A deliberately caused oil spill of some 660,000 gallons in Northern Italy snaked down the Po River and reached the province of Parma raising fears of contamination in a farm district that produces Italy's famed prosciutto and parmesan cheese.

"Poland's Bialowieza National Park is home to some of the most impressive trees in Europe. Old growth oak, ash, spruce, hornbeam, linden, lime, and pine tower out of sight, their trunks dripping with luscious moss. For millennia these trees (some of which are more than 600 years old) have harbored legions of top carnivores, rare bugs, birds, and plants. Three packs of wolves range the park's wilderness, along with bison, lynx, wild boar, roe and red deer, otter, cranes, storks, three kinds of eagle, and four owl species." The park faces a number of threats, especially logging."

"A scientist who is one of the central figures in the uproar over pirated e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit announced Tuesday that he is stepping down as the unit's director while the university investigates the incident."