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.

Nepal's tourism ministry said Friday it plans to exercise tighter control of climbers scaling Mount Everest to make sure they keep the world's highest peak clean and to prevent rows.

The ministry will set up a 10-member team made up of government officials, veteran Nepalese climbers and security officers that will start work when the next climbing season opens in the spring.

A wrangle over growing genetically modified crops in France flared anew on Thursday as the country's top administrative court overturned a government ban on growing GM corn sold by the U.S. giant Monsanto.

In the second legal setback to French restrictions on MON810 corn in five years, the Council of State court said a moratorium imposed on the product since March 2012 failed to uphold European Union law.

The Marshall Islands has warned of a Pacific "climate catastrophe" that will wipe it off the map without decisive action on global warming, saying the next 12 months are critical.

Tony de Brum, minister in assistance to the Marshall Islands' president, is in Australia making the case for a major climate declaration at the 16-member Pacific Islands Forum it will host in September which he has insisted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry must attend.

A rare southern right whale covered in what appear to be shark bites has washed up on an Australian beach, exciting scientists who Thursday said it will help boost knowledge of the species.

The carcass, estimated at 12 metres (39 feet) long and weighing up to 50 tonnes, came ashore on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, an area known for great white sharks.

A major research aquarium able to simulate ocean warming and carry out key studies on the deadly crown-of-thorns starfish devastating the Great Barrier Reef opened in Australia on Thursday.

The Aus$35 million (U.S.$31.4 million) National Sea Simulator, or SeaSim, was unveiled in the northern city of Townsville by Industry Minister Kim Carr, who said it was a vital weapon in protecting the reef and Australia's vast territorial waters.

A $60 million research ship funded by a Google executive is setting sail from San Francisco to study a so-called "dead zone" in the Pacific Ocean and other mysteries of the sea.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports the 272-foot (83-meter) vessel called Falkor was scheduled to leave port Thursday.

A big new study says as the world gets warmer, people are more prone to get hot under the collar. Scientists found that aggressive acts like violent crimes and wars become more likely with each added degree.

The research analyzed 60 studies of such things as the historic collapses of empires, recent wars and violent crime rates in the United States. They found a common thread: Extreme weather — hot or dry — means more violence.