AP - Tropical Storm Douglas weakened to a depression off Mexico's coast on Thursday and was forecast to die at sea.

AP - Tropical Storm Bertha has formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa.

AP - Tropical Storm Cristina formed far off Mexico's Baja peninsula on Saturday and forecasters said it does not threaten land.

AP - The Chinese government says Tropical Storm Fengshen has killed at least nine people in southern China.

AFP - Tropical storm Fengshen killed nine people as it tore across China's south, pounding the densely populated area with torrential rains, state media said Saturday.

AP - Tropical storm Fengshen lashed southern China on Wednesday with heavy rains and strong winds, bringing new misery to a region already struggling to recover from this month's deadly floods.

AP - Substantially improving the accuracy of hurricane intensity predictions could take years and tens of millions of dollars, the National Hurricane Center's director said Tuesday.

AP - For the first time since Hurricane Katrina, the 1920s-era St. Charles Avenue streetcar will clack along its entire 13-mile route Sunday.

AP - A wet Independence Day was forecast for much of the nation, with showers and thunderstorms projected for the Pacific Northwest, the mid-Atlantic, the Ohio Valley and the Southeast. Clear skies were expected over the northern Plains, the Great Lakes and the Southwest.

AP - Tropical Storm Douglas weakened to a depression off Mexico's coast on Thursday and was forecast to die at sea.

AP - Tropical Storm Bertha has formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa.

AP - Severe thunderstorms swept across parts of Michigan, flooding streets and cutting power to many residents.

AP - The Mississippi River climbed toward its high-water mark Monday at St. Louis and was expected to crest over the next couple of days at points downriver, but the worst of the flood of 2008 appeared to be over.

Reuters - Levees on the cresting Mississippi River held on Sunday as the worst U.S. Midwest flooding in 15 years began to ebb, but multibillion-dollar crop losses may boost world food prices for years.

AFP - A powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck off India's Andaman islands in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, the US Geological Survey said.

AP - Tropical Storm Cristina formed far off Mexico's Baja peninsula on Saturday and forecasters said it does not threaten land.

Reuters - Volcanic activity has played a central role in forging the surface of Mercury, scientists said on Thursday based on data collected by a NASA spacecraft that zoomed past the closest planet to the sun in January.

SPACE.com - A NASA spacecraft's first flyby of Mercury has yielded a wealth of information about the inner-most planet, some of which confirms volcanism occurred there, settling a longstanding debate.

SPACE.com - This story inaugurates a new monthly feature that will highlight the research undertaken by SETI Institute scientists, as well as provide an opportunity for you to join an expedition or participate directly in science or science education.

Reuters - The solar system may not be a nice round shape, but rather a bit squashed and oblong, according to data from the Voyager 2 spacecraft exploring the solar system's outer limits, scientists said on Wednesday.

AFP - The Russian space agency has sealed a deal with a private investor to build a Soyuz spacecraft specially for tourist hire and operational in 2011, a statement said Wednesday.

AP - When viewed from the rest of the galaxy, the edge of our solar system appears slightly dented as if a giant hand is pushing one edge of it inward, far-traveling NASA probes reveal.

SPACE.com - Voyager 2's journey toward interstellar space has revealed surprising insights into the energy and magnetic forces at the solar system's outer edge, and confirmed the solar system's squashed shape.

AP - A man and his friend have been charged with stabbing and beating the man's ex-wife, her two children and her relative, a NASA scientist, before setting fire to a Mojave Desert home to cover up the crime.

Reuters - Volcanic activity has played a central role in forging the surface of Mercury, scientists said on Thursday based on data collected by a NASA spacecraft that zoomed past the closest planet to the sun in January.

SPACE.com - A NASA spacecraft's first flyby of Mercury has yielded a wealth of information about the inner-most planet, some of which confirms volcanism occurred there, settling a longstanding debate.

AP - When viewed from the rest of the galaxy, the edge of our solar system appears slightly dented as if a giant hand is pushing one edge of it inward, far-traveling NASA probes reveal.

AP - A man and his friend have been charged with stabbing and beating the man's ex-wife, her two children and her relative, a NASA scientist, before setting fire to a Mojave Desert home to cover up the crime.

SPACE.com - NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander scraped up some icy soil to analyze in its instruments, NASA announced on Tuesday.

SPACE.com - American astronaut Garrett Reisman is getting reacquainted with gravity and baseball as he readjusts to life on Earth after three months living in space.

SPACE.com - NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has scraped to icy soil in the "Wonderland" area on, NASA announced on Friday.

AP - Homicide detectives investigating the slaying of a NASA engineer, a woman and two children stabbed before they were burned in a Mojave Desert house fire named two "persons of interest" in the case.

LiveScience.com - Officials are alarmed by a plunging tiger population in the Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in Nepal, a refuge that once boasted among the highest densities of this endangered species in the Eastern Himalayas.

AFP - Some endangered species may face an extinction risk that is up to a hundred times greater than previously thought, according to a study released Wednesday.

AFP - Japan is ready to spare humpback whales from its Antarctic hunt for another year if international whaling talks make progress, a senior Japanese official said Wednesday.

AFP - Hundreds of anti-seal hunt demonstrators held a protest outside European Union headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, demanding that the 27-nation bloc impose a total ban on seal products from Canada and elsewhere.

AP - Five Makah Indian whalers who killed a gray whale during an illegal hunt last September have been sentenced in federal court. The sentences include jail time for two men considered the leaders of the group.

AP - An Arkansas mayor who ordered 10 Humane Society dogs let loose in a national forest is wanted on animal cruelty charges after a special judge issued an arrest warrant.

AFP - The International Whaling Commission ended its annual meeting Friday leaving unchanged both its long-standing row over commercial whaling and Japan's "scientific" hunting quota of 1,000 whales.

AP - The International Whaling Commission ended its annual conference on Friday, leaving all the tough work on expanding or restricting whale hunting still ahead of it.

AP - North Korea said Friday it will not take further steps to dismantle its nuclear program until the U.S. and its other negotiating partners award fuel oil and political benefits promised under an aid-for-disarmament deal.

AP - France will build a second new-generation nuclear reactor, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday, pledging a "new industrial revolution" in an era in which fossil fuels have grown too expensive.

AFP - Iraq on Thursday said it would be guided by the principle of competition when awarding contracts to global energy companies hoping to cash in on the country's vast oil and gas fields.

AP - As crude soared to a new record, the head of the International Energy Agency declared that the world was in the grip of an "oil shock," and the president of OPEC acknowledged he could not say whether prices would flatten out or continue to soar.

AFP - Oil prices breached 142 dollars per barrel again on Wednesday, nearing recent record heights, as traders awaited the latest weekly snapshot on energy stockpiles in the United States.

AFP - World oil traded higher in Asia near record levels Wednesday after OPEC's president talked of uncertainty surrounding future investment in energy facilities to boost crude output.

AP - High gasoline prices have dramatically changed Americans' views on energy and the environment with more people now viewing oil drilling and new power plants as a greater priority than energy conservation than they did five months ago, according to a new survey.

AP - Global investors plowed $148 billion into new wind, solar and other alternative energy assets last year, in what the United Nations describes as a "green energy gold rush" gaining speed the last several years.

Reuters - Scientists have linked 32 genetic variations to Crohn's disease, a bowel disorder, highlighting the complexity of many common diseases and the difficulties facing researchers seeking treatments.

AFP - Genes can affect whether people tend to vote in elections or not, according to a US study released this week that suggested that the urge to cast a ballot is inherited.

Reuters - The largest study ever of bird genetics has uncovered some surprising facts about the avian evolutionary tree, U.S. researchers said on Thursday, including many that are bound to ruffle some feathers.

AFP - Individual human genomes change throughout a person's life influenced by environmental or nutritional factors which may explain why illnesses such as cancer come with age, a study said Tuesday.

AP - In a cramped, humid laboratory in London, mosquitoes swarming in stacked, net-covered cages are being scrutinized for keys to controlling malaria. Scientists have genetically modified hundreds of them, hoping to stop them from spreading the killer disease.

AFP - A British minister came under attack from environmentalists Thursday after suggesting that genetically-modified crops could help ease the global food crisis.

AP - A South Korean team led by disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk said Thursday it has created 17 clones of an endangered dog breed popular in China.

Reuters - Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill on Monday that will direct $1 billion of state funds toward biotechnology over 10 years, aiming to fill a federal funding shortfall caused by White House opposition to embryonic stem cell research.

AP - Syria has returned a marble artifact to Iraq that was stolen from one of the country's archaeological sites.

AP - From climate change to volcanoes and earthquakes, the world's growing challenges have leaders in earth science proposing a merger of agencies that study the planet.

AP - The Phoenix lander's first chemical sniff of Martian soil did not turn up any trace of the building blocks of life. Its next whiff could be its last.

LiveScience.com - July Fourth is a celebration of outdoor cooking, as well as our nation's birthday. It's time to brush off the barbecue and throw masses of processed meat on the grill. As we all stand around waiting for the fire to die down so that we can make s'mores, it's also a time to ponder the notion that the barbecue is a ritual 700,000 years old or more, and it might have something to do with our big brains. Human ancestors started out eating whatever they could; berries, bark, fruit and bits of small animals were probably the main fare. ...

AP - Tropical Storm Douglas weakened to a depression off Mexico's coast on Thursday and was forecast to die at sea.

Reuters - Volcanic activity has played a central role in forging the surface of Mercury, scientists said on Thursday based on data collected by a NASA spacecraft that zoomed past the closest planet to the sun in January.

Reuters - A Chinese man who bought an emaciated pig who survived for 36 days under rubble after May's massive Sichuan earthquake and promised to care for it for life has been given an award by an animal rights group.

AP - Scientists with the Virginia Museum of Natural History have confirmed the discovery of a 500 million-year-old fossil called a stromatolite.

AP - Scientists with the Virginia Museum of Natural History have confirmed the discovery of a 500 million-year-old fossil called a stromatolite.

AP - Scientists unearthed a skull of the most primitive four-legged creature in Earth's history, which should help them better understand the evolution of fish to advanced animals that walk on land.

AP - A newly discovered batch of well-preserved dinosaur bones, petrified trees and even freshwater clams in southeastern Utah could provide new clues about life in the region some 150 million years ago.

LiveScience.com - A prospecting geologist stumbled upon a ragtag bunch of bones in the northern part of British Columbia, more than three decades ago. A new study suggests these fossils could represent a new species of dinosaur. But beyond that, the dinosaur's identity is a mystery - sort of a Dino Doe. The small collection of bones includes seven shin, arm and toe bones, as well as a possible skull fragment. Based on the shapes and sizes of the bones, paleontologists think they could have belonged to a type of small- to medium-sized dinosaur, possibly a pachycephalosaur or ornithopod. ...

AFP - A dinosaur bone discovered in Australia has defied prevailing wisdom about how the world's continents separated from a super-continent millions of years ago, a new study published on Tuesday said.

LiveScience.com - Cat-sized reptiles once roamed what is now the icebox of Antarctica, snuggling up in burrows and peeping above ground to snag plant roots and insects.

AFP - South Asian environment ministers said developed countries should establish a special fund dedicated to saving them from the effects of climate change.

AP - From climate change to volcanoes and earthquakes, the world's growing challenges have leaders in earth science proposing a merger of agencies that study the planet.

AFP - European Union environment ministers cleared some ground Thursday as they debated how to achieve the vaunted dream of slashing the 27-nation bloc's carbon pollution by 2020.

AFP - The top United Nations climate official called Thursday on rich nations to lead the fight against global warming, but said a breakthrough was unlikely at next week's G8 summit in Japan.

AFP - China said Thursday it was eager to discuss "long-term" goals on fighting climate change at the G8 summit but stuck to its position that rich nations must lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

AFP - The UN's top climate change official said Thursday that record oil prices, which have surged to 146 dollars a barrel, were positive for the environment.

AP - The U.S. has done the least among the world's eight largest economies to address global warming, a study released Thursday found.

AFP - China faces serious challenges in ensuring it will have enough grain to feed its population in the decades to come, with urbanisation and climate change two major problems, Premier Wen Jiabao said.