A genetic switch allowed dogs to adapt to a starch-rich diet and evolve from meat-munching wolves into Man's leftover-loving best friend, scientists said Wednesday.

Comparing the genetic code of the domestic dog to that of its wolf cousins, a team of researchers from Sweden, Norway and the United States found several telling differences.

All but about 50 of hundreds of research chimpanzees belonging to the National Institutes of Health should be retired to the national sanctuary in northwest Louisiana, and all of them should have plenty of room to play and climb, an NIH committee recommended Tuesday.

The NIH Council of Councils Working Group approved the proposal, which also calls for major cuts in grants to study chimps in laboratories and no return to breeding the great apes for research.

A U.S. company said Tuesday it plans to send a fleet of spacecraft into the solar system to mine asteroids for metals and other materials in the hopes of furthering exploration of the final frontier.

"Using resources harvested in space is the only way to afford permanent space development," said David Gump, chief executive of Deep Space Industries, noting that more than 900 new asteroids that pass near our planet are discovered each year.

Present-day Asians and Native Americans are descended from a group of people who were already in China 40,000 years ago, according to an analysis of fossil DNA published this week.

The genetic analysis showed that the early modern humans in Beijing had already diverged genetically from the ancestors of modern-day Europeans.

Miniature cameras attached to a penguin's head have given Japanese scientists a bird's eye view of the creature's incredible underwater hunting skills, the lead researcher said Tuesday.

Using video cameras weighing just 33 grams (around 1 oz) and equipped with accelerometers, depth gauges and thermometers, researchers were able to see exactly what the Adelie penguin sees when it goes out to catch krill and other prey in its native Antarctica.

The EU executive Monday urged a quick decision on a freeze of 900 million tonnes of pollution credits auctioned to firms in 2013-2015 in order to raise the price of carbon and make investment in clean technology worthwhile.

"There are too many permits because of the recession," said Isaac Valero, the spokesman for Europe's climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard.

Torrential rains in South Africa's Kruger National Park have forced the emergency rescue of dozens of tourists and staff from the wildlife reserve, officials said Monday.

At least 15 tourists were airlifted to safety while several camps, roads and entrance gates to the giant park were closed.

Claims that global warming can be braked by dissolving huge quantities of rock in the sea to absorb carbon emissions are laden with flaws, a study published on Tuesday says.

The analysis is the latest scientific appraisal into geo-engineering, or techniques that are being promoted as quick fixes to the climate crisis.

U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to make climate change a priority as he was sworn in Monday to a second term, using some of his most forceful language yet despite uncertain political prospects.

In an inaugural address that kept largely to lofty but general prose, Obama zeroed in on the battle against climate change as a specific goal for his presidency's next four years after setbacks in his first mandate.

A U.S. spacecraft orbiting Mars has provided evidence of an ancient crater lake fed by groundwater, adding further support to theories that the Red Planet may once have hosted life, NASA said Sunday.

Spectrometer data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows traces of carbonate and clay minerals usually formed in the presence of water at the bottom of the 1.4-mile (2.2-kilometer) deep McLaughlin Crater.