Science - AFP

NAIROBI (AFP) - Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga Saturday criticised a walkout by African states during climate talks in Barcelona as "grandstanding," and said it did not help developing countries' case.

NELSON, New Zealand (AFP) - Scientists have discovered the first evidence that dinosaurs roamed the South Island of New Zealand with 70-million-year-old footprints found in six locations.

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwanese breeders said Saturday they are hoping to make huge profits from a rare species of ornamental shrimp after a pair sold for 8,500 US dollars at auction.

SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP) - The first Russian rockets to be fired into space next year from a space centre in distant South America were Saturday to begin the long voyage to the launch site from Saint Petersburg.

KUNMING, China (AFP) - In energy-hungry China's southwestern Yunnan province, power is being produced at wind farms, dams and garbage dumps as the Asian giant adopts more "green" technology thanks to carbon trading.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US space probe MESSENGER's third and final fly-by of the planet Mercury in September revealed an almost complete view of the solar system's smallest planet, leaving only the polar regions to be surveyed, NASA said.

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Asia-Pacific powers including the United States, China and Russia are expected to call next week for sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions on the final countdown to a crunch climate meeting.

PARIS (AFP) - A baby's very first cry is audibly shaped by the language heard while in the womb, according to a new study.

DAKAR (AFP) - A Senegalese environmental NGO announced on Friday that it had planted 34 million mangrove trees in three months in a project largely financed by French dairy giant Danone to offset its carbon footprint.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Talks on a new UN climate pact were wrapping up Friday, leaving a roster of bitterly divisive issues to be hammered out at a showdown in Copenhagen next month.

BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao said his nation supported the peaceful use of outer space Friday, days after his air force commander sparked concerns by saying an arms race in space was inevitable.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Forty heads of state or government have signalled they will attend the world climate talks in Copenhagen next month, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said here Friday.

MIAMI (AFP) - Florida homes and swamps more used to dealing with dangerous critters like alligators now face a more foreign invader -- giant pet snakes escaped into the wild whose numbers are growing at an alarming rate.

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - Children in one of the world's most polluted cities are learning through a new exhibition how carbon dioxide emissions heat and transform the planet.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An international fisheries group set up to protect Atlantic tuna has done the opposite and driven one species of the fish, the bluefin, to the edge of extinction, environmentalists said Thursday.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - The United States said on Friday it could still present proposals for curbing its carbon emissions at next month's climate change meeting in Copenhagen, even if Congress was still debating global warming legislation.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Senate Democrats on Thursday pushed a sweeping climate change bill through a key committee, shrugging off a boycott by Republicans who oppose the measure and mostly shunned the debate.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Six African countries will receive 1.1 billion dollars in grants or low-interest loans to help a switch to cleaner energy and cope with the impacts of climate change, the World Bank announced here on Thursday.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - A "conspiracy of silence" is stifling debate over the future of people who become displaced through climate change, a top UN official for refugees says.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Sweden's premier on Thursday criticised US efforts to adopt new climate change legislation, and cast doubt on whether crucial year-end talks would result in a deal on binding carbon emission cuts.

ANNECY, France (AFP) - Western Europe's tallest peak, the snow-capped Alpine giant Mont Blanc, has shrunk by 45 centimetres (18 inches) in two years, experts said Thursday following an official survey.

BEIJING (AFP) - China on Thursday denied it would ever participate in a space arms race, disavowing comments by a top general who said Chinese armed forces should prepare for the militarisation of outer space.

BARCELONA (AFP) - Germany, Mexico and the United States have crafted some of the world's smartest policies for improving energy use, according to a study released on Thursday on the sidelines of the UN climate talks here.

ST ANDREWS, Scotland (AFP) - The G20 is committed to an "ambitious outcome" at December's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen, it said in a communique after talks Saturday, but did not agree a figure for climate finance.

ST ANDREWS (AFP) - Hosts Britain urged G20 finance ministers to put aside their differences and strike a deal on climate funding on Saturday despite fading hopes for an accord at key UN talks next month.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - UN climate talks headed into their final sessions here Friday amid scant progress towards a post-2012 pact and anger that a timetable to conclude the deal next month could slip by up to a year.

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Asia-Pacific leaders plan to call for sweeping cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at a summit here next week, according to a draft communique obtained by AFP Friday.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Green groups and activists for the developing world on Thursday accused rich nations of tiptoeing away from vows to seal a binding, far-reaching UN treaty on climate change in Copenhagen next month.