it is acting
  
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• Oil rally helps lifts world equities; Wall Street at record

  21-11-2016 19:58
  The gains were also helped by comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin that raised expectations major oil producing countries could reach a deal to limit output at a meeting next week. Among U.S. equities, the S&P energy index gained 2.1 percent as the top-performing sector, helping to push the benchmark S&P 500 index above its intraday record of 2,193,81 set on Aug. 15.
  
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• Satellite to help planes avoid turbulence

  21-11-2016 19:52 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A new weather satellite that maps cloud "waves" could help pilots avoid turbulence.
  
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• Oil jumps, at three-week high ahead of OPEC output decision

  21-11-2016 19:52
  By David Gaffen NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose over 4 percent to a three-week high on Monday, bolstered by growing conviction that major oil producing countries would agree to limit output at a meeting next week. OPEC members are due to agree a world oil freeze pact with non-OPEC countries on Nov. 30. In recent days, several OPEC members including Iran, along with non-member Russia, have suggested they were leaning toward a deal to limit output.
  
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• A dawn raid, dissenters silenced: is this a war on trees? | Patrick Barkham

  21-11-2016 19:11 via theguardian.com
  
  A private finance initiative has seen 4,000 street trees felled in Sheffield, with no credible explanation. No wonder ordinary people there are in revoltWhen Jenny Hockey was woken by two policemen hammering on her door at 5am last Thursday, her first fear was that some disaster had befallen her children or grandchildren. But as chainsaws revved in the dark and the officers ordered her to move her car, a disaster was about to befall her street trees. Related: The importance of urban forests: why
  
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• OPEC expert talks on oil cut plan went well - Libyan governor

  21-11-2016 18:49
  The first day of a two-day meeting of OPEC experts to nail down details of their plan to cut oil output went well, Libyan OPEC governor Mohamed Oun told reporters. The committee is a technical body comprised mainly of OPEC governors and national representatives - officials who report to their respective ministers.
  
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• Statoil chief economist sees limited long-term impact from potential OPEC cut

  21-11-2016 18:44
  By Alissa de Carbonnel BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The boost to oil prices from any potential OPEC agreement to curb supply when it meets next week will have only a short-term impact, Statoil's chief economist said on Monday. Oil prices rose to their highest in three weeks on Monday, catching a lift from a weaker U.S. dollar and from cautious money managers, as OPEC appeared to be moving closer to agreeing an output cut at its Nov. 30 meeting. "If the sentiment in the market now is we are moving toward
  
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• Only a third of UK consumers' plastic packaging is recycled

  21-11-2016 18:22 via theguardian.com
  
  Two-thirds of such household waste is sent to landfill or incinerated each year, Recoup survey reveals Only a third of plastic packaging used in consumer products is recycled each year, with almost two-thirds sent to landfill or incinerated, according to new research.Of the 1.5m tonnes of recyclable plastic waste used by consumers in Britain in 2015 only 500,000 tonnes was recycled, according to the figures compiled by Co-op from the Recoup UK Household Plastics Collection survey.Continue readin
  
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• Ginkgo 'living fossil' genome decoded

  21-11-2016 18:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The genetic code that underpins the Ginkgo tree has been laid bare by a team of researchers led from China.
  
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• Oil at three-week high ahead of OPEC decision on output

  21-11-2016 17:35
  By David Gaffen NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose over 3 percent to a three-week high on Monday, catching a lift from a weaker dollar, as major oil producing countries appeared to be moving closer to agreeing to limit output. Brent crude oil has risen 11 percent in a week since Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, started a diplomatic charm offensive to persuade the group's more reluctant members to join its proposed output plan. OPEC mem
  
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• OPEC experts meeting makes progress, talks continuing - sources

  21-11-2016 17:31
  By Alex Lawler and Rania El Gamal VIENNA/DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC experts have made some progress on the first day of a two-day meeting to nail down details of their plan to cut oil output, OPEC sources said on Monday, with some expressing optimism about the prospect of a final deal. The second meeting of the High-Level Committee began at 0930 GMT. The committee is a technical body comprised mainly of OPEC governors and national representatives - officials who report to their respective ministers.
  
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• Exclusive - BP ring-fences CEO Dudley from Iran decision-making

  21-11-2016 16:36
  By Ron Bousso LONDON (Reuters) - BP has created a new executive committee to explore business in Iran which will exclude its American chief executive Bob Dudley in a bid to avoid potential violations of U.S. sanctions still in place. The new committee is headed by BP's chief financial officer Brian Gilvary, who is a British national. Gilvary will coordinate the oil major's operations in Iran and any discussions with the country's national oil company, according to industry sources.
  
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• PM signals £2bn a year science funding increase

  21-11-2016 15:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Prime Minister Theresa May announces an additional £2bn a year by 2020 for UK research and innovation.
  
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• High court gives ministers deadline for tougher air pollution plan

  21-11-2016 14:52 via theguardian.com
  
  UK environment department must publish stronger air quality plan by April 2017, five months sooner than the deadline that government wantedThe government is being forced to deliver an effective plan to tackle the UK’s air pollution crisis within eight months, after a high court judge rejected a longer timetable as “far too leisurely”.Environmental lawyers ClientEarth inflicted a humiliating legal defeat on ministers earlier in November – its second in 18 months – wh
  
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• Meet Cronus, the tarantula whipping the Tory party into line

  21-11-2016 14:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The Tories, it has been revealed, have something special lined up for MPs who refuse to toe the party line …Name: Cronus, or sometimes Kronos.Age: One year. Continue reading...
  
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• After Trump, business, not politics, will have to bring about change

  21-11-2016 14:20 via theguardian.com
  
  At the Meaning conference in Brighton, entrepreneurs spoke of the need to create companies that benefit society and how crowdfunding could help achieve this
  “Western democracy just awoke to its worst ever bad hair,” Paul Mason told the Meaning conference in Brighton recently. The writer and broadcaster was, of course, referring to the election of Donald Trump as US president. Indeed, much of the event that brought together academics, business leaders, social activists and artists to
  
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• Cars under flood water in Bristol – video

  21-11-2016 13:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Amateur footage shows cars under flood water in Bristol. Facebook user Bobbie Massiah posted the video on Monday morning saying it was of Whitchurch Lane in Hartcliffe. A large swath of south-west Britain is coping with flooding and high winds as another block of torrential rain swept into Britain on the heels of Storm Angus Storm Angus: floods hit south-west England – with more rain to come
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• Rowan, Saudi Aramco to form JV to operate offshore drilling rigs

  21-11-2016 13:14
  (Reuters) - Rowan Companies Plc said it was forming a joint venture with Saudi Arabian state oil giant Saudi Aramco to operate offshore drilling rigs in the country. Rowan said it would provide three jack-up rigs and Saudi Aramco two when the joint venture begins operations in the second quarter of 2017. Both companies would contribute $25 million as working capital, Rowan said in a regulatory filing on Monday.
  
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• Ammonia-rich bird poop cools the atmosphere

  21-11-2016 13:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  It turns out bird poop helps cool the Arctic.That’s according to new research from Colorado State University atmospheric scientists, who are working to better understand key components of Arctic climate systems.
  
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• Santa's Sweltering: North Pole Soars 36 Degrees Above Normal

  21-11-2016 13:05
  
  Santa may need to take off some of his jolly layers this Christmas: The North Pole — the northernmost point on the globe (where Mr. Claus lives) — is more than 36 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) warmer than it has been in past decades, a new report finds. Moreover, the entire Arctic, a region that includes the North Pole, is almost 13 F (7.2 C) warmer today (Nov. 18) than in past years, the report found. Birkel calculates his forecast temperature anomaly maps for the Arctic b
  
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• Trump is a threat to the Paris agreement. Can states like California defend it? | Adam McGibbon

  21-11-2016 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The world is counting on the climate movement in the US to keep action on fossil fuel going. Here is one way we can do that Related: Trump’s dilemma: to please his friends by trashing the Paris climate deal, or not? | Bill McKibben There’s no point hiding from it – Donald Trump’s election should give us all concern for our future and the future of our children.Continue reading...
  
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• Storm Angus: floods hit south-west England – with more rain to come

  21-11-2016 12:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Met Office issues amber warning for Devon and parts of Somerset and yellow warning for areas of northern England Are you affected by Storm Angus and flooding in the UK? A large swath of south-west Britain is coping with flooding and high winds as another block of torrential rain swept into Britain on the heels of Storm Angus.The Met Office issued an amber warning – the second highest severe weather alert – for Devon and parts of Somerset, predicting that up to 30mm of rain could fall
  
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• Beijing bans highly polluting cars during smog alerts

  21-11-2016 12:45 via theguardian.com
  
  From next year, restrictions will be placed on older cars whenever air-quality warnings have been issued, say officials Next year, Beijing will ban highly polluting old cars from being driven whenever air-quality alerts are issued in the city or neighbouring regions, according to its environmental protection bureau. China has adopted various measures over the years to reduce the smog shrouding many of the country’s northern cities in winter, causing hazardous traffic conditions and disrupt
  
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• Is this the PM's 'white heat' of technology moment?

  21-11-2016 12:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  UK scientists will be cock-a-hoop about Theresa May's promise of an extra $2bn in research funds, but the money will not allay their concerns about the approaching Brexit.
  
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• US food giants pledge to halve food waste by 2030

  21-11-2016 12:05
  
  Major food firms including PepsiCo, General Mills, Unilever and Kellogg are among the 15 US-based retail giants that have pledged to halve the amount on food waste produced within their operations by 2030.
  
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• Groups working with Republicans on climate are discouraged, but see a glimmer of hope | Dana Nuccitelli

  21-11-2016 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The 2016 US election was a bad sign for climate policy, but galvanized grassroots organizationsBecause America is entirely governed by two political parties, passage of legislation usually requires bipartisan support in US Congress. However, the Republican Party is the only major political party in the world that denies the need to tackle climate change. Therefore, for several years any hope of passing climate legislation hinged upon breaking through the near-universal opposition among Republica
  
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• Olive killer disease arrives on Mallorca

  21-11-2016 11:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A disease posing a "very serious threat" to the EU's olive industry is recorded on the Spanish island of Mallorca for the first time.
  
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• Private sector pushes for better EU renewable energy legislation

  21-11-2016 11:04
  
  After leaked documents revealing renewable energy will no longer be a top priority in the EU's new winter package, major corporations including Google, Unilever and IKEA have backed a call for improvements to the forthcoming package.
  
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• Twice bitten: outback worker's venomous snake double whammy

  21-11-2016 11:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Man, 18, was bitten twice in three days, probably by the eastern brown snake, one of the world’s most venomous reptilesA man working to clear trees and shrubs in the Australian outback was bitten by venomous snakes twice in three days.On Friday, the 18-year-old was bitten on his right leg by an unidentified snake while using a chainsaw in a field in Queensland state near the township of Capella, the rescue helicopter service said in a statement on Monday. Continue reading...
  
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• Oil touches three-week highs ahead of OPEC meeting

  21-11-2016 10:51
  By Amanda Cooper LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Monday to their highest in three weeks, catching a lift from a softer U.S. dollar and from cautious money managers, as OPEC appeared to be moving closer to reaching an agreement to cut output when it meets next week. Brent crude futures were up 60 cents at $47.46 a barrel by 0928 GMT, having touched their highest level since Nov. 2, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were up 52 cents at $46.21 a barrel. "Oil is already more tha
  
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• Energy efficiency: Vital for the Paris Agreement and Britain's economy

  21-11-2016 10:30
  
  Energy efficiency investment will be "critical" to achieving the global emissions reduction targets set out in the Paris Agreement, and must be embedded in Britain's new Industrial Strategy to drive economic productivity.
  
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• Click and collect shopping can deliver 'greenest Christmas yet', says Doddle

  21-11-2016 09:52
  
  With the festive season just around the corner, new research from parcel delivery company Doddle has revealed the carbon footprint hidden inside Christmas present deliveries.
  
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• More weather misery as Storm Angus risks flooding across the UK

  21-11-2016 08:52
  
  The Environment Agency is preparing to put up temporary defences.
  
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• Hen picked: the UK's National Poultry Show – in pictures

  21-11-2016 08:30 via theguardian.com
  
  This year’s event in Telford, Shropshire, is showcasing about 7,000 entries from around the world. Leon Neal photographed some of the more remarkable birds Continue reading...
  
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• Turning challenges into opportunities: edie Live set to return in 2017

  21-11-2016 08:15
  
  Following the success of edie Live earlier this year, we can't wait to bring you a bigger show packed full of more features in May 2017.
  
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• Iraq to make suggestions to facilitate OPEC supply cut agreement

  21-11-2016 08:09
  Iraq's oil minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi will make suggestions at a meeting of OPEC oil ministers at the end of the month to implement an agreement to restrain crude supply in order to push up prices, according to a statement from his ministry on Monday. The statement didn't indicate what these suggestions are but hinted that Iraq would not be contributing to any output cut. Iraq's "legitimate demands should not constitute an obstacle to a new agreement to freeze output," Luaibi said in the state
  
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• No room for bikes: how one street shows the UK-wide failure over cycling

  21-11-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The fate of my small, south London road is a microcosm of the ways towns and cities are still planned around cars, not humansThis blog is sometimes criticised for focusing too much on events in London. At risk of seeming more parochial still, I’m about to write about my own London street. But stay with me: the failings in my part of SE5 contain lessons for the wider lack of safe cycling across the whole country.Champion Hill, close to Camberwell in south-east London, is a classic rat run &
  
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• Kuwait: A Desert on Fire, by Sebastião Salgado

  21-11-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As Iraq’s oilfields burn as retreating Isis forces set them on fire, Sebastião Salgado has published a book of his photographs taken in 1991 documenting a similar conflagration as Saddam Hussein’s forces set alight oil wells in KuwaitContinue reading...
  
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• UK government not funding natural flood prevention methods

  21-11-2016 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite government support for measures such as planting trees to stop floods, no funds have yet been been allocatedNatural ways of preventing flooding such as planting trees have no government funding despite ministers repeatedly backing the idea, according to a freedom of information request by Friends of the Earth.Almost a year since devastating floods hits swathes of northern Britain, environment secretary, Andrea Leadsom, and floods minister, Thérèse Coffey, have both recently
  
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• High on a Dorset heath, where wind rattles the heather

  21-11-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Hardown Hill, Dorset I skirt the old quarry workings, swamped in spring with bluebells and now swathed with rusty brackenOld Bottom, as the Marshwood Vale was once called, has filled with autumn rain. Walking means slogging, ankle deep or more, through cold, claggy clay, navigating puddles of yellow water overhung with dripping trees. Time to escape the woods for higher, drier ground. Hardown Hill is one of a circle of hills and forts ringing the vale. Steep sides of deciduous woodland and gaps
  
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• Saving the pangolin: giant rats trained to sniff out world's most trafficked mammal

  21-11-2016 04:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Rats’ agility and keen sense of smell will one day be used to reach parts of shipping containers that sniffer dogs cannot reachThe pangolin – the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal – might have a new champion: rats that will be trained to sniff out trafficked pangolin parts in shipments heading from Africa to Asia.Ten to 15 African giant pouched rats are being reared in Tanzania to detect pungent pangolin remains as well as smuggled hardwood timber. They are just a fe
  
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• Oil prices climb on expectation of OPEC-led output cut

  21-11-2016 01:40
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose around 1 percent on Monday as producer cartel OPEC moved closer to an output cut to rein oversupply that has kept prices low for over two years. International Brent crude oil futures were trading at $47.35 per barrel at 0023 GMT, up 49 cents, or 1.05 percent, from their last settlement. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 0.98 percent, or 44 cents, at $46.14 a barrel.
  
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• Squeaking echidna puggles born at Taronga zoo – video

  21-11-2016 01:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Two short-beaked echidna puggles hit the scales for the first time at Taronga zoo in Sydney – the first born at the zoo for 29 years. The pair were two of three puggles all hatched within a short period from 16-30 August. The youngest was born to mother Pitpa, the last echidna born at TarongaContinue reading...
  
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