Ascension Island - Over the last few weeks we have been recording high numbers of dead fish washing up onto the beaches around the Island. The same thing happened, at the same time of year, in 2008. A report was published recently, called 'Reef fish mass mortality event in an isolated island off Brazil, with notes on recent similar events at Ascension, St Helena and Maldives' by Hudson Pinheiro, Joao Gasparini and Jean-Christophe Joyeux. The report states that 'it is possible that blooms of toxic algae, under certain conditions, caused cascading intoxication along the trophic web. Toxic algae occur in other Atlantic oceanic islands and there are reports of algal blooms occurring in remote areas that suffer low human impact. A second hypothesis is that seasonal upwelling events of anoxic or hypoxic waters may be involved (the low oxygen content would be due to the resuspension of sediment and organic matter deposited at geological scales) often heavily loaded with hydrogen sulphide. Oxygen-poor waters of the Benguela upwelling have been reported to affect the southeastern Atlantic continental shelf and these waters, in years of strong Benguela upwelling, can even reach the Mid-Atlantic Ridge island of St Helena.' The full report is available to download from our website. We are currently consulting with contacts in the UK and Falklands. I have sent them as much information as I have, including species affected, numbers, symptoms and photographs. They will be able to offer advice on the best course of action. I have also been in touch with one of the authors of 2010 report, this was his response.

As the sun rose over Australia on Friday morning, May 10th, the solar disk turned into a ring of fire. The day began with an annular solar eclipse: Nicole Hollenbeck took the picture from inside the narrow path of annularity about 70km south of Newman, Australia. At the time, more than 95% of the sun's diameter was covered by the Moon. In an annular eclipse the Moon is not quite big enough to cover the entire solar disk. A blinding ring of solar fire juts out around the Moon, overwhelming the sun's delicate corona. It may not be the same as totality, but annularity has a charm and beauty all its own. Browse the gallery for more images from the eclipse zone.

Police departments across the country routinely get tips from self-professed mediums, particularly in high-profile cases. The claims don't always pan out, as was the case with psychic Sylvia Browne. Another psychic says, 'I don't claim to solve the crimes. Police do. I give information.' In 2004, self-proclaimed psychic Sylvia Browne had a heartbreaking message for the mother of Amanda Berry, one of the three Cleveland kidnapping victims. "She's not alive, honey," Browne told mom Louwanna Miller on The Montel Williams Show. Miller, who died two years later, would never know that Berry was in fact alive - she and two other women were discovered Monday after police say they were held captive in a home for about a decade. Browne was blasted on social media for her dead-wrong declaration, with some calling her a "filthy, exploitative, greedy liar." She didn't return a call for comment Wednesday. Meanwhile, Browne's baseless claim in the shocking Cleveland case has put a spotlight on how law enforcement uses clairvoyants, and whether they're helpful crime solvers - or opportunistic crackpots. Noreen Renier, who calls herself a "psychic detective," defended her profession from skeptics. "I don't claim to solve the crimes. Police do," Renier, of Orlando, Fla., told the Daily News. "I give information." Renier, 76, said she's worked on more than 600 cases across the country and is currently helping to crack a homicide case in Mozambique.

San Jaun, Puerto Rico -- Federal authorities in Puerto Rico have arrested an executive at Pfizer Pharmaceutical for allegedly producing child pornography. Officials say 48-year-old Reinaldo Diaz Camacho was charged after Puerto Rico police received information that he was having sexually explicit conversations with a 16-year-old boy on Facebook. U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said Thursday that the boy's mother told authorities she had seen the conversations on her son's cellphone.

Brevard County - Kennedy Space Center, Florida - NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer spacecraft has discovered a pair of stars that have taken over the title for the third-closest star system to the sun. The duo is the closest star system discovered since 1916. Both stars in the new binary system are "brown dwarfs," which are stars that are too small in mass to ever become hot enough to ignite hydrogen fusion. As a result, they are very cool and dim, resembling a giant planet like Jupiter more than a bright star like the sun. "The distance to this brown dwarf pair is 6.5 light-years - so close that Earth's television transmissions from 2006 are now arriving there," said Kevin Luhman, an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University and a researcher in Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds. "It will be an excellent hunting ground for planets because the system is very close to Earth, which makes it a lot easier to see any planets orbiting either of the brown dwarfs." The results will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Company will drill almost two miles underwater in Gulf of Mexico as part of next generation of deep-water developments Royal Dutch Shell is pressing ahead with the world's deepest offshore oil and gas production facility by drilling almost two miles underwater in the politically sensitive Gulf of Mexico. The move is being viewed in the oil industry as a demonstration of Shell's confidence that its technology can deliver returns on expensive and risky offshore projects, despite a recent downturn in oil prices. It comes a day after ExxonMobil said it would start work on a $4bn (£2.6bn) project to develop the Julia oilfield, also in the North American ocean basin, and weeks after BP delayed development of its biggest Gulf of Mexico project - Mad Dog Phase 2 - citing rising costs. John Hollowell, a Shell executive vice-president, said: "This important investment demonstrates our ongoing commitment to usher in the next generation of deepwater developments, which will deliver more production growth in the Americas. We will continue our leadership in safe, innovative deepwater operations to help meet the growing demand for energy in the US." The move comes despite ongoing controversy over offshore exploration - especially in the Gulf of Mexico, where in April 2010 a fire and explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and started a leak that took three months to cap. Last month BP said it had paid $25bn (£16bn) of the $42bn it has set aside to cover the damage caused by the spill.

Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of civil rights icon Malcolm X, has been killed in Mexico according to The Amsterdam News. Shabazz's death was also confirmed on Twitter and Facebook by Terrie Williams, a friend of the Shabazz family. While details of his death are still unclear, there are unconfirmed reports that Shabazz died of injuries sustained during a robbery. Shabazz is the son of Qubilah Shabazz, who was the second daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. In his youth, he set a fire that caused the death of his grandmother. For that crime, he plead plead guilty to manslaughter, was found guilty of arson, and was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile detention facility. As an adult, Shabazz continued to have trouble with the law, The New York Times reported. He plead guilty to attempted robbery in 2002 and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. Just months after his release in 2006, he was arrested again, this time for punching a hole in a store window. At the time of his death, Shabazz was attending John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and working on two books.

The Yale Peabody Museum said a second meteorite has been found in a Connecticut building, 19 days after one hit a home in Wolcott. This second meteorite was found in a Waterbury home Thursday, according to a press release. This object was not seen or heard as it fell, but Dr. Stefan Nicolescu, mineralogy collections manager at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, said in the release that he believes "it is highly likely the Waterbury meteorite is related to the April 19 fall in Wolcott." The Waterbury meteorite is about 4 inches long and weighs 1.6 pounds. It had the same type of dark crust, magnetism, and interior color as the Wolcott meteorite. Nicolescu said the museum hopes to confirm whether or not the meteorites are related with further testing.

This just in...Two women filed separate lawsuits earlier this week claiming they were raped by Bikram Choudhury and that Bikram's inside circle actively recruits women for him. We know, there are so many Bikram-related lawsuits it's hard to keep track. This is where it gets real. "Jane Doe No. 2 sued Choudhury and Bikram Yoga College of India in Superior Court on Monday, alleging sexual battery, false imprisonment, discrimination, harassment and seven other counts. Jane Doe No. 1 filed a similar complaint Tuesday against the same defendants in the same court," Courthouse News Service reported earlier today. Note, this is in addition to the lawsuit from March that rocked the house that Bikram built filed by former student and Bikram Yoga teacher Sarah Baughn alleging sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination, all of which Bikram denied. We thought there might be more. This time, it's rape. And it is incredibly ugly, contemptible and beyond disturbing. This is the information we have so far. Via courthousenews.com, a nationwide news service specializing in civil litigation: In her complaint, Jane Doe No. 2 claims that Choudhury raped her in November 2010 after her boyfriend gave her a gift to be trained as a teacher at Choudhury's Bikram Yoga studio in San Diego. Doe No. 2 says in the complaint that defendant Does 1-25, "other persons in defendant Bikram Choudhury's inner circle, were aware of defendant Bikram Choudhury's pattern and practice of causing, inducing or persuading young women to enroll in teacher training classes to become yoga instructors only so he can sexually assault and/or rape them." She claims the Doe defendants knew this was in the cards, but "did nothing to prevent this from happening to plaintiff or to protect her." Her 36-page complaint claims there is a disturbing cult-like environment in the studios, where studio owners and instructors enroll attractive, vulnerable young women for Choudhury to sexually assault or rape.

Scientists still don't know why hundreds of baby southern right whales are turning up dead around Patagonia, a decade after observers first saw signs of the worst die-off on record for the species, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). With no evidence of infectious diseases or deadly toxins in whale tissue samples, scientists are scrambling to determine a cause of death. Some are even pointing a finger at blubber-eating birds. The whales come to the peaceful Atlantic bays around Peninsula Valdes along Argentina's Patagonian Coast to give birth and raise their young. At least 605 dead right whales have been counted in the region since 2003, WCS officials say. Of those, 538 were newborn calves. Last year, the mortality event was especially severe, with a record-breaking 116 whale deaths, 113 of them calves. Despite extensive investigations, researchers have not been able to pinpoint why so many of those calves have been washing up dead at the region's remote beaches.

Scientists still don't know why hundreds of baby southern right whales are turning up dead around Patagonia, a decade after observers first saw signs of the worst die-off on record for the species, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). With no evidence of infectious diseases or deadly toxins in whale tissue samples, scientists are scrambling to determine a cause of death. Some are even pointing a finger at blubber-eating birds. The whales come to the peaceful Atlantic bays around Peninsula Valdes along Argentina's Patagonian Coast to give birth and raise their young. At least 605 dead right whales have been counted in the region since 2003, WCS officials say. Of those, 538 were newborn calves. Last year, the mortality event was especially severe, with a record-breaking 116 whale deaths, 113 of them calves. Despite extensive investigations, researchers have not been able to pinpoint why so many of those calves have been washing up dead at the region's remote beaches.

Scientists still don't know why hundreds of baby southern right whales are turning up dead around Patagonia, a decade after observers first saw signs of the worst die-off on record for the species, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). With no evidence of infectious diseases or deadly toxins in whale tissue samples, scientists are scrambling to determine a cause of death. Some are even pointing a finger at blubber-eating birds. The whales come to the peaceful Atlantic bays around Peninsula Valdes along Argentina's Patagonian Coast to give birth and raise their young. At least 605 dead right whales have been counted in the region since 2003, WCS officials say. Of those, 538 were newborn calves. Last year, the mortality event was especially severe, with a record-breaking 116 whale deaths, 113 of them calves. Despite extensive investigations, researchers have not been able to pinpoint why so many of those calves have been washing up dead at the region's remote beaches.

Chinese health officials announced on Monday that four more people have died from the H7N9 bird flu virus. The virus has now killed 31 and infected 131 mostly along China's eastern coast. Three of the deaths occurred in the eastern coastal provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and one death occurred further inland at Anhui. No details have emerged concerning the new victims. In addition to recent deaths, the Chinese government is reporting two new confirmed H7N9 cases in the southeastern coastal province Fujian, located across the straits from Taiwan where the virus has infected one person who is said to be recovering.

An apple a day used to keep the doctor away, at least according to folk wisdom. But not any more - unless it's organically grown. Apples top the list of foods contaminated with pesticides, says the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental health research and advocacy organization, in its annual report called "The Dirty Dozen™." The listing of foods that may have toxic levels of pesticides is part of the group's Shopper's Guide to Pesticide in Produce, which draws its data from tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Even after washing, more than two thirds of the tens of thousands of food samples tested by the agencies showed pesticide residues. The most contaminated fruits were apples, strawberries, grapes, peaches and imported nectarines. Among vegetables, the most contaminated were celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, cherry tomatoes and hot peppers. The contamination levels varied significantly between different foods. Potatoes had a higher total weight of pesticides than any other food crop. A single grape tested for 15 different pesticides. So did sweet bell peppers.

A group of farm laborers who chose to seek shelter from the suffocating smoke of a California wildfire last week were terminated for taking a break. At least 15 workers at Crisalida Farms in Oxnard, California, found themselves struggling to breathe last week as the Camarillo Springs wildfire blackened the sky with smoke and ash. The blaze damaged more than a dozen houses, threatened 4,000 homes, and burned a store of highly toxic pesticides that caught fire at an agricultural property. Located just 11 miles south of the fire, workers at the Southern California strawberry farm had a difficult time breathing as they laboriously worked in the fields. Their boss had warned them that taking a break would compromise their jobs, and they were faced with a dilemma. "The ashes were falling on top of us," one of the workers told NBC LA. "[But] they told us if we leave, there would be no job to return to."

A sinkhole measuring nearly 85 meters wide and 15 meters deep engulfed three houses in a town outside Russia's fifth-largest city Nizhny Novgorod as some residents of the small village were slumbering. One of the houses in the town of Buturlino was completely demolshed. Residents managed to escape the building a few minutes before it literally collapsed like a house of cards on Wednesday night. "I just barely left the house as everything around started to collapse," Aleksey Ionychev told Russia's Channel One.

A mystery in Quincy continues to deepen. Who is flying around the city from dusk to dawn, for the past ten days or so? "It's frightening, not just weird, but frightening," said one resident of the Wollaston section. It's not the state or local police doing the flying, and the FAA is giving out little information, even to city officials. "It's frustrating, it really is," says City Councillor Brian Palmucci about his conversation with the FAA. "I specifically asked, 'Is it a law enforcement flight? Can we tell people that?' He said 'no we can't tell you that.' Well then I asked that when folks call me can I at least tell them that it is something that they shouldn't worry about, it's something they shouldn't be concerned with. He said, 'I can't tell you that.'" Sources tell WBZ that the aircraft is not a drone, that it is manned, and FAA spokesman Jim Peters said, "we have to be very careful this time" concerning information. Even the Mayor has been kept in the dark. "We're as frustrated as our constituents," said Mayor Tom Koch, "we'd like to be able to give our citizens some answers, but we don't have any answers."

A mystery in Quincy continues to deepen. Who is flying around the city from dusk to dawn, for the past ten days or so? "It's frightening, not just weird, but frightening," said one resident of the Wollaston section. It's not the state or local police doing the flying, and the FAA is giving out little information, even to city officials. "It's frustrating, it really is," says City Councillor Brian Palmucci about his conversation with the FAA. "I specifically asked, 'Is it a law enforcement flight? Can we tell people that?' He said 'no we can't tell you that.' Well then I asked that when folks call me can I at least tell them that it is something that they shouldn't worry about, it's something they shouldn't be concerned with. He said, 'I can't tell you that.'" Sources tell WBZ that the aircraft is not a drone, that it is manned, and FAA spokesman Jim Peters said, "we have to be very careful this time" concerning information. Even the Mayor has been kept in the dark. "We're as frustrated as our constituents," said Mayor Tom Koch, "we'd like to be able to give our citizens some answers, but we don't have any answers."

A meteor exploded over Japan terrifying dozens people in the early morning of May 6, 2013. An amateur photographer captured spectacular images of the blast which were then posted on the Internet. The space rock disintegrated in the atmosphere releasing a noisy boom over Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo. The celestial event took place at 3.58 a.m. local time and a video footage shows the meteor appearing as a fast moving fireball whose intensity gradually increases. The first snaps were uploaded by an eyewitness on the blog Sonotaco.jp before spreading across the social networks.

When most people go on trips abroad, they tend to collect photos or souvenirs, but Miley Cyrus' mementos are a bit more sinister. The star returned home from her stay in London with a ghost story, which probably shouldn't come as a surprise, considering the long and turbulent history of the city. But the specters that chose to manifest in front of the Cyrus family sound like a particularly creepy bunch. "It was seriously so terrifying. It used to be an old bakery and they turned it into an apartment building, and I was having really crazy dreams and really scary things," Cyrus told Elle U.K. Apparently the ghosts weren't satisfied with just haunting the singer's dreams though. "And one night my little sister - it sounds crazy to tell you - but, she was standing in the shower and all of a sudden I hear her scream. I run in there and the water had somehow flipped to hot but it was still... It wasn't like the water had just changed, the knob had turned but she hadn't turned it and it was burning her. She was really red."