OSLO (Reuters) – Vietnam, Laos and Mozambique are the countries that do the least to crack down on an illegal trade in animal parts that is threatening the survival of elephants, rhinos and tigers, the WWF conservation group said on Monday.

In its ‘Wildlife Crime Scorecard’ report, it said 23 countries surveyed mostly in Africa and Asia, the main sources and destinations of animal parts, could all do more to enforce laws banning a trade that WWF said was increasingly run by international crime syndicates.

OSLO, July 18 (Reuters) – Dumping iron in the seas can help
transfer carbon from the atmosphere and bury it on the ocean
floor for centuries, helping to fight climate change, according
to a study released on Wednesday.

The report, by an international team of experts, provided a
boost for the disputed use of such ocean fertilisation for
combating global warming. But it failed to answer questions over
possible damage to marine life.

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway will hold the first funeral on Friday for a victim of Anders Behring Breivik’s massacre of 76 people a week ago amid signs of a leap in popularity for the ruling Labour Party that was his main target.

Flags around the nation flew at half mast to mark the day a week ago when Breivik set off a bomb in central Oslo that killed 8 people followed by the shooting of 68 people, mostly youth members of the Labour Party at an island summer camp.

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s police believe Anders Behring Breivik probably acted alone in killing 76 people last Friday, and Norwegians united in revulsion against the worst attack in the Nordic nation since World War Two.

A source close to the investigation told Reuters of Breivik’s talk of other cells: “We feel that the accused has fairly low credibility when it comes to this claim but none of us dare to be completely dismissive about it either.”

OSLO (Reuters) – A gunman dressed in police uniform opened fire at a youth camp of Norway’s ruling political party on Friday, killing at least 80 people, hours after a bomb killed seven in the government district in the capital Oslo.

“The updated knowledge we are sitting on now is at least 80,” police chief Oystein Maeland told a news conference.

OSLO, July 23 (Reuters) – A gunman dressed in police uniform opened fire at a youth camp of Norway’s ruling political party Friday, killing at least 10 people, hours after a bomb killed seven in the government district in the capital Oslo.

Witnesses said the gunman, identified by police as a 32-year-old Norwegian, moved across the small, wooded Utoeya holiday island firing at random at young people gathered for a meeting of the youth group of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s ruling Labor party.

OSLO (Reuters) – A massive bomb shattered Norway’s main government building in Oslo on Friday, killing two people police were quoted as saying by local news agency NTB.

There was no claim of responsibility, though NATO member Norway has been the target of threats, if not bombs, before, notably over its involvement in conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was safe, NTB said.

OSLO (Reuters) – A huge explosion wrecked government buildings in central Oslo on Friday including Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s office, injuring several people, a Reuters journalist said from the scene.

The cause of the blast was unknown but the tangled wreckage of a car was outside one building and the damage appeared consistent to witnesses with that from car bombs. Police and fire officials declined comment on the cause.

OSLO (Reuters) – Small fish play a big role in the oceans and catches should be cut sharply to safeguard marine food chains from plankton to blue whales, an international team of experts said on Thursday.

Rising human exploitation of little fish — including anchovy, sardine, herring, mackerel and capelin — had had far less attention in marine research compared to big commercial species such as cod, tuna, swordfish or salmon, they said.

OSLO (Reuters) – Herbal teas often contain unlisted extra ingredients such as weeds, ferns or bits of tree, according to a study by New York high school students that could help tighten labeling rules.

“A third of the herbal teas had things in them that are not on the label,” Mark Stoeckle, of the Rockefeller University who helped oversee the project, told Reuters by telephone.