
Storms, stings push Nyad to end Cuba-to-Fla. swim
Diana Nyad ended her fourth attempt to swim across the Straits of Florida on Tuesday, her decades-old dream thwarted, more than anything else, by ...

Huge fire burns to edge of 3 small Calif. towns
Aided by a shift in wind direction, firefighters on Tuesday are making a stand against a huge lightning-sparked wildfire burning on the edge of three ...

House calls a growing trend among veterinarians
Two kids, two pets, two jobs, too much. That's how it felt to Erin McCarthy when it came time to drag her cat and puppy to the veterinarian. So she ...

Diana Nyad ends Cuba-to-Fla. swim bid on 4th day
Diana Nyad ended her fourth attempt in nearly 35 years to swim across the Straits of Florida on Tuesday, her dream of setting a record thwarted by ...

Endangered whales invade California coastal waters
Grab your camera and binoculars: There's rarely been a better time to go whale-watching off the California coast. Tourists from around the world have ...

Cuba-to-Fla. swimmer Nyad plows on after storm
Diana Nyad slogged across the Straits of Florida for a fourth straight day early Tuesday, hopeful she could fend off hypothermia, jellyfish and stormy ...

Swimmer Nyad steady in Cuba-Fla. record attempt
Endurance athlete Diana Nyad forged ahead in the Straits of Florida with renewed vigor Sunday in pursuit of a record 103-mile (166-kilometer), ...

Dogs give emotional boost to sick kids in Quito
Every Wednesday, Lancelot and Juci scamper into a special mission: nudging and pawing youngsters into smiles at the only hospital in Ecuador's capital ...

New role for drones - wildlife, eco conservation
They're better known as stealthy killing machines to take out suspected terrorists with pinpoint accuracy. But drones are also being put to more ...

Nyad back in water in Cuba-Florida record swim try
Will she finally do it? Endurance athlete Diana Nyad launched another bid Saturday to set an open-water record by swimming 103 miles (166 kilometers) ...

AP PHOTOS: Hungry people in Niger sell animals
In markets all over Niger, hungry people are selling hungry animals for half their normal value, giving up on the milk and money of tomorrow so that ...

Sale of Niger nomad's last camel is sign of hunger
In a part of the world where the worth of a man is measured by his animals, Tuareg nomad Soumaila Wantala has come to this market to do the ...

Drug dealers say no to crack in Rio de Janeiro
Business was brisk in the Mandela shantytown on a recent night. In the glow of a weak light bulb, customers pawed through packets of powdered cocaine ...

New family of spiders found in Oregon cave
Amateur cave explorers have found a new family of spiders in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon, and scientists have dubbed it Trogloraptor — ...

Yosemite tourist dies after contracting hantavirus
A popular lodging area in Yosemite National Park could be linked to a rare rodent-borne disease that has killed a California tourist who stayed there ...
Drought could be a factor in US anthrax cases
Anthrax has killed more than 100 animals on ranches in Colorado and Texas within the past two weeks, and experts say the risk of infection may be ...

Forecast: US drought lingering but leveling off
The worst drought in the U.S. in decades may be leveling off or even be easing ever so slightly in some lucky locales, federal weather forecasters ...

Townsfolk sickened after Peru toxic spill
It began with a loud pop like a tire bursting. A toxic cocktail of copper concentrate laced with a periodic-table's mix of volatile compounds then ...

Japan's nuclear leaks sparked butterfly mutations
Radiation that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant following last year's tsunami caused mutations in some butterflies — including dented eyes and ...

Study off Mass. coast finds noise harming whales
Researchers say increasing amounts of underwater noise, largely from shipping traffic, are enveloping rare right whales in "acoustic smog" that makes ...

Mexico's monarch butterfly reserve stops logging
Illegal logging has practically been eliminated in the western Mexico wintering grounds of the monarch butterfly, according to a research report ...
Fla. police look for thieves who took 500 canaries
Police are looking for two people they say stole more than 500 canaries from the home of an 87-year-old Florida man. Police say the men entered Manuel ...

Cayman's imperiled blue iguanas on the rebound
The blue iguana has lived on the rocky shores of Grand Cayman for at least a couple of million years, preening like a miniature turquoise dragon as ...

Biggest Asian wildlife traffickers are untouchable
Squealing tiger cubs stuffed into carry-on bags. Luggage packed with hundreds of squirming tortoises, elephant tusks, even water dragons and American ...