It's a happy moment that's been a long time coming, but after years of trying, Hong Kong panda Ying Ying is finally expecting a cub, keepers said Thursday, a first ever for the southern Chinese city.

The 10-year-old panda began showing signs of pregnancy in July, after several attempts -- both natural and artificial -- at insemination, said a spokeswoman for Ocean Park, where the animal lives.

Europe's Ariane 5 rocket launcher successfully sent two telecoms satellites, one for Australia and one for Argentina, into space on Wednesday.

They were launched from Kourou, in French Guiana, at around 05:30 pm local time, according to launch company Arianespace.

Eighty fur seals have been found stranded or dead on California's coast so far this year, eight times more than normal, scientists said Tuesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 42 of the seals were found dead and the remainder were found alive but half-starving.

New York City faces an increased risk of flooding, similar to what occurred during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, as global warming causes more frequent storms and sea levels to rise, scientists said.

Researchers reported that mega-storms on America's northeast coast could begin occurring every 25 years or so, compared to every 500 years before industrialization, in a study out Tuesday.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore is busily training an army of organizers to go out and spread his environmental gospel ahead of key climate talks in Paris later this year.

The modern world is collapsing around us and we must change our ways, according to the former U.S. vice president, who has led the training of more than 5,000 people in the last 18 months.

Design students in Estonia have come up with a novel way to help nature lovers enjoy the sights and subtle sounds of their country's vast and cherished forests.

The group strategically placed three massive loudspeakers in the heart of a remote woodland in late September to amplify its murmurs, and hikers are both awestruck and inspired.

Australian shark experts will test cutting-edge technology -- including electrical barriers powered by wave energy -- following an "unprecedented" series of attacks on swimmers.

The country has one of the world's highest incidences of shark attacks and researchers from around the world met in Sydney on Tuesday at a meeting organised in part to address community fears.

When the Rosetta space probe sent back its first close-up pictures of a comet last year, scientists got a bit of a surprise: Instead of the ball of rock and ice they had expected, the comet turned out to have two distinct lobes connected by a "neck."

Some said it looked like a giant rubber duck.

Mars appears to have flowing rivulets of water, at least in the summer, scientists reported Monday in a finding that boosts the odds of life on the red planet.

"Mars is not the dry, arid planet that we thought of in the past," said Jim Green, director of planetary science for NASA.

Under a blistering sun, workers install a sea of solar panels in a north Indian desert as part of the government's clean energy push --- and its trump card at upcoming climate change talks in Paris.

After years of betting big on highly polluting coal, India is under huge pressure to commit to cutting carbon emissions ahead of the major meet aimed at forging a global climate pact.