Germany is the world's most energy efficient nation with strong codes on buildings while China is quickly stepping up its own efforts, an environmental group said Thursday.

The study of 16 major economies by the Washington-based American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranked Mexico last and voiced concern about the pace of efforts by the United States and Australia.

New images reveal that the deep-space comet on which mankind plans to land a probe later this year, has an "extraordinarily irregular", duck-like shape, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Thursday.

The icy body dubbed Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is composed of two parts: one flat and long, the other bulbous, according to a blog on the ESA website.

A new federal earthquake map dials up the shaking hazard just a bit for about one-third of the United States and lowers it for one-tenth.

The U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday updated its national seismic hazard maps for the first time since 2008, taking into account research from the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the Japanese coast and the surprise 2011 Virginia temblor.

The world is getting warmer, as greenhouse gases reach historic highs and Arctic sea ice melts, making 2013 one of the hottest years on record, international scientists said Thursday.

The annual State of the Climate report 2013 is a review of scientific data and weather events over the past year, compiled by 425 scientists from 57 countries.

The world is getting warmer, as greenhouse gases reach historic highs and Arctic sea ice melts, making 2013 one of the hottest years on record, international scientists said Thursday.

The annual State of the Climate report 2013 is a review of scientific data and weather events over the past year, compiled by 425 scientists from 57 countries.

Like a well-trained dog, the HEXO+ follows you faithfully wherever you go. But it doesn't walk besides you -- it's airborne.

Developed by a French start-up, Squadrone System, the six-rotor HEXO+ -- which handily totes a GoPro video camera -- is billed as the first autonomous small drone for the mass market.

Dredging activity near reefs can more than double the frequency of diseases affecting corals by impacting the light and food they need to survive, a study showed Thursday.

While scientists have known for decades that dredging can smother corals, researchers said this was the first time it has been linked to diseases.

A great white shark that washed up on an Australian beach this week had a sea lion stuck in its throat which likely caused its death, fisheries officials said Thursday.

The four-meter (13-foot) white pointer was filmed thrashing around just off Coronation Beach, 430 kilometers (270 miles) north of Perth, and was later found on the sand.

Oil-rich United Arab Emirates announced Wednesday it will create a space agency with the aim of sending the first Arab unmanned probe to Mars by 2021.

"The UAE has entered the space race with a project to send an unmanned probe to Mars by 2021 in the Arab world's first mission to another planet," said an Emirati government statement.

An unmanned cargo ship that was rocketed into space this weekend by Orbital Sciences Corporation is nearing the International Space Station where it plans to dock on Wednesday.

Loaded with meals for astronauts, equipment and science experiments, the Cygnus cargo carrier is scheduled to be grabbed with the space station's robotic arm at 6:39 am (1039 GMT).