AP - Lobbyists for restaurants, the solar power industry and other businesses hunted votes Wednesday for the $700 billion financial industry bailout package, touting new provisions that leaders added in hopes of finally pushing the bill through Congress.

AFP - A US space probe will fly over Mercury next week to photograph the solar system's smallest planet, in the second of three planned passes, NASA announced on Wednesday.

LiveScience.com - If history repeats itself, the vice presidential candidates will pull no punches at Thursday night's debate.

AP - Climate change threatens to kill off up to a third of the planet's species by the end of the century if urgent action isn't taken to restore fragile ecosystems, protect endangered animals and manage growth, scientists warned Wednesday as a wildlife summit opened.

AFP - Africa's first-ever solar-powered car race is underway in South Africa to raise awareness about alternative energy and promote science and technology, organisers said Wednesday.

Reuters - Some colorful cichlid fish in Africa's Lake Victoria formed a new species by adapting their vision, showing that geographical isolation is not essential for divergence, researchers said Wednesday.

LiveScience.com - The short answer: a lot. The long answer: depends on how you look at it. Whatever your viewpoint, here's how $700 billion - the figure inked in the initial dead-in-the-water government bailout bill for Wall Street - compares to other vast sums. NASA in fiscal year 2009 will launch several missions into space and pay for hundreds of people to operate a host of space telescopes and even remote robots on Mars and run a PR and media department that puts most large corporations to shame. The agency's budget: $17.6 billion, or 2.5 percent of the bailout sum. ...

AP - Federal officials will investigate the New Orleans police officers involved in fatal shootings that happened on a city bridge after Hurricane Katrina, authorities said Tuesday.