Bush establishes 3 marine monuments in Pacific

By Charlie Litchfield (AP)

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne defended his two-year tenure in Washington, D.C., saying it was highlighted by ethics reforms he hopes will improve the agency\'s integrity after a slew of scandals.

The former Idaho governor, who took national office in May 2006 after Gale Norton\'s departure, spoke here Monday in what he called his \"last formal speech\" as a Bush administration cabinet member. U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., has been nominated by President-elect Barack Obama to replace Kempthorne.

The past two years have seen news accounts of Interior staffers who have...

By Eric Cheng (AP)

Japan said Tuesday it plans to ask Australia and possibly New Zealand and Chile to ban an anti-whaling protest ship from using their ports to refuel, heightening a cat-and-mouse game in Antarctic waters between Japan\'s whaling fleet and the conservationists.

The Sea Shepherd group says its anti-whaling ship, the Steve Irwin, has left pursuit of Japan\'s whaling fleet after activists chased it for 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) and last month lobbed bottles of rancid butter at the fleet. It is now headed to port to refuel. Sea Shepherd suggested on its Web site it will seek a port...

By MAVIC MADILLANO (AP)

Filipino fishermen rescued an endangered sea cow, pushing it back into open water after it was stranded off a beach in the western Philippines, conservationists said Tuesday.

The World Wide Fund for Nature said two fishermen tied a rope around the refrigerator-sized mammal on Jan. 1, one day after it was trapped by low tide on the shore of Palawan island\'s Puerto Princesa city.

After recuperating in the waist-high water, the 8.5-foot-long (2.6-meter-long) animal was declared fit for release by WWF activists.

Onlookers cheered as the sea cow _ nicknamed Enero, or...

By Eric Cheng (AP)

Japan said Tuesday it plans to ask Australia and possibly New Zealand and Chile to ban an anti-whaling protest ship from using their ports to refuel, heightening a cat-and-mouse game in Antarctic waters between Japan\'s whaling fleet and the conservationists.

The Sea Shepherd group has said its anti-whaling ship, the Steve Irwin, has left pursuit of Japan\'s whaling fleet after chasing it for 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) and is now headed to port to refuel. It suggested on its Web site it will seek a port call in Australia, but has not provided further details.

Japan, which...

By Jean Kenyon (AP)

President George W. Bush plans to designate three remote Pacific island chains as national monuments in what will be one of the largest marine conservation efforts in history.

The three areas are expected to include the Mariana Trench along the Northern Mariana Islands, Rose Atoll in American Samoa and seven islands in the central Pacific Ocean.

The White House confirmed plans for an announcement by the president on Tuesday but declined to provide other details.

Two years ago, the president made a huge swath of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument,...

By (AP)

Two sushi bar owners paid more than $100,000 for a Japanese bluefin tuna at a Tokyo fish auction Monday, about ten times the average price and the highest in nearly a decade, market officials said.

The 282-pound (128-kilogram) premium tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma fetched 9.63 million yen ($104,700), the highest since 2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna brought an all-time record of 20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said.

Yoshida said the extravagant purchase _ about $370 per pound ($817 per kilogram) _ went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and...

By Elise Amendola (AP)

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe said on Saturday he intends to run for governor of Virginia.

After months of speculation over his plans, McAuliffe announced his intentions in a video posted on his Web site. In the video, McAuliffe said he will make his intention to run official on Wednesday as part of a week-long campaign kickoff.

The stops include town hall meetings in Hampton Roads, Bristol, Richmond and others, where McAuliffe will unveil plans for job creation, education and renewable energy.

\"Over the coming months we will travel to...

By REBECCA BLACKWELL (AP)

First, it took the animals. Goats fell silent and refused to stand up. Chickens died in handfuls, then en masse. Street dogs disappeared.

Then it took the children. Toddlers stopped talking and their legs gave out. Women birthed stillborns. Infants withered and died. Some said the houses were cursed. Others said the families were cursed.

The mysterious illness killed 18 children in this town on the fringes of Dakar, Senegal\'s capital, before anyone in the outside world noticed. When they did _ when the TV news aired parents\' angry pleas for an investigation, when the...

By Paul Sakuma (AP)

Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren\'t raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.

That has the federal commission that oversees financing for transportation talking about increasing the federal fuel tax.

A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by the commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure...

By Seth Perlman (AP)

Farmland owners counties can give prairie chickens a boost while earning income in an unsettling economy.

A new state-federal program will pay farmland owners in 11 Missouri counties to set aside land as habitat and nesting grounds for prairie chickens, which once roamed the state\'s prairies in the hundreds of thousands.

Iowa, New Mexico, and Texas are among the states making similar offers to their farmers to reverse the decline in prairie chicken habitat, according to the USDA\'s Farm Service Agency.

With fewer than 400 to 500 birds remaining in Missouri, their...

By Paul Sakuma (AP)

A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by a federal commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group in a year to call for higher fuel taxes.

With motorists driving less and buying less fuel, the current 18.4 cents a gallon gas tax and 24.4 cents a gallon diesel tax fail to raise enough to keep pace with the cost of road,...

By Elaine Thompson (AP)

Flooding used to be a problem every five or 10 years for the tiny Hoh Indian Reservation. These days it\'s an annual event.

Sandbags permanently surround the tribal center and many homes because the nearby Hoh River has meandered dangerously closer over time. Meanwhile, most of the 443-acre reservation is less than 40 feet above sea level, and could be devastated by a major tsunami.

So the Hoh Indians are trying to move to higher ground.

\"We\'re literally moving the village,\" said Alexis Barry, executive director of the tribe in remote northwestern Washington....

By Toby Talbot (AP)

It\'s a Christmas time tradition dating to 1900, and it has nothing to do with Jesus or Santa. It\'s literally for the birds.

In the National Audubon Society\'s annual Christmas Bird Count, which runs through Jan. 5, birders from around the Western Hemisphere head out on one designated day each to keep track of the birds they see and hear in a 15-mile diameter circle. The tallies, compiled into a database, are used by Audubon to track bird population trends.

In Vermont, about 10 teams fanned out this month in the Mad River Valley and Northfield, creeping along the back roads...

By Paul Esrcourt (AP)

Looking to reduce its carbon footprint and cut its fuel bill, Air New Zealand on Tuesday tested a passenger jet that was powered partially with oil from a plum-sized fruit known as jatropha.

The airline is the latest carrier to experiment with alternative fuels, partly due to the threat of rising oil prices but also to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from aviation, which are projected to rise by 90 percent by 2020.

Air New Zealand said the two-hour flight from Auckland International Airport was the first to use what are known as second generation biofuels to power an...

By Paul Esrcourt (AP)

A passenger jet powered in part by vegetable oil successfully completed a two-hour flight Tuesday to test a biofuel that could lower airplane emissions and cut costs, Air New Zealand said.

One engine of a Boeing 747-400 airplane was powered by a 50-50 blend of oil from jatropha plants and standard A1 jet fuel.

This year has seen an unprecedented push for alternative fuels by airlines, which were slammed by skyrocketing oil prices earlier in 2008 and are now bracing for a falloff in air travel in the face of a global economic slowdown.

While Air New Zealand couldn\'t say...

By (AP)

One of Arnold Schwarzenegger\'s most famous one-liners will be back for generations to come, now that 1984\'s \"The Terminator\" has been selected for preservation in the nation\'s film archive.

The low-budget film directed by James Cameron set a new standard for science-fiction and made Schwarzenegger, now California\'s governor, a star. The Library of Congress announced Tuesday morning that it\'s one of 25 films being added to the National Film Registry. The formal unveiling was scheduled for 8 a.m.

The move will guard Schwarzenegger\'s deadpan, \"I\'ll be back,\" against...

By J. Miles Cary (AP)

A week after more than a billion gallons of coal ash broke through a retention pond dike and roared into a small river cove, the landscape has turned into a muddy pit that\'s little like the scenic spot that attracted people to live here.

The Emory River is clogged with giant chunks of gray ash sticking out of the water and trees ripped out by their roots and washed downstream during the Dec. 22 disaster. Ducks float in a film of sand-like residue on the surface. Dozens of pieces of heavy equipment are digging along the river to try to clean it of coal ash.

The Kingston Steam...

By Wade Payne (AP)

The CEO and president of the nation\'s largest public utility vowed to clean up a community encased in sludge after a major coal ash spill, where many residents fear toxic elements could seep into their drinking water.

Sandy Dickman, whose land remains covered by several feet of gray muck, said he doesn\'t think he\'ll be drinking the water. And he dreaded what might happen after the mire dries out and could become airborne, despite the utility\'s promise to test air quality and local wells.

\"It will look like a blizzard in the Arctic,\" said Dickman, who moved to the area...

By (AP)

The green thumbs who keep lawns lush and flora flourishing in the city have found a new foe among the aphids, white flies and other yard pests _ the water police.

Just as some scofflaws keep an eye out for black-and-white patrol cars, gardeners have learned to spot the white Toyota Priuses driven by Los Angeles water cops out to fight waste as California struggles with an extended drought.

\"They get to scattering when they see us,\" said Department of Water and Power officer Alonzo Ballengar. \"I don\'t know what they call me, but I\'m sure they have names.\"

A total...

By (AP)

The nation\'s largest government-run utility ignored two small leaks that could have provided a warning years before a coal ash pond collapsed, flooding a neighborhood with a billion gallons of sludge, a former federal regulator contends.

Jack Spadaro, a retired mining engineer who investigated a 1972 coal waste dam break that killed 125 people in West Virginia, said states have done a poor job monitoring huge ponds of coal ash, which aren\'t regulated by the federal government.

Three homes were destroyed and 42 parcels of land damaged when one such pond at the Tennessee...

By (AP)

Ugandan rebels waging one of Africa\'s longest and most brutal wars killed two wildlife rangers and six other people in a remote national park in northeastern Congo, a conservation group said Tuesday.

Lord\'s Resistance Army rebels carried out the attack on the Garamba National Park headquarters at Nagero on Jan. 2, WildlifeDirect said in a statement.

The dead also included two wives of park wardens, and 13 were hurt, most by bullets, the group said.

Last week, Congo\'s government said a joint offensive launched last month with the armies of Uganda and Sudan had routed...

By (AP)

South Korea said Tuesday it will invest 50 trillion won ($38.1 billion) over the next four years on environmental projects in a \"Green New Deal\" to spur slumping economic growth and create nearly a million jobs.

\"We are in an unprecedented global economic crisis,\" Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said in a statement. \"We must respond to the situation in an urgent manner.\"

Energy conservation, recycling, carbon reduction, flood prevention, development around the country\'s four main rivers and maintaining forest resources are among projects to be pursued under the plan,...

By (AP)

Eleven Eastern states have agreed to adhere to a new fuel standard that they hope will reduce greenhouse gases.

Massachusetts energy secretary Ian Bowles said Monday that the states will decide on a single standard for the entire region. He says it will create a larger market for cleaner fuels and the development of related technology.

The low carbon fuel standard requires a reduction in average greenhouse gas emissions per unit of energy. It applies to fuel for transportation and home heating.

The states include Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine,...