International

"Anti-asbestos activists from around the world called in Italy Tuesday for a worldwide ban on the hazardous building material and for companies that use it to be brought to justice."

"Exploding Asian demand for shark fin soup has slashed worldwide shark populations, and global regulation is the best way to save eight species now under pressure, ocean conservationists reported on Monday."

A dramatic decline in male births among indigenous American peoples -- both in the Arctic and elsewhere -- has been linked to toxic industrial pollution. "Toxic pollutants travel from industrialized countries and accumulate in the marine food chain of the Arctic region, and in the traditional diet of indigenous peoples."

A former laborer at several nuclear power plants in the U.S. is now being held in Yemen as a suspected member of the same branch of al-Qaida that is linked to the failed Christmas bombing of a jet to Detroit.

"UNITED NATIONS -- At a tumultuous time in U.N.-led climate negotiations, one of the world's most credible scientific groups agreed Wednesday to plug the recent cracks in the authoritative reports of the United Nations' Nobel Prize-winning global warming panel."

"PARIS -- An event based around hundreds of fashionistas flying in from all over the world was never going to be a convincing platform for environmental campaigning, but designers in Paris haven't let that stop them."

"'The Cove,' an American film documenting the annual killing of dolphins in a cove near the Japanese village of Taiji, was awarded an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Sunday night."

Spain's boom-and-bust experience with subsidized solar energy may hold some lessons for other countries.

"China and India formally agreed Tuesday to join the international climate change agreement reached in December in Copenhagen, the last two major economies to sign up."