Eleven penguins from an aquarium in Japan have been brought to a South Korean facility to conduct research on the rare species, Korean officials said. The penguins from the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium arrived at the National Institute of Ecology in Seocheon on Thursday, The Korea Times...

Invasive bee-killing Asian hornets have arrived in Paris and one man has died after being stung by the black and yellow striped insects, officials said. France has officially declared the pest, which is rapidly advancing to the north, a “harmful and invasive exotic species,”...

Journalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia will not be charged for Internet access, the chief organizer of the games in Sochi said Thursday. This is in contrast to the 2012 Summer Games in London, where reporters were charged $150 to $240 for the WiFi connectivity needed to do their...

The websites of some of Russia’s major media outlets were subjected to “targeted attacks” by hackers, security experts said. Russia’s Kaspersky Lab anti-virus software firm said Thursday it had detected an attack in late October on the websites of Vesti TV, Interfax...

British researchers say they’re working on developing water-soluble circuit boards that could significantly improve e-waste recycling. Britain’s National Physics Laboratory, working with companies In2Tec and Gwent Electronic Materials, say the new printable electronics circuit...

Amid growing concerns students are using medications such as Ritalin to boost performance, some British schools say they might consider drug tests before exams. Discussions have been held on how to detect students using drugs that allegedly give them an advantage by helping them remain alert...

A long-abandoned fermentation technique once used to make explosives can be used to produce renewable diesel fuel to replace fossil fuels, U.S. researchers say. Chemists and chemical engineers at the University of California, Berkley, said they’ve produced diesel fuel from the products...

U.S. researchers say nanotech versions of butterfly wings and plant leaves may produce high-tech surfaces that could improve a variety of products. Researchers at Ohio State University said they were able to clean up to 85 percent of dust off a coated plastic surface that mimicked the texture...

Rigid solar panels that also act as sails for large cargo vessels could produce fuel savings while lowering emissions, Japanese researchers say. The EnergySail concept by Japan’s Eco Marine Power would harness and store wind and solar power to reduce fuel costs and pollution, providing...

Archaeologists say the tomb of an Egyptian princess, discovered south of Cairo, has them puzzled because of its location among tombs of non-royal officials. The tomb dates to 2500 B.C and was built in the second half of the Fifth Dynasty. Archaeologists say it’s unusual for a princess to...

Android and iOS users may finally see a mobile version of Microsoft Office designed for their devices, sources told The Verge. The U.S. tech website is reporting sources with knowledge of Microsoft’s plans saying the new app, to be dubbed Microsoft Mobile, is planned for early...

The San Diego Zoo says its newest giant panda cub is now 100 days old, which means following Chinese tradition it’s time to name him. The public has submitted almost 35,000 votes in a poll to name the cub, born on July 29. The six suggested names for the panda are Qi Ji (Miracle), Yu Di...

DC Comics says it will offer its comic books on digital platforms, including Apple’s iBooks, Amazon’s Kindle, and Barnes & Noble’s NOOK e-readers and tablets. The move marks the first time DC is officially releasing new content through the official stores of the...

Microsoft has confirmed it will drop its Instant Messenger service in favor of Skype next year. Windows Live Messenger will be “retired” in the first quarter of 2013 except in mainland China, Microsoft-owned Skype said in a blog post. Windows Live Messenger is the world’s...

British software developers say satellite data, road and transport timetables are helping to make Internet travel-time searches more accurate. While most search engines determine travel time based on straight-line, “as the crow flies” distances, that can yield unrealistic estimates...

A small island territory in the South Pacific has become the first territory able to meet all its electricity needs using solar power, officials say. Tokelau, consisting of the three atolls of Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo, had previously been dependent on diesel-fueled generators for its...

A consortium of nine Polish universities and research units has announced it will build Europe’s largest radio telescope in northern Poland. With a diameter of almost 400 feet, the telescope to be built near Tuchola will be the third-largest of its kind in the world, Polish news agency...

Some Connecticut towns forced to postpone Halloween because of Hurricane Sandy said they are pushing the holiday back further due to expected storms this week. Officials in Milford, Stratford, Guilford and Greenwich said the delayed Halloween festivities are being pushed back further than the...

An international team of astronomers says it has found the rate of formation of new stars in the universe is only 1/30th of its peak and is in ongoing decline. In their study, scientists led by David Sobral of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands used telescopes in three parts of the...

An “autopsy” performed on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef found nutrient-rich runoff from farms caused parts of the reef to collapse, researchers say. Scientists at the University of Queensland in Brisbane took cores from three reef sites and determined corals collapsed...

Researchers operating NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, after three months of living on “Mars time,” have switched to more regular hours, the space agency says. The Curiosity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has been working on a schedule based...

Google and YouTube will receive updates regarding Internet sites and content banned within Russia, the country’s communications oversight agency said. An agency release said Google Inc. and YouTube LLC had formally agreed “to receive information from the register regarding content...

A small feathered dinosaur equipped with not just two but four wings used the extra pair for turn-on-a-dime control in the air, U.S. researchers say. The crow-sized microraptor, dubbed dromaeosaur, was a carnivorous dinosaur that hunted in the forests of China 130 million years ago, they...

A smart road with glow-in-the-dark pavement and illuminated weather indicators will be installed in the Netherlands in mid-2013, its designer says. Daan Roosegaarde says his design studio has developed a photo-luminescing powder that will replace road markings, charging up in sunlight to...

A number of designs for airless tires for cars have been put forward over the years, but one U.S. company says its new version is intended for bicycles. Colorado-based Britek Tire and Rubber has been working on an airless tire it calls the Energy Return Wheel, where a rubber tread and sidewall...

A dinosaur species that lived in North Africa 95 million years ago has been named for the demonic Eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings films, scientists say. A single fossil of the species dubbed Sauroniops pachytholus, or “eye of Sauron” in Greek, was unearthed in southeastern...

Microsoft is building a 7-inch tablet aimed at gaming and gamers, a number of sources familiar with the plan have told The Verge. The device, likely to be dubbed Xbox Surface, is said to be based on a custom ARM processor and high-speed RAM designed specifically for gaming tasks, The Verge...

Microsoft says it will expand its research and development center at Russia’s Skolkovo Innovation Center, often referred to as the country’s “Silicon Valley.” Microsoft launched the center, focused on developing software solutions for medium- and large-scale businesses,...

NASA scientists say an almost perfectly preserved crater on the moon should yield clues to the evolution of impact craters on Earth and other rocky bodies. The focus of their attention is the Linne Crater, a small — just 1.4 miles wide — but extremely young crater formed just 10...

While world attention is focused on climate change and extreme weather, U.S. researchers say another global change underway must be addressed: acidification. The combustion of fossil fuels, smelting of ores, mining of coal and metal ores and the application of nitrogen fertilizer to soils are...