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  • 14/07/2005

climate change victims: Residents of Inupiat village of Shishmaref, a remote Eskimo village in Alaska, the US, might be the first US people forced to shift their habitat because of global warming. Officials recently said the shifting would be completed within four years. The village, located on a narrow barrier island in Chukchi Sea, has become a famous case study for global warming. The frequency and extent of shrinking sea ice, permafrost thawing and sea storms has now increased to such an extent that the situation should be categorised as an "emergency', says Luci Eningowuk, head of the Shishmaref Erosion and Relocation Council.

high-value mercedes: In an incident that speaks volumes about the kind of protection accorded to endangered species, an Albanian fisherman has swapped an endangered turtle, weighing 806 kilos, for a used Mercedes from an Italian fish trader. The turtle was reportedly shipped to a zoo in Rome. Albanian Natural Science Museum director Idriz Haxhiu said it was probably a Dermochelys coriacea or leatherback and "would have been a great thing for Albania'. Such turtles are protected by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, to which both Albania and Italy are signatories.

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