ScienceInsider

The House of Representatives of the Netherlands today rejected a motion asking the government to sever all ties with virologist Albert Osterhaus of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, who had been accused of conflicts of interest in his role as a government adviser. But Dutch health minister Ab Klink, meanwhile, announced a "Sunshine Act" compelling scientists to disclose their financial ties to companies.

U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee mulls the dismal state of international climate politics in a hearing tomorrow entitled: "Copenhagen and Beyond: Is There a Successor to the Kyoto Protocol?"

The European Union is moving ahead with a plan to get solar energy from the Sahara.

Seventeen thousand species are threatened with extinction, says international watchdog the International Union for Conservation of Nature

(Photo Credit: © Tim Laman)