AP - With good weather in the offing and no bumps in the countdown, NASA pushed ahead with Saturday's planned launch of space shuttle Discovery on a delivery trip to the international space station.

AP - Brazil's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that scientists can conduct embryonic stem cell research, which holds the promise of curing Parkinson's disease and diabetes but raises ethical concerns about the limits on human life.

AFP - China's world-famous Wolong Giant Panda Reserve has been so badly damaged by this month's earthquake that it will probably have to be relocated, state media reported Friday.

AFP - NASA's Phoenix Mars lander flexed its robotic arm Thursday in a successful test of the key element in the probe's mission to investigate the Red Planet's soil for conditions conducive to life, NASA said.

AFP - Flooding and mudslides left at least two people dead in northern Italy after heavy rains that also hit France and Belgium, reports said, with dangerous weather likely to continue on Friday.

AP - The Phoenix lander is getting ready to flex its muscles on Mars. The spacecraft successfully freed its 8-foot robotic arm from the restraints that kept it folded up and protected from vibrations during the launch and landing, scientists said Thursday. Preparations are now under way to partially flex the arm.

AP - The world's rarest rhino does not like the limelight. A Javan Rhino was captured on video attacking a camera set up in an Indonesian jungle to study the habits of the animal, apparently because she sensed the lens was a threat to her calf, the WWF said Thursday.

AP - England's enigmatic Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings and for several hundred years thereafter, new research indicates.

AFP - Iran is facing a summer of power cuts after a severe drought slashed output from its hydroelectric power plants, the energy minister warned, according to press reports on Thursday.

AFP - Hidden cameras in the jungles of Indonesia's Java island have captured rare footage of the world's most threatened rhino, boosting efforts to save it from extinction, conservationists said Thursday.

AFP - NASA stowed replacement parts aboard the Discovery shuttle Thursday to be sent up to the International Space station to fix its broken Russian toilet, the US space agency said.