Environment

The Zika virus is “is now spreading explosively” the head of the World Health Organization said on Thursday, announcing that WHO has called an emergency committee meeting on Monday to to decide if the outbreak should be declared an international health emergency. At a special briefing in Geneva,the WHO director general Margaret Chan, said It was “deeply concerning” that the virus had now been detected in 23 countries in the Americas. US officials said the country had two potential candidates for a vaccine, and might begin clinical trials in people by the end of this year.

The Queen is looking for a helicopter pilot, even though most of her family are qualified to fly one. The job of ‘aircraft captain’ for the Queen is being advertised on the British Monarchy website. The applicant must have experience with Very Very Important People (VVIPs) and offers a salary of between £55,500 and £78,500. The advertisement indicates that both Sikorsky and Westmoreland helicopters will be used, and that job satisfaction will be high. The Mirror reports: The salary is twice that Prince William is getting paid as he guides his ambulance chopper on mercy missions.

The Misti volcano is Peru’s most well known volcano and it has long been considered to be ‘asleep.’ But the Smithsonian GVP reports that El Misti has had some rather alarming seismic activity that could indicate magma intrusion at the volcano. Studies by the Southern Volcano Observatory (OVS) also reveal that it is awake and emitting gases. Peru’s volcano authority say that the last Misti eruption of great magnitude was 2,000 years ago. Peru this week reports:   It is currently considered the greatest risk in the South American country, as thousands of habitants reside near its crater.

The city of Seattle is to join five other major US cities that are suing Monsanto over PCB contamination. Seattle is suing to make Monsanto pay for the cleanup of toxic PCBs from the city’s drainage system and the Duwamish River. The cities of Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose, San Diego and Spokane are also filing suits against the agricultural biotech giant.

Meet the new Ebola.

Well over a year since the global fears over the Ebola epidemic sent US stocks reeling in late 2014 ahead of an even sharper rebound, today the head of the World Health Organization delivered a very stern warning when she said that the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne pathogen that may cause birth defects when pregnant women are infected, has been “spreading explosively” in South and Central America.