Online encyclopedia Wikipedia now has a serious competitor: Knol, launched this week by Google. Wikipedia has about 9 million articles in more than 200 languages and is among the most visited websites in the world.

The Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, as well as 1,670 trillion cubic feet of gas and 44 million barrels of natural gas liquids, according to a report released by the US Geological Survey.

As Barack Obama wrapped up his tour of the Middle East with a trip to Israel, the Democratic presidential candidate triggered a host of reactions on line. Also on today's Web News: the bombing of two buses in China rattles the Web.

The European Union has proposed a ban on products derived from seals killed inhumanely, provoking the irritation of Canada. Animal rights groups have welcomed the proposal but one activist has already denounced its limits.

A magnitude 6.8 tremor shook the mountainous areas of northern Japan. Although early reports mention no serious casualties, Japanese television said at least one building was on fire.

Since Radovan Karadzic's arrest, videos retracing the crimes he is accused of are spreading on the net. But Serbian ultranationalists are also strongly represented on the web, defending their "hero".

At least 30 hungry bears have trapped a group of geologists at their remote survey site in Russia's far east after killing two of their co-workers last week, emergency officials said on Tuesday.

Firemen battled a forest fire in Lebanon on Tuesday, amid exploding cluster bombs and landmines left over from the country's 1975-1990 civil war. The fire had broken out overnight and may have been started deliberately.

Social network website Facebook has sued German StudiVZ over alleged plagiarism of their site. The Californian giant wants its competitor to be shut down and is asking for unspecified monetary damages.

American scientists have developed the first ever plant-based vaccine capable of stimulating the body's immune response to some types of cancer. If successful, the vaccine would have the advantage of being easy to produce and at little cost.

Web users are commenting Barack Obama's tour in Afghanistan and Iraq. Republicans are very swift to criticize on the net what they call the changing position of the Democratic candidate with regard to Iraq.

More than half of the birds, amphibians and mammals found only in the Philippines are now threatened or nearly extinct. The archipelago is home to 1,137 animal species and 14,000 varieties of plants.

Roughly 100 pages of what is thought to be the oldest known Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus, will be put online. Leipzig University's aim is to make the whole text visible for web users by summer 2009.

Internet has played an important role in organising demonstrations for the liberation of Farc's hostages all around the world. Facebook and blogs helped monitor the movement and give feedback to participants.

Beijing begins stringent measures, including pulling cars off the streets, to control rising vehicle and industrial emissions before the beginning of the Olympic Games.

A remotely controlled Japanese camera has made it possible to see an ancient Egyptian "solar" boat, entombed 4,500 years ago near Giza's Great Pyramid and designed to carry pharaohs to the afterlife.

Filmmakers are turning to the Internet to distribute their films. But does the new medium help them make ends meet?

A new set of rules forcing every new building project to be based on energy-efficiency and water consumption has been adopted by California. It is the first code of its kind to be deployed on a statewide basis in the United States.

Since Wednesday's prisoner-swap between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli Web users are arguing about the outcome of the operation. The families of the dead soldiers were pushing for the exchange while others felt it favored Hezbollah too much.