AFP - Iraq and oil majors British Petroleum and China's CNPC International have agreed commercial terms for a joint venture to almost triple production at the giant Rumaila oilfield, a report said on...

A British survey is the first to assess the rate of autism spectrum disorders in the general adult population.

AFP - A Tongan woman not only saved people's lives on the tsunami-battered island of Niuatoputapu but rescued their life savings as well, according to a report here...

AFP - A top aide to US President Barack Obama said there was virtually no chance Congress would have a climate and energy bill ready for him to sign before negotiations on a global climate treaty begin in December in Copenhagen, The New York Times reported...

Reuters - A powerful typhoon bearing down on the Philippines may not be as destructive as feared since it has changed course and should only clip the far north of the archipelago later on Saturday, officials said.

The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week:

A Henry Ford Hospital study finds that a non-invasive imaging technique can aid in the diagnosis of tinnitus and may detect a reduction in symptoms after different treatments, offering hope to the more than 50 million patients with tinnitus.

AP - The husband of former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has quit his oil field job on the North Slope. Todd Palin's resignation as a production operator for oil giant BP PLC comes almost two months after his wife stepped down as Alaska governor and shortly before the release of her highly anticipated memoir in a deal rumored to be worth...

AP - The village of Leone is a picturesque enclave that has been a mainstay of the Samoas for centuries, a place where residents gather under beach meeting houses for rituals that are sacred to the local...

Half a century after they began recovering from industrial-scale hunting, walruses are facing a new threat.

AP - A lone llama wandering near the summit of Pikes Peak for a month has been captured and is heading to a new...

Now that the Station Fire that threatened Los Angeles is just about out, scientists are beginning to research the damaging effects of the fire on fragile wildlife.

AFP - A typhoon that threatened to bring more devastation to millions of flood survivors in the Philippines veered from the disaster zone Saturday, but officials warned it could still cause major...

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in a growing number of soldiers evacuated to the United States for comprehensive care for physical and psychological trauma. Given the number of physical injuries often experienced by soldiers, it is not surprising that chronic pain is a frequent problem among returning soldiers from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring...

"Augmented reality" involves mixing the real world with computer-generated images. The result is a kind of visual Walkman, developed by a researcher in The Netherlands.

Mass coral bleaching has devastated coral colonies around the world for almost three decades. Now scientists have found that bleaching can make corals more susceptible to disease and, in turn, coral disease can exacerbate the negative effects of bleaching. A new article shows that when they occur together, this combination of afflictions causes greater harm to corals than either does on its...

Scientists have managed to decipher a well-known phenomenon that had, until now, remained unexplained: why cells of the same type can react differently, and what the reason for this is.

Patients who have their anterior cruciate ligament reconstructed are more likely to have subsequent knee surgery if they are women or are treated by a surgeon who does a low volume of ACL reconstructions, according to a new study. The study also found that overall, 6.5 percent of patients undergoing ACL surgery had to undergo another knee operation within one...

A new study resolves a 130-year-old mystery over the developmental origin of specialized skin cells involved in touch sensation.

Repeated learning sessions produce long-lasting memory when they are spaced out between rest intervals. Neuroscientists have discovered that this so-called "spacing effect" is controlled in the brain by a molecular timer -- a protein that determines how long rest intervals need to last for long-term memory to...

Preterm infants who receive leg movement training display feet-reaching behaviors similar to that of full-term infants, according to a randomized controlled trial. This finding supports feet-reaching play as an early intervention strategy to encourage interaction with physical objects in preterm infants who have movement problems within the first months of postnatal...

New research looks at the specific ways parents and peers influence teenagers to smoke, drink and use marijuana in combination.

A daily supplement of vitamin D at a dose of 700-1000 IU reduces the risk of falling among older people by 19 percent according to a new study. But a dose of less than 700 IU per day has no effect.