Unchecked climate change could force up to 72 per cent of the world’s bird species into extinction. “Birds now indicate that global warming has set in motion a powerful chain of effects in ecosystems worldwide.”

Democratic legislators are preparing to take over the influential congressional committees. Here are some facts about those expected to gain key roles in the House of Representatives and Senate; Pelosi, Lantos, Rangle, Conyers, Biden, Levin, and Byrd.

New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany’s top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers.

By funding Osama Bin Laden’s operations, training camps, weaponry and political influence from 1979 (even before Russia invaded Afghanistan), Robert Gates personally gave us our principal enemy in the “War on Terror.”

There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study. Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating. “We have gone through one-third, and we are going to get through the rest.”