A suspected tornado tore through Connecticut's largest city Thursday -- a rare occurrence in the state -- toppling trees and power lines and collapsing a building in Bridgeport as a powerful line of storms swept across parts of the Northeast. Remarkably, no serious injuries were reported.

Hundreds of bricks shook loose from buildings, trees split in half and crushed cars, and a billboard hung precariously several stories up over Main Street. Rescuers searched what was left of a collapsed building before determining no one was inside.

The office of Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch declared a state of emergency after the fast-moving system of wind and rain.

Jacqueline Arroyo, 44, said she saw a black cloud and ran inside to her third-floor apartment, where the window exploded. Trees were blown so ferociously they appeared to be coming out of the ground, and people were screaming, she said.

"All the wind started coming inside the house. I heard 'boom, boom!'" she said. "It was so fast but terrifying."

By now, almost everyone is aware of the out-of-control oil spill down in the Gulf of Mexico that seems to be getting exponentially worse with each passing day. But what people may not know is that BP's efforts to control the oil by burning it are actually burning alive a certain rare and endangered species of sea turtle.

For several weeks now, rescue crews have been feverishly trying to save Kemp's Ridleys sea turtles, as well as four other endangered varieties, from being caught in the oil corral areas that are being intentionally burned by BP, but according to Mike Ellis, one of the boat captains involved in the project, BP has now blocked all such rescue efforts from taking place.

"They ran us out of there and then they shut us down, they would not let us get back in there," he explained in an interview with Catherine Craig, a conservation biologist.

There was a break in the weather Thursday evening following an afternoon of torrential rain, hail and a possible tornado in Saskatchewan.

Environment Canada said the storm system had weakened considerably and cancelled a number of weather watches about 10 p.m. CST. It said a few thunderstorms were still possible in some areas prior to midnight, but no severe thunderstorms were expected.

Earlier Thursday, Environment Canada said Doppler radar had picked up a possible tornado near the community of Wilkie, about 160 kilometres west of Saskatoon, at about 3 p.m. CST.

A thunderstorm about 20 kilometres northeast of Wilkie was moving through the area at the time. There was no immediate confirmation available on whether a tornado had actually formed.

Severe weather hit many communities in the province Thursday afternoon, and Environment Canada issued several tornado warnings and watches throughout the day.

£10m Insect Pollinators Initiative will look at the multiple reasons thought to be behind devastation of bees, moths and hoverflies

A cocktail of chemicals from pesticides could be damaging the brains of British bees, according to scientists about to embark on a study into why the populations of the insects have dropped so rapidly in recent decades. By affecting the way bees' brains work, the pesticides might be affecting the ability of bees to find food or communicate with others in their colonies.

Neuroscientists at Dundee University, Royal Holloway and University College London will investigate the hypothesis as part of a £10m research programme launched today aimed at finding ways to stop the decline in the numbers of bees and other insect pollinators in the UK.

Insects such as bees, moths and hoverflies pollinate around a third of the agricultural crops grown around the world. If all of the UK's insect pollinators were wiped out, the drop in crop production would cost the UK economy up to £440m a year, equivalent to around 13% of the UK's income from farming.

The oil giant plans to start drilling in the Arctic this fall - and the Obama administration is doing nothing to stop it

On June 15th, as BP's catastrophic spill in the Gulf neared its third month, President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office. His administration, he assured the American people, would not let such a disaster happen again. He had put an indefinite hold on plans to open up new coastal areas, including Florida and Virginia, to offshore exploration. And he had frozen all new permits to drill in deep waters for six months, to give a blue-ribbon commission time to study the disaster. "We need better regulations, better safety standards and better enforcement," the president insisted.

But Obama's tough-guy act offers no guarantee that oil giants like BP won't be permitted to repeat the same mistakes that led to the nightmare in the Gulf. Indeed, top environmentalists warn, the suspension of drilling appears to be little more than a stalling tactic designed to let public anger over BP's spill subside before giving Big Oil the go-ahead to drill in an area that has long been off-limits: the Arctic Ocean. The administration has approved plans by both BP and Shell Oil to drill a total of 11 exploratory wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas above Alaska - waters far more remote and hostile than the Gulf. Shell's operations could proceed as soon as the president's suspension expires in January. And thanks to an odd twist in its rig design, BP's drilling in the Arctic is on track to get the green light as soon as this fall.

"The administration seems to want to avoid just shutting down these leases, even though they have every legal right to," says Charles Clusen, who leads the Alaska project for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "My fear is that people will start to forget about the Gulf spill, and the government will give Shell permits next year. We'll have had a pause, but not enough to assess the resources at risk or to develop technology that would be truly safe."

Firefighters were making progress Thursday containing a wildfire that has burned more than 22 square miles of scenic northern Arizona forest.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Willie Begay said the Schultz fire burning near Flagstaff was 25 percent contained and holding at 14,300 acres.

Begay said fire bosses are concerned about winds of 15 mph predicted in the fire zone Friday, with possible gusts over 25 mph. Air tankers packed with fire retardant and helicopters dropping water are on standby in case fire managers need to call them in.

Crews spent Thursday securing and building fire lines on the west, south and north sides of the fire as they prepare for whatever the wind brings. Dark smoke could be seen east of Flagstaff on Thursday afternoon.

American scientists who shot nearly 1,000 sperm whales with tissue-sampling darts discovered stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals in the animals that they say could affect the health of both ocean life and the millions who eat seafood.

A report Thursday noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in the mammals, according to samples taken over five years.

Analysis of cells from the sperm whales showed that pollution is reaching the farthest corners of the oceans, from deep in the polar region to "the middle of nowhere" in the equatorial regions, said biologist Roger Payne, founder and president of Ocean Alliance that conducted the research. The whales travel on voyages up to 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers).

"The entire ocean life is just loaded with a series of contaminants, most of which have been released by human beings," Payne said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting.

Four leaders of a Rockford, Illinois Boy Scout group may be wishing they had taken their own advice, after being struck by lightning Wednesday afternoon in Rock Island.

"The sirens went off. The radio with us, it went off. So we sent the boys up for protection and it just happened real quick," said Jesse McDuell, a scout leader who was hit by lightning.

About 5 p.m. Wednesday night, a slew of dangerous storms closed in on the KOA campground where the scouts were staying since Sunday.

With the seven boys in a restroom shelter, the four leaders grabbed onto the metal braces of an awning, trying to keep it from blowing away.

A North Carolina man dubbed the unluckiest in the state had the unlikely experience of being mauled by a bear -- four years after being struck by lightning.

Rick Oliver, 51, of Wake County, said he was attacked by a bear while working on his truck at about 2 a.m. June 3, leaving him with deep cuts on his wrist, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Thursday.

"You have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning than getting killed by a bear," a report published by the U.S. Forest Service's Bear Aware program reads.

However, Oliver had the unlikely experience of a bear attack only four years after being struck by lightning.

A University of Alberta research team has discovered that a plant's strategy to capture nutrients in the soil is the result of integration of different types of information.

U of A ecologist J.C. Cahill says the plant's strategy mirrors the daily risk-versus-reward dilemmas that animals experience in their quest for food.

Biologists established long ago that an animal uses information about both the location of a food supply and potential competitors to determine an optimal foraging strategy. Its subsequent behavioral response is based on whether the food supply is rich enough to accept the risks associated with engaging in competition with other animals.

Cahill found plants also have the ability to integrate information about the location of both food and competitors. As a result, plants demonstrate unique behavioural strategies to capture soil resources.