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Environment Agency hopes Lower Axe Valley will become home to small colonies of the once common rodentAround 100 water voles were released to the waterways of Devon yesterday as part of a nationwide effort to save one of Britain's most popular animals. Numbers of the vole, immortalised as Ratty in Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows, plummeted in the 1990s, and some 90% had disappeared by 2005. A series of reintroduction projects have addressed the decline, and experts say the recovering species has 'turned the corner'.Alastair Driver, chair of the UK water vole steering group and national conservation manager with the Environment Agency, which organised yesterday's release, said: 'This is just one of many projects across the country that the Environment Agency is funding to ensure the recovery of the water vole, which until recently was facing extinction and is still in a very precarious situation.'Surveys show that water vole numbers have increased in many areas, with the Sussex co

Engineering construction faces the threat of official national industrial action as unions try to get a grip on wildcat strikes that have disrupted power plants

Chinalco will offer concessions to its proposed $19.5bn investment in Rio Tinto in an attempt to secure regulatory clearance from the Australian government and win the support of the miner's shareholders

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 21, 2009) - The McGuinty government announced plans to expand the Aging At Home program and community care initiatives. The government is in fact trying to pull the...

A few years ago, Spain's National Court was given the power to investigate torture and other serious crimes anywhere in the world, even if no Spanish citizens were involved. The ruling has triggered a flood of international suits, including two cases regarding Guantanamo detainees.

EDMONTON, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - May 21, 2009) - The Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Labour and Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Spruce Grove, today announced federal support to improve the faci...

Move sees convent swap fuel-hungry abbey for new home with solar panels, grass-covered roof and reedbed sewage systemIt is not often that the Benedictine nuns of the Conventus of Our Lady of Consolation leave their monastery. It is even rarer for them to move monasteries entirely.But today, the nuns left their Worcestershire home of 171 years to take possession of their new residence in the North York Moors national park - a new building that they insisted must remain as environmentally-friendly as possible as they lead their quiet life of prayer.Among the £4.7 million building's green features are solar panels to provide hot water, a woodchip boiler that will be fuelled by locally-sourced trees and a roof covered in sedum grass to better insulate the buildings and attract local wildlife.Rainwater from some of the roofs will be collected and used to flush the toilets and, instead of an electrically-driven waste water treatment plant, the architects have installed a reedbed sewage syste

(New York) - US President Barack Obama delivered an eloquent defense of the national security reasons for respecting human rights in fighting terrorism, but his proposal to continue detaining terrorism suspects without trial ran counter to the principles he endorsed, Human Rights Watch said today. read more

NEW MARYLAND, NEW BRUNSWICK--(Marketwire - May 21, 2009) - The Honourable Keith Ashfield, Minister of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency) and Member of Parliament for Fredericton, today annou...

Retail sales bounced higher in April, adding to signs that the recession is easing: volumes rose by 2.6 per cent compared to a year ago, helped by a faster rise in sales of both groceries and non-food goods, the Office for National Statistics reported