International

"In the months after the BP oil spill, the company announced that its gaffe-prone CEO, Tony Hayward, would be replaced by Bob Dudley, an American who served as the point person in the US on the spill. Since taking over on October 1, Dudley has been too busy to talk to members of Congress about the disaster the company unleashed on the Gulf. But he wasn't too busy today to accuse the media and other oil companies of making too much of a big deal about that 4.9 million barrels of oil they dumped."

"A U.N. meeting to set targets to fight rising animal and plant extinctions inched on Friday toward agreement, but rich and poor countries remained split over details of a new framework on genetic resources."

"The signs of climate change were all over the Arctic this year -- warmer air, less sea ice, melting glaciers -- which probably means this weather-making region will not return to its former, colder state, scientists reported on Thursday."

"Global warming will bring on severe and prolonged drought across the United States and many other heavily populated countries within 30 years, finds a new study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research."

Will the undervaluing of environmental risks and resources lead to another financial meltdown like the sub-prime mortgage disaster? A new report says credit rating agencies are ignoring water scarcity risks when rating municipal utility bonds. Investors stand to lose hundreds of billions.

Physicists probing the origins of the universe at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva hope they will turn up evidence of parallel universes.

"Bangladesh and India are the countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to an index on Wednesday that rates the Nordic region least at risk."

Gordon Murray, celebrated for designing the fastest, most powerful cars in the world, has gone to the other extreme. His latest product, the T.25, a fuel-abstemious three-seater passenger car, is made from metal tubes and recycled plastic bottles."