Germany: no prospect of shale gas fracking soon
Germany's environment minister says he doesn't expect the extraction of natural gas by "fracking" will start any time soon in Europe's biggest economy
EU pushes plans for safer, more secure Internet
EU officials are pushing a plan to make the Internet safer — more resistant to cyberattacks, freer from cybercrime and safer for children to use.
Police officer charged in UK bribery probe
British prosecutors are charging a former police officer with leaking information to a tabloid newspaper. The Crown Prosecution Service said Thursday ...

UK's space age Antarctic base can slide across ice
British researchers have unveiled a futuristic Antarctic research base that can move, sliding across the frozen surface to beat the shifting ice and ...

EU parliament pushes fish reform in landmark vote
The European Union parliament on Wednesday pushed for a drastic reform of fishing policy in a landmark vote seeking to end decades of overfishing that ...

Iceland investigating mass herring deaths
Researchers in Iceland are blaming low oxygen levels in a shallow fjord for the deaths of tens of thousands of tons of herring. Masses of dead herring ...
New BlackBerry to be released in US in mid-March
The chief executive of Research In Motion says he's disappointed the new BlackBerry won't be released in the United States until mid-March, but he ...

Study suggests Neanderthals died out earlier
Theories about when the last Neanderthals walked the Earth may have to be revised, according to a study that suggests they became extinct in their ...

British detective jailed in phone-hacking scandal
A senior British counterterrorism detective was sentenced Friday to 15 months in prison for trying to sell information to Rupert Murdoch's News of the ...
Ericsson posts Q4 loss, but sales up
Wireless equipment maker Ericsson posted a 6.46 billion kronor ($1.02 billion) loss in the fourth quarter due to a massive one-time charge, but said ...
Correction: Europe-Science Bonanza story
In a story Jan. 28 about a European Union science award, The Associated Press reported erroneously that €1 billion euros was equivalent to $1.

Cyprus jobless turn to illegal songbird trapping
It's just before first light and the bird-catcher strings nets among the orange, pomegranate, fig and carob trees in his orchard. The sound of ...

Dutch court rejects most of Shell spill case
A Dutch court has ruled that a subsidiary of international oil giant Royal Dutch Shell should be held responsible for a pipeline leak poisoning ...

Judge OKs $4B BP oil spill criminal settlement
BP PLC closed the book on the Justice Department's criminal probe of its role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster and Gulf oil spill Tuesday, when a U.S

Genetics may explain severe flu in Chinese people
A genetic variant commonly found in Chinese people may help explain why some got seriously ill with swine flu, a discovery scientists say could help ...
Google sued in UK over Safari tracking
A British law firm says that about a dozen Apple customers are suing Internet search leader Google in the U.K. over its alleged secret tracking of ...

AP Interview: CERN chief firmer on 'God particle'
The world should know with certainty by the middle of this year whether a subatomic particle discovered by scientists is a long-sought Higgs boson, ...

Powers of prophesy: Davos looks to the future
Forget the endless debates about the euro or government debts. What does the future hold? The World Economic Forum at Davos is always a showcase for ...
UN group OKs new video format to save bandwidth
The U.N. telecommunications agency says its members have agreed upon a new compression format that could dramatically cut the amount of Internet ...
Subway work in Greece unearths ancient gold wreath
Excavation work during construction of a new subway network in Greece's second largest city has discovered an ancient wreath made of gold that was ...

Russian activist in intensive care after stabbing
A 63-year-old municipal legislator who opposed a construction project that would destroy a forest just outside Moscow was in intensive care Friday ...
Hashtag goes Gallic in French lawbooks
The French government is redefining hashtag with a Gallic touch. The country that has an academy devoted solely to the use of the French language has ...

Buoyed by Obama, leaders press for climate action
Hurricanes, floods, droughts and a newly climate-conscious Barack Obama are helping boost efforts around the world to fight climate change.
Court sides with Jewish group against Twitter
A French court has sided with a Jewish group seeking to identify authors of anti-Semitic messages that circulated the social network Twitter last ...

Toyota, BMW working on new battery technology
Toyota Motor Corp. and BMW Group are working together on next-generation batteries for green vehicles called "lithium-air" as their collaboration, ...