The U.S. National Science Foundation on 30 March signed a cooperative agreement with the Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI) in Washington, D.C., to lead U.S. participation in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). Large-scale, destructive dust and sand storms that originate in the dry regions of northern China and Mongolia are plaguing the Korean peninsula, Japan and other parts of northeast Asia nearly five times more frequently than in the 1950s, participants in a meeting sponsored by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) learned on 30 March. Twelve countries have received critical use exemptions to continue using limited amounts of the pesticide methyl bromide in 2005.