A deadly fungal disease that has killed millions of bats in North America is likely caused by a pathogen that came from Europe, international researchers said on Monday.

White-nose syndrome (WNS), caused by a pathogen Geomyces destructans, was first observed to be killing bats in a cave in upstate New York in 2006, and has since killed some 6.7 million bats in the United States and Canada.

It's been so warm in the United States this year, especially in March that national records weren't just broken, they were deep-fried.

Temperatures in the lower 48 states were 8.6 degrees above normal for March and 6 degrees higher than average for the first three months of the year, according to calculations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That far exceeds the old records.

The disputed Siachen glacier, where an avalanche hit early Saturday, is billed as the world's highest combat zone, but atrocious weather conditions have claimed more lives than actual fighting.

The 77-kilometer-long glacier traverses the Line of Control, the de facto border separating Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, at a height of over 6,300 meters.

The bald eagle that came into wildlife rehabilitator Belinda Burwell's care last month, just as the hunting season was coming to a close in North America, was a shadow of its former self.

The stiff and wobbly bird clung to life but showed distinct signs of lead poisoning, likely from scavenging the remains of big game left by hunters who killed their prey with lead bullets.

A Russian-Ukrainian sailing crew that went missing on a historic expedition around the South Pole is alive and made contact Saturday as it battled through Antarctic ice with its fuel running low, the Agence France Presse said Saturday.

The ambitious eight-strong team on the Scorpius yacht did not make contact earlier this week as gale-force winds slowed its progress. But the captain said in an email that the crew was in good health, the expedition's spokeswoman Anna Subbotina said.

Oil and gas production may explain a sharp increase in small earthquakes in the nation's midsection, a new study from the U.S. Geological Survey suggests.

The rate has jumped six-fold from the late 20th century through last year, the team reports, and the changes are "almost certainly man-made."

A product from fir trees and yeast may soon replace ambergris, a kind of whale barf, to make expensive perfume, scientists said Thursday.

For centuries, perfume makers have prized ambergris for its ability to prevent scent from dissipating.

People diagnosed with cancer have a sharply higher risk of suicide and fatal heart attacks immediately after receiving their diagnosis, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday showed.

"Previous studies have shown that cancer patients are at higher risk of suicide and cardiovascular disease, which up until now has mainly been ascribed to the emotional strain of living with the potentially fatal disease and the often physically demanding cancer treatment," the Karolinska Institute said in a statement.

A hand-held torch-like device can swiftly kill dangerous bacteria, offering a potential boon for emergency workers battling infection risks in wars or disaster zones, scientists reported on Thursday.

The "plasma flashlight" delivers a charged, or ionized, jet of gas to zap germs, a team of researchers in China, Australia and Hong Kong said in a specialized journal.

Austrian and Japanese researchers on Wednesday unveiled solar cells thinner than a thread of spider silk that are flexible enough to be wrapped around a single human hair.

The thin-film device, comprising electrodes on a plastic foil, is about 1.9 micro-meters thick, a tenth the size of the thinnest solar cells currently available, the researchers said.