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WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Feb. 25 (UPI) — U.S. and Canadian researchers say they’ve discovered grizzly bears in what has traditionally been Canadian polar bear habitat.

The researchers from the American Museum of Natural History, City University of New York and Manitoba Conservation say they’ve even found grizzly bears in the Canadian province of Manitoba, where they are officially listed as locally extinct.

“Grizzly bears are a new guy on the scene, competition and a potential predator for the polar bears that live in this area,” said CUNY Professor Robert Rockwell.

The scientists said they found no evidence of grizzly bears in that area before 1996, but between 1996 and 2008 the team found nine confirmed sightings and during the summer of 2009 there were three additional observations.

“The opportunistic sightings seem to be increasing,” said Linda Gormezano, a graduate student working with Rockwell. “This is worrying for the polar bears because grizzly bears would likely hibernate in polar bear maternity denning habitat. They would come out of hibernation at the same time and can kill polar cubs.

“A big question is how to deal with these new residents,” she added. “In Canada, both the polar and grizzly bear are federally listed as species of special concern. In Manitoba, the polar bear is provincially listed as threatened …”

The study that included Daryll Hedman of Manitoba Conservation recently appeared in the journal Canadian Field Naturalist.

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CLARKSVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 25 (UPI) — Scientists are trying to determine why red-winged blackbirds, grackles and other birds have been dying in northwest Tennessee.

Scores of carcasses have been found in a neighborhood in Clarksville on the Kentucky border, The Leaf Chronicle of Clarksville reported. Large flocks of birds gather in the neighborhood, attracted by a horse pond.

Pamela Holz, president of a homeowners association near Interstate 24, said one area resident counted 61 dead birds in one day. She said everyone is curious about the cause.

“There are dead birds all over the road,” she said.

One theory is that a power line running through the neighborhood is responsible. Dale Grandstaff, an officer with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, said birds are often so close together when they take off that electricity jumping from a transformer to one bird could continue through the flock.

“If you look at it, almost all the birds that are dead are under those power lines, so that could’ve had something to do with it,” Grandstaff said.

About 10 of the carcasses were sent to a laboratory in Nashville to determine if a cause of death could be found, Grandstaff said.

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Feb. 25 (UPI) — Mayo Clinic scientists in Florida say they’ve discovered an oncogene important in colon and lung cancer is also linked with poor pancreatic cancer survival.

The researchers said they determined the oncogene PKC-iota is over-produced in pancreatic cancer and that genetically inhibiting it in laboratory animals led to a significant decrease in pancreatic tumor growth and spread.

They said their finding is especially encouraging because an experimental agent that targets the oncogene is already being tested at the Mayo Clinic.

“This is the first study to establish a role for PKC-iota in growth of pancreatic cancer, so it is exciting to know that an agent already exists that targets (it), which we can now try in preclinical studies,” said Nicole Murray, who led the research.

The drug, aurothiomalate, is being tested in a phase I clinical trial in patients with lung cancer at Mayo Clinic’s sites in Minnesota and Arizona. Based on findings to date, a phase II clinical trial is being planned to combine aurothiomalate with agents targeted at other molecules involved in cancer growth.

Mayo Clinic researchers led by Alan Fields, chairman of the Department of Cancer Biology and a co-author of the new report, discovered aurothiomalate in 2006. The drug was once used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

The new discovery is reported in the March 1 issue of Cancer Research.

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MILAN, Italy, Feb. 25 (UPI) — A spill that sent massive amounts of oil into the Po River in northern Italy was a deliberate act of vandalism, officials said Thursday.

Investigators said someone opened a valve on an oil tank Tuesday at a former refinery near Milan, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. An amount of oil equivalent to the load carried by 125 tanker trucks spilled into a tributary of the Po.

Roberto Formigoni, the governor of Lombardy, described the spill as a “criminal act” after flying over the affected area Thursday.

“They need to find out who did this and apply the harshest penalties possible,” he said.

Cleanup teams have been using floating barriers to slow the progress of the oil slick, with limited results. The oil reached the Po on Wednesday and is expected to traverse the river delta near Venice and flow into the Adriatic Sea within three or four days.

The Po, the longest river in Italy, flows more than 400 miles from the Cottian Alps to the Adriatic, passing through major cities, including Turin, Ferrara and Piacenza. It is connected with Milan by a series of canals.

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PLANTATION, Fla., Feb. 26 (UPI) — Officials in a Florida town are refusing to take action against a pack of wild hogs living in an affluent neighborhood, homeowners say.

Residents of Plantation Acres, which prides itself on being a “horse community,” say the feral animals are ruining their expensive landscaping, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

“They really make a mess,” says Nick Perris of the local homeowner’s association. “They can eat through a lot of vegetation.”

One resident hired an animal removal service to relocate the hogs but so far their trapper has been unable to catch any of them.

“They’ve come to my house 11 times since mid-December,” says Kevin Lerner. “I replaced the lawns in sections they tore up but they keep coming back.”

The city of Plantation refuses to intervene in the matter and police say the hogs are just a nuisance like a rodent.

“But a rodent doesn’t weight 150 pounds,” Lerner says.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

NEW YORK, Feb. 25 (UPI) — Parts of Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania are getting more heavy snowfall and rain, meteorologists said Thursday.

Philadelphia received at least 10 inches of snow Thursday thanks to the latest round of inclement weather, while are area around Albany, N.Y., was buried under at least 2 feet of snow.

Meteorologist Rob Marciano told CNN parts of New York state that got rain Thursday are expected to face blizzard-like conditions with blowing snow later this week.

Marciano said the inclement weather is expected to hammer the Northeast United States for several days.

New York, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont could set record snowfall totals, CNN reported.

AccuWeather.com said the worst of the winter storm is expected to take place Thursday night through Friday morning.

The Web site said travelers should expect limited visibility and other troubling conditions on roads throughout stricken areas. High winds, coastal flooding and flight cancellations are expected across the region.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

NEW YORK, Feb. 26 (UPI) — Derivatives of resveratrol — found in red wine grapes — may impede cancer cell development, U.S. researchers said.

The National Cancer Institute has teamed with a biotech firm to examine the potential benefit of resveratrol among cancer patients.

Dr. Bryan C. Donohue of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Shadyside Hospital, says early-stage clinical trials now under way are examining resveratrol’s effectiveness among patients with heart disease, cancer, dementia and a host of other modern illnesses.

In the meanwhile, some people simply looking for greater energy, enhanced clarity of thought and advanced overall well being are already benefiting from resveratrol supplementation, Donohue said.

“I have had occasion to introduce hundreds of patients to daily resveratrol supplementation, ranging from healthy adults interested in health maintenance and prevention to more elderly individuals with specific health concerns,” Donohue said in a statement. “People have experienced greater energy, increased exercise tolerance, crispness and clarity of thought and a general bounce in their overall level of well-being.”

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

NEW YORK, Feb. 26 (UPI) — A slow-moving storm dumped inches of snow on New York City, its suburbs and other northeastern cities Friday.

Schools were closed in the city, and those commuters who tried to get to work faced long delays, The New York Times reported. New Jersey Transit announced all bus service in the northern and central part of the state would be suspended until noon.

Philadelphia has already been hit hard by a series of storms in the mid-Atlantic region, making this winter the snowiest on record. Forecasters said the city would get about a foot more and predicted 20 inches in New York and 30 in areas to the north.

The snow began falling Thursday and was expected to persist in some areas into Saturday.

. “It’s pretty stationary,.” said Matt Scalora, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Upton, N.Y.

A snow-covered tree limb in New York’s Central Park snapped Thursday, killing a man and prompting the city’s Parks Department to warn residents to stay away from city parks, CNN reported.

Air travel was disrupted at cities from Philadelphia to Boston, the Times said. Hundreds of flights were canceled at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and LaGuardia in New York.

Heavy snow Thursday caused dangerous conditions and forced the closing of schools and roads, officials said. Speed limits on most major roads were cut to 35 or 45 mph.

Parts of New York had received 22-30 inches of snow by Thursday night, the NWS said. An average of 22 inches of snow fell in Massachusetts and some areas in Vermont received as much as 38 inches.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 26 (UPI) — Some salmon fishermen say they’re wary of an upbeat forecast that predicts 245,483 Chinook will spawn in California’s Sacramento River system this fall.

The run traditionally comprised 90 percent of the salmon caught off the California coast and 60 percent caught off Oregon.

At the peak in 2002, 769,868 salmon spawned in the river system. By 2008, however, just 64,456 spawned there. Last year, the number fell to 39,530 — far short of the 122,000 fall-run chinook the National Marine Fisheries Services had estimated would spawn in the fall of 2009.

The services estimate of 245,483 for this fall has some fishermen questioning the validity of the forecast, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

“I don’t think anybody in this room wants to contribute to the extinction of a species, even though we know fishing didn’t contribute to the problem” said Chuck Cappotto, 64, a Bodega Bay, Calif., fisherman.

Most fishermen blame the demise on increases in water diversions from the river’s system to farmers.

The forecast for the 2010 fall run was based primarily on the percentage of 2-year-old salmon that returned early to the river system last year. About 9,000 early salmon were counted last year compared with about 4,000 the year before, an indication more fish should return this fall, biologists said.

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NEW YORK, Feb. 26 (UPI) — New York and other states in the Northeast Friday braced for more snow from the region’s third blizzard in a month.

Parts of New York could get up to a foot of new snow from the storm that moved into the area Thursday, forecasters said.

A snow-covered tree limb in New York’s Central Park snapped Thursday, killing a man and prompting the city’s Parks Department to warn residents to stay away from city parks, CNN reported.

Air travel was disrupted at cities from Philadelphia to Boston, The New York Times reported. More than 1,100 flights were canceled in the New York area alone by Thursday evening.

Officials said more cancellations were expected as winds picked up and temperatures fell.

Heavy snow Thursday caused dangerous conditions and forced the closing of schools and roads, officials said.

Pennsylvania officials reduced the maximum speed on Interstate 476 to 45 mph Thursday afternoon because of deteriorating conditions, the Times said. The state later issued a general ban for tractor-trailers on the highway because of anticipated whiteout conditions.

New York State Electric and Gas emergency crews worked to repair downed power lines that at one point left 5,400 customers in the dark, the Times said.

Parts of New York had received 22-30 inches of snow by Thursday night, the National Weather Service said. An average of 22 inches of snow fell in Massachusetts and some areas in Vermont received as much as 38 inches. Pennsylvania had as much as 12 inches fall in some areas, weather officials said.

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