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ENVIRONMENT
Brown pelican taken off endangered list
The brown pelican, listed as an endangered species for nearly four decades, has returned from the brink of extinction.
Interior Department officials announced Wednesday that they are taking the bird off the endangered species list. The bird was declared endangered after its population, like those of the bald eagle and peregrine falcon, was decimated by the use of the pesticide DDT.
The pelican's recovery -- it is now prevalent across Florida, the Gulf and Pacific coasts, and the Caribbean -- is largely thanks to a 1972 ban on DDT, along with efforts by states and conservation groups to protect its nesting sites and monitor its population, Interior Department officials said.
"Today we can say the brown pelican is back," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a conference call with reporters in Washington. "Once again, we see healthy flocks of these graceful birds flying over our shores."
-- Associated Press
DIPLOMACY
Aid agency cites Afghanistan threats
Three engineers working with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Afghanistan have resigned because of threats against them and their families, according to a new Governmental Accountability Office report on the worsening security environment in that country.
In a Sept. 29 letter to the GAO, Drew W. Luten, acting assistant administrator of USAID, described several other ways that security conditions are negatively affecting his agency's operations.
Luten said supplies to the $16 million Kajaki dam project in Helmand province must now be flown in "due to the deteriorating security situation." Attacks on construction workers building the road to the dam, designed to provide electricity for Kabul, caused that project to be abandoned after $5 million had been spent on it.
In addition, Luten noted that the decline in security in southern and eastern Afghanistan "significantly hindered or stopped in some areas" the monitoring of the delivery of health services.
The brief GAO report found that the situation in Afghanistan "continues to worsen as enemy-initiated attacks increase."
Defense Department officials, in comments attached to the report, said one reason for the higher number of attacks relates to expanded U.S. and coalition operations.
-- Walter Pincus
