WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 150 people face federal and state charges after authorities disrupted online wildlife trafficking operations involving tiger, leopard and jaguar pelts, elephant ivory and live birds.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the arrests Thursday after an undercover operation that included officers from 16 states, three federal agencies and three Asian countries.

Items seized under "Operation Wild Web" include the pelts of endangered big cats such as the Sumatran tiger, leopard and jaguar; live migratory birds such as the California scrub jay; whale teeth; elephant and walrus ivory; and a zebra pelt.

"Our message is clear and simple: The Internet is not an open marketplace for protected species," said Edward Grace, deputy assistant director for law enforcement for the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Working with counterparts in California, Texas, New York, Florida and Alaska and other states, federal officials targeted illegal wildlife sellers who operate through Craigslist, eBay and other Internet marketplaces and classified ads. Wildlife officers in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia ran similar operations at the same time.

The items were seized last August, although charges are still being brought in many cases. Six Southern California residents were charged Thursday with selling endangered species and animal parts, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles said.

"As a major platform for the illicit trade in wildlife, the Internet has become a dangerous place for animals," said Jeff Flocken, North American regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, an advocacy group that worked with the federal task force.

"Wildlife crimes are not only harmful to endangered species, they also pose serious threats to national and global security," Flocken said.

Illegal wildlife trade generates an estimated $19 billion a year worldwide and ranks fourth on the list of the most lucrative global illegal activities behind narcotics, counterfeiting and human trafficking, the animal welfare group said in a report last year.

Federal laws regulating the sale of wildlife include the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act; the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Lacey Act, which prohibits trade in wildlife, fish and plants that have been illegally taken, transported or sold.

Other states involved in "Operation Wild Web" were Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

___

Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) -- The first victim of a runaway oil train's explosive derailment in a Quebec town was identified Thursday, more than five days since the disaster, which left behind a scorched scene so dangerous that it slowed the search for 50 people presumed dead.

Quebec's premier toured the traumatized town and sharply criticized the U.S. railway's chief for not responding in person more quickly to Canada's worst railway disaster in nearly 150 years.

Police said four more bodies had been found, bringing the total found to 24.

The first victim to be identified by the coroner's office was 93-year-old Eliane Parenteau, who lived in the disaster zone in downtown Lac-Megantic. Those who knew her described her as being active for her age.

The devastated downtown remained dangerous for days after the crash as responders put out fires and struggled to keep the remaining oil tankers cool so they wouldn't explode. The hazardous conditions delayed the search for the missing — and now for bodies.

Officials also have warned that identifications would be made more difficult by the incinerated scene.

Conditions had at least improved enough for nearly all the 2,000 residents forced to evacuate after the crash — a third of the population— to return home, the town's mayor said.

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois arrived in town and renewed her criticism of Edward Burkhardt, president and CEO of U.S.-based Rail World Inc., which owns the runaway train.

"The leader of this company should have been there from the beginning," Marois said at a news conference.

Burkhardt arrived in town for the first time Wednesday with a police escort, facing jeers from residents.

Burkhardt has said he delayed his visit to deal with the crisis from his Chicago office, saying he was better able to communicate from there.

"I understand the extreme anger," he said. "We owe an abject apology to the people in this town."

He has blamed the engineer for failing to set the brakes properly before the unmanned train hurtled down a seven-mile (11-kilometer) incline, derailed and ignited. All but one of its 73 cars was carrying oil, and at least five exploded.

Burkhardt said the engineer had been suspended without pay and was under "police control." Burkhardt did not name the engineer, though the company had previously identified the employee as Tom Harding of Quebec. Harding has not spoken publicly since the crash.

Anger at the railway officials among residents appeared to mount Thursday.

Lac-Megantic's mayor, Colette Roy-Laroche, said a hoped-for meeting with Burkhardt didn't materialize.

"I am angry with the fact that he did not communicate with me sooner," she said.

At Burkhardt's head office, an aide said no snub of the mayor was intended.

"There's been a misunderstanding on that issue," said Cathy Aldana. "Our people have been in contact with mayor's office daily, and I know Mr. Burkhardt wanted to see her personally."

Investigators are also looking at a fire on the same train just hours before the disaster. A fire official has said the train's power was shut down as standard operating procedure, meaning the train's air brakes would have been disabled. In that case, hand brakes on individual train cars would have been needed.

The derailment is Canada's worst railway disaster since a train plunged into a Quebec river in 1864, killing 99.

The crash has raised questions about the rapidly growing use of rail to transport oil in North America, especially in the booming North Dakota oil fields and Alberta oil sands far from the sea.

___

Associated Press writers Sean Farrell in Lac-Megantic, Charmaine Noronha in Toronto and Tammy Webber in Chicago contributed to this report.

What goes up, must come down. And up, and down again. At least that's the case with mercury; the problem with this toxic chemical is that it sticks around for a long time, cycling between the air and the soil and ocean. Eventually it winds up in the deep sea or deeply buried sediments, but that takes centuries.

In fact, half of the mercury in the upper part of the ocean—where it accumulates in fish that humans eat—was emitted by people prior to 1950, according to a study published in May in the journal Global Biogeochemical Models. In total, 83 percent of the surface ocean's mercury ended up there from human activities. The finding has led researchers to suggest that mercury emissions be dramatically cut.

"The mercury we've emitted in the past is a really big contributor to what we see today," said Helen Amos, a doctoral student in earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University. "I strongly advocate for aggressive reductions [of mercury emissions] in the immediate decade."

If nothing is done to reduce mercury emissions, ocean levels could nearly double by 2050. That would have "serious implications" for human health, Amos said. Mercury levels in the atmosphere are nearly eight times greater than natural "background" concentrations, the study found.

Even if emissions are cut in half—a very optimistic assumption—the effects wouldn't be seen in food webs for at least a decade.

Exposure to small amounts of mercury can cause brain and nerve damage, especially in the young, years of research show. It also readily makes its way from the blood of pregnant women into fetuses, affecting brain development.

Most of the mercury emitted into the atmosphere rains down on the world's oceans, and the rest ends up on land. But its is a volatile element, and much of it evaporates and returns to the air after being deposited on land and into the ocean. In fact, a majority of the mercury (60 percent) that rains out from the air has been re-emitted from soil or water, returning like an undead pollutant that cannot be snuffed out.

The primary source of mercury emissions is small-scale (or "artisanal") gold mining, for example in Southeast Asia and South America, according to the study; a close second is emissions of mercury from burning coal. Together, the two account for about two-thirds of current mercury pollution, Amos said.

In small-scale mining, often carried out by the poor and done illegally, mercury-containing quicksilver is added to a slurry of ore. The mercury binds to any gold present and sinks to the bottom. It can then be burned off over an open flame, emitting large amounts of the pollutant directly into the atmosphere, Amos said. The practice can also poison the people doing the mining, she added.

Earlier this year, governments around the world said that they would reduce some types of mercury pollution, in an agreement known as the Minamata Convention on Mercury, named for a town in Japan where methylmercury poisoning devastated many residents in the mid-1900s. This agreement will phase out the use of some mercury-containing products and curtail some mercury pollution by 2020.

In the mean time, however, mercury levels in the atmosphere and ocean will continue to rise, Amos said. Even if emissions are cut in half—a very optimistic assumption—the effects wouldn't be seen in food webs for at least a decade, she added.

Other steps need to be taken to protected people—especially pregnant women and their developing fetuses, and newborns—from mercury, said Philippe Grandjean, a medical epidemiologist at Harvard who wasn't involved in the study. Grandjean details how pollutants like mercury are causing a "silent epidemic" of chemical brain drain throughout the world in a book published earlier this year.

"Given that there are substantial populations worldwide who are exposed to hazardous levels of mercury, we can't wait for the convention to correct that," Grandjean said.

He advocates taking secondary measures—like advising pregnant women what fish are healthy to eat (such as young, small fish, and those that don't prey upon other fish). One way to protect pregnant women would be to test their hair for mercury, to see if they might need to change their diet to reduce exposure to the heavy metal. This test could be done as cheaply as other widespread lab tests, Grandjean said.

"The Minamata convention includes only weak and general recommendations for health surveillance, but this new [study] makes it even more urgent to institute procedures where pregnant women can obtain dietary advice to avoid mercury exposure, preferably with the option of testing for mercury in hair," Grandjean said.

By Laila Kearney

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California prison authorities warned thousands of hunger-striking inmates on Thursday that they could face discipline for illegal "mass disturbances," and confirmed that more than 12,000 prisoners missed nine consecutive meals in the past three days.

The hunger strikers, who are also refusing work assignments, are protesting what prisoner advocates describe as the state's inhumane solitary confinement practices, which can include locking inmates in isolated cells for up to 23 hours a day.

The action launched on Monday by inmates at over two dozen correctional facilities marked the largest prison hunger strike in California history, according to the Los Angeles Times. It is nearly twice the size of a 2011 strike that at its peak involved 6,500 inmates.

"Participating in a mass disturbance and refusing to participate in a work assignment are violations of state law, and any participating inmates will receive disciplinary action," state corrections officials said in a statement in response to the strike.

Joining in this current strike "can lead to loss of privileges, loss of credits," said Jeffrey Callison, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He did not say what types of inmate privileges could be taken away.

The department said the strike was led by prison gangs and that "mass hunger strikes, work stoppages and other disruptions" could potentially affect safety and security behind bars.

The strike comes at an already challenging time for the prison system in the most populous U.S. state, which has been ordered by a federal court to reduce prison size by 10,000 inmates this year to ease crowding.

The state has begun housing many low-level prisoners in county jails. Governor Jerry Brown has been feuding with federal judges over demands the state continue to reduce inmate numbers.

GANG AFFILIATIONS

California holds 4,527 inmates isolated from the general prison population in so-called Security Housing Units because prison officials found they had committed crimes behind bars or have gang affiliations, said Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton.

The Prison Hunger Strike Solidarity group said on its website on Thursday that about 30,000 inmates were participating, a figure higher than numbers cited by officials.

Corrections officials had said that more than 30,000 of California's 132,800 inmates began refusing food on Monday and continued to decline meals through the week, with nearly 29,000 participating on Wednesday.

On Thursday, officials said 12,421 prisoners in 24 state prisons and four out-of-state facilities had missed nine straight meals, a benchmark required for officials to recognize in a hunger strike. They did not say whether any other prisoners may have been participating but had missed fewer meals.

Carol Strickman, a prisoners' rights attorney who represents some of the hunger strikers in a lawsuit against the state, said inmates were frustrated that after two widely publicized hunger strikes in 2011, the state had only minimally changed its procedures for solitary confinement.

Thornton has denied that prisoners in the Security Housing Units were isolated, saying some had cellmates, and that they were allowed yard privileges at least 11 hours a week. Inmates also have access to a law library and cable TV, she said.

Strickman said the yard was actually an unheated concrete room about the size of three parking spaces, with a ceiling made of clear plastic or glass that opens only partially. Inmates are also alone when they are in the space, she said.

"To call it a yard is to call your bathroom a yard when you open the window," Strickman said.

(Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein, Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Peter Cooney)