
Antarctic krill are usually less than 6 cm in length, but their size belies the major role they play in sustaining much of the life in the Southern Ocean. They are the primary food source for many species of whales, seals, penguins and fish.

Bradley Manning, sentenced to 35 years in military prison for the biggest breach of classified US documents in US history, said in a statement he is female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea.

Brazil's foreign minister on Thursday denied that the government's plan to hire 4,000 Cuban doctors to work in isolated areas has any ideological aspect. The decision was taken to improve public services and has no ideological motivation of any kind, Antonio Patriota told a congressional committee.

Argentina has begun distributing a free state-produced version of the erection-boosting drug Viagra for the first time, in a move intended to curb its misuse, health authorities announced Thursday.

New Zealand's government has stepped up efforts to contain the fallout from a scare over contaminated products made by dairy giant Fonterra. Officials have been sent to Fonterra facilities in New Zealand and Australia to oversee the flow of information.

A corner of west London saw culinary and scientific history made on Monday as scientists cooked and served up the world's first lab-grown beef burger.

A United Nations narcotics body on Thursday expressed alarm about a bill passed by Uruguay’s Lower House that would legalize marijuana.

Uruguay's lower house passed a marijuana legalization bill on Wednesday which now must be discussed by the Senate, most probably in October. The vote brings Uruguay one step closer to becoming the first country to legally regulate production, distribution and sale of the drug.

A completely new and unusual antibiotic compound has been extracted from a marine micro-organism found in sediments off the coast of California. The discovery of genuinely novel antibiotics is rare, and experts say resistance to the drugs poses a grave threat to human health.

US drug-maker Pfizer has agreed to pay 491 million dollars to settle a probe into illegal marketing of a drug by Wyeth, a firm it had acquired in 2009. The case revolved around Rapamune, a drug prescribed to prevent rejection of transplanted kidneys.