Japanese fishermen vowed Wednesday to continue their dolphin hunt, despite a pledge by zoos and aquariums not to buy animals caught with the controversial method. 

"We will never stop it," Yoshifumi Kai of the fisherman's cooperative in the western Japanese town of Taiji, where the hunt takes place, told reporters. 

The U.S. Air Force has certified private company SpaceX to launch military satellites, opening the doors to a lucrative market previously held solely by a Lockheed and Boeing joint venture.

With the clearance SpaceX can compete for military space contracts valued by U.S. authorities at $9.5 billion over the next five years.

A South American parrot with a wine-colored chest is in deep trouble, with its population down to some 3,000 and a habitat reduced to a speck of what it once was, researchers said Tuesday.

The Vinaceous-breasted Amazon -- Amazona vinacea -- lives in just three places in the world: Brazil's Atlantic coast jungle, southeastern Paraguay and the Misiones region of northeast Argentina.

NASA said Tuesday it has chosen a trove of instruments to send to Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa, as it press forward with its search for evidence the orb could support life.

The nine gadgets -- from cameras to radars to magnetic field gauges -- will be used to try to determine if Europa has an ocean beneath its glacial surface, as scientists have long suspected. 

Poachers have killed nearly half of Mozambique's elephants for their ivory in the past five years, the U.S. based Wildlife Conservation Society said Tuesday.

A Mozambique government-backed survey showed a dramatic 48 percent decline in elephant numbers from just over 20,000 to an estimated 10,300, the WCS said in a statement.

The United Arab Emirates on Monday laid out a strategic framework for a newly created space agency that aims to integrate various arms of the Gulf federation's burgeoning space industry.

The seven-state federation, perhaps best known for its oil wealth and extravagant attractions like Dubai's palm-shaped islands and the record-breaking Burj Khalifa skyscraper, is fast establishing itself as the Arab world's leader in the space sector.

The most challenging leg of Solar Impulse 2's landmark flight around the world powered only by the sun was delayed on Tuesday due to concerns about the weather, organizers said.

The single-seater aircraft was due to leave Nanjing, in eastern China, for the 8,500 kilometer (5,270 mile) flight over the Pacific Ocean to the U.S. island of Hawaii in the early hours of the morning. 

A rare pure white sparrow has been spotted in Australia, leaving ornithologists all aflutter Monday.

The albino was photographed at Sanctuary Lakes near Melbourne, but it is not expected to survive long with its snowy white plumage making it stand out to birds of prey.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday pledged $453 million in aid to Pacific island nations to help them combat climate change and natural disasters.

Abe made the pledge as leaders of 14 Pacific island nations gathered for a two-day meeting, which began on Friday in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, to discuss their development needs.

Was it a UFO? A sign that the end is nigh?

A rainbow-like halo surrounded the sun over Mexico City on Thursday, an optical phenomenon that triggered a social media frenzy of pictures and jokes about the end of the world.