Wildfires spread rapidly over the weekend near parched mountain communities in New Mexico and Colorado, forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes. Hotshot crews are struggling to build a fire line around a 54-square-mile blaze near Ruidoso in southern New Mexico as strong winds ground firefighting aircraft. The fire has destroyed 36 structures, including homes. A larger blaze has burned 450 square miles in southwestern New Mexico, making it the biggest fire in the state's history. Authorities i... Read More
On Sunday, British cyclist Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) won his second consecutive Criterium du Dauphine overall title. Daniel Moreno (Katusha) won the final stage of the race but was unable to upset Wiggins, who easily defended his position. Wiggins' teammate Michael Rogers took second overall and Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) finished in third place. Andy Schleck, the 2010 Tour de France winner, dropped out of the race on Saturday. He had recently revealed he missed a week of training in May d... Read More
NASA scientists who discovered a huge algae bloom underneath the Arctic ice sheet are calling the find "as unexpected as finding a rainforest in the middle of the desert." Researchers from the agency's ICESCAPE announced Thursday that the project had discovered the cloud of microscopic phytoplankton below a layer of ice in the Chukchi Sea, north of Siberia. "If someone had asked me before the expedition whether we would see under-ice blooms, I would have told them it was impossible" said Kevin... Read More
Chinese travel agencies are reporting that the government has banned all foreign visitors to Tibet after two men set themselves on fire at Lhasa’s Jokhang temple last week to protest Chinese rule. The two Tibetan protestors were taken away by paramilitary forces, and it is not known whether they lived. The Chinese National Tourist Office stopped issuing entry permits after the self-immolations, though Chinese nationals will still be allowed to travel freely. Travel agencies expect the ba... Read More
Seven years after installing a mile-long high-speed chairlift at Tamarack Resort in Idaho, the ski lift's builder is dismantling it in a repossession by the resort's creditors. Tamarack, which closed in financial ruin in 2009, owes its largest creditor more than $300 million. A separate creditor, Bank of America, has decided to recoup some losses by selling the resort's most expensive lift, a task that contractors describe as "difficult." "I'm in the ski lift business, not the ski lift removal... Read More
