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A European, UK-led project aims to showcase how space debris could be removed from orbit.

Bernard Poujol believes ducks are the future for rice farms, but he hasn't quite perfected his technique.

When the First Fleet sailed into Sydney Cove in 1788, they entered an ancient and unforgiving landscape. A new book charts Australians' relationship with one of the world's most volatile climates. Joelle Gergis, ARC DECRA Climate Research Fellow, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The developments and set backs in foreign affairs for the month of March.

Doug Jones, Bernie Sanders and Chris Christie add to pressure over $50-a-night deal linked to chief executive of energy lobbying firm

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt is under increasing pressure over a rental arrangement he had with a leading energy sector lobbyist.

Related: Veterans affairs chief David Shulkin says he was fired: 'I did not resign'

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The Río Nuevo, which now stretches across 16 miles of San Luis province, is believed to be the product of deforestation, changes in farming practices and climate change. Now as its changing course threatens farmland, roads and even a city, the government is struggling to contain it

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The Royal Air Force pushing boundaries, 100 years since it began. Three women serving with the RAF explain.

Green innovation comes in many forms. And promising project don't have to be big, they only have to make a start.

Do you have any input into the design of the products you buy and consume day-to-day? Your phone, laptop, clothes, even your food?

A census suggests that one-horn rhino numbers have increased by 12 to 2,413 in the national park.

The company says a Model X vehicle involved in a fatal crash in the US was in Autopilot mode.

As the price of pods has soared so has violence – and forest defenders are increasingly risking their lives to protect precious wildlife habitat from being felled for profit

The vanilla thieves of Anjahana were so confident of their power to intimidate farmers they provided advance warning of raids. “We are coming tonight,” they would write in a note pushed under doors in this remote coastal village in Madagascar. “Prepare what we want.”

But they either undervalued their target commodity or overestimated the meekness of their victims. After one assault too many at the turn of the year, a crowd rounded up five alleged gangsters, dragged them into the village square and then set about the bloody task of mob justice.

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Cwmystradllyn, Gwynedd: By 1871 the village was deserted, its consumptive and dispirited inhabitants dispersed. But much architectural beauty remains

The wave-like wall at Gorseddau slate quarry was running through my mind. I needed to go back and see if it was as I remembered. On a bitter March afternoon I set off along the old tramway that curves in from Cwm Pennant to the north.

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Lifeguards on one NSW south coast beach are being assisted by a blimp on which is mounted a camera, and learning software, allowing sharks to be spotted without the use of human eyes.

It's been shrinking fast, but could a plan to divert water to one of Africa's largest lakes stop it disappearing?

The industry could contribute almost a fifth of the global total of CO2 by 2050 but some nations resist targets.

The private service for the visionary scientist will be held at the university church in Cambridge.

A dog helps save an endangered turtle; farmers get the keep fit message; a calf and a camel make friends on the Nullabor; and bullocky Craig Lockwood yokes up his team.

Parma ham industry accuses animal welfare groups of a smear campaign following the release of ‘grim’ images of pigs kept in filthy and barren conditions

Images of pigs in filthy pens and barren conditions have sparked a row between animal welfare activists and the makers of Italy’s Parma ham.

The campaigners have released footage that they claim exposes barren living conditions with no stimulation, and injured animals with abscesses and hernias being left without adequate treatment. Their expose of the farms that produce meat for Parma and a small proportion of other hams follows a series of investigations over the last few years that have repeatedly appeared to reveal concerning conditions, such as pigs being treated roughly, and sick pigs being left to die in the corridors between their pens.

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A family of brown bears, a whale shark and a new species of frog are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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