A series of explosions rocked Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano, spewing columns of ash into the air that reached as far as Quito.

Ash fall from the plumes was reported up to 130 kilometers (80 miles) north in the Ecuadoran capital, authorities said.

The United Nations Security Council is cracking down on ivory hunters and traffickers who finance armed groups in Africa in a new initiative that has been welcomed by conservationists.

Two resolutions adopted by the council last week -- one relating to the Central African Republic, the other to the Democratic Republic of Congo -- stated that the trade in illegal wildlife was fueling conflicts in the region and bankrolling organized crime.

The Bob Barker, belonging to the militant anti-whaling campaigners Sea Shepherd, is moored in Hobart, Australia on December 13, 2011

Japan on Monday said it was asking the Netherlands to take "practical measures" against a Dutch-registered vessel that collided with a Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean.

As he trains his .458 Winchester Magnum rifle on a tethered goat he is using as bait, tiger-hunter Nawab Shafat Ali Khan whispers that it is only a matter of time before his real prey reappears.

"Now is a very dangerous time. The next human attack could happen anytime," said the 55-year-old, who is leading a major tiger hunt on the outskirts of India's Jim Corbett National Park.

The controversial policy to catch and kill sharks off popular west coast beaches in Auatralia was given the green light last month

Thousands of people rallied across Australia Saturday against a controversial shark culling policy designed to prevent attacks, saying killing the marine animals was the not the answer.

Furious tourism operators on the Great Barrier Reef on Saturday (Shenzhen: 002291.SZ - news) threatened legal action after approval was given to dump of up to three million cubic metres of dredge waste in park waters.

Association of Marine Park Tour Operators president Colin McKenzie, the peak industry lobby group covering tourism in the World Heritage-listed reef region, accused the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority of pandering to politicians.

A three-year-old komodo dragon has died at an Indonesian zoo infamous for scores of animal deaths, zoo officials said Saturday.

A zookeeper found the dragon dead in its cage on Saturday morning when he came to feed the giant lizard.

It happens to nearly everyone: A song — let's say Abba's "Waterloo" — is stuck in your head and just won't go away.

Now science has not one but three ways to dig that dreaded earworm out. And none of them are too surprising, as researchers surveyed 18,000 residents of Finland and England and reported their findings in the journal PLOS One.

The Jade Rabbit did not go quietly into that long lunar night.

Instead, China's troubled robotic moon rover — given voice by a government news agency — melodramatically pondered the meaning of its perhaps-fleeting existence, measured its contribution to humanity and, finally, said goodbye.

In Britain, wild swans may be prized for their beauty and protected by the Queen, but the U.S. state of New York has declared war on them, branding them a violent menace.

Draft proposals to kill or resettle the state's 2,200 wild mute swans by 2025 may be supported by some conservationists but have sparked uproar among animal rights activists.