INDIA: &#39World&#39s Cheapest Car Environmentally Costly&#39

Nothing has generated as much hyperbole in the global automobile industry in recent years as the unveiling, last week, of an ultra-cheap bare-bones car made by the Tatas, India’s steel and engineering giant.

ARGENTINA: Mystery of the Dead Whales

It will be difficult to determine exactly why the number of whale deaths has shot up along the Atlantic coast of southern Argentina’s Patagonia region, but experts studying the phenomenon are pointing to poisoning from the "red tide".

MEXICO: Teotihuacan Sun Pyramid in for a Muon Scan

Who ruled the pre-Columbian city of Teotihuacan, in Mexico? Where are their bodies buried, what ethnic group did they belong to, and what kind of political system did they develop? A project to delve into these mysteries is under way, and may start producing answers next year.

ENVIRONMENT-THAILAND: Green Groups Will Take GM Crops Issue To Court

Thai environmentalists are banking on the country’s courts to overturn a decision by the military-appointed government to allow field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops.

SCIENCE: Experimental Drugs Flourish in China

China's booming medical biotechnology industry is producing controversial drugs and gene therapy treatment programmes for domestic use, as well as to treat critically ill foreigners seeking potential cures unavailable elsewhere.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Northward Ho?

Dan Bloom thinks it's time to figure out how to build self-sustaining cities in the polar regions because climate change will eventually make most of Earth uninhabitable.

SCIENCE: What the “Wise Men” Saw…

The Biblical tale of the "three wise men" who followed a particularly bright star to the birthplace of the Baby Jesus continues to fascinate amateur and professional astronomers more than two millennia after the event allegedly occurred.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Measuring Bali by a Scientific Yardstick

A tiny step was taken Saturday in meeting the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced.

HEALTH-INDIA: Prime Destination for Unethical Clinical Trials

Lack of regulation, accountability, low costs of operation and wide availability of target participants are reasons why multinational drug companies, researchers and institutions are increasingly basing their clinical trials in India.

Q&A: ‘Melting Himalayan Glaciers Threaten India, China’

Precious little is expected to emerge from the ongoing United Nations climate change conference in Bali, but climatologists and scientific experts warn that time is rapidly running out for planet earth.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Bali Forecast – Low Expectations

The multitudinous United Nations Conference on Climate Change under way since Dec. 3 on the tropical Indonesian island of Bali has oscillated between optimism and quiet reserve.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Trade, Finance Issues Add to Wrangling in Bali

Three poles - trade, finance and the environment - have emerged at a pivotal international conference on climate change, posing a daunting task for leaders to find common ground before the end of this two-week meeting, Friday.

CLIMATE CHANGE: No Deal in Sight at Bali

As a major United Nations 'framework convention' on climate change (UNFCCC) crossed into its second half on Monday, the official view is one of optimism that progress has been made in laying the ''building blocks'' for a future agreement.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Forests Could Cool or Cook the Planet

A two-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures could flip the Amazon forest from being the Earth's vital air conditioner to a flamethrower that cooks the planet, warns a new report released at the climate talks in Bali, Indonesia Friday.

DEVELOPMENT: &#39MNCs Gaining Total Control Over Farming&#39

Food security campaigners are now more concerned than ever that farmers are turning dependent on large multinational corporations (MNCs) for seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and other inputs while also becoming more vulnerable to pressures to produce genetically engineered crops.

CZECH REPUBLIC: US Radar Provokes PR War

The Czech government has begun an 890,000-dollar information campaign supporting the U.S. plan to set up a radar station in the Czech Republic. Opponents of the plan - led by the Social Democrats - want some of that money to fund alternative information campaigns so as to create an actual debate on the issue and prepare the population for the possibility of a referendum.

HEALTH-CUBA: Venomous Hope

With equal doses of caution and hope, Cuban researchers are moving forward with studies to test the cancer-fighting properties of the toxin produced by the blue scorpion (Rhopalurus junceus), a species endemic to this Caribbean island.

ENVIRONMENT: Planetary Check-Up Starts With the Oceans

If continents are the Earth's sturdy bones and the atmosphere its thin skin, then the oceans are its heart, circulatory system and blood. And despite the crucial role played by the oceans in the health of the planet, and to our own health and well-being, there is little monitoring of ocean health.

WORLD AIDS DAY: "The Search for a Vaccine Must Go On"

When one of the world's most promising large-scale HIV vaccine trials was shut down in September after it became clear that not only did the drug fail to block the virus, but may have even increased the vulnerability of some test volunteers to contracting HIV, it was a profoundly disappointing moment in the more than 20-year quest for a vaccine.

Q&A: Bali Conference "Very Much a Make or a Break"

International negotiations beginning Dec. 3 in Bali are crucial for saving our planet from the devastating effects of global warming, says Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

CLIMATE CHANGE: EU Leaders Fail Planet – Mary Robinson

Europe is not displaying sufficient leadership ahead of the Bali conference on climate change, according to Mary Robinson, the former United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR).