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The Gulf oil spill could end up blasting New Orleans with crashing waves of black muck. Hurricane season starts tomorrow, and officials yesterday warned that high winds and rough surf could turn crude oil leaking from a BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico into a black tidal surge capable of sliming miles of coastline with a stinking, sticky mess. "You put a major hurricane in there, you're liable to have oil in downtown New Orleans," Ron Kendall, an environmental professor at Texas Tech University, told National Geographic. Mitch Landrieu, the Big Easy's mayor, said he's already worried about...

After weeks of estimates, countless models and hundreds of boat excursions seeking hints of oil in Louisiana's marshes, a bleak picture began to emerge this week as the first signs of thick, dark oil from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could be seen blanketing a patch of marsh grass near the mouth of the Mississippi River. At the eastern reaches of the delta, where Pass a Loutre meets open water, dark brown oil was covering an entire patch of cane grass on Wednesday. On the open water, a dark-brown tint could be seen on grasses just above the water's...

The patrol pulled up and men of the U.K. 3 Squadron Royal Air Force Regiment jump out of their vehicles and approached a crowd of waiting men. Unlike most places in Iraq the airmen are relaxed. They are able to remove their helmets and conceal their weapons as they meet and greet the familiar faces of the Shaghamba tribe. For the Iraqis and British airmen the occasion is a happy one. The ceremony marked the completion of a project financed by Coalition forces in Iraq to pump water into a Marsh Arab village near Basra Air Station. "We are very...

A Marsh Arab woman carries goods back to her house in North Basra, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. James Sherrill Work Continues to Restore Iraqi Marshlands As the marshes begin to fill with water again, the displaced people are beginning to move back to their ancient homeland and way of life. By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. James Sherrill124th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment BASRA, Iraq, June 7, 2006 -- The Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources inherited what it calls one of the world's greatest environmental catastrophes from the former regime - the parched Mesopotamian marshes in southern Iraq....

The marshlands of Iraq, which were drained during the early 1990s, are returning to their original state. Under Saddam Hussein, the area of marsh was reduced to a tenth of its former size, as the government punished people living there for acts of rebellion. The latest United Nations data shows that nearly 40% of the area has been restored to its original condition. Drinking water and sanitation projects are under way, but the UN says that a full recovery will take many years. Way of life destroyed The marsh area, near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was...