AFP - The belief that dinosaurs underwent explosive species diversification just before they were wiped out is an illusion, for the beasts' main evolutionary shifts took place millions of years before, a study says.

AFP - Tropical Storm Dolly grew into a category one hurricane Tuesday as it headed toward the US-Mexican border, forcing the evacuation of thousands in Mexico while the US Navy sheltered aircraft.

LiveScience.com - A college student's new discovery of fossils collected in the East Antarctic suggests that the frozen polar cap was once a much balmier place. The well-preserved fossils of ostracods, a type of small crustaceans, came from the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica's Transantarctic Mountains and date from about 14 million years ago. The fossils were a rare find, showing all of the ostracods' soft anatomy in 3-D. The fossils were discovered by Richard Thommasson during screening of the sediment in research team member Allan Ashworth's lab at North Dakota State University. ...

AFP - Leading oil and gas producers Russia and Venezuela will coordinate energy policies, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday after meeting his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez.

AFP - The World Wildlife Fund on Tuesday criticised the European Union's illegal wood imports, singling out Finland as the top offender and calling for EU-wide legislation to tackle the issue.

Reuters - Tropical Storm Dolly intensified over the western Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday as it bore down on southern Texas, but forecasters don't expect it to pack too much of a punch when it comes ashore near the Mexican border as a hurricane on Wednesday.

AFP - One of Italy's leading animal rights groups said Monday it was launching an Internet petition to demand Pope Benedict XVI stop wearing fur during religious ceremonies at the Vatican.

AFP - Forecasters issued a hurricane warning on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Dolly churned over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to grow into a hurricane within 24 hours near the Mexico-Texas border.

AP - Archaeologists will excavate hundreds of fragments of an ancient Egyptian wooden boat entombed in an underground chamber next to Giza's Great Pyramid and try to reassemble the craft, Egyptologists announced Saturday.

AP - The oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, a 4th century version that had its Gospels and epistles spread across the world, is being made whole again — online.

AP - A hurricane watch was issued for parts of the Texas and Mexico coasts Monday as Tropical Storm Dolly entered the Gulf of Mexico.