Worm may cause frog deformity WASHINGTON (AP) - A mysterious ailment that causes frogs to grow extra, deformed legs and touched off environmental concerns may be the result of a tiny worm parasite, not ozone depletion or pesticides, new studies say. Two studies to be published Friday in the journal Science conclude that defects found in frogs throughout in the Western U.S. may be caused by a trematode, simple parasitic flatworm with a complex life cycle that includes infecting the developing legs of tadpoles. The worm infection, says Stanley K. Sessions of Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., causes the tadpoles to grow multiple hind legs, a severe malformation that dooms the animal when it grows to a mature frog. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559363511-b3d> Update: Controversy on dolphin safe label WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal officials said Thursday a new standard for the decade-long "dolphin safe" label on cans of tuna will help spur international efforts to protect dolphins. Critics insisted more dolphins will be killed. The Commerce Department issued a new standard Thursday allowing the use of the "dolphin safe" label on tuna caught with huge encircling nets. Historically these nets also have ensnarled many dolphins. Supporters of the change said it will help international efforts to protect dolphin and other marine life, but critics said the new standard will lead to more dolphins being killed as they get caught in tuna nets. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559363917-302> Honda halts electric car production LOS ANGELES (AP) - Honda will stop building electric cars, writing them off in their infancy as expensive, inconvenient and unpopular flops. While environmentalists criticized the move Thursday, it may be indicative of the auto industry's movement away from pure electric cars and toward hybrids that use other low-emission technology such as fuel cells. "If we were making money on the cars it would be a different story, but these are not moneymakers," American Honda Motor Co. spokesman Art Garner said Thursday. Toyota, General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChysler and Nissan all say they will continue to produce battery-powered cars, but will pursue the development of other technologies as a possible alternative. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559364359-51d> *** Also: Electric car statistics, see full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559364710-bf3> EPA seeks new auto pollution rules WASHINGTON (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency is about to propose tough new pollution controls on motor vehicles that for the first time would require popular sport-utility vehicles to be as clean-running as automobiles. Oil companies also would have to produce much cleaner gasoline under the proposal. The stringent new requirements, some of which would be phased in over the next decade, were given the nod this week by the White House and could be announced any day, administration officials said Thursday. The EPA has told auto and oil industry representatives dramatic, although technologically feasible, reductions in tailpipe emissions and cleaner gasoline are needed if state and local officials are to cut smog and soot to meet federal air quality requirements. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559368250-4f0
