WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 31, 2013 11:32am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Chesapeake Bay, North America's biggest estuary, is still ailing but making some progress as it struggles to recover from over-fishing and pollution, a partnership overseeing its revival said on Thursday.

The number of juvenile crabs is the highest in two decades, rockfish are stable and last year's "dead zone," the part of the bay without enough oxygen to support life, seems to be the smallest since 1985, the Chesapeake Bay Program said in its 2011-12 "Bay Barometer."

On the down side, water clarity was very poor and only a third of the bay met standards for dissolved oxygen, a measure of water's health. The oyster population also was at less than 1 percent of historic levels.

"While we clearly have a lot of work to do, the bay is resilient and we have reason for hope," Nick DiPasquale, director of the federal and state program, said in a statement.

The Chesapeake Bay, home to more than 3,600 species of plants and animals, has been fouled by decades of over-fishing and pollution. Pollutants include sediment, manure, trash and chemicals that flow into it from its 64,000-square-mile (166,000-square-km) watershed across six states.

The Chesapeake Bay Program was formed in 1983 to restore the estuary, where salt water from the ocean mixes with fresh water. It includes Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District of Columbia, the Environmental Protection Agency and citizens groups.

The group said that most of the bay's feeder freshwater streams were in poor or very poor condition. Water murkiness and algae levels in 2011 were the worst since 2009.

But the big Susquehanna Flats grass bed survived Tropical Storm Lee in 2011. In another sign of health, grasses in the middle of the Chesapeake showed "dramatic increases," the program said.

The adult female crab population was still within the sustainable range in 2012 despite falling for two years.

Nitrogen and phosphorus, components in fertilizers that contribute to algae growth, each moved about 20 percent closer to their targets from July 2009 to June 2011 under a bay "pollution diet."

Sediment was about 30 percent nearer its target, helped by more forested buffers being planted to limit runoff into streams and rivers.

In a separate report, the U.S. Geological Survey said this month that nutrient and sediment trends at nine bay monitoring sites had shown an overall lack of improvement through 2010.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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1 of 7. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) leaves New York Presbyterian Hospital with husband, Bill (TOP), and daughter, Chelsea (C), in New York, January 2, 2013. The secretary of state, who has not been seen in public since Dec. 7, was revealed on Sunday evening to be in a New York hospital under treatment for a blood clot that stemmed from a concussion she suffered in mid-December.

WASHINGTON | Wed Jan 2, 2013 7:58pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was discharged from a New York hospital on Wednesday after being treated for a blood clot near her brain and her doctors expect her to make a full recovery, the State Department said.

Clinton, who has not been seen in public since December 7, was at New York-Presbyterian Hospital under treatment for a blood clot behind her right ear that stemmed from a concussion she suffered in mid-December, the department said on Sunday.

The concussion was the result of an earlier illness, described by the State Department as a stomach virus she had picked up during a trip to Europe that led to dehydration and a fainting spell after she returned to the United States.

"Secretary Clinton was discharged from the hospital this evening. Her medical team advised her that she is making good progress on all fronts, and they are confident she will make a full recovery," Philippe Reines, a deputy assistant secretary of state, said in a statement.

Reines said Clinton was "eager to get back to the office."

Earlier, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily briefing Clinton had been talking with her staff by telephone and receiving memos.

Clinton also spoke to two foreign officials - the U.N. envoy on Syria and the prime minister of Qatar - on Saturday, the day before the State Department disclosed the blood clot and her stay at the hospital.

In a statement released by the State Department on Monday, Clinton's doctors said she was being treated with blood thinners and would be released from the hospital once the correct dosage had been determined.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Sandra Maler and Todd Eastham)

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(Company corrects comments on Olympic corporate ticket packages in final paragraphs having originally said that it had a third of the packages left unsold and that about 95 percent of the tickets repackaged for sale to the public had now been sold.)

* Harriet Green says will tap on technology expertise

* Q3 operating loss 26.5 mln stg vs 20.1 mln stg profit yoy

* Says rainy weather boosted foreign holiday bookings

* Sees full-year results broadly in line with expectations

By Brenda Goh

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Thomas Cook's new chief executive said technology would be the salvation of the struggling British tour operator and gave herself nine months to deliver a turnaround plan to end over a year of poor performance.

The company posted an underlying operating loss of 26.5 million pounds ($41.3 million) in the three months ended June, versus a profit of 20.1 million pounds in the same period last year despite a lift in foreign bookings from Britons exasperated with rainy weather at home.

Harriet Green, who joined the 171-year-old company from electronic parts distributor Premier Farrell in July, told reporters on Thursday she would be able to "bring a fresh pair of eyes" to existing industry problems.

"I don't think moving from one industry (to another) is so much of a challenge ... There are many things that are actually very similar and in my view of business, all roads ultimately lead to technology," she said.

Thomas Cook has been hit hard by tough trading conditions, particularly in Britain where its core customer base of families with young children is suffering in the economic downturn. It has also been affected by unrest in popular destinations such as Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.

In May it reported half-year pretax loss of 328.3 million pounds and completed the sale and leaseback of 19 of its planes as it struggled to find cash.

"In our view they (new management) face a very difficult turnaround task. We expect early views from the new team in November and a detailed plan to be announced in the Spring," Numis analysts said.

Thomas Cook said foreign holiday bookings had picked up in recent weeks after subdued demand in April and May, as the sodden European summer drove rain-weary Britons, Germans and Russians to seek the sun in Greece and Tunisia.

UK bookings as of July 29 were flat versus the same time last year, while bookings in central Europe were 1 percent higher, boosted by demand from Germany.

In comparison, bookings in west Europe were down 9 percent compared with the same time last year, as trading, particularly in France, stayed tough.

Net debt at June 30 was 1.01 billion pounds, versus 902.5 million pounds at the same time last year. It has striven to pay down its debt through selling its Spanish hotel chain Hotels Y Clubs De Vacaciones and expects to complete the 87 million pound sale of its Indian unit by Aug. 22.

While the outlook remained challenging, the company said its quarterly financial trend was improving and it expects to post a full-year result broadly in line with expectations.

At 0943 GMT shares in Thomas Cook, which have fallen more than 70 percent over the past year, were down 1.5 percent to 16.32 pence, valuing the company at around 148 million pounds.

It also said plans to cash in on the Olympics by selling packages to corporate clients had not gone as well as expected after the implementation of the UK bribery act made corporates nervous about offering or accepting corporate hospitality.

It had originally allocated 25 percent of its tickets to corporate packages but has since repackaged more than half of these to sell to the public a nd said it has now so ld 99 percent of its Olympic tickets. ($1=0.6415 British pounds) (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Mark Potter and David Cowell)

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