Science - AFP

BARCELONA (AFP) - From tiny tree frogs to gorillas, wild animals already facing extinction due to habitat loss, pollution and hunting must now cope with the added threat of virulent disease, conservation scientists said Tuesday.

PARIS (AFP) - Humans like the comfort of symmetry -- the identical image in the mirror, the matching wings of the baroque mansion, the equal numbers in opposing football teams.

ROME (AFP) - The UN food agency cast doubt Tuesday on the potential of biofuels to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions while warning that their development threatens food security.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - A European parliamentary committee on Tuesday broadly approved ambitious proposals to tackle climate change, refusing to bow to industry pressure to water down the measures.

PARIS (AFP) - Astronomers said a small space rock was expected to have collided with Earth early Tuesday, which would have created a spectacular fireball over Sudan but was unlikely to have caused any damage on the ground.

TSUKUBA, Japan (AFP) - A Japanese professor announced Tuesday he was introducing robot suits for paralysed people, helping them to walk again by detecting their next move and lifting their muscles.

ROME (AFP) - Italy's fishing of bluefin tuna is "totally out of control," the Worldwide Fund for Nature charged Tuesday, calling for a three-year moratorium on fishing for the species in the Mediterranean.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US space probe successfully flew by Mercury on Monday to photograph the solar system's smallest planet, in the second of three planned passes, the US space agency NASA said.

GENEVA (AFP) - Human error was likely to blame for the breakdown of the world's largest atom-smasher, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said Monday.

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - French and German scientists credited with the discovery of the viruses behind AIDS and cervical cancer won Monday the Nobel Medicine Prize, the first of the prestigious awards to be announced this year.

BARCELONA (AFP) - Half the world's mammals are declining in population and more than a third probably face extinction, said an update Monday of the "Red List," the most respected inventory of biodiversity.

BARCELONA (AFP) - A new tool for measuring biodiversity suggests that a quarter of all animal and plant species may be at risk of extinction, a top scientist said Monday.

BANGALORE, India (AFP) - India will launch its first lunar mission on October 22 from southern India, a top official from the country's space agency said Monday.

MADRID (AFP) - Greenpeace activists boarded a cargo ship carrying Colombian coal at a port in northern Spain on Monday in protest at Spain's reliance on the highly polluting energy source.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli scientists said on Monday they have discovered a way to genetically enhance the scent of flowers, a development that could also be used to breed extra-tasty fruits and vegetables.

BECKENRIED, Switzerland (AFP) - Swiss authorities will begin Tuesday to examine the condition and danger posed by over 8,000 tonnes of munitions sunk decades ago in lakes across the country, an official told AFP.

HANOI (AFP) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Vietnam on Monday signed a 196-million-dollar loan for a hydropower plant, the country's first major dam project to be backed by a multilateral development agency.

MINNERIYA, Sri Lanka (AFP) - Asian elephants are renowned as highly social animals and the reservoir meetings demonstrate their complex group dynamics in action.

PARIS (AFP) - A massive slab of rock lurking beneath the Kanto Plain on the central Japanese island of Honshu is a major source of the earthquake threat that dogs Tokyo, scientists said on Sunday.

BARCELONA (AFP) - The world must act quickly if it is to brake an unprecedented die off of the Earth's animal and plant life that could have dire consequences for humans as well, top conservationists warned on Sunday.

PARIS (AFP) - Wall Street's sickness and its contagiousness for the world economy are bad news for the already faltering effort to craft a new pact to tackle climate change.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US scientists have found the oldest fossilized tracks of a tiny legged animal, from 570 million years ago, that push back the advent of more complex creatures on Earth by some 30 million years, a report said Sunday.

CAPE TOWN (AFP) - Africa's rich abundance of life seems inexhaustible, but growing pressure on animals and plants could lead to greater poverty, more wars and migration to other continents, experts warned.

MOSCOW (AFP) - The orbital path of the International Space Station (ISS) was successfully adjusted Saturday to accommodate the landing of the world's sixth space tourist in eight days time, Interfax reported citing Russian space programme officials.

GENEVA (AFP) - The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) on Friday unveiled a massive computing grid aimed at analysing millions of gigabytes of data set to be generated by the world's largest atom-smasher.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Europe's plan of action to tackle climate change is being undermined by pressure from industry and may no longer achieve its original green goals, the environmental group WWF said Friday.

PARIS (AFP) - Carmarkers rolled out a slew of electric models at the Paris motor show Friday, with a view to filling dealer showrooms by 2012 when new European legislation on curbing emissions kicks in.

KAMPALA (AFP) - A new family of mountain gorillas, one of the world's most endangered species, is ready for interaction with tourists, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) told AFP Friday.