Daily Roundup: August 3, 2010

Forest Funds: Ecuador has signed a deal with Germany to accept $50 million per year for the next 12 years; in exchange, the country will not drill for oil in an Amazon wildlife reserve. Reuters

Mountain Mystery: A sharp drop in barometric pressure may have contributed to the deaths of Everest climbers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine in 1924, say researchers. The study, published in Weather, sheds new light on the debate over whether the climbers reached the summit. BBC

From Puck to Politics: Georges Laraque, a retired hockey player, was recently named as a deputy leader of Canada's Green Party. Ecorazzi 

Fast Company: The Indian government will import 18 wild cheetahs from Africa as part of a plan to restore the country's grasslands. The sub-species of cheetah that once lived in India was hunted into near extinction and no longer exists in the wild. L.A. Unleashed

There's No Place Like Home: Enbridge Energy Partners, the company responsible for the Michigan oil spill, is offering to buy about 200 homes that fall within the spill evacuation zone or within 200 feet of the contaminated Kalamazoo River. Detroit Free Press and Battle Creek Enquirer

--Della Watson