In South America's highlands warmer temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns are seriously affecting staple crops such as the potato.

Springer spaniels are training to do battle to save an Australian island from a rabbit boom. The rabbits are destroying vegetation, thereby threatening other species.

Amazon forests in Brazil are shrinking three times faster than in 2007, officials say. A key culprit is the national government itself, according to reports.

Workers recently began installing donated solar panels on the papal auditorium's roof, part of Vatican City's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.

Huge waves may have hurled massive coral boulders onto the South Pacific island of Tongatapu within the last 7,000 years, according to scientists who think a volcano triggered the tsunami.

Economies built on fishing shrinking stocks of shark are putting some Baja fishers in a precarious place.

The rapid melting has left the region with just a little more ice than in 2007, when ice cover hit the lowest levels ever seen.

The U.S. $700-billion financial bailout under scrutiny by Congress may put a dent in the federal budget for science and research, scientists say.

A rough-skinned frog species thought to have gone extinct more than 20 years ago may have been found alive in a Honduran rain forest.

Why did so many residents refuse to evacuate, despite warnings of "certain death"? Experts point to an anti-government attitude, TV news, a chaotic 2005 evacuation, and more.

Giant diamond discovered, Hurricane Ike victims return to ruins, and more in our roundup of the week's best news photos.

Tests of the pink birds, which live in Kenya's Lake Nakuru, show heavy metals and pesticides—leading experts to suspect growing industry as the cause.

Pigs race and dive, a rescued lion is cremated, a giant fish is confiscated, and more in our weekly roundup of animal photos.

The bones of 72 mountain gorillas, including many of the animals studied by the murdered primatologist, are being prepared for forensic analysis.

A Galápagos Island tortoise thought to be extinct since the 1800s may not be gone after all, researchers said.