Engineers were preparing for the launch Wednesday of a "space plane" that Europe hopes will help it master a key phase in orbital flight -- the ability to return to Earth.

A five-metre (16-feet), two-tonne wingless demonstrator, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is scheduled to be hoisted by a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, at 1300 GMT.

A hunt was underway Tuesday for a large shark that killed a Japanese surfer on Australia's east coast, as experts said fatal attacks remained rare despite three deaths in as many months.

Tadashi Nakahara, 41, died on Monday after a shark bit off both his legs at Shelly Beach, 187 kilometres (116 miles) south of Brisbane near Ballina.

A Saudi prince is on a hunting spree for rare birds in southwest Pakistan despite a court-imposed ban and the government's insistence that the foreign delegation is only on a diplomatic mission, senior officials said Monday.

The annual hunt has sparked controversy in recent years because of the Houbara Bustard's dwindling numbers, with the issue also shining a spotlight on traditionally close ties between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

SpaceX's launch of a $340 million sun-observing spacecraft that was initially dreamed up by former U.S. vice president Al Gore was postponed Sunday for at least 24 hours after a late problem. 

The unmanned Deep Space Climate Observatory had been scheduled to blast off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:10 pm (2310 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida but a range-tracking issue scuttled it with about two-and-a-half minutes left in the countdown.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef could be "severely damaged" if the government does not completely ban the dumping of dredge waste in the World Heritage-listed waters, a report commissioned by conservation group WWF said Monday.

The Australian government in January ordered a ban on dumping dredge spoil in the marine park as part of a push to stop the United Nations declaring the site in danger.

As U.N. climate negotiators gather in Geneva this week, one Japan-inspired Hungarian inventor believes he has found a revolutionary and inexpensive way to construct buildings that could slash humanity's energy needs.

And the magic ingredient for Matyas Gutai's invention is simple: water.

Europe will launch an experimental "space plane" on Wednesday, a car-sized, wingless vessel whose 100-minute unmanned mission will inform the design of reusable spacecraft of the future.

Reentry is a major challenge for the aerospace industry -- as illustrated when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated in Earth's atmosphere in February 2003, killing all seven crew.

U.N. climate negotiators gathered in Geneva were urged Sunday to show urgency and compromise in crafting a draft by next week for a global pact to be signed in December.

"I ask you to work with efficiency and a sense of compromise," Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Peru's environment minister and president of the negotiations told the opening session of a six-day huddle.

In the 1970s, the environmental movement had no bigger political hero than California Gov. Jerry Brown. He cracked down on polluters, ended tax breaks for oil companies and promoted solar energy.

Forty years later, in his second go-around as governor, conservationists are among his harshest critics.

Warm weather has helped grant a reprieve this year to a homely, eel-like and especially slimy invasive fish pursued by anglers as they compete for big money in two ice-fishing tournaments on the Wyoming-Utah line.

The goal of both annual events is to remove burbot (pronounced BUR'-but) from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.