LOS ANGELES A California restaurant facing criminal charges for serving endangered whale meat sushi has announced it will close permanently as a self-imposed punishment. The Hump restaurant in Santa Monica and chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto face charges over the illegal sale of a marine mammal product after the Oscar-winning documentary makers of The Cove filmed them serving Sei whale sushi. The
CANCUN, Mexico The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has listened to and learned from recent criticism, but the threat of global warming is real and must be tackled, the group's head said Saturday.Rajendra Pachauri, the embattled head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning panel of experts, has been criticized for endorsing climate projections based on faulty or inaccurate evidence. There's b
SANTIAGO Chile unveiled an initial, 110-million-dollar reconstruction plan Friday to put the central region back on its feet after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.The plan focuses on immediate priorities, such as providing shelter to families made homeless by the quake, restoring school attendance and creating jobs in coastal areas that bore the brunt of the catastrophe, government spokesw
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. When snow falls on this downtown of brick buildings and glass storefronts in southern Oregon, it piles up everywhere but the sidewalks.It's the first sign that this timber and ranching town is like few others.A combination of hot rocks and water like those that created Yellowstone's geysers have been tapped by the city to keep the sidewalks toasty since the early 1990s.They al
DOHA Four rapidly dwindling shark species prized in Asia for fins and in Europe for meat will be swimming against the current at a UN wildlife trade meet days after an attempt to protect tuna was crushed.Starting Sunday, the 175-nation Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), will consider separate proposals that would require cross-border trade in these open-water p
FARGO, N.D. The projected crest of the Red River at Fargo, N.D., has dropped a half-foot, which is good news for a city braced for flooding.The National Weather Service revised its projection Friday to show the Red at 19.5 feet above the flood stage by Sunday morning.That's down from an earlier forecast of 20 feet.Spokesman Mark Frazier says models suggest water levels should decline slowly but s
BEIJING Tons of sand from deserts in China's interior blew into Beijing Saturday, shrouding China's capital in a yellow-orange haze that authorities warned made the air quality hazardous. There were few people out on streets where pedestrians could taste the dust.Many of those who had ventured from their homes were wearing facemasks, and some left footprints in the yellow film that had settled
RENO, Nev. Activists in Nevada are questioning the rising death toll from a government roundup of wild horses from the range north of Reno.U.S Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman JoLynn Worley says 77 mustangs involved in the Calico Mountains Complex gather have died so far — 70 at a Fallon facility where they were taken and the rest at the roundup site.That's nearly double the 39 horses
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