AP - The La Nina climate phenomenon is strengthening, increasing the likelihood an active hurricane season could get even busier.

AP - John Travolta was onto something. Women are most attracted to male dancers who have big, flamboyant moves similar to the actor's trademark style, British scientists say in a new study.

AP - The weird world of dinosaurs has just gotten a tad more bizarre. Scientists found a nearly complete fossil of a new dinosaur that sports a noticeable hump, maybe as possible advertising.

AFP - US energy giant Chevron will explore for oil in three deepwater oil wells off Liberia in West Africa, a region which has yielded massive oil finds in recent years.

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 - The unprecedented turtle rescue effort at NASA's Kennedy Space Center is winding down.

AP - Federal officials say they're stepping up plans to release sea turtles that were stranded and rescued during the Gulf oil spill and study how they've been affected.

AFP - Palaeontologists in Spain have discovered the remains of a strange dinosaur with a hump that they believe is the forerunner of flesh-eating leviathans which once ruled the planet.

AP - Tropical Depression Hermine was expected to continue producing significant rainfall as it lifted northward into southern Kansas on Thursday.

Reuters - British Members of Parliament (MPs) will next week grill outgoing BP Plc Chief Executive Tony Hayward, as part of an investigation into risks around deepwater drilling in the North Sea.

AP - Authorities in the San Antonio area searched Thursday for a man who drove into a flooded road, making him the fourth person swept away by floodwaters from the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine.