Residents in towns and villages on Alaska's western coast were beginning Sunday to assess the damage from one of the most powerful storms to hit the region in decades.

Most albatrosses mate for life but shy males who avoid confrontation are more likely to get dumped, researchers said Wednesday, adding it was the first time personality had been shown to predict divorce in a wild animal.

Orchids in hand and a bamboo ladder on his shoulder, farmer Musimin scans the forest at the foot of Indonesia's most active volcano to point out clusters of the indigenous flowers he has been salvaging for years.

The World Health Organization raised the alarm Saturday about a "second disaster" in the wake of the deadly floods in Pakistan this summer, as doctors and medical workers on the ground race to battle outbreaks of waterborne and other diseases.

Two Chinese astronauts went on a spacewalk Saturday from a new space station that is due to be completed later this year.

High in the hills of northwestern Tunisia, farmers are tending thousands of fig trees with a unique system of terracing they hope will protect them from ever-harsher droughts.