
More than one billion people still lack access to safe drinking water, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said on Monday, calling for greater efforts to achieve the water and sanitation targets set by world leaders in 2000.

The mayor of New Orleans has issued a mandatory evacuation order for the entire city, as Hurricane Gustav bears down on the US Gulf Coast.

Thousands of oil-slicked penguins washed up dead on the beaches of a popular Brazilian resort on Friday, and officials reported they are searching for a cause.

Since its historic reunification almost two decades ago, Germany has been easily the European Union's most populous nation, with 20 million more inhabitants than its closest rival.
Canadian Maple Leaf Foods faces millions of dollars in demands from a class action lawsuit following an outbreak of listerosis (meat poisoning) linked to the company's Toronto meat plant and which allegedly is responsible for the death of at least 15 people.

Have you ever noticed that herds of grazing animals all face the same way? Images from Google Earth have confirmed that cattle tend to align their bodies in a north-south direction.

A controversy over the presence of melophagus ovinus (*), or sheep ked in the Chilean Tierra del Fuego flock has broken out between Chilean animal health officials and farmers' organizations.

Several medical organisations from Chile requested this week the Public Health ministry declare a state of sanitary alert following an unprecedented increase in the number of cases of deadly bacteria identified as Listeria Monocytogenes, which is transmitted mainly through the food chain.

The United Nations health agency is launching a new information campaign to highlight the impact of the hepatitis B virus, which is currently found in about 2 billion people worldwide despite being largely preventable by vaccine for more than 25 years.

An outbreak of bovine tuberculosis has forced Magallanes Region in the extreme south of Chile to declare quarantine in 48 paddocks belonging to twelve farms. The number of cattle involved is 30.000 head which is a considerable percentage of the 180.000 herd of the region according to the 2007 census.