Science News

A low pressure system over the Great Lakes was expected to produce a front extending down the East Coast and into the central Plains, triggering showers and thunderstorms along the front's path as it moves into the Southeast.

MIAMI - Hurricane Genevieve has weakened to a tropical storm far off Mexico's Pacific coast and forecasters say it is expected to continue losing strength as it moves farther out to sea.

SEOUL, South Korea - Torrential rains that lashed South Korea this week have led to the deaths of seven people and left six others missing, the government said Saturday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US regulators formally approved the long-delayed billion-dollar merger of the nation's only two satellite radio companies, combining Sirius and XM into a single network with 18 million subscribers, the FCC said Saturday.

WASHINGTON - Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s $3.3 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. will mean millions of subscribers will be able to receive programming from both services, while executives say it will create huge cost savings for the industry.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China aims to build a leading aerospace industry by 2015, when the country would command 10 percent of the world's commercial satellite market, and 15 percent of the space launch market, Xinhua said on Friday.

ACAPULCO, Mexico - Environmental officials in Mexico say dozens of dead sea turtles apparently killed in fishing nets have washed up on beaches in recent days.

HONOLULU - Lifeguards have closed off a two-mile stretch of ocean in Hawaii after a woman was injured in an apparent shark attack.

OMAHA, Neb. - Humane society workers have found 117 cats, a raccoon and a rabbit in a north Omaha house. The discovery came Wednesday after Council Bluffs, Iowa, police caught the 54-year-old woman who lives at the house reportedly stealing cat food. Officials say she smelled like cat urine.

Modern horses, zebras, and asses belong to the genus Equus, the only surviving genus in a once diverse family, the Equidae. Based on fossil records, the genus appears to have originated in North America about 4 million years ago and spread to Eurasia (presumably by crossing the Bering land bridge) 2 to 3 million years ago. Following that original emigration, there were additional westward migrations to Asia and return migrations back to North America, as well as several extinctions of Equus species in North America.

MADRID (AFP) - The remains of several unknown insect species which became extinct long before dinosaurs stopped roaming the earth have been discovered in pieces of 110-million-year-old amber found in Spain, researchers said Thursday.

TOKYO - Japanese and Mongolian scientists have successfully recovered the complete skeleton of a 70-million-year-old young dinosaur, a nature museum announced Thursday.

TOWSON, Md. - Dr. Victor A. McKusick, a key architect of the Human Genome Project and a winner of the National Medal of Science, has died. He was 86.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Meat and milk from cloned animals may not be safe to be sold in the European Union after all, the bloc's top food safety agency will say on Thursday after a rethink on the issue, EU sources said.

CHICAGO (AFP) - Scientists have isolated two genes which may prevent people from contracting HIV or at least slow the rate at which they develop AIDS, a new study has found.

ALGIERS (AFP) - The price of oil could drop to between 70 and 80 dollars a barrel if the dollar strengthens and concerns over Iran are reduced, OPEC chief Chakib Khelil said Saturday.

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands - The U.S. Virgin Islands may build a pipeline to replace diesel-generated power with natural gas brought in from a bigger grid in the nearby U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, the head of the islands' utility company said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - House Republicans on Thursday scuttled a bill that Democrats hoped would help lower gasoline prices by forcing the Energy Department to release 70 million barrels of oil — about a three-day supply — from the national stockpile.

One of the greatest mysteries in science is how life began. Now one group of researchers says diamonds may have been life's best friend.

Friday, August 1 is a red-letter day for eclipse enthusiasts. On that date, the sun will be partially eclipsed over an immense area that includes western and central Asia, parts of northern and central Europe, all of Greenland and even a small slice of northeastern North America.

BETHESDA, Maryland (Reuters) - Researchers working on an artificial pancreas believe they are just a few years away from a nearly carefree way for people with diabetes to monitor blood and inject insulin as needed.