Pope Francis has challenged Latin America’s youth to take up his environmental protection campaign, saying the defence of God’s creation is not just a recommendation but a requirement.

Britain: A “poo bus”, which runs on human and household waste, goes into regular service this month. Powered by biomethane gas, the Bio-Bus will use waste from more than 32,000 households along its 24km route.

Cheering crowds, hundreds of handshakes, and plenty of pats on the back. It’s not every day you win the world’s top science competition, but these three Cork girls almost make it look easy.

Three Cork teenagers have bagged the top prize at this year’s Google Science Fair for their project, Natural Bacteria Combating World Hunger.

Three teenagers from Ireland have won the grand prize at this year's Google Science Fair.

Ireland has been placed fourth in a top-10 list of dream destinations by readers of an up-market travel magazine in the US.

Few have explored the remote volcanic islands of the Galapagos archipelago, an otherworldly landscape inhabited by the world’s largest tortoises and other fantastical creatures that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Astronomers are alerting sky watchers to be on the lookout for evidence of what appears to be meteor showers.

Lonesome George, the last remaining tortoise of his kind and a conservation icon, has died of unknown causes, the Galapagos National Park said.

Julia Roberts has offered to babysit for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a wedding present.

An 18-year-old who worked in a seaside hotel in Panama happily took up an offer by two friends to join them on a fishing trip and earn some extra cash.

SUCH may have been the sentiments of Conor Ryan of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group when he spotted a black-browed albatross from the deck of the Celtic Explorer on the Feb 29.

A GIANT tortoise which helped shape Darwin’s ideas about evolution and was thought to have been extinct for 150 years may be living a secret life in the Galapagos Islands.

EVERY animal group has its celebrity species.

Ports and beaches were temporarily shut and islanders and coastal residents ordered to higher ground up and down Latin America’s Pacific seaboard ahead of the tsunami surge triggered by the killer Japanese quake. But it did little damage.

AN open-air dancing extravaganza featuring Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance is to take place at the Cliffs of Moher in September.

THOMAS Cook Cruises has launched a range of 42 cruises on the Irish market. The plan covers various destinations with seven cruise line companies.

Griff Rhys Jones and his wife had to jump into shark-infested waters after a fire broke out on the yacht they were sailing in, it was reported today.

Richard Collins looks at Darwin’s forgotten precursors

A project to wean the Galapagos Islands off fossil fuels, which includes three giant wind turbines on one of the World Heritage site islands, was officially launched today.

A lone British sailor has been rescued by the Australian Navy after his yacht ran aground on a remote reef.

THE world’s top cultural body met yesterday to consider adding the Tower of London to its “in danger” list because of development pressures around its location.

ECUADOR says tourism is threatening the Galapagos Islands and has asked Unesco to add the habitat that inspired the theory of evolution to its endangered list, the culture agency said yesterday.

Ecuador’s famed Galapagos Islands, the country’s top tourist destination, should be better preserved according to President Rafael Correa.

ON November 3, the Irish Examiner reported that the Galapagos Islands, a World heritage site, were considered by experts to be “in serious trouble” due to the level of population and tourism growth.

A 176-year-old tortoise, believed by some to have been owned by Charles Darwin, has died at the Australian zoo owned by “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin.

MASSIVE waves generated by a storm 2,000 miles away battered a long stretch of the Pacific coast yesterday, wrecking homes, hotels and restaurants from Peru to Central America.

More than 37 tons of cocaine, with an estimated street value of €2bn were confiscated during five seizures at sea this autumn, the US Coastguard said.

A SUGGESTION that the secretary who shot dead a leading Irish cardiologist at a Boston hospital was infatuated with him was yesterday described as “dangerous speculation” by police.

A 2,000-gallon fuel tank that fell into waters off the Galapagos Islands has created a slick that threatens to contaminate rare wildlife, scientists say.

The bodies of 15 sea lions have been found in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands with their teeth and sexual organs extracted.

Ecuador has declared a state of emergency for the Galapagos islands.

The spillage of more than 150,000 gallons of diesel oil from an Ecuadorean tanker near the Galapagos Islands is a "catastrophe", the environmentalist David Bellamy has warned.

More than 150,000 gallons of diesel oil has escaped from an Ecuadorean tanker washed up on one of the Galapagos Islands.

Ecuador has asked the US for help in preventing an environmental disaster posed by a diesel fuel spill in the ecologically fragile Galapagos Islands.