AP - Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species because of global warming, the Bush administration is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas.

AP - Space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven returned to Earth on Saturday and capped a successful expansion job at the international space station, more spacious and robust thanks to a new billion-dollar science lab.

AFP - The US Catholic Bishops' Conference on Friday issued an explicit rejection of research using stem cells from human embryos.

AFP - The US shuttle Discovery was to return to Earth Saturday after a successful mission to deliver and open Japan's first space laboratory at the International Space Station.

AFP - Rising flood waters swamped this central US river city on Friday, forcing residents to flee their homes and officials to abandon city hall amid a wider crisis that has left 20 dead.

AP - The Phoenix lander sent back the most detailed view of the Martian soil to date, showing clumps of fine grains mixed with possible minerals, scientists said Friday.

AP - A 22-gun British warship that sank during the American Revolution and has long been regarded as one of the "Holy Grail" shipwrecks in the Great Lakes has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Ontario, astonishingly well-preserved in the cold, deep water, explorers announced Friday.

AP - The weather looked favorable for space shuttle Discovery to return to Earth Saturday after a two-week mission in which it delivered a new Japanese lab to the international space station.

AFP - A senior US official on Friday urged countries to remove barriers to the use of biotechnology and other innovations that would increase food production at a time of crisis.

AFP - Astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery spotted an unidentified object floating behind the craft as well as a bump on the shuttle rudder on Friday but neither was cause for concern, NASA said.

AFP - Rising flood waters swamped the river city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa Friday, forcing residents to flee their homes, and officials to abandon city hall amid a crisis that has left 15 people dead.