For much of 2012 it was impossible to get investors interested in the Alpha project for another reason: In May the federal government in Canberra stopped the clock on environmental clearance for the project, after the Queensland government cleared it.

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Stress - not only the environmental type associated with earthquakes, but also marital or job stress - was likely to affect the placental clock and shorten gestation, she said.

BBC: Earthquakes 'trigger early births'