A new massive U.S. study says the world in 2012 sweltered with continued signs of climate change. Rising sea levels, snow melt, heat buildup in the oceans, and melting Arctic sea ice and Greenland ice sheets, all broke or nearly broke records, but temperatures only sneaked into the top 10.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday issued a peer-reviewed 260-page report, which agency chief Kathryn Sullivan calls its annual "checking on the pulse of the planet." The report, written by 384 scientists around the world, compiles data already released, but it puts them in context of what's been happening to Earth over decades.

Japan will accelerate efforts to prevent more radioactive groundwater from seeping into the ocean at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, government officials said Wednesday, as critics slam its operator's handling of the issue.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to order his government later in the day to hand over public money to help foot the bill for ramped-up measures, the first time that Tokyo has committed extra funds to deal with the growing problem.

Tropical Storm Henriette strengthened into a category one hurricane in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday but is moving away from the coast of Mexico, officials said.

"Henriette has continued to strengthen overnight and early this morning," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The world lost record amounts of Arctic sea ice in 2012 and spewed out all-time high levels of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel burning, international climate scientists said Tuesday.

Overall, 2012 was among the top 10 on record for global land and surface temperature, said the State of the Climate report issued annually by researchers in Britain and the United States.

Scientists unveiled the world's first lab-grown beef burger in London on Monday, frying it in a little oil and butter and serving it to volunteers in what they hope is the start of a food revolution.

The tasters pronounced the 140-gram (five-ounce) patty, developed at a cost of more than 250,000 euros ($330,000) with backing from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as "close to meat" in flavor and texture but not as juicy.

The dazzling success of NASA's rover Curiosity has paved the way for a human conquest of Mars, scientists say, almost one year after the groundbreaking probe first touched down on the Red Planet.

Since it successfully alighted on the Martian surface on August 6, 2012, Curiosity has gathered and beamed back to Earth a treasure trove of information expected to be vital when a manned mission to Mars eventually takes place.

Glacier systems that feed two key rivers in South Asia will badly retreat this century, but demands for water are still likely to be met, a study predicted on Sunday.

The health of glaciers in the Himalayas is a closely-watched issue, as they supply vital meltwater to a region facing surging population growth and rising demands for food.

Japanese biotechnologists on Sunday said they had developed a rice plant with deeper roots that can sustain high yields in droughts that wipe out conventional rice crops.

It is the third breakthrough in new cereal strains in less than two years, boosting the quest to feed the world's spiraling population at a time of worsening climate change.

Japan has launched the world's first talking humanoid robot "astronaut" toward the International Space Station.

Kirobo — derived from the Japanese words for "hope" and "robot" — was among five tons of supplies and machinery on a rocket launched Sunday from Tanegashima in southwestern Japan, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said.

Astronomers on Friday said a vast cemetery of comets lies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, some revived by a nudge from the Sun after millions of years of dormancy, a finding that would overturn conventional thinking about these wanderers of the Solar System.

"We found a graveyard of comets", said Ignacio Ferrín of the University of Anitoquia in Medellin, Colombia.