Spaceport America officials are urging legislators to limit potential lawsuits from wealthy outer space tourists who take off from New Mexico, saying such a bill is crucial to the future of the project.

Legal experts, however, say there is no way to know whether the so-called informed consent laws will offer any protection to spacecraft operators and suppliers in the event something goes wrong.

The world's largest and most powerful atom smasher goes into a 2-year hibernation in March, as engineers carry out a revamp to help it reach maximum energy levels that could lead to more stunning discoveries following the detection of the so-called "God particle."

With the reopening of its $10 billion proton collider in early 2015, the stage will be set for observing more rare phenomena — and unlocking more mysteries, said James Gillies, chief spokesman for the European particle physics laboratory known as CERN.

The sight of two dolphins twisting playfully in the murky waters of the Mekong river elicits barely-stifled squeals of delight from a boatload of eco-tourists.

But a short distance upstream, river guard Pech Sokhan sighs as he holds up two large, tangled gill nets recently pulled from the river -- evidence old habits die hard despite a ban on the practice that ensnares many dolphins.

Australia's southern island of Tasmania has experienced its hottest day since records began, with the capital Hobart sweltering at 41.8 Celsius (107.2 Fahrenheit) on Friday.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the temperature in Tasmania, where records have been kept since the early 1880s, beat the previous high of 40.8 Celsius set in January 1976.

The frequency and volatility of El Nino, a weather pattern that hammers the tropical Pacific Ocean every five years or so, does not seem linked to climate change, said U.S. research released Thursday.

The study involved scientists measuring the monthly growth of ancient coral fossils found on two tropical Pacific islands to determine what, if any, impact the warming climate had on the weather phenomenon.

A fist-sized meteorite nicknamed "Black Beauty" could unlock vital clues to the evolution of Mars from the warm and wet place it once was to its current cold and dry state, NASA said Thursday.

Discovered in Morocco's Sahara Desert in 2011, the 11-ounce (320-gram) space rock contains 10 times more water than other Martian meteorites and could be the first ever to have originated on the planet's surface or crust.

Natural catastrophes including U.S. hurricane Sandy caused $160 billion (122 billion euros') worth of damage in 2012, the world's leading reinsurer, Munich Re, estimated on Thursday.

"Last year, natural catastrophes caused $160 billion in overall losses and $65 billion in insured losses worldwide," Munich Re said in a statement.

Australian scientists mapping the Great Barrier Reef have discovered corals at depths never before thought possible, with a deep-sea robot finding specimens in waters nearly as dark as night.

A team from the University of Queensland's Seaview Survey announced the unprecedented discovery 125 meters (410 feet) below the surface at Ribbon Reef, near the Torres Strait and at the edge of the Australian continental shelf.

A six-member salvage team was lowered Wednesday onto an oil rig that ran aground in Alaska to assess options as the U.S. Coast Guard vowed to prevent any ecological threat, officials said.

The team spent three hours on board the oil giant Shell's Kulluk mobile drilling unit after an improvement in weather conditions, which had prevented any such operation since the rig's grounding on New Year's Eve.

Hong Kong conservationists expressed outrage Thursday after images of a factory rooftop covered in thousands of freshly sliced shark fins emerged, as they called for curbs on the "barbaric" trade.

The southern Chinese city is one of the world's biggest markets for shark fins, which are used to make soup that is an expensive staple at Chinese banquets and viewed by many Asians as a rare delicacy.