AP - Orangutan numbers have declined sharply on the only two islands where they still live in the wild and they could become the first great ape species to go extinct if urgent action isn't taken, a new study says.

AFP - A review of the European Union's procedures for vetting genetically modified crops does not imply the policy will undergo far-reaching change, a French environment minister said Friday.

AP - North Korea said Friday it will not take further steps to dismantle its nuclear program until the U.S. and its other negotiating partners award fuel oil and political benefits promised under an aid-for-disarmament deal.

AFP - Scientists with the US Phoenix lander will make their first analysis of Martian ice fragments in coming days but it could be the last done in one of the probe's small ovens, NASA said on its website Friday.

AP - North Korea accused its nuclear negotiating partners Friday of being too slow in shipping fuel oil under an aid-for-disarmament deal.

Reuters - Volcanic activity has played a central role in forging the surface of Mercury, scientists said on Thursday based on data collected by a NASA spacecraft that zoomed past the closest planet to the sun in January.

AP - Tropical Storm Bertha has formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa.

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 - Syria has returned a marble artifact to Iraq that was stolen from one of the country's archaeological sites.

AP - France will build a second new-generation nuclear reactor, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday, pledging a "new industrial revolution" in an era in which fossil fuels have grown too expensive.