nature

Wildlife officials in New York may ban captive boar hunts as they try to curb a growing feral hog population before it gets as bad as it is in Southern states, where roaming droves have devastated crops and wildlife habitat with their rooting, wallowing and voracious foraging.

These amazing pictures from the United States show a wall of dust moving through the city of Phoenix in Arizona. Sandstorms like this happen during the region's monsoon season, which is underway. They occur over desert land and can reach thousands of feet into the air, spurred by strong winds. The dense cloud dramatically reduced visibility, grounding flights at a major airport and leaving thousands without electricity.

Flights at New York's John F Kennedy Airport crawled to a halt for over an hour this morning - thanks to a bale of breeding turtles. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was forced to shut down runway 4 Left at 9:30am as workers cleared 100 diamondback terrapins from the tarmac and moved them to safety. But officials have brushed off the turtle invasion, insisting delays were 'nothing significant'.

At least 10 horses in California have tested positive for a deadly horse virus in an outbreak that has hit several Western states and Canada that has spread since a horse competition earlier this month in Utah.

The rising Mississippi river lapped over downtown Memphis streets on Thursday as a massive wall of water threatened to unleash near record flooding all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.