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WASHINGTON - After days of secret talks, Senate Democrats tentatively agreed Tuesday night to drop a full-blown government-run insurance option from sweeping health care legislation, several officials said, a concession to party moderates whose votes are critical to passage of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

Petunias and potatoes may actually be carnivorous plants, scientists now suggest.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ordinary paper could one day be used as a lightweight battery to power the devices that are now enabling the printed word to be eclipsed by e-mail, e-books and online news.

WASHINGTON - The federal government improperly posted an internal guide to its airport passenger screening procedures on the Internet in a way that could offer insight into how to sidestep security.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama called for a major new burst of federal spending Tuesday, perhaps $150 billion or more, aiming to jolt the wobbly economy into a stronger recovery and reduce painfully persistent double-digit unemployment.

SAN FRANCISCO - Even search engines can get suckered by Internet scams.

A big meeting in Copenhagen. A cap-and-trade bill in Congress. And now, a determination by the Environmental Protection Agency that global warming pollution is a threat to public health — a move that clears the way for the first-ever federal regulations targeting climate-changing emissions.

WASHINGTON - The refurbished Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the oldest galaxies yet, scientists reported Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES - The year's best meteor shower is coming to North America.

Exposing kids to nasty germs might actually toughen them up to diseases as grown-ups, mounting research suggests.

COPENHAGEN - A leaked Danish document at the U.N. climate conference provoked angry criticism Tuesday from developing countries and activists who feared it would shift more of the burden to curb greenhouse gases on poorer countries.

CHICAGO - The supersized recession that was a boon for business last year caught up further with McDonald's Corp. in November, as high unemployment ate into sales.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed a tax incentive for small businesses that add workers, even as Congress struggles to figure out how such an idea would work.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Tuesday proposed spending more than $3 billion to settle claims dating back more than a century that American Indian tribes were swindled out of royalties for oil, gas, grazing and other leases.

Mara Proctor used to design limestone hearths and columns for luxury homes near Kansas City, drawing on her college education and six years of training.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration took a major step Monday toward imposing the first federal limits on climate-changing pollution from cars, power plants and factories, declaring there was compelling scientific evidence that global warming from manmade greenhouse gases endangers Americans' health.

WASHINGTON - The Senate has rejected an effort to stiffen abortion restrictions in the health care bill.

LOS ANGELES - Five of the nation's largest publishers of newspapers and magazines are teaming up to challenge Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle electronic-book reader with their own technology that would display in color and work on a variety of devices.

ALBANY, N.Y. - When Jory Langner finds time for a field trip during an upcoming visit to Washington, he won't have to ask local birders where to find candidates to add to his life list of birds sighted.

The biggest black holes in the universe are also the most perplexing. Scientists have long been confused about just how the earliest, most massive black holes formed, but new evidence now suggests they could have originated inside giant cocoon-like stars.

Microsoft has posted a reminder that support for Windows 2000 Server and client and Windows XP SP2 will end on July 13. The company is suggesting that consumers and especially organizations still using these OSes should prepare.

MOJAVE, Calif. - The sleek, bullet-shaped spacecraft is about the size of a large business jet — with wide windows and seats for six well-heeled passengers to take a thrill ride into space.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration will lose $200 billion less than expected from the federal bailout program and is looking at using part of the savings to fund new job creation efforts.

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency took a major step Monday toward regulating greenhouses gases, concluding that climate changing pollution threatens the public health and the environment.

SAN FRANCISCO - A consumer group that reported several of the holiday season's must-have toys are unsafe wants to make a correction.

STOCKHOLM - Intellectual freedom, independent research and frequent coffee breaks with colleagues helped this year's Nobel Prize winners make their groundbreaking scientific discoveries.

NEW YORK - If color is any guide, we'll be moving into vacation mode in 2010 with the world awash in tropical turquoise, forecasters say.

DETROIT (Reuters) - The board of General Motors Co will get an update on the search for a new chief executive by next month as a recruiting firm compiles a short list of candidates, a person familiar with the process said.

CINCINNATI - The Kroger Co. is hurting from California's ailing economy and the overall bite of a dollar-by-dollar battle under way nationwide for recession-pinched households' grocery spending.

Google's limited launch of its Goggles visual search app has plenty of people wondering when they'll be able to try out the new tool. Google Goggles, released to Android users on Monday, allows you to search on your cell phone simply by snapping photos: You point your phone's camera at a place or object, and it delivers detailed information to you within seconds.