Snow is piled on a Lake Tahoe beach in Sand Harbor, Nevada February 3, 2012. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

VALLEJO, California (Reuters) - Giant goldfish have mysteriously found their way into the famously crystalline waters of Lake Tahoe, the nation's second-deepest lake, alarming researchers and raising questions about the invasive species' long-term effects.

Goldfish weighing as much as 4 pounds and measuring up to a 1-1/2 feet in length have recently been caught in Tahoe, which straddles the California-Nevada border, and scientists say the influx threatens native species while posing a potential waste pollution problem.

"These fish are competing with the native fish, and that's a big part of the problem," said Heather Segale, spokeswoman for the Tahoe Environmental Research Center at the University of California at Davis.

A group of researchers from Davis, the University of Nevada at Reno, and the fish and wildlife departments of both California and Nevada were the first to study the presence of goldfish in Lake Tahoe, beginning an annual survey in 2006.

In 2011, the group began a project to reduce the number of goldfish and other non-native fish from the lake through "electrofishing," dangling metal wires from the bottom of a boat to stun fish with electrical current, then capturing the fish as they float to the surface.

Researchers then sort the fish, releasing native species and sport fish such as trout, and removing the rest.

The project has rid the lake of 50 to 60 goldfish a year since 2011, but their foraging abilities and potential to multiply means removal efforts must continue to keep populations under control, saidChristine Ngai of the University of Nevada.

The influx at Tahoe, at the base of a world-class ski area in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range, is believed to have originated from specimens dumped from a fish bowl by pet owners who no longer wanted them.

Some used as bait may also have escaped into the lake over time, Ngai said. Goldfish, members of the carp family, are known to grow in size when they inhabit larger environments.

While their precise numbers are difficult to track, the proliferation of large goldfish in the wild is not unique to Tahoe. James Schardt, an invasive species expert for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said he has received reports of giant goldfish in lakes from around the country, mostly from the Great Lakes.

"Goldfish are very good at getting what they need," Ngai said. "They can potentially compete with native fish for food, vegetation and bugs."

"Because they eat a lot, they also excrete a lot. They can transfer that into the water and encourage algae growth," she added, saying that could create murky water.

With a maximum depth of 1,645 feet and an average depth of 1,000 feet, the 22-mile-wide lake is the nation's deepest after Crater Lake in Oregon and the 10th deepest on Earth.

It is also one of the clearest in the world, with visibility recently measured to a depth of 70 feet, reduced from 100 feet when clarity readings were first taken in the 1960s, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

(Editing by Steve Gorman, Cynthia Johnston and Todd Eastham)

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican denied on Friday that Pope Benedict's decision to send a senior official to a new post in Latin America was linked to a secret report about leaked papal papers.

Since Benedict announced his resignation on February 11, Italian newspapers have been full of rumors about conspiracies, secret reports and lobbies in the Vatican that they say pushed the pope to abdicate.

Some reports hinted there were sinister motives behind the pope's decision to promote Monsignor Ettore Balestrero, an Italian who holds a post roughly equivalent to deputy foreign minister, to be the Vatican's new ambassador to Colombia.

The Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said the suggestion that the pope had made the appointment to get Balestrero out of the Vatican was "absurd, totally without foundation".

Lombardi said the appointment had been decided weeks ago and that the Vatican had waited for the Colombian government's official agreement before announcing it.

The pope has announced that he will step down on February 28, becoming the first pontiff to abdicate in some six centuries.

The 85-year-old Benedict said his failing health no longer enabled him to run the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church as he would like.

Italy's Repubblica newspaper has run a series of unsourced stories about the alleged contents of a secret report prepared for the pope by a commission of three cardinals who investigated the so-called Vatileaks scandal last year.

In that scandal, Paolo Gabriele, the pope's butler, was convicted of stealing personal papal documents and leaking them to the media.

The documents alleged corruption in the Vatican and infighting over the running of its bank, which has been at the heart of a series of scandals in past decades.

The Italian media stories suggested Balestrero was mentioned in the cardinals' report, which was handed to the pope and is still secret.

Balestrero was head of the Vatican's delegation to Moneyval, the Council of Europe's committee that evaluates how countries are applying international standards on financial transparency.

The Vatican, a sovereign city-state surrounded by Rome, subjected itself to Moneyval's investigations in an attempt to achieve full financial transparency and put its scandal-tinged financial past behind it.

The Moneyval report, issued last July, gave the Vatican an overall passing grade but said it had to made improvements in several areas, including the management at its bank, the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).

The Vatican has said it is willing to adhere to all of Moneyval's recommendations.

Bogota is one of the most prestigious posts in Latin America for a Vatican diplomat because it is the headquarters of CELAM, the umbrella group for all of the continent's bishops conferences.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

The deaths took place in two private hospitals, officials said. "Till now, out of 14 bodies, 12 have been handed over to their kin.

Two more bodies are in the mortuary. One has to be identified. 14 bodies have directly been sent to Osmania Hospital. Two more are awaited from private hospitals," a senior doctor at the state-run Osmania General Hospital said.

The hospital has received 37 people with injuries while some of them have been admitted to corporate hospitals, he said.

Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde addressed a press conference after visiting the blast and said that investigation has started and the government will not leave any stone unturned.

Talking to reporters after visiting the scene of the blasts and calling on the injured at one of the hospitals, Shinde said six of the injured were in a critical condition.

He said he can't share more information as Parliament is in session.

"The state government has already appointed an investigation team and the matter is being investigated now," he said.

"There was no specific information that it (blasts) will happen in a particular area. A general alert has been sounded for the last two-three days and we have issued this alert to whole of the country," he said, when asked about his earlier statement that the central government had issued an alert.

Shinde did not agree that police had failed.

"It cannot be said at this moment. One has to go into the details. If there was threat perception earlier, it will come in the investigations. It will be too early to talk on such lines," he said.

"We will not leave any stone unturned. We will find everything. At this moment, nothing can be said. The matter is under investigation," he added while refusing to comment on whether he suspects Indian Mujahideen's involvement.

Shinde also clarified that no time limit can be set for the investigations.

Shinde, who arrived in the city early Friday, drove to Dilsukhnagar and inspected the blast scene along with Andhra Pradesh governor ESL Narasimhan, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, state home minister Sabita Indra Reddy and other officials.

Director general of police V Dinesh Reddy briefed Shinde about the two near-simultaneous blasts in the crowded area.

The minister inspected the fast food centre where the bicycle bomb killed at least eight persons on the spot.

He then went to the bus shelter about 150 meters away where the second blast killed another six people and left many injured.

Shinde also spoke with officials of the National Investigating Agency and enquired about the clues gathered from the scene.

Shinde later visited some hospitals where the injured persons were undergoing treatment.

Relatives grieve as the last rites of Swapna Reddy are performed in Hyderabad. AFP

Two powerful near simultaneous blasts had ripped through a crowded area close to a cluster of bus stands in Dilsukhnagar area on Thursday.

The blasts triggered by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) tied to two bicycles took place at two sites 100 metres apart outside a roadside eatery near Konark and Venkatadri theatres in the area located on the Hyderabad-Vijaywada national highway in Cyberabad police limits.

DGP Reddy had said it was "definitely the handiwork of a terrorist network" and IEDs were used in the attack.

The Union home secretary had said the near two simultaneous very powerful blasts indicate that it was a "terror attack".