Police investigating a report of a body being dumped in a river in France's Loire region made an unusual discovery on Monday -- a 2.2 meter (7.2 foot) catfish wrapped in a sheet.

A police spokesman told AFP a local resident in the village of Unieux in south-central France called police to report having seen several people dump a body wrapped in a sheet in the Loire River on Thursday.

Tests involving chickens have raised questions about the impact on health from engineered nano-particles, the ultra-fine grains commonly used in drugs and processed foods, scientists said on Sunday.

Chickens exposed to high oral doses of polystyrene particles 50 nanometers (50 billionths of a meter) across absorbed less iron in their diet, according to their study.

The World Health Organization said Friday it will meet next week to determine whether scientists can publish research on a bird flu virus that may be easily passed among humans.

The two-day discussion will relate to research on a mutation of the H5N1 virus that international scientists halted on January 20 citing fears of the devastation it could wreak were it to escape the laboratory.

A purple squirrel captured by an American couple had the Internet buzzing Friday over how the critter came by his unusual color -- a question that is driving many people nuts.

"We have no idea whatsoever. It's really purple. People think we dyed it, but honestly, we just found it and it was purple," said Percy Emert, who found the animal with his wife Connie.

The surface waters of the Danube River froze completely on Saturday near the port of Silistra, the first time in 20 years that Europe's busiest waterway froze in Bulgaria, said the Danube exploration agency.

The Danube was last totally sealed by ice in Bulgaria in the winter of 1984-1985, they said.

A Japanese-developed robot that mimics the movements of its human controller is bringing the Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" one step closer to reality.

Users of the TELESAR V don special equipment that allows them not only to direct the actions of a remote machine, but also to see, hear and feel the same things as their doppelganger android.

No one knows how they got there. But an invasion of African giant snails has southern Florida in a panic over potential crop damage, disease and general yuckiness surrounding the slimy gastropods.

The U.S. and Florida departments of agriculture have mobilized 34 agents to battle the infestation and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is heading up an investigation into how the mollusks -- which can be up to 20 centimeters (eight inches) long -- arrived.

Astronomers in Chile said this week they had created the world's largest virtual optical telescope by using a special technique to combine images from the four most powerful devices as if they were a single device.

"This weekend we managed to finish the process (of merging the images) after almost a year," said Jean-Philippe Berger, a scientist at the European Southern Observatory which operates the Very Large Telescope array (VLT) in Chile's high northern desert

If scientists find microbes in a frigid lake two miles beneath the thick ice of Antarctica, it will illustrate once again that somehow life finds a way to survive in the strangest and harshest places.

And it will offer hope that life exists beyond Earth.

A white lion slips on ice while playing with a plastic drum like a kitten with a ball of yarn, but the big cat quickly regains its footing.

The African carnivore has adapted well to Canada's cold winters.