Hundreds of baby penguins found dead in Brazil

By Carlos Osorio (AP)

Republican presidential candidate John McCain pledged Friday to help auto workers rebuild their industry and in the process jump-start the entire U.S. economy.

Standing in a town hall meeting with hundreds of people and several shiny new cars, McCain sounded at times like a confident, encouraging salesman as he praised General Motors\' plans for a long-range electric car.

\"The key, integral, vital part of our ability to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil will be directly related to that sign over there,\" said McCain, pointing to a sign for the Chevrolet Volt. \"I wish...

By Gerald Herbert (AP)

Former Vice President Al Gore called Thursday for a \"man on the moon\" effort to switch all of the nation\'s electricity production to wind, solar and other carbon-free sources within 10 years, a goal that he said would solve global warming as well as economic and natural security crises caused by dependence on fossil fuels.

\"The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels,\" Gore told a packed auditorium in Washington\'s historic Constitution Hall. \"When you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to...

By Amy Sancetta (AP)

U2 stars Bono and The Edge won a four-year legal battle Thursday to reshape their old-fashioned Dublin hotel, the Clarence, into a futuristic landmark _ a decision that appeared to fly in the face of Ireland\'s conservative planning laws.

Ireland\'s planning board approved a $235 million plan produced by British architect Lord Norman Foster to gut and drastically expand the riverside hotel. The new complex would more than triple the number of its rooms to 166 and would feature a massive, floodlit glass roof atrium.

Bono, The Edge and their property-development partner Paddy...

By LM Otero (AP)

Texas, headquarters of America\'s oil industry, is about to stake a fortune on wind power.

In what experts say is the biggest investment in the clean and renewable energy in U.S. history, utility officials in the Lone Star State gave preliminary approval Thursday to a $4.9 billion plan to build new transmission lines to carry wind-generated electricity from gusty West Texas to urban areas like Dallas.

\"People think about oil wells and football in Texas, but in 10 years they\'ll look back and say this was a brilliant thing to do,\" said Patrick Woodson, vice president of E.On...

By Gregorio Borgia (AP)

Pope Benedict XVI\'s marathon journey to Australia gave him a bird\'s eye view of a beautiful but battered planet Earth.

The 81-year-old pope, in his first major speech to the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who have converged on Sydney for the World Youth Day festival, talked about the 20-hour flight he made from Rome to join them Down Under _ the longest flight of his three-year-old papacy.

\"For some of us, it might seem like we have come to the end of the world,\" Benedict told the hordes of cheering, flag-waving young pilgrims who flooded Sydney\'s waterfront Thursday...

By Rick Rycroft (AP)

Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday that mankind\'s \"insatiable consumption\" has scarred the Earth and squandered its resources, telling followers that taking care of the planet is vital to humanity.

The 81-year-old pontiff, appearing rested and in good form, gave his first major speech for Roman Catholicism\'s World Youth Day before adoring crowds who had traveled from 168 countries to see him in Australia\'s largest city.

As the sun set in the mild chill of the Australian winter, Benedict struck a theme that has earned him a reputation as the \"green pope.\"

\"Some of...

By Gerald Herbert (AP)

Just as John F. Kennedy set his sights on the moon, Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years, an audacious goal he hopes the next president will embrace.

The Nobel Prize-winning former vice president said fellow Democrat Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain are \"way ahead\" of most politicians in the fight against global climate change.

Rising fuel costs, climate change and the national security threats posed by U.S. dependence on foreign oil are conspiring to...

By (AP)

Dishing the dirt has a long history in Washington, but the Smithsonian Institution is taking it to new depths.

The National Museum of Natural History opens a new exhibit on Saturday _ \"Dig It\" _ exploring the mysterious and complex world of soil.

\"We want people to walk away understanding that soils are living, living breathing bodies,\" said exhibit curator Patrick Megonigal, a soil ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland.

\"One of the most important messages for me is that people get beyond thinking of soil as something in...

By Mustafa Quraishi (AP)

What does it take to secure the vote of an Indian lawmaker these days? Six million dollars, says a top politician. And that\'s not all that\'s being offered.

Want an airport named after your father? Done. Need to get out of the slammer for a few days? No trouble. Want a political rival investigated? We\'ll think about it.

India\'s government is facing a confidence vote Tuesday over its decision to push ahead with the U.S.-India nuclear energy deal. The so-called trust vote is looking tighter than expected, leaving India\'s leaders to furiously cut deals and find new allies...

By LEFTERIS PITARAKIS (AP)

European plane maker Airbus emerged as the clear winner at the Farnborough International Airshow on Thursday after racking up plane orders dwarfing the deals done by U.S. rival Boeing Co.

An agreement to sell South American consortium Synergy Aerospace 10 aircraft worth $2.1 billion took Airbus\' total orders so far at the weeklong show outside of London to 247 planes worth $38.7 billion at catalog prices.

Boeing, meanwhile, boosted its show tally to 197 planes worth $23.1 billion with an apparent headline grabbing deal with Air China for 45 of its planes worth $6.3...

By M. Spencer Green (AP)

Foreign species that slipped into the Great Lakes in ballast tanks of oceangoing cargo ships cost the regional economy at least $200 million a year, according to a University of Notre Dame study released Wednesday.

Sport fishing has taken the biggest hit: $123.5 million in 2006, the year on which the data are based, the report said. Participation is 11 to 35 percent lower on the lakes than it would have been if fish populations hadn\'t fallen because of the invasive species.

Other damaged sectors of the economy include wildlife viewing ($47.6 million loss); raw water use by...

By Rick Rycroft (AP)

The world\'s natural resources are being squandered in the pursuit of \"insatiable consumption,\" Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday in a speech urging followers to care more for the environment and reconnect with the principle of peace.

Benedict, speaking to more than 200,000 pilgrims gathered for the Roman Catholic church\'s youth festival, expanded on a theme that has led him to be dubbed \"the green pope.\" The crowd, massed on a disused wharf in Australia\'s largest city, regularly erupted in cheers that gave the event the feel of a sporting event.

\"Some of you come from...

By Rick Rycroft (AP)

Pope Benedict XVI says the world\'s natural resources are being squandered by \"insatiable\" consumption and urges people to care more for the environment.

The pope also condemns television and the Internet for exalting violence and sexual exploitation as entertainment.

Benedict made the comments on Thursday in a speech to hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered in Australia for the Roman Catholic church\'s World Youth Day.

He says nonviolence, sustainable development, justice and care for the environment are of vital importance for humanity.

The speech was...

By Rajanish Kakade (AP)

When Volkswagen said yes, a city that shed its reputation for dirty air to become a top outdoors destination forgot years of frustrating rejections by automakers.

Volkswagen\'s plans to build a $1 billion assembly plant and create 2,000 jobs in Chattanooga had radio listeners rejoicing on call-in shows, businesses hanging welcome signs and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker declaring the city \"will never be the same again.\"

University of Tennessee economist Bill Fox said spinoff jobs in Tennessee and neighboring corners of Georgia and Alabama would probably total more than 10,000. That...

By Rick Rycroft (AP)

Pope Benedict XVI praised the Australian government Thursday for its \"courageous\' apology to the country\'s indigenous Aborigines for past injustices, saying it offered hope to all the world\'s disadvantaged peoples.

The remarks came in the pope\'s first public appearance on a 10-day visit to Australia to lead the Roman Catholic church\'s youth festival, which has drawn more than 200,000 pilgrims to Sydney from across the world.

Benedict said Australia\'s original inhabitants were an essential part of the country\'s cultural landscape, and cited their plight since the first...

By Eric Gay (AP)

During a recent afternoon storm, brothers Angel and Salvador Badillo sat under a tin roof with a couple of friends, sipping beers as the open drainage ditch in front of their clapboard house filled like a moat.

Soon, neighbors\' septic tanks could begin to overflow, creating a smelly and potentially disease-ridden mess.

The homes in Grande Acres _ a colonia, or slapped-together neighborhood, on low-lying land 12 miles north of the Rio Grande _ were supposed to get sewer service years ago through a nearly $4 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. But the city...

By Rick Rycroft (AP)

Pope Benedict XVI ended a short vacation with a visit from some of Australia\'s exotic animals then took up residence in a gothic cathedral on Wednesday to prepare for his debut in front of some 200,000 pilgrims at the Roman Catholic youth festival.

The 81-year-old pontiff spent three days in near-seclusion at a retreat on Sydney\'s outskirts after making the longest journey of his three-year-old papacy to lead World Youth Day events designed to inspire a new generation of Roman Catholics.

On Thursday, the leader of the church\'s 1.1 billion global flock will enter the fray...

By (AP)

Tens of thousands of Catholic pilgrims from around the world crammed into an area along Sydney Harbor Tuesday, waving flags of their home countries and singing as they awaited a Mass opening the World Youth Day festival.

Pope Benedict XVI arrived Sunday, and was resting at a secluded retreat on the outskirts of Sydney until Thursday, when he starts a busy round of meetings, takes a cruise on Sydney Harbor and addresses the pilgrims. The festival culminates with a papal Mass on Sunday.

Aboriginal Australians in traditional clothing and white body paint danced and chanted to...

By Rick Rycroft (AP)

A massive Catholic youth celebration kicked off Tuesday with an Australian \"G\'Day\" and a welcoming text message from Pope Benedict XVI to the tens of thousands of pilgrims who have traveled here from around the world.

As the clock struck midnight, a giant countdown clock ticked over to read \"G\'Day Pilgrims\" _ Good Day Pilgrims _ drawing wild cheers from flag-waving youth who had gathered at St. Mary\'s Cathedral to mark the start of the six-day celebration.

Registered pilgrims received the first of daily inspirational text messages from the pope: \"Young friend, God and...

By Evan Vucci (AP)

President Bush on Monday lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling and challenged Congress to follow suit, aiming to turn the enormous public frustration about gasoline prices into political leverage. Democratic lawmakers rejected Bush\'s plan as a symbolic stunt.

With gas prices topping $4.10 a gallon nationally, Bush made his most assertive move to extend oil exploration, an energy priority of his presidency. By lifting the executive prohibition against coastal drilling, Bush rescinded a White House policy that his own father put in place in 1990.

The move will have...

By Evan Vucci (AP)

Putting pressure on congressional Democrats to back more exploration for oil, President Bush on Monday lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling that his stood since his father was president.

But the move, by itself, will do nothing unless Congress acts as well.

There are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by the first President Bush in 1990. The current president, trying to ease market tensions and boost supply, called last month for Congress to lift its prohibition before he did so himself.

\"The...

By Evan Vucci (AP)

Putting pressure on congressional Democrats to back more exploration for oil, President Bush on Monday lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling that his stood since his father was president.

But the move, by itself, will do nothing unless Congress acts as well.

There are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by the first President Bush in 1990. The current president, trying to ease market tensions and boost supply, called last month for Congress to lift its prohibition before he did so himself.

\"The...

By Rick Rycroft (AP)

Pilgrims bore a giant wooden cross through the streets of Australia\'s largest city Monday, as thousands of faithful crowded around the procession, some lunging for a chance to touch the symbol of the Roman Catholic Church\'s youth festival.

At a secluded retreat on Sydney\'s outskirts, Pope Benedict XVI worked on overcoming jet lag from the more than 20-hour flight from the Vatican by strolling through bushland, holding prayers and listening to a musicians play Schubert, Schumann and Mozart.

The two events marked the final day before World Youth Day, a Catholic festival that...