Anti-smuggling operations by US law enforcement agents aren’t always targeted at intercepting terrorists, drugs, or illicit money. Sometimes the effort is aimed pearl jewelry at protecting the earth itself.

This week, federal prosecutors wrapped up an investigation into a scheme to smuggle 40 tons of coral into the US from the Philippines in violation of laws protecting the world’s coral reefs.

A German businessman from Essen pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Portland, Ore., to arranging two shipments in 2008 from the Philippines to Miami and Portland.

Gunther Wenzek runs a company called CoraPet, which sells sand, pebbles, sponges, and shells for aquariums, terrariums, and ponds.

According to documents filed in the case, Mr. Wenzek illegally smuggled two 20-foot shipping containers of coral into the US. The containers were falsely labeled as holding “rock” or wish pearl oyster “gravel.”

To disguise the true nature of the cargo, Wenzek told his US-based customer to prepare shipping documents using a US Customs tariff code for limestone products.

In an e-mail, Wenzek explained: “This does not pinpoint custom direct on checking of CORAL products etc. That should be avoided.”

A week later, according to court documents, he followed up with another e-mail, again urging use of the deceptive tariff code. “Point is: this numbers do not point custom automatically on the subject: CORAL. That’s important I guess and doesn’t make ‘noise,’ ” he wrote.

Coral is a fundamental building block of a healthy ocean ecosystem. Most of the freshwater pearl pendant world’s coral reefs are in decline or under severe environmental stress. Tough laws restricting the trade in coral have been passed in recognition of the danger to the health of the world’s oceans.

The problem is coral is also a lucrative commodity.

“Preventing the further decline of coral reefs through strong enforcement of our nation’s environmental laws is paramount in preserving marine environments and fisheries,” said John Cruden, acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“We will not allow criminals to profit from the illegal shell pearl jewelry devastation of the world’s coral reefs,” added Kent Robinson, acting US Attorney in Oregon.

The case was investigated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Customs, and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Wenzek is set to be sentenced Jan. 5.

Because he pleaded guilty and is cooperating with investigators, prosecutors are recommending he be sentenced to three years probation and pay $35,000 in cultured freshwater pearl fines and restitution.

According to court documents, $8,890 of his fine will be paid into an Endangered Species Justice Fund established at the Oregon Zoo. The zoo uses the money to fund programs supporting threatened and endangered wildlife.

Atlanta - Louisiana justice of the peace Keith Bardwell's refused to marry a white woman and a black man reportedly because he believed that children of an interracial marriage would suffer socially.

That view was once common in the United States, and inflatable slides might have had some basis decades ago when such marriages were taboo and multiracial families were sometimes ostracized. But today, not only are mixed-race children widely accepted but some research suggests they might even have some social advantages.

Researchers are finding that multiracial kids can sometimes be better socially adjusted than single-race offspring. And with the high-profile success of multiracial progeny such as Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, and President Obama (who at his first press conference as president described himself as a "mutt"), stereotypes about the split world of the "tragic mulatto" have long fallen by pearl jewelry wholesale  the wayside.

The American Civil Liberties Union is now threatening a lawsuit if Mr. Bardwell, veteran justice of the peace at Tangipahoa Parish, doesn't step down. The group calls Bardwell's refusal to issue a marriage licence to Beth Humphrey (who is white) and Terence McKay (who is black) both "tragic and illegal."

"I'm not a racist," Bardwell told  akoya pearl bracelet a local newspaper. "I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children."

New York - They look like cigarettes, but they have names most people have never heard of: Gamucci, Cloud 9, and Njoy.

That's because they are electronic cigarettes, or freshwater pearl earrings e-cigarettes. These battery-powered devices do not create smoke but provide a mist of nicotine to the user's lungs.

These items are about to become better known because a federal judge is expected to decide shortly on whether the Food and Drug Administration has authority to regulate them. The devices, which do not contain tobacco, are already being sold around the country.

From the FDA's viewpoint, the e-smokes are "drug delivery" devices, the same as nicotine gum, which is regulated by the agency. The industry association for the product describes it as an "alternative to tobacco," and the association says it would like to work with the FDA. The public-health community is divided, with some wanting to see more research on the items and others seeing them as a way to help people quit tobacco use.

Already, e-cigarettes are entering the public arena.

One airline, Ryanair, which mainly operates in Europe, not twisted pearl necklace only permits their use on flights, but also sells them to passengers. Some "no smoking" restaurants in the United States are permitting their use, say advocates for the product.

The devices are also available as e-cigars and e-pipes.

"Two years ago, no one had ever heard of these things," says Matt Salmon, president of the Electronic Cigarette Association (ECA) in Washington.

"Today, there is an estimate there are pearl necklace 300,000 users, but I think it's in excess of that," says Mr. Salmon, an antismoking advocate and former congressman.

In the e-cigarettes, most of which are made in China, there is no combustion of tobacco. Instead, the device contains a lithium battery. That heats up an atomizer, which turns the nicotine into a vapor.

When the user inhales the vapor, the device's tip glows with a red LED light to mimic the experience of smoking a cigarette.

On e-cigarette websites, former tobacco users offer testimonials about how the new product has saved their lives.

But John Banzhaf, a professor at George Washington University Law School who also heads up an organization called Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), wonders if there is a cardiovascular risk for e-smoke users. And, he adds, "We don't know to freshwater pearl bracelets what extent kids get hooked."

Enter the FDA.

They have looked at those websites and more. "Some of the product information says you can use the e-cigarettes to help quit smoking," says Siobhan DeLancey, a spokeswoman for the FDA. The agency believes the products should be brought to it for premarket approval, and data should be presented showing the product is safe and effective for its intended use.

In July, the FDA did preliminary research, buying some of the products onlttp://www.inflatable-wholesaler.comine and at shopping-center kiosks. The products were "inconsistent" in their levels of nicotine, Ms. DeLancey says.

However, some of the urban legends about the FDA wanting to ban the products are not true, DeLancey says. "What we are saying is for them to be sold, you should be able to evaluate how safe and effective they are – especially if they are a smoking replacement used over several years, perhaps a lifetime," she says.

In February, one manufacturer, Smoking Everywhere, which is not a inflatable tent member of the ECA, sued the FDA, claiming it did not have jurisdiction. Shortly, federal judge Richard Leon in Washington is expected to rule.

Anchorage, Alaska - The treacherous, ice-choked waters off Alaska have long lured risk-­taking fortune hunters seeking furs, fish, or other riches.

Merchant marine companies in the 19th century were so sterling silver jewelry intent on pursuing the lucrative whale-oil and baleen trade that they were willing to lose entire ships, and they did. Vessels were occasionally crushed by masses of shifting sea ice.

Today, the prize is petroleum.

Inspired by higher prices, new technology, and the inescapable fact that Alaska's onshore fields are running dry, companies have put up billions of dollars to start the search for oil and gas in the lightly developed, federally managed Alaska outer continental shelf (OCS). In all, the OCS could hold oil in quantities similar to that at Prudhoe Bay – the oil field that has fueled Alaska's economy for four decades.

Yet those forces of nature so brazenly flouted by traders centuries ago, coupled with the new stresses from a rapidly changing Arctic climate, are giving environmentalists and Inupiat Eskimos pause. If boosters consider the OCS to be the next Prudhoe Bay, critics fear it could be the next Exxon Valdez.

Lawsuits have already forced oil companies to pare back or delay drilling plans. But with the Obama administration set to review offshore drilling rights in the region – promising a balance of economic and environmental needs – the issue is now coming to a head.

The US Minerals Man­age­ment Service estimates the  wholesale pearl earrings entire Alaska OCS – the waters stretching from three to 200 miles offshore – holds 27 billion barrels of oil. Almost none has been touched by a drill bit.

The most promising section of the Alaskan OCS could be the Chukchi Sea – the largely ice-covered expanse between northwestern Alaska and northeastern Russia. Also a target is the Beaufort Sea off the north coast.

Industry representatives say they are only beginning to grasp the enormous hydrocarbon potential of the area, once considered too far and too forbidding to justify investment. Only five wells have ever been drilled in the Chukchi. In the similar-sized Gulf of Mexico, the number is nearly 50,000, notes Rick Fox, Alaska asset manager for Shell, the company leading the charge into Alaska's OCS.

Shell has so far spent $2.5 billion in an effort to establish offshore Alaska as a major global operating center. This includes $2.1 billion for Chukchi leases in a record 2008 sale.

Alaska politicians are gung-ho supporters of OCS development, even though OCS oil would provide no royalties or production-tax dollars to the state, since it is federal territory. The reason: Without OCS oil, the 32-year-old Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) faces a grim future. It is running at one-third of its capacity.

"We are quickly approaching the minimum throughput rate, beyond which the flow of oil cannot be maintained. Without development of new sources of Alaskan oil, TAPS could shut down within the next decade," Gov. Sean Parnell said in a Sept. 3 letter to freshwater pearl bracelet Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who is mulling the Obama administration's national offshore-drilling strategy.

Inupiat Eskimos, however, have long opposed OCS drilling. They see it as a threat to their culture, which is founded on whaling and harvests of other marine mammals and fish.

"That's pretty concerning to us because of the damage that will cause to our 'garden,' " says Caroline Cannon, president of the tribal council for Point Hope, the Chukchi Sea whaling village believed to be the oldest continually occupied community in North America.

The Sunday Times also publishes the judgment of two election experts, Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher: “With polls predicting the Tories will get 42 per cent of the vote and factoring in boundary changes, the Conservative Party’s seats would rise from 195 to 371.” The Tories would need 325 seats to have an overall majority in 2010.

However, if one looks at Rallings and akoya pearl bracelet Thrasher’s Media Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies, one can see how small a swing might decide the election result. If one takes Labour’s baseline as 30 per cent of the votes, then the Conservatives would face a hung Parliament if they only got 40 per cent, but would have an overall majority if they won 41 per cent.

A single percentage point in the actual voting would be worth 14 seats, or 28 seats in terms of the majority. With the polls as they are, a comfortable Conservative majority and a hung Parliament can be regarded as next door to each other, and as about equally likely.

This may explain why there has been so much recent interest in the possibility of a hung Parliament. David Owen has written about the possibility in The Times and Alex Salmond made it a central point in last week’s conference speech to the Scottish National Party. Salmond argues that a hung Parliament at Westminster could give valuable bargaining power to freshwater pearl earrings Scotland, and has urged his troops to win 20 seats at the next general election.

This sheds a different light on Labour’s leadership question. If a change of leader were only worth a single percentage point in the share of votes at the next election, that could be worth 28 seats on the majority. That would not keep Labour in power, but it could result in a hung Parliament and prevent the Conservatives gaining an overall majority. If Harriet Harman or one of the Milibands could create the faintest ripple of additional support, that could be vital for the parliamentary arithmetic of the next decade. That is worth playing for.

Of course, there are hung Parliaments and hung Parliaments. On the current polling figures, the likelihood of a hung Parliament in 2010 is quite high, but it would probably be a Parliament in which the Tories were the largest party. If one looks at recent Parliaments of this kind, they have not lasted long. Indeed the typical narrow Parliament in these circumstances has usually been one in which there was a small majority, too small to last a full term. That was the freshwater pearl necklace character of Harold Wilson’s short Parliament of 1964.