The inquiry was launched after experts confirmed that the Deep Heat Mining project to exploit geothermal energy near the north-west border city of Basel had caused tremors measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale.

The project involved injecting large quantities of pressurised water into three-mile-deep boreholes, where underground temperatures reach 200C. The super-heated water is circulated back to the surface where it is used to produce steam and drive a turbine to generate electricity.

But Geopower Basel, the company behind the scheme, was forced to stop pumping water into the hot rock layer following a series of powerful earthquakes, which were felt up to 10 miles away.

Jean Ueberschlag, the mayor of nearby Saint Louis in France, wrote to the Swiss authorities demanding a halt to the experiment. He said: "You don't have the right to play with the safety of our populations."

UK scientists have developed a breed of genetically-modified chickens capable of laying eggs containing proteins needed to make cancer-fighting drugs.

The breakthrough has been announced by the same team that created the cloned Dolly the Sheep.

The Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, says it has created five generations of birds that can produce high levels of potentially life-saving proteins.

It means a range of drugs in greater volume could be produced much cheaper.

Professor Harry Griffin, director of the institute, said: "One of the characteristics of lots of medical treatments these days is that they're very expensive.

"The idea of producing the proteins involved in treatments of flocks of laying hens means they can produce in bulk, they can produce cheaply and indeed the raw material for this production system is quite literally chicken feed."

CBC News

Nova Scotia Power is looking at introducing in-stream tidal power, an alternative to placing dams across inlets or rivers to capture the energy of huge volumes of moving water.

The company has a deal with an Irish partner, which will build a test model of an in-stream tidal turbine in the Bay of Fundy, the Canadian Press reported Friday.

The one-megawatt installation, to be built by OpenHydro of Dublin, uses a different system than Nova Scotia Power's current 20-megawatt plant at Annapolis.

The existing plant harnesses the tidal action of the Bay of Fundy, site of the world’s highest tides, where a dam funnels the water into generators as it flows in and out with the tide.

An east German pensioner who breeds rabbits the size of dogs has been asked by North Korea to help set up a big bunny farm to alleviate food shortages in the communist country. Now journalists and rabbit gourmets from around the world are thumping at his door.

It all started when Karl Szmolinsky won a prize for breeding Germany's largest rabbit, a friendly-looking 10.5 kilogram "German Gray Giant" called Robert, in February 2006.

Images of the chubby monster went around the world and reached the reclusive communist state of North Korea, a country of 23 million which according to the United Nations Food Programme suffers widespread food shortages and where many people "struggle to feed themselves on a diet critically deficient in protein, fats and micronutrients."

It wants the government to set a consumption ceiling of 125 litres per person per day in most areas, and 100 litres in areas of scarcity.

By comparison, a bath uses about 80 litres, flushing the toilet about 5-10 litres, and a hosepipe 500 litres per hour.

The coalition will present its report to environment minister Ian Pearson in Parliament on Tuesday.

Cottage is the new castle

It used to be a person's home was their castle. Now that castle appears to be the cottage, especially if it's by the water.

According to a survey released by Royal LePage, which is in the business of buying and selling real estate, the national average price for a Canadian waterfront recreational property, with land access, was $380,507 this spring.