WASHINGTON The Obama administration on Friday asked a U.S appeals court to stay a ruling that lifted a temporary ban on deepwater oil drilling, its latest attempt to clamp down in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico spill.The Justice Department filed an emergency request with the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, to put on hold a decision by Judge Martin Feldman tha
MIAMI Hurricane Darby picked up strength Friday in off the coast of southwestern Mexico, becoming the second powerful hurricane in the eastern Pacific this season, the US National Hurricane Center said.Darby, now a Category Three storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, remained far from the southern Mexican coastline.It packed winds close to 120 miles (195 kilometer) per hour, with higher
WASHINGTON The Justice Department on Friday urged a federal appeals court to delay a judge's ruling overturning a drilling moratorium in the Gulf.In court papers, the Obama administration said the suspensions in deepwater drilling are crucially important to protect human health and the environment from another disaster.At the same time, the federal government's lawyers argued that the moratorium
PHOENIX A restaurant owner who put lion burgers on the menu in honor of the World Cup has felt a roar of anger from outraged animal rights activists.Cameron Selogie, owner of the Il Vinaio restaurant in Mesa, served burgers made with African lion this week as a nod to the tournament in South Africa.Reservations sold out, with a waiting list 100 long.But the burgers also attracted international a
WASHINGTON The two final US space shuttle missions before the shuttle program is phased out will likely be postponed, a NASA spokesperson told AFP on Friday. It's not official yet but it's very likely, said Allard Beutel, media services chief at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The decision will be officially announced July 1st, he said.The US space shuttles are being retired after Presid
ST.ALBERT, Alberta Canadian oil sands company Syncrude has been found guilty of causing the death of 1,600 ducks in a toxic waste pond at its mine in Alberta.The deaths of the mallards two years ago drew widespread attention and prompted Prime Minister Stephen Harper to lament that Canada's international reputation had been hurt by it.At the time, Syncrude said it was having problems with its el
AGADIR, Morocco Greenland's indigenous peoples won the right Friday to hunt 27 humpback whales, capping three years of acrimonious debate within the 88-nation International Whaling Commission.The self-ruled Danish territory can now kill and consume nine of the giant marine mammals each year through 2012, with its existing quota of more than 200 minke and fin whales cut by the same number.The de
WASHINGTON A U.S appeals court on Friday reinstated a lawsuit that challenges an Obama administration policy for federal funding of some human embryonic stem cell research.The unusual suit against the National Institutes of Health, backed by some Christian groups opposed to embryo research, argued that the NIH policy takes funds from researchers seeking to work with adult stem cells.It also ar