In brief: Polar bear numbers drop by 40 percent

The number of polar bears in eastern Alaska and western Canada has declined by 40 percent, according to a scientific study that raises more questions about the impact of global warming on the creature that has become the symbol of some of its worst effects.

The study, published in the current issue of Ecological Applications, was carried out by scientists from several groups, including the U.S. Geological Survey and Environment Canada, that tagged and released polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea from 2001 to 2010. The bear population in the area shrank to about 900 in 2010, down from about 1,600 in 2004, according to the findings.

“Climate change is not some future threat,” Sarah Uhlemann, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that has been fighting to save polar bears, told the Los Angeles Times. “Global warming is happening now and killing polar bears now.”

Polar bears suffered particularly low survival rates between 2004 and 2006, when “unfavorable ice conditions” limited their access to ice seals, their favored prey, according to the study.

Report: UAE ups effort to quash dissent

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – The United Arab Emirates has quietly mounted “an unprecedented clampdown on dissent” since 2011, with more than 100 political activists jailed or prosecuted for calling for political reforms, leading human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released Tuesday.

The nearly 80-page report said that the Western-allied Gulf Arab country projects an image of glitz and glamour, but that beneath this facade “is a much uglier reality, where activists who dare to challenge the authorities or speak out in favor of greater democracy and government accountability are thrown into jail.”

The UAE, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, is ruled by families, like much of the energy-rich Persian Gulf. There are no political parties and foreigners greatly outnumber locals.

Dubai is home to the world’s tallest tower and one of the world’s biggest malls. Abu Dhabi is set to host the Formula One Grand Prix this weekend, attracting some of the world’s wealthiest spectators and tourists.

Amnesty International said there is a “huge gulf between the public image the UAE tries to project of a dynamic, modern and burgeoning economic power, home to luxury hotels, skyscrapers and designer shopping malls; and the darker reality of activists routinely persecuted and subjected to enforced disappearance, torture and other ill treatment.”