AP - A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra — but don't necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks all night long.

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.

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.

AP - The archaeologists were delighted to at last find the remains of George Washington's boyhood home but got stumped when they looked for evidence of the cherry tree and rusty hatchet.

AP - New green rubber bands that will bind the claws of Massachusetts lobsters beginning this weekend won't save the lobsters from the dinner table. But they signify a state initiative aimed at saving whales.

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.

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 - 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.

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.