Water wars: 21st century conflicts? After droughts ravaged his parents' farmland, sixteen-year-old Hassain and his two-year-old sister Sareye became some of the newest refugees forced from home by water scarcity. As global warming alters weather patterns, and the number of people lacking access to water rises, millions, if not billions, of others are expected to face a similar fate. [News Source]

Is deluged Minot, N.D., ready for drought? With thousands of people displaced and homes swallowed by the river, it is hard to imagine the midwestern United States could soon be experiencing water shortages. But a new paper, shows that in the coming years the trend will be toward uniformly increased temperatures and less snowfall in the north. [News Source]

California delays its carbon-trading program until 2013. Facing continued litigation, California officials will delay enforcement of the state's carbon-trading program until 2013, state Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols announced Wednesday. [News Source]

Climate change: NOAA report shows warmer weather in U.S. The new normal is warmer. That's the assessment of the nation's top weather agency, which will release data Friday showing the 30-year "normal" temperature in the United States. [News Source]

NUI Galway-led climate change research predicts cleaner air but a warmer Europe by 2030. New research initiated by teams at NUI Galway and the University of Helsinki has revealed that the true rate of global warming caused by greenhouse gases has been masked by the cooling effects of tiny airborne particles. [News Source]

US body alarmed by threats to Australian scientists. A US science association has expressed its concern about the harassment of climate scientists, after Australian researchers received death threats this month. In an open letter, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) expressed its concern about the targeting of climate scientists. [News Source]

Australia closes in on carbon deal. Australia's government, fighting a slump in popularity over plans to price carbon, said on Thursday it was determined to start emissions trading as soon as possible after reports it had agreed on a 2015 deadline to switch from a carbon tax. [News Source]

Holding back the Gobi. Few places in the world are feeling the effects of global warming as powerfully as Mongolia where the average temperature has gone up by 2.1 degrees Celsius in the last 70 years — about three times the global average. The added warmth is drying the land and the country’s lakes and rivers. [News Source]

White House stance on plane emissions comes under fire. U.S. environmental groups are attacking the Obama administration's opposition to the European Union's plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes, arguing Washington is reneging on its commitment to fight global warming. [News Source]

Melting glaciers in Arctic will speed up global warming: Researchers. The Indian mission on the Arctic region has concluded that the capability of this icy continent to behave as a 'global carbon sink' would drastically reduce in the future due to the quickly receding glacier cover. [News Source]

New Jersey Assembly votes to stay in anti-pollution pact. Two bills aimed at keeping New Jersey in a regional greenhouse gas reduction pact received final approval from the Legislature Wednesday, but the fate of the state's participation was no closer to being resolved. [News Source]