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Millions of people in 70 countries across Asia, Africa, and South America have been exposed to high levels of mercury as small-scale mining has proliferated over the past decade. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that at least 10 million miners, including at least four million women and children, are working in small "artisanal" gold mines, which produce as much as 15 percent of the world's gold.

Scientists have discovered that the newly found Tapanuli orangutan of Sumatra is more closely related to its cousins in Borneo than it is to its fellow Sumatran apes. The Tapanuli population numbers only around 800 individuals.