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AP - The United Nations' climate chief on Friday urged countries to be flexible in order to make progress at weeklong climate talks in China next month, the last formal negotiations on climate change ahead of a major year-end meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

AFP - A US appeals court suspended Thursday a ban on state-funding for embryonic stem cell research pending a full appeal of the case, in a major boost to President Barack Obama's administration.

AP - Tropical Depression Igor is expected to regain tropical storm strength in the far eastern Atlantic.

Reuters - A fiery natural gas explosion ripped through a residential neighborhood in a San Francisco suburb on Thursday, ravaging some 50 homes and killing at least one person, officials said.

AFP - China is on track to launch its second lunar satellite by year's end, as the country pursues its plans for a manned mission to the moon by 2020, state media said Friday.

AFP - A US appeals court suspended Thursday a ban on state-funding for embryonic stem cell research pending a full appeal of the case, in a major boost to President Barack Obama's administration.

Reuters - BP Plc said it would delay the release of its third quarter results by a week because of added complexities in its accounts due to costs associated with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

AP - The government may resume funding of embryonic stem cell research for now, an appeals court said Thursday, but the short-term approval may be of little help to research scientists caught in a legal battle that has just begun.

AP - An animal-rights activist says an endangered right whale stranded on a beach in southern Brazil for two days is too weak to be rescued and returned safely to the sea.

AP - The state claimed Thursday that the Interior Department illegally halted offshore drilling in Artic waters, even though the department said there's no such moratorium in place.