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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.

Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman said at a Knesset plenary meeting on Monday, addressing Arab MKs, that "a new administration will be established and then we will take care of you." The statement came three days after Lieberman made another inflammatory statement directed at Arab MKs, shortly after an Israeli Arab terrorist gunned down students at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem on Thursday, killing eight people. Lieberman had said following the incident that the attack had been a result of incitement to violence propagated by Arab MKs. (edit) Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman. (Daniel Bar On/Jini) Lieberman...

Pink 450-Pound Blobs Clog Nets but Spur New Recipes; Pointing Fingers at China (OKI, Japan) -- Fisherman Ryoichi Yoshida pulled in his nets before dawn one morning, hoping for lots of yellowtail and mackerel. But the fish were overwhelmed by a heaving mass of living pink slime. The creatures, called Nomura jellyfish, can measure six feet across and weigh up to about 450 pounds. They have been drifting en masse to places like Oki, a small island 40 miles off the coast, bobbing beneath the surface of the water like pink mines. They rip holes in fishermen's nets, and they...

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (CNN) -- Israel is "ready now for a deal," said an Israeli official attending Tuesday's U.S.-brokered Mideast summit aimed at laying the groundwork for future peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have "very good chemistry," the official said, adding that he is hopeful a document "will be finalized before we leave Washington Wednesday night." -snip-

HEADLINE: Israel May OK Division of Jerusalem Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (AP Photo)Summary of Six Day war from BBC: After a period of relative peace in the Middle East(?), Palestinian guerrilla groups, supported by Egypt and Syria, started a series of attacks on the Israeli border in 1965. These were followed by Israeli reprisals and a gradual build-up of Arab military forces around Israel's border. The Second Arab-Israeli war that began on 5 June 1967 ended on 10 June and became known as the six-day war - it changed the face of the Middle East conflict. At the end...

One night while diving for lobster on the island of Mauritius, an Australian named Ian McCormick was stung on his forearm by what local Creole fishermen call "invisibles": extraordinarily poisonous but hard to see "five-box" jellyfish, in the nomenclature of the trade. Medics were called -- urgently. It was an emergency if ever there is an emergency. "Found in the waters off northern Australia, the box jellyfish Chironex fleckeri is not the only marine invertebrate to use venom, but it is the possessor of arguably the most lethal venom in the world," notes one expert. "In the past half...

Australian jellyfish that invaded the Gulf of Mexico seven years ago have made a "vigorous reappearance" this summer and threaten to devour native fish, scientists announced Friday. And in the Gulf, with plenty to eat, they grow to monster size. "In their native waters, they tend to be fist-sized," said Monty Graham of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. "Here in the Gulf, they can be a big as dinner plates.” The creatures can weigh up to 25 pounds. The Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza punctata, are not dangerous to humans. But scientists say the invasion could pose a threat to the...

Jellyfish with up to a dozen heads have been created in the laboratory by carefully monkeying with a few genes. The genetic experiments could shed light on how natural colonies of other multi-headed organisms first originated, including some that build coral reefs. Researchers targeted so-called Cnox genes, which help control how the bodies of jellyfish are laid out as their embryos develop. These genes are closely related to Hox genes, which play a similar role in humans. How they did it They experimented on the European hydromedusa (Eleutheria dichotoma), collected from the south of France. (In Greek mythology, the Hydra...

MADRID, Spain - What do tourists and jellyfish have in common? They both love warm water and proliferate along Spanish beaches in the summer. And that's bad news for Spain, the world's top tourist destination after France. On Friday, the government approved a plan to create an armada of recreational boaters to spot the stinging blobs and summon help. "The important thing is that anybody who comes to the beaches here in Spain should know that a serious plan is under way to keep this from being a problem," said Josep-Maria Gili, the biologist coordinating the project. Spain's Mediterranean waters...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that the release of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, held since June by Gaza militants, would lead to the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. "With Gilad Shalit's release and his return safe and sound to his family, the Israeli government will be willing to release many Palestinian prisoners, even those who have been sentenced to lengthy terms," Olmert said. The prime minister, speaking at the grave of Israel's first premier, David Ben-Gurion, in Sde Boker, said that he was extending his hand in peace to the Palestinians, and that he hoped...

Op-Ed Contributor LATE on a summer afternoon not long ago, the water at Lucy Vincent Beach on Martha’s Vineyard was warm, and the toxic jellyfish that had plagued bathers weeks earlier had floated out to sea. Body-surfing in on my last wave, I suddenly felt as if someone had whacked my leg with a lead pipe studded with nails. On the 1-to-10 pain scale we use with patients, I would have called it a 14. When I rubbed the area with my hand, my whole palm stung. Apparently those toxic jellyfish hadn’t all left. A crowd of passers-by gathered to...

Dairy giant Fonterra is distancing itself from Danish products caught up in widespread Muslim protests and trade boycotts after the publication of cartoons of Mohammed. Denmark was the first country to publish controversial caricatures of the Muslim prophet last September and the country has been hardest hit by the backlash. Fonterra is remaining tight-lipped about any impact the publication of the cartoons in New Zealand might have had on its business, but Middle East reports say that some emails and fliers wrongly list Fonterra products as coming from Denmark. Fonterra has published an ad in Middle East newspapers highlighting that...

The Prime Minister has spoken out about the Mohammad cartoon controversy, saying she does not think it is a freedom of the press issue. Helen Clark says the New Zealand press is free, and politicians do not dictate what it can and cannot print. She says it is a question of judgement. She does not think the publication of the cartoons does anything to bring communities together in New Zealand or around the world. Helen Clark says the New Zealand government's position is very strongly in favour of respecting all religions and working to bring communities together, not drive them...

Fonterra is worried about how the publication in New Zealand of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad will affect its business in the Middle East. Two newspapers in New Zealand - The Dominion Post in Wellington and the Christchurch Press - have printed the controversial cartoons. Some were also shown on New Zealand television on Friday night. The images have triggered outrage and protests across the Muslim world. Hundreds of people demonstrated in Pakistan on Thursday, chanting "Death to Denmark" and burning Danish and French flags. Palestinian gunmen briefly surrounded European Union offices in Gaza to demand an apology over the...

New Zealand diplomats in the Islamic world have been warned to take precautions against possible threats to staff and property following the publication here of controversial cartoons of Mohammed. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials have reacted "with concern" to the publication of the images, and were yesterday monitoring Muslim reaction for signs of retaliation against New Zealanders overseas or our trade interests. Yesterday The Dominion Post ran the 12 caricatures, originally published by a Danish newspaper in September. Dominion Post editor Tim Pankhurst said the publication was a test of Islamic tolerance. The Press ran two of the...

Scientists in Taiwan say they have bred three pigs that glow in the dark. They claim that while other researchers have bred partly fluorescent pigs, theirs are the only pigs in the world which are green through and through. The pigs are transgenic, created by adding genetic material from jellyfish into a normal pig embryo. The researchers hope the pigs will boost the island's stem cell research, as well as helping with the study of human disease. The researchers, from National Taiwan University's Department of Animal Science and Technology, say that although the pigs glow, they are otherwise no...

THEY are called echizen kurage and they sound like monsters from the trashier reaches of Japanese science fiction. They are 6ft wide and weigh 450lb (200kg), with countless poisonous tentacles, they have drifted across the void to terrorise the people of Japan. Vast armadas of the slimy horrors have cut off the country’s food supply. As soon as one is killed more appear to take its place. Finally, the quarrelsome governments of the region are banding together to unite against the enemy. Echizen kurage is not an extraterrestrial invader, but a giant jellyfish that is devastating the livelihoods of fishermen...

THEY are called echizen kurage and they sound like monsters from the trashier reaches of Japanese science fiction. They are 6ft wide and weigh 450lb (200kg), with countless poisonous tentacles, they have drifted across the void to terrorise the people of Japan. Vast armadas of the slimy horrors have cut off the country’s food supply. As soon as one is killed more appear to take its place. Finally, the quarrelsome governments of the region are banding together to unite against the enemy. Echizen kurage is not an extraterrestrial invader, but a giant jellyfish that is devastating the livelihoods of...

House GOP leaders have decided to drop an Arctic oil drilling proposal from a budget bill.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A Swedish nuclear power plant shut down one of its three reactors Monday because of an abnormal accumulation of jellyfish in the cooling system. The Oskarshamn plant in southeastern Sweden uses water from the Baltic Sea in its cooling tanks. The water has been unusually rich in jellyfish in recent weeks, but the problem grew worse Monday morning, forcing officials to shut down the reactor. "When there are too many jellyfish in the cooling water, the flow is hindered and we have to clean it to keep the reactor going at full effect," plant spokesman Erik Mattsen...