Environment

• Monday, June 6th 2011 - 04:08 UTC

  Chilean volcano ashes reach Atlantic coast; all flights cancelled and schools closed

  

  Southern Chile's Puyehue volcano was calm Sunday, one day after raining down ash and forcing thousands to flee, although the cloud of ash it had belched out still darkened skies as far away as neighbouring Argentina and was heading to the Atlantic coast.

• Sunday, June 5th 2011 - 12:20 UTC

  South Chile volcano eruption prompts evacuation; covers Argentine province with ash

  

  Southern Chile's Puyehue volcano erupted on Saturday for the first time in half a century prompting evacuation orders for 3,500 people and turning into dark the Argentine Patagonian resort of San Carlos de Bariloche, 100 kilometres to the east as it was covered with ash.

• Saturday, June 4th 2011 - 06:31 UTC

  Chile’s capital survives driest May in 43 years: respiratory diseases outbreak

  

  As any Santiago de Chile resident could attest, it was all sun and no rain this past May, creating a hazardously dry environment and increasing already worrying levels of pollution.

• Friday, June 3rd 2011 - 18:01 UTC

  Penguins’ winter huddle clusters are all the time on motion to keep warm

  

  The mystery of how penguins stay warm while they huddle has been revealed by an international team of scientists. Emperor penguins survive the tough Antarctic winters by forming tightly packed clusters - but scientists have pondered how penguins on the outside stay as cosy as those in the centre.

• Thursday, June 2nd 2011 - 09:29 UTC

  New York sues Federal government on natural gas drilling in Delaware river basin

  

  New York's attorney general is suing the federal government to compel a full environmental review of proposed regulations for natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin.

• Thursday, June 2nd 2011 - 04:15 UTC

  Brazil gives definitive approval to world’s third largest hydroelectric dam project

  

  Brazil's environment agency gave its definitive approval Wednesday for construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, a controversial 17 billion US dollars project in the Amazon that has drawn criticism from native Indians and conservationists.

• Thursday, June 2nd 2011 - 03:59 UTC

  Uruguay rejects Zamin Ferrous mining project environment impact report

  

  Uruguay made a long list of objections to the environment impact assessment study presented by the Aratiri mining project which plans open-pit extraction of magnetite (ferrous component) from vast resources in Valentines, the heart of the South American country.

• Wednesday, June 1st 2011 - 18:02 UTC

  Falkland Islands wolf-like canine Warrah pre-dates human occupation

  

  Bones found on West Falkland in 2010 by a boy then aged thirteen, which were subsequently kept for a while in the bottom of his grandmother’s wardrobe, may have narrowed down the search for an answer to a mystery which puzzled Charles Darwin when he visited the Falkland Islands in 1837.

• Wednesday, June 1st 2011 - 17:26 UTC

  Australia whale-watching season takes off as thousands head north during winter

  

  Australia marked the start of its whale-watching season Wednesday with predictions that some 4,000 of the giant animals will be spotted as they make their way along the coast during winter.

• Wednesday, June 1st 2011 - 09:33 UTC

  Gibraltar: Major disaster in port

  

  An oil storage tank exploded in the port of Gibraltar Tuesday afternoon around 3.30pm, just metres from where a cruise ship Independence of the Seas was berthed. Two people who were carrying out welding work on the tank were injured in the blast. One of them, a 40-year old Spanish national from La Linea, suffered serious, extensive and life threatening burns.