AFP - China has said it must urgently step up the development of genetically modified crops as it faces mounting challenges to feed its 1.3 billion people due to shrinking arable land and climate change.
AFP - OPEC on Thursday cut its long-term estimate for world oil demand, saying consumption by 2030 would be 3.7 percent lower than previously forecast as soaring prices drive efforts to save energy.
AFP - Paris city hall was swamped by 1,600 papier mache pandas on Thursday, part of a WWF campaign to highlight the urgent need to protect the vanishing species.
SPACE.com - A new analysis of an unprecedented
snapshot of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander descending to the surface of Mars has
turned up more detail, including a dark spot that is likely the spacecraft's
jettisoned heat shield. -- read full article
AP - The climate phenomena known as La Nina is ending and neutral conditions are expected into the fall, government forecasters said Thursday. The change can affect weather worldwide. -- read full article
LiveScience.com - A vast shelf of ice in Antarctica is hanging on to the continent by
a thread and is not expected to survive, scientists announced today. -- read full article
AP - New Mexico is reaping a revenue windfall because of high prices for oil and natural gas, and a debate is brewing about whether the extra cash should be spent on highways, schools, health care or tax rebates. -- read full article
AP - Forecasters say Hurricane Bertha is moving slowly, but could regain major hurricane status as it heads toward Bermuda. The storm is currently a Category 2.
LiveScience.com - In the new film "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," the main character
Hellboy saves the world from trolls, demons, and other strange
netherworld creatures. The cigar-chompin', red-skinned devil-man
doesn't do it just for fun; it's his job. -- read full article
AP - Federal rangeland managers said continuing to allow cattle to graze on the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is harming the rare plants, fish and wildlife the monument was created eight years ago to protect. -- read full article
AP - Crime scene DNA is typically recovered from blood or semen stains, but the DNA that exonerated members of JonBenet Ramsey's family came from invisible skin cells.
Reuters - A top U.S. Democratic senator said in
a newspaper interview published Wednesday that he would
consider supporting opening up new areas for offshore oil and
gas drilling.
Reuters - Some odd-looking fish fossils
discovered in the bowels of several European museums may help
solve a lingering question about evolutionary theory, U.S.
researchers said on Wednesday.
AP - A zookeeper's house cat has adopted a baby red panda abandoned by its mother and is nursing the cub along with her own kittens, the Artis zoo said Wednesday.
