Once a sinister home to notorious mobsters and murderers, Alcatraz is in line for an environmental makeover that could see the imposing former prison island become a tree-hugger's paradise.

Under plans by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area which manages the rugged rock in the middle of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz is poised to be transformed into a beacon for progressive communities. Read more.

he American bald eagle marked a four-decade fight for survival Thursday as the government declared the bird — a national symbol — no longer requires the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act.

"Today I am proud to announce the eagle has returned," Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne proclaimed at a ceremony near the Jefferson Memorial.

The Interior Department made the recovery official by removing the eagle from the list of threatened species under the species protection law. The bird had been reclassified from endangered to threatened in 1995. Read more.

he Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean have been put on a list of endangered world heritage sites by UNESCO because of the growing pressure from tourism, the U.N.'s culture organization said Tuesday.

In a statement released at its headquarters in Paris, UNESCO said that the Galapagos islands were "threatened by invasive species, growing tourism and immigration." Read more.