The World

10 ESSENTIAL STORIES

By Harriet Barovick, Laura Fitzpatrick, Alexandra Silver, Claire Suddath, Alyssa Fetini, Frances Romero, Kristi Oloffson and Kayla Webley Monday, May 31, 2010

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    Despite BP's amped-up efforts to siphon oil from the ocean well that has been leaking up to an estimated 70,000 bbl. a day--or 14 times the original estimate--since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank on April 22, experts fear the oil will soon make its way to the Gulf Stream's Loop Current. That would propel it over to the Florida Keys, into the Atlantic Ocean and up the East Coast.

    [The following text appears within a map. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual map.]

    Where the current might take the oil

    SITE OF SPILL

    EXTENT OF SLICK

    LOOP CURRENT

    * | What They're Discovering in Indonesia: Proving once again that nature is the gift that keeps on giving, scientists announced the discovery of several new species of animals in New Guinea's Foja Mountains--including a large (and friendly) woolly rat, a tree frog with a nose that inflates, a multicolored imperial pigeon and the world's teeniest wallaby. The critters were first observed on a 2008 trip to the region, which is known as the Lost World because it is virtually untouched by humans.

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