International

"Beleaguered BP will find its reputation further tarnished tomorrow when a British criminal court passes sentence on a company it half owns over safety breaches connected with the worst explosion and fire since the second world war."

"Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, pledged today to look into demands from a group of senators for an investigation into charges that BP lobbied for the release of the Lockerbie bomber as part of an oil-for-terrorist deal."

"Regulators traditionally react to falling fish stocks by putting additional curbs on fishing - an approach that may not work as larger changes such as global warming alter the seas and their inhabitants."

"The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies now reports that the first six months of 2010 are the warmest on record, both in terms of atmospheric data and in combined atmospheric/ocean readings."

Mainstream news media have given far less coverage to the five major panels that have debunked the "climategate" stolen-email flap kicked up by the fossil-fuel blogosphere than they did to the original charges now proven false.

"Leading climate scientists on Thursday welcomed a British report that cleared researchers of exaggerating the effects of global warming and said they hoped it would restore faith in the fight against climate change."

"Plane powered entirely by the sun lands safely in Switzerland after completing its first 24-hour test flight, proving that aircraft can stay airborne during the night using energy gathered from the sun by day."

"Transocean  is the world’s largest offshore drilling company, but until its Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April, few Americans outside the energy business had heard of it. It is well known, however, in a number of other countries — for testing local laws and regulations."