USA: A cloak of invisibility may be common in science fiction but research suggests such a device may be moving closer to reality.

A leading American climate scientist has said he felt “scared” when a shadowy organisation claiming to represent the CIA asked him about the possibility of weaponised weather.

The father-in-law of a woman accidentally shot dead with her own gun by her two-year-old son has said she was “not the least bit irresponsible”.

Russia has failed to show up at a meeting planning the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, US and European officials say.

Researchers aided by the EU play a major role across the globe in developing valuable ideas, writes Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

China today claimed to have built the world’s fastest supercomputer, underlining its rise as a science and technology powerhouse.

Irish company Wavebob Ltd has secured a grant of $2.4m (€1.83m) from the US Department of Energy to prepare for a commercial-scale wave energy demonstration project planned for US waters in 2013.

YOU report (August 15) that the SIMI is campaigning to extend scrappage subsidies to protect the car industry.

IS there a way for farms to be fertilised, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions?

A preliminary survey found that Afghanistan may have 1.8 billion barrels of oil in the north of the country, an official said.

CHINA yesterday disputed that it had surpassed the United States last year to become the world’s largest energy user, and defended its efforts in boosting cleaner energy sources.

One of the world’s most dangerous nuclear power plants mothballed after international protests may be re-opened because of the Russian gas row it emerged today.

Oil prices have touched $100 a barrel for the first time.

A CONTRACT employee at a nuclear material cleanup site in Tennessee was charged yesterday with allegedly stealing classified data about enriching uranium to sell to foreign governments, law enforcement officials said.

Former US vice president and climate change campaigner Al Gore has been accused of hypocrisy over his “extravagant” electricity bill.

Spain and the US have reached an agreement to clean up radioactivity in the Spanish farming village of Palomares, on Spain’s south-east tip, 40 years after two US atomic bombs fell in the area after a midair collision.

Stocks rose smartly in the United States today as stronger-than-expected earnings from FedEx and Morgan Stanley put investors’ inflation fears on the back burner. The Dow Jones industrial average gained more than 100 points.

SUICIDE bombers in explosives-laden cars attacked the world’s largest oil processing facility yesterday, but were prevented from breaking through the gates when guards opened fire on them, causing the vehicles to explode, officials said.

Suicide bombers in explosives-laden cars attempted to attack an oil processing facility that handles about two-thirds of Saudi Arabia’s petroleum output today, but were stopped when guards opened fire on them, causing the cars to explode, officials said.

A surge in oil prices last week to almost $70 a barrel on concerns about the restart of Iran’s nuclear programme only hints at what may lie ahead.

An unmanned spacecraft the size of a piano is due to lift off tomorrow on a nine-year journey to the Pluto – the last unexplored planet in the Solar System.

US oil prices fell yesterday after Houston refineries escaped serious damage from Hurricane Rita, although plants further east in Port Arthur and Lake Charles were hit harder.

Simon Webb, Reuters

Oil prices that soared to US$65 (€52.48) a barrel choked off an early rally on Wall Street today, pummelling the market's optimism about the economy in the process.

Oil prices lifted back above a key level today after an explosion at one of BP’s refineries in the United States.

Wall Street’s fixation with oil prices left stocks little changed today, although investors managed to react stoically to the government’s report of a drop in crude inventories.

A sharp slide in oil prices was not enough to keep US stocks aloft today as March retail sales fell short of expectations and investors grew apprehensive about weak consumer spending.

OPEC ministers today moved toward consensus on formally boosting the group’s oil output. But the move did little to ease concerns that the world’s hunger for crude may soon outpace the organisation’s capacity to feed it.

Upbeat results from Google and Boeing led stocks higher for a third straight session today as a widely anticipated rate hike and a little-changed policy statement from the Federal Reserve freed investors to show some enthusiasm.

Crude oil futures inched lower today, after Norway ordered workers to end a strike that was threatening exports from the world’s third-largest supplier.

Analysts have forecast that oil prices could rise to $50 a barrel and that OPEC will not be able to meet fourth quarter demand.

MORTAR shells found in Iraq did not contain any chemical warfare agents, the Danish army said yesterday.

A US non-profit research organisation says it is building the world’s fastest supercomputer.

Security at America’s nuclear weapons labs is so lax that the buildings have repeatedly failed drills in which mock terrorists captured radioactive material and escaped, according to an article in Vanity Fair magazine.

FORMER UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix accused the US and Britain yesterday of “over-interpreting” information about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.

The US Department of Energy has raised its 2002 oil price forecast due to rising tensions in the Middle East.