Scientists on Monday said they had unlocked a pathway for producing opiates from genetically-engineered yeast but feared the discovery could one day be a bonanza for drug lords.

Other experts agreed, saying anyone with basic skills could use such a yeast to churn out morphine, codeine and drugs using a simple home-brew beer kit.

Chinese police have shot dead a lion that killed a keeper, state media reported, in the country's second such zookeeper death this year.

Police were called in to shoot the lion to "ensure the safety of tourists", after the feline fatally injured a keeper who entered its cage for cleaning, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Russia's space agency said Monday it had managed to restart the engines of the Progress spacecraft and correct the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) which it is attached to, after a failed first attempt.

"On Sunday night, the orbit of the ISS was successfully corrected," Roscosmos told Russian news agencies, 48 hours after the initial attempt to switch on the spacecraft's engines proved unsuccessful.

Russia's space agency said Saturday that a satellite launch had suffered an "emergency situation", with the carrier rocket apparently suffering a glitch.

The space agency, Roscosmos, said in a statement that a Proton-M rocket carrying a Mexican satellite had suffered a problem on launch.

Four countries have blocked a bid to add chrysotile asbestos to a list of dangerous substances subject to export restrictions during a UN meeting in Geneva that concluded early Saturday, participants said.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Zimbawe opposed listing the mineral also known as white asbestos, which health experts say causes cancer, on the Rotterdam Convention list, according to groups attending the Geneva meeting.

Nearly half the dolphins in Japan's aquariums are caught using a controversial fishing method that sees dozens more slaughtered every year, a newspaper reported Saturday.

At least 18 of 33 Japanese aquariums that are home to dolphins say their stock were caught using the divisive "drive fishing" method, while eight declined to comment due to concerns over "negative reactions," the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

The silvery, round-bodied opah fish is the first warm-blooded fish known to science and this unusual ability gives it a competitive edge in the cold ocean depths, researchers said Thursday.

Also known as a moonfish, the creature is about the size of a tire and can warm itself much the same way as a car radiator, researchers said in the journal Science.

Giving the poor goats, chickens or cows and offering regular training in how to make a living has helped improve conditions in five countries around the world, researchers said Thursday.

Known as the "Graduation" program, the effort was under way for three years in Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, India, Pakistan and Peru.

"If beekeepers are going to meet the growing demand for pollination services, researchers need to find better answers to the host of stresses that lead to both winter and summer colony losses," according to a reportView Photo

"If beekeepers are going to meet the growing demand for pollination services, …

The U.S. Agriculture Department has developed the first government certification and labeling for foods that are free of genetically modified ingredients.

USDA's move comes as some consumer groups push for mandatory labeling of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.