International experts on Tuesday called on countries to share freely all influenza virus samples and genetic sequencing data, key to developing a vaccine against a potential bird flu pandemic. Bird flu has spread rapidly since late 2003 from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Reuters

Reuters has posted a brief chronology of some of the major bird flu developments in 2006. Currently the global death toll for H5M1 stands at 146, with six victims in Egypt, four in Turkey, 51 in Indonesia, six in Cambodia, 14 in China, 16 in Thailand, 42 in Vietnam, two in Iraq and five in [...]

A Nasa satellite has documented startling changes in Arctic sea ice cover between 2004 and 2005. The extent of “perennial” ice – thick ice which remains all year round – declined by 14%, losing an area the size of Pakistan or Turkey. The last few decades have seen summer ice shrink by about 0.7% per [...]

Britain can expect more tropical-style rainfall as climate change gathers pace, according to research carried out by Newcastle University. Scientists said extreme conditions that are likely to lead to flooding have become more common and intense over the last 40 years. They found that rainstorms have doubled in intensity in places like eastern Scotland and [...]