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AFP - Japanese scientists said Tuesday they had created a mouse from a dead cell frozen for 16 years, taking a step in the long impossible dream of bringing back extinct animals such as mammoths.

AFP - Environmental group Greenpeace said Tuesday it will not chase Japan's controversial whaling expedition in the Antarctic Ocean this year as it fights to clear two activists being prosecuted by Tokyo.

AFP - Rain continued to lash Vietnam's flood-hit capital Hanoi and the north-central countryside on Tuesday as the official death toll climbed to 74 after more than a week of heavy downpours.

SPACE.com - WASHINGTON - Seven astronauts are set to rocket toward the International Space Station aboard NASA's shuttle Endeavour next week to help outfit the orbiting laboratory to support double-sized crews.

AP - Wash your hands, folks, especially you ladies. A new study found that women have a greater variety of bacteria on their hands than men do. And everybody has more types of bacteria than the researchers expected to find.

AP - A cap on snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks would be lowered by 40 percent under a federal proposal released Monday in response to a judge's rejection of earlier plans.

LiveScience.com - A 12,000-year-old burial site in Israel contains offerings that include 50 tortoise shells and a human foot, and appears to be one of the earliest known graves of a female shaman.

AP - A refrigerator-sized piece of space junk fell harmlessly into the South Pacific Sunday night, according to NASA.

AFP - Oil-producing nations should continue their investments to boost output capacity despite a slide in crude prices, the United Arab Emirates energy minister said on Monday.

Reuters - The death toll from mudslides caused by heavy rain in southwest China has risen from 15 to at least 22, with 45 missing, state media reported.

AFP - Iraq's unspent cash pile won't prevent its economy from being hit by tumbling crude oil prices, endangering stuttering efforts to rebuild the war-battered nation, politicians and analysts say.

AP - Beneath the tourist gondolas in the remains of a great Aztec lake lives a creature that resembles a monster — and a Muppet — with its slimy tail, plumage-like gills and mouth that curls into an odd smile.

Reuters - An international research team has identified two genetic variations that appear to increase a person's risk of developing lung cancer by up to 60 percent, they reported on Sunday.

LiveScience.com - When Julius Caesar arrived off the coast of Britain with his hundred-ship force in August, 55 b.c., he was greeted by a host of defenders poised to hurl spears down on his invading army from the towering Dover cliffs. Seeking a better landing site, he sailed on a strong afternoon current and landed his troops at a beach seven miles away, according to his own account.

AP - Iraq has earmarked some $15 billion — nearly 25 percent of its 2009 draft budget — to help rebuild the country's crumbling infrastructure, energy and oil facilities, the finance minister said Saturday.

AP - Of all the things convicted murderer Robert Knowles has been called during his 13 years behind bars, recycler hasn't been one of them.

AP - A wintry storm system hit the Pacific Coast on Saturday, dropping heavy precipitation on Northern California. Snow levels were expected near 6,500 feet in the Sierra Nevadas with more than a foot of new snow.

LiveScience.com - Since their discovery, stem cells have been hailed as the ultimate answer for crippling and incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other conditions that leave vital organs like heart or nerves damaged beyond repair.

AP - Jacques Piccard, a scientist and underwater explorer who plunged deeper beneath the ocean than any other man, died Saturday, his son's company said. He was 86.

AP - China and Taiwan plan to exchange rare animals in a sign of their increasingly warm ties, a Taiwanese negotiator said Saturday.