Results from dead swans could take two weeks
It could take up to two weeks to identify the cause of death of 32 swans found at New Lake, Dunganaghy.

The swans were sent to the Department of Agriculture's Regional Veterinary Laboratory in Sligo for analysis.

A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine told Donegal Now that the samples had only arrived on Tuesday. He said it was still too early to say what had caused the multiple deaths.

"It will probably take about 10 to 14 days to really understand what happened to them," he said.

Meanwhile members of the public are advised not to touch any dead birds they come across.

Nearly one in three commercial honeybee colonies in the United States died or disappeared last winter, an unsustainable decline that threatens the nation's food supply.

Multiple factors - pesticides, fungicides, parasites, viruses and malnutrition - are believed to cause the losses, which were officially announced today by a consortium of academic researchers, beekeepers and Department of Agriculture scientists.

"We're getting closer and closer to the point where we don't have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands," said entomologist Dennis vanEngelstorp of the University of Maryland, who led the survey documenting the declines.

Beekeepers lost 31 percent of their colonies in late 2012 and early 2013, roughly double what's considered acceptable attrition through natural causes. The losses are in keeping with rates documented since 2006, when beekeeper concerns prompted the first nationwide survey of honeybee health. Hopes raised by drop in rates of loss to 22 percent in 2011-2012 were wiped out by the new numbers.

Pittsylvania, Co., VA - The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has been bombarded with reports of dead bird sightings throughout the Southside. Most of the birds were found Tuesday in Danville and Pittsylvania County.

Barbara Scott was shocked when her business's parking lot became a graveyard for more than 100 birds.

"That freaked me out," said Scott, manager of Penny-Wise Cleaners.

Scott says first she noticed feathers stuck to the front door, before she learned that was just the start.

"I was thinking this was crazy. How in the world did the bird fly into the door is what I was thinking," said Scott.

The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries received several reports of dead birds littering that parking lot and a number of others throughout Danville and Pittsylvania County.

"It's kind of a rare occurrence for song birds to end up being found dead from a natural incident," said Dan Lovelace, Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Still, Lovelace suspects the deaths can be attributed to the strong storms mixed with the bird's migration patterns.

"This time of year, the warblers and other birds are migrating at night so it's a good chance it is a weather related phenomena," said Lovelace.

Lovelace explains they have no reason to believe the deaths were caused by a toxin and at this point, people should not be concerned.

"I feel better but there still there is the question of why, how?" said Scott.

While most of the birds have now been cleaned up from the lot, Scott just hopes this will never happen again. After all, she says it can't be good for business.

Lovelace collected several birds from different locations and sent them to a lab to be tested. He says he cannot know the exact cause of death until he gets those results back.

Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano has spewed ash over several towns in the central state of Puebla, just 55 kilometers (35 miles) southeast of Mexico City, but the country's capital was spared.
The volcano blew a huge stack of smoke that went 3,200 meters (10,500 feet) skyward late Tuesday, but surrounding residents were not in danger, said Jesus Morales, Puebla's civil protection director.

A three-centimeter (one-inch) thick carpet of ash covered nearby towns, forcing people to wear masks. The National Disaster Prevention Center said Wednesday that ash also fell in the state capital of Puebla.

The 5,452-meter (17,900-foot) high Popocatepetl is Mexico's second highest peak after the Citlaltepetl volcano.

A Tucson climber was found dead, hanging from a southern Arizona cliff in his hanging gear and covered with bee stings.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office says 55-year-old Steven Johnson was found in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson late Monday.

Residents of a Houston neighborhood are being warned to stay away from giant African land snails after a woman found one in her garden and snapped a photo of it.

The snails, researchers warn, are potentially dangerous to touch, in part because they can carry meningitis. Scientists have warned anyone who comes in contact with them to wash their hands thoroughly.

"They also carry a parasitic disease that can cause a lot of harm to humans and sometimes even death," Autumn Smith-Herron, director of the Institute for the Study of Invasive Species at Sam Houston State University, told NBC Houston affiliate KPRC.

A woman gardening in the Briar Forest neighborhood of Houston found the snail and notified workers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center who deal with invasive plants. It is the first reported sighting of the mollusk in Texas, and no one seems to know how it got there.

The giant snails can lay 100 eggs per month, and though only one has been found, it is believed more are in the area.

Distressing scenes as a mother fought to stop her dead calf from sinking into HK's polluted waters have highlighted plight of iconic pink dolphins


An hour into their journey from Tung Chung pier, the 20 members of the boat party finally got what they had been waiting for - a close encounter with the remaining pink dolphins who still make their home in Hong Kong waters.

But as the boat edged closer to the dolphins in the Lung Kwu Chau Marine Park and the eager tourists reached for their cameras, their excitement quickly turned to shock and distress.

"There were about four or five dolphins in the water and it seemed at first as if they were trying to get hold of something and support it," said Ho Tak-ching, 34, a guide with Hong Kong Dolphinwatch. "It really wasn't normal behaviour."

The dolphins were trying to help a mother support the body of her dead calf and stop it slipping below the water's surface.

"I started to film and it was then that I noticed the dead baby calf. From its size and colour, I guessed it was a newborn. It was so depressing and so very sad. While I was taking the video I couldn't stop myself crying.

"There was a group of four or five dolphins taking turns with the mother to try to keep the baby on the surface of the water. We watched it for about 30 minutes.

"At first, I didn't want to mention it to the passengers. But then some of them noticed the dead baby. They asked me, 'How has this happened?' They seemed very upset. They asked if there was something we could do to help, but I said there was nothing we could do."

Grieving and unable to accept their calves' deaths, the mother dolphins will spend up to two weeks trying to keep them on the surface of the water, exhausting themselves and going without food as other dolphins rally to help them.

These displays of epimeletic, or care-giving, behaviour demonstrate the intelligence and compassion of dolphins.

Volunteers have pulled 25 tonnes of dead carp out of a lake in eastern Germany - there are so many, locals are running out of boats. Regional officials have admitted they are baffled - only carp seem to be dying in the lake.

Dead silver carp started being found floating belly up on the surface of the Heyda lake, Thuringia, in mid-April. Since then, volunteers have scooped 25 tonnes of cadavers from the water, which is near the town of Ilmenau south of Erfurt.

On Saturday alone volunteers largely from the local angling club filled an 18,000-litre container more than half way, Der Spiegel magazine said. Helpers told the magazine that they expected the amount to double.

Tests performed on the fish showed no sign of bacteria or infection and no other fish have been found - just relatively mature silver carp, many of which had already started rotting.

This has left both town residents and experts baffled. A spokesman for the Ilm area administration, Eckhard Bauerschmidt, told The Local the council had been flooded with calls asking about the mass deaths, but they were still in the dark as to the cause.

A common killer of fish is poisonous algae, and although there are no obvious signs of deadly plant life, the head of the district authority has ordered that the water be tested every day to monitor any changes.

The country endures the extremes of weather from record breaking snowfall to raging wildfires.

The start of May has been a strange one for the USA. It seems that nature can't decide if it's winter or summer.

Heavy rain has flooded parts of Key West in southern Florida. Two days of torrential downpours have led to flooding and in the last 24 hours, 109mm more rain fell across the island.

The rain has flooded homes and businesses and forced the closure of a number of roads.

Whilst rain is the problem in Florida, elsewhere winter is still winning. Heavy snow has smothered parts of the Plains and the Midwest.

Some of the worst weather was in the state of Minnesota, where the snow set new records.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that Rajasthan has been the hottest this season, with Churu recording a maximum of 45 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, Delhi also hit 44 degrees on May 5.

It is not going to get much cooler either, the Met department said that this is normal for summer with temperatures in Delhi to hover between 41 and 42 degrees Celsius. Uttar Pradesh is also facing the heat with the likelihood of a heat wave in the coming five to six days. Allahabad recorded temperatures of 44 degrees Celsius which is the maximum. The Met department said that this is slightly above normal but not yet a heat wave.