(AP) -- Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn on Friday called for the sale of BEA Systems Inc., a business software maker whose stock price has sagged with the growth in open-source software and under pressure from larger competitors such as IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp.

(AP) -- The SCO Group Inc., licenser of the Unix operating system, filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, drained by unsuccessfully filing lawsuits claiming its software code was misappropriated by developers of the open-source Linux operating system.

(AP) -- Apple Inc. has begun allowing people who bought iPhones before the higher-end model's price was abruptly slashed to apply for a $100 store credit.

(AP) -- Online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said Friday one of its databases was hacked and contact information for its more than 6.3 million customers was stolen. A spokeswoman for the Omaha-based company said more sensitive information in the same database, including Social Security numbers and account numbers, does not appear to have been taken.

(AP) -- On the Mississippi River below the verdant bluffs that mark the far southern Minnesota-Wisconsin line, the federal government is waging a multi-million dollar campaign against the elements.

Traffic near a beach in Ventura, California slows to a crawl as motorists watch the caracass of a blue whale wash ashore.

(AP) -- In the three decades since 18 bison stumbled onto a federal elk feeding ground outside this mountain town, the herd has ballooned to 1,200 animals - one of the largest groups of bison in the United States.

(AP) -- To help shoppers avoid mislabeled toxic pufferfish and pilots steer clear of birds, federal agencies are starting to tap into an ambitious project that is gathering DNA "barcodes" for the Earth's 1.8 million known species.

AFP - A three-metre (10-foot) boa constrictor was found Saturday coiled in the spare wheel well of a car in Vienna, police...

A new study provides evidence that noncoding RNAs and interactions between noncoding genes play a much greater role in human cancer than was previously understood. The research may be useful for identifying tumor-specific signatures associated with diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of cancer.

A sweeping review of research studies of aspartame says there is no evidence that the non-nutritive sweetener causes cancer, neurological damage or other health problems in humans. Looking at more than 500 reports, including toxicological, clinical and epidemiological studies dating from 1970's pre-clinical work to the latest studies on the high-intensity sweetener, along with use levels and...

The colorful, intricate shapes in these NASA Hubble Space Telescope images reveal how the glowing gas ejected by dying Sun-like stars evolves dramatically over time. These gaseous clouds, called planetary nebulae, are created when stars in the last stages of life cast off their outer layers of material into space. Ultraviolet light from the remnant star makes the material glow. Planetary nebulae...

In lifesaving procedures to open blocked heart arteries a key question has persisted for years: Is use of the more expensive drug, abciximab, justified over use of the less-expensive eptifibatide? A recent study found no significant difference between the drugs in the length of hospital stay or in the rate of cardiovascular event rates.

AP - A renowned Australian scientist was named to run California's $3 billion stem cell agency, the nation's biggest financial backer of human embryonic...

The UN agrees a 10-year plan to tackle desertification but fails to reach an accord on the budget.

SPACE.com - HOUSTON - Seven astronauts are eagerly preparing for a busy construction flight to the International Space Station (ISS), with just over one month remaining until their planned launch aboard NASA's shuttle Discovery.

AP - A cold front carrying heavy rain was forecast to sweep through the Northeast on Saturday, bringing the eastern third of the nation its first significant cold surge of the...

AP - Utility crews restored electricity Friday to half of the homes and businesses left without power after Hurricane Humberto, while experts estimated total damages from the storm would cost less than $500...

AP - In the three decades since 18 bison stumbled onto a federal elk feeding ground outside this mountain town, the herd has ballooned to 1,200 animals — one of the largest groups of bison in the United States.

AP - On the Mississippi River below the verdant bluffs that mark the far southern Minnesota-Wisconsin line, the federal government is waging a multi-million dollar campaign against the elements.

Internet company offers $30 million for a successful robotic rover

Research reveals how feelings of isolation can compromise the body's defenses

NASA's adventurous Discovery program--responsible for the first rover on another planet, the first landing on an asteroid, the first samples of a comet returned to Earth and much more--is about to get even better.

A 30-pound chunk sliced off one of the most famous meteorites in the world, the Willamette meteorite, will be auctioned on Oct. 28.