International

Bad water kills more people than wars or earthquakes, UN officials declared, as they prepared to celebrate World Water Week next week.

"MOSCOW -- When the Soviet Union introduced its Alfa class submarine -- at the time, the world’s fastest -- the subs were the bane of American sailors. Now, the reactors that powered those submarines are being marketed as the next innovation in green power."

"Delegates at a United Nations conference on endangered species in Doha, Qatar, soundly defeated American-supported proposals on Thursday to ban international trade in bluefin tuna and to protect polar bears."

"U.S. troops heading to Iraq and Afghanistan will soon be trained to confront a new enemy, the trade in products made from endangered animals."

"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."