AP - Mexico recovered more than 900 pre-Columbian artifacts seized from smugglers in the U.S. and Canada, including 800-year-old fiber sandals, spears and hunting bows looted from nomadic caves, officials said Friday.

AP - Floodwaters loaded with farm runoff are heading down the Mississippi River, and scientists fear the deluge will dramatically increase this summer's dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, covering an area the size of Maryland.

AP - An outbreak of one of the most contagious animal diseases from any of five locations the White House is considering for a new high-security research laboratory would be more devastating to the U.S. economy than from the isolated island laboratory where such research is now conducted, says a report published Friday.

AP - The apparent discovery of ice near Mars' north pole has scientists asking: Did the frozen water melt at some point in the planet's long history to create an environment friendly for life?

AFP - The Texan oilmen dining at Midland's Petroleum Club are not very happy with the energy policies coming out of Washington these days.

AFP - Japanese police on Friday arrested two Greenpeace members who had alleged corruption in the country's controversial whaling programme, accusing the activists of stealing whale meat.

Reuters - Spike Lee may not be done with Hurricane Katrina yet.

AP - The world's developed countries should take the lead in the battle against global warming and push for halving global emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, a group of business leaders said Friday.

AP - A rocket carrying a U.S.-French ocean-monitoring satellite lifted off early Friday from the central California coast.

AP - Scientists believe NASA's Phoenix Mars lander exposed bits of ice while recently digging a trench in the soil of the Martian arctic, the mission's principal investigator said.

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.

Reuters - Eight-cylinder luxury cars will rumble along Jeddah's highways guzzling cheap Saudi gasoline as energy powers hold emergency talks in the Red Sea port this weekend to brake the free-wheeling rise in oil prices.

AFP - Japanese police on Friday arrested two Greenpeace members who had alleged corruption in the country's controversial whaling programme, accusing the activists of stealing whale meat.