AFP - ExxonMobil softened its tone on environmental responsibility and the need to invest in alternative energy sources Wednesday in the face of strong opposition from shareholders.

AFP - She is the oldest mother of any species ever found, a 380-million-year-old fish immortalised in a fossil while still attached to her offspring by an umbilical cord.

AP - Scattered showers and cool temperatures settled in over much of the West early Wednesday, while a line of storms stretched from the mid-Atlantic across the Southern Plains.

AP - NASA rushed Wednesday to get a special pump on board shuttle Discovery to fix a balky toilet at the international space station.

AP - A day after an orbiter's radio shutdown blocked NASA from telling its newly planted Phoenix Mars lander what to do, orders were on the way to get its robotic arm moving.

AFP - Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Wednesday for greater international action to halt spiralling oil prices, saying rising energy and fuel costs would not come down without it.

AFP - China is seeking outside help to save the Qinling mountains, home of the giant panda, a national symbol that is threatened with extinction, the Asian Development Bank said Wednesday.

AP - A tornado that leveled half a town in northeast Iowa and killed seven people was the strongest to hit the state in 32 years, the National Weather Service said Tuesday.

LiveScience.com - With a name like T. rex, you'd expect to be safe from even the fiercest paleo-bullies. Turns out, ancient, flying reptiles could have snacked on Tyrannosaurus Rex babies and other landlubbing runts of the dinosaur world.