The wax used in most common candles is a source of indoor air pollution that includes known human carcinogens, researchers said at a recent health conference.

Researchers R. Massoudi and Amid Hamidi, from the University of South Carolina, said in a statement released at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society Tuesday, that levels of pollutants from paraffin wax can build up in closed rooms and eventually become dangerous.

A beach favored by Princes William and Harry has been voted one of the most polluted in the country. Rock in Cornwall - an area the princes and their friends regularly frequent - did not meet the basic requirement for water quality, according to The Marine Conservation Society (MCS).

The society added swimming in the sea at the idyllic beach was "not recommended."

Aside from high unemployment rates and home foreclosures, there is another emerging indicator of how badly hit is the United States by the recession and the global financial crisis. It is the growing number of boats being abandoned by their owners.

Like mortgaged homes, the derelict vessels are difficult to sell at a time when the American economy is down, prompting some owners to default on their boat mortgages or abandon the vessels. Some boat owners, reeling from other expenses, now find it heavy on the pocket to maintain their water toys.

Robotic fish will be released in the port of Gijon in northern Spain in a three-year research project to detect pollution levels.

Each fish costs around $29,000. It is shaped like a carp and is a little over 3-feet long and can swim at a speed of around 1-yard per second, according to a press release from BMT Group Ltd., the company that builds the fish.

As the number of cars in the upcoming southern city of Shenzhen has touched the one million mark, the city's mayor has urged its residents to stop the purchase of new cars.

With 90,000 new cars registered already this year, Xu Zongheng fears that more cars in the city will give rise to the traffic problems. The English-language China Daily quotes Zongheng as saying, "Problems arising from the city's traffic are mounting. I hope residents take this into consideration when planning to buy cars."