Monarch butterfly

One of North America's most popular butterflies, the orange-and-black-winged monarch, may soon be on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species list.The butterfly's population has been steadily declining -up to 90 percent in the last 20 years -because of farm-related habitat loss.

An estimated one billion monarchs migrated to Mexico in 1996, but last year only 35 million are believed to have made that same trip.Farming is destroying the milkweed plants that monarchs depend on to lay and nourish their eggs and larvae on. Crops are being genetically engineered to be able to withstand herbicides, but native plants, like milkweed, don't have that immunity and die.

Logging of mountain forests in central Mexico and the California Coast, where monarchs migrate for the winter, are also threatening their population, according to biologist Karen Oberhauser at the University of Minnesota. The Fish and Wildlife Service said a petition asking for the government to issue protection for monarchs "presents substantial information indicating that listing [the butterfly as an endangered species] may be warranted.""Almost every person I've talked to about monarchs has expressed a deep love and admiration for them that was often formed in childhood," said Oberhauser.

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TransAsia plane crash caught on video

A Taiwanese flight with 58 people aboard has gone horribly wrong.The aircraft went sideways, clipped the barrier of a busy motorway before it plunged into a river shortly after takeoff from the capital of Taiwan, Taipei, killing at least 12 people.The plane's wing also hit a taxi, injuring the driver, on the motorway as it flew into the river.

Rescue crews, made up of 165 people in rubber rafts, clustered around the exposed area of the mostly sunken plane, which was on its side in the Keelung River. They feared many of the passengers and crew members of the TransAsia Airways flight remained trapped inside.Civil aviation officials said the flight took off at 10.53 a.m. (local time) and lost contact with controllers two minutes later.No comment has been made at this point in regard to what may have caused the plane to crash.

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Friends forever

English schoolgirl Sue Ellis and Yvette Metay from Paris became penpals when they were 14 years old - becoming good friends with Yvette often visiting Sue in England.The girls unfortunately lost contact in 1973 so Sue had no idea that Yvette moved to England to finish her studies in 1976.

Neither knew that they were in fact living in the same town and only one mile apart!The pair were recently reunited - 41 years after their last letter - in their local supermarket standing together in the checkout line. Sue and Yvette say it is like no time has passed at all and they are now best friends and meet up twice a week.Do you have a pen pal or a friend who lives in another country who you write to?

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