Two men who worked for BP during the 2010 oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico have been charged with manslaughter and a third with lying to federal investigators, according to indictments made public yesterday, hours after BP announced it was paying $4.5bn in a settlement with the US government over the disaster.

Cannabis can lower the IQ of teenagers and may cause permanent mental impairment, research has shown.

The Obama administration last night signalled it is willing to compromise over birth control measures following a furious reaction from Catholic leaders that could damage BarackObama’s re-election bid.

SPACE junk has made such a mess of Earth’s orbit that experts say we may need to finally think about cleaning it up.

MANUFACTURERS of fertiliser will be among those facing stringent new EU regulations in the wake of Anders Behring Breivik’s murder spree in Norway.

Toyota has agreed to pay the US government a record $32.4m (€24.5m) in additional fines to settle an investigation into its handling of two recalls, a source said today.

ONE of the world’s greatest scientists will deliver a lecture at UCC this week to mark an international collaboration between two leading cancer research centres.

Unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles may have been a factor in the deaths of 89 people over the past decade, upgrading the number of deaths possibly linked to the massive recalls, the US government said.

Nasa and the National Academy of Sciences are joining the US government’s effort to find out what caused the sudden acceleration problems that led to car giant Toyota’s massive recalls.

NASA is charged with spotting most of the asteroids that pose a threat to Earth, but doesn’t have the money to complete the job.

A PENGUIN species made famous by Hollywood is heading towards extinction, scientists warned yesterday.

A blue-ribbon panel of scientists is trying to determine the best way to detect and ward off any wandering space rocks that might be on a collision course with Earth.

A MOLECULAR device that mimics the brain and which could one day act as the controlling element for swarms of nano-machines has been invented.

Iran is suffering a staggering decline in revenue from its oil exports, and if the trend continues income could virtually disappear by 2015, according to a US report.

Male chimpanzees prefer older females who have been around a bit to younger, prettier mates, new research has shown.

It has been 2,000 years and possibly much longer since the Earth has run such a fever.

Trinity College Professor Michael Coey has been elected a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Breathing soot from factories or roads may cause genetic damage that can be passed to the next generation, scientists found in an experiment performed on mice.

Chocolates – perhaps the world’s favourite confectionery – may keep the heart running longer and stronger.

Scientists say there may be as many as 5,000 new fish species, following an unprecedented survey of the world’s oceans.

MEAT and milk from cloned animals could be sold in US supermarkets by next year, it was reported yesterday.

Americans who served in the Gulf War were nearly twice as likely to develop Lou Gehrig’s disease as other military personnel, the US government reported today.

Scientists and doctors argued publicly today over whether cloning is a sound science or an error-prone process that could produce abnormal embryos.