China offered a rare glimpse into its secretive space program on Tuesday, displaying a model of a lunar rover that will explore the moon's surface in an upcoming mission.

Beijing has ambitious space goals, including plans to send its first probe to land on the moon by the end of this year, state media reported in August.

Queen Elizabeth II's favorite dog breed, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi, is at risk of disappearing, Britain's Kennel Club breeders' association has warned.

Known for their short legs and yappy voices, the herding dogs have been favored by the British monarchy since the 1930s and the queen, 87, has raised dozens herself.

A Chinese solar firm will pay 3.0 billion yuan ($491 million) for assets of the main subsidiary of Suntech Power, a statement said, in the latest move to restructure the troubled former solar giant.

Suntech Power announced in March that its main unit in China, Wuxi Suntech, would seek bankruptcy and restructuring.

Other tycoons may plough their millions into yachts or private jets, but Vasily Klyukin prefers a good "adventure". On his diary for next year? A space trip with Leonardo DiCaprio.

"I don't want to waste any time -- I want to live my life to the full," the Russian multi-millionaire, newly settled in the mega-rich principality of Monaco, told Agence France Presse in an interview.

India is aiming to join the world's deep-space pioneers with a journey to Mars that it hopes will showcase its technological ability to explore the solar system while seeking solutions for everyday problems on Earth.

With a Tuesday launch planned for Mangalyaan, which means "Mars craft" in Hindi, India will attempt to become only the fourth country or group of countries to reach the Red Planet, after the Soviet Union, United States and Europe.

A deep sea oyster reef restoration being touted as the largest ever in the Gulf of Mexico began in an unlikely place: a quarry in landlocked Missouri.

That is where years of research, planning and precise engineering led Mark Dumesnil, an associate director of restoration for the Nature Conservancy in Texas, as he sought to restore what was once a nearly 500-acre oyster reef and is now no more than hard sand and shell remains, with not one oyster in sight.

Europe's heaviest-ever cargo carrier to the International Space Station burned up in Earth's atmosphere Saturday in a controlled maneuver after a five-month mission, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

Filled with about six tonnes of garbage and waste produced on board the ISS, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) met its fiery end over an uninhabited zone of the southern Pacific Ocean at 1204 GMT, it said in a statement.

New Zealand said it remained optimistic Saturday about the creation of a sanctuary to protect Antarctica's ocean wilderness, despite the failure of multi-national talks to agree the plan.

While voicing disappointment, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said that consensus was building after proposals for two huge marine protection zones were knocked back at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

Toxic algae blooms that deplete the water of essential oxygen are killing a record number of manatees in Florida this year, biologists say.

A total of 769 manatees have died trough Tuesday, making 2013 the deadliest year ever for the blubbery denizens of the deep found off the Florida coast, Save the Manatee Club announced.

The nations that make decisions about Antarctic fishing have failed for a third time to agree on a plan to create the world's largest marine sanctuary.

The U.S. and New Zealand had proposed creating a reserve in the pristine waters of the Ross Sea. At 1.34 million square kilometers (517,000 square miles), it would have been twice the size of Texas.