The upcoming U.N. report on climate change is not likely to rattle U.S. deniers of global warming who hold sway in the halls of power, experts say.

A hefty analysis of the latest science on global climate change, the report is packed with recommendations for policymakers.

The amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank this summer to the sixth lowest level, but that is much higher than last year's record low.

The ice cap at the North Pole melts in the summer and grows in winter; its general shrinking trend is a sign of global warming. The National Snow and Ice Data Center said Friday that Arctic ice was at 1.97 million square miles (5.1 million sq. kilometers) when it stopped melting late last week.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed Friday to limit carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants, in a bid to implement President Barack Obama's plan to fight climate change.

The move marks the "first milestone" of a major part of the Climate Action Plan announced in June by the U.S. leader, the agency said in a statement.

NASA has given up on the Deep Impact spacecraft, which suddenly went silent after nine years of exploration.

The space agency said Friday the mission is over for Deep Impact, which in 2005 smashed a comet with a projectile to give scientists a peek of the interior. The spacecraft went on to rendezvous with two more comets.

Three cannons explode on a deserted Cape Cod beach, unleashing a startling cloud of white smoke and sand. In tandem, projectiles erupt from the ground, flinging a net over a group of elusive shorebirds known as red knots.

A dozen wildlife researchers emerge from hiding and sprint to transfer the prized catch into holding boxes and then to a camp nearby. There, they collect feather samples as they measure, weigh and tag the robin-size birds, then fit their legs with tiny geolocators and release them.

The Obama administration is pressing ahead with tough requirements for new coal-fired power plants, moving to impose for the first time strict limits on the pollution blamed for global warming.

The proposal would help reshape where Americans get electricity, away from coal and toward cleaner sources of energy. It's a key step in President Barack Obama's plans to address climate change.

France will reduce use of fossil fuels by 30 percent by 2030 as part of a strategy to halve overall energy use by 2050, President Francois Hollande announced on Friday.

"Fossil fuels still account for more than 70 percent of our overall energy use," Hollande said, as he unveiled a two-day conference on the environment in Paris.

Hopes of finding life on Mars suffered a setback after new findings from NASA's Curiosity rover detected only trace amounts of methane gas in the Red Planet's atmosphere, a study said Thursday.

In the past decade, scientists have reported large "plumes" of methane in the Martian atmosphere, findings that have remained controversial because they were made on the basis of observations from Earth or an orbiting satellite.

Scientists working on a landmark U.N. report on climate change are struggling to explain why global warming appears to have slowed down in the past 15 years even though greenhouse gas emissions keep rising.

Leaked documents obtained by The Associated Press show there are deep concerns among governments over how to address the issue ahead of next week's meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

More than 15,000 residents have fled a volcano that rumbled to life less than a week ago in Indonesia and local airlines have been warned to avoid flying near the mountain as thick ash continues to spew from its crater, an official said Thursday.

The aviation warning was issued Wednesday for small planes serving short-haul flights in the region as small eruptions continue at Mount Sinabung, said Susanto, general manager for air navigation at Kuala Namu airport in North Sumatra's capital Medan. Like many Indonesians, he uses only one name.