The first tropical depression of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season formed off the coast of the eastern United States, forecasters said Thursday, but was not expected to threaten land.

The designers behind a "thinking" yacht are hoping to break a world record by sending it across the Atlantic Ocean without any human assistance. The four-meter boat, "Avalon", was designed and built by an eight-strong team of third-year engineering students at Swiss science university ETH Zurich. The students are planning to take the boat to a robotic sailing regatta in July, before launching it into the Microtransat Transatlantic challenge in early September. Using sensors to detect the speed and direction ...

They line up early every Saturday morning at the decrepit gymnasium that houses the La Matanza Barter Club. Club members shuffle in carrying sacks stuffed with everything from homemade clothing to homegrown vegetables, set up their stands and begin a day of bartering. The La Matanza Barter Club in the working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of Isidro Casanova is one of more than 100 that now function throughout Argentina. They provide a vital service for people who are short on cash ...

Good news is relative. A Dow of 10,000 looks awfully sweet right now, for example, but it would've seemed like a disaster back when daily closes were closer to 14,000. That's the kind of pick-your-perspective choice offered by a new paper published in the journal Science about the catastrophic rise in sea levels we could expect if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet continues to melt away due to global warming. According to a study by a team of ...

A separatist attempt to form a breakaway nation of indigenous people on Nicaragua's jungle shores has the legendary Mosquito Coast buzzing once again — and posing a dilemma for leftist President Daniel Ortega. Frustrated by broken promises of autonomy and generations of exploitation by outsiders, traditional leaders on the rural Atlantic coast are calling for a clean break from Nicaragua and the creation of the Communitarian Nation of the Moskitia . On April 19, the indigenous council of elders officially ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Lebanon on Sunday to pledge U.S. support for the country and its push for free elections. Sigurdardottir's party, which has headed an interim government since February 1, was on course to win around 30 percent of the vote or 20 parliamentary seats, according to state broadcaster RUV. The Left-Green Movement, the Social Democratic Alliance's coalition ally, was expected to win 14 seats, giving the coalition a controlling 34-seat block in the ...

Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir of the center-left Social Democratic Alliance has claimed victory in general elections triggered by the collapse of the Nordic nation's economy. Sigurdardottir's party, which has headed an interim government since February 1, was on course to win around 30 percent of the vote or 20 parliamentary seats, according to state broadcaster RUV. The Left-Green Movement, the Social Democratic Alliance's coalition ally, was expected to win 14 seats, giving the coalition a controlling 34-seat block in ...

North Atlantic right whales, sort of the homely underdogs of the whale world, birthed a record number calves this year off the coast of the southeast United States, giving some scientists hope that the uber-rare and often overlooked species can recover. "For me, personally, it is a source of optimism," said Barb Zoodsma, a marine mammal biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "I just think we're on the right track." The record 39 new calves -- each of ...

The mysterious burst of light in the sky and loud booms witnessed Sunday night by residents along the Mid-Atlantic coastline was likely caused by a Russian rocket booster re-entering the atmosphere, said an official at the U.S. Naval Observatory. The exact cause of the flash that caused hundreds of people to call the media, local authorities and the National Weather Service was still unknown Monday afternoon. But eyewitness accounts of the color, shape and timing of the light and ...

Searchers on Friday combed the Atlantic Ocean for 16 missing people, a day after a chopper ditched in the frigid waters off Canada, a rescue official said. The S-92 Sikorsky copter had been carrying the people to an oil platform when it slammed into the waters near Newfoundland on Thursday morning. "We will continue to search until there's absolutely no chance that any survivors will be located," Maj. Denis McGuire of the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax said Thursday. "Until ...