Reuters - Archeologists are opening a cave sealed for more than 30 years deep beneath a Mexican pyramid to look for clues about the mysterious collapse of one of ancient civilization's largest cities.

Reuters - The Italian government declared a state of emergency at the Pompeii archaeological site on Friday to try to rescue one of the world's most important cultural treasures from decades of neglect.

AFP - Japanese sailor and environmentalist Kenichi Horie has completed a 110-day solo voyage across the Pacific Ocean in a boat propelled by wave power to claim another world first.

Reuters - Food safety experts agreed for the first time on the qualities defining a tomato, in a first step toward an international code on preventing fruit and vegetable contamination.

Reuters - A new strain of West Nile virus is spreading better and earlier across the United States, and may thrive in hot American summers, researchers said on Thursday.

AFP - Scientists have confirmed what many people have known for years -- that drinking red wine leads to a better life, even if that life is not necessarily longer.

Reuters - Researchers using a medical scanner have worked out why a Stradivarius violin sounds so good -- it is because of the remarkably even density of the wood.

AFP - Japan, one of the most tremor-prone countries in the world, started work Thursday to beef up its undersea earthquake monitoring system.

AP - Syria has returned a marble artifact to Iraq that was stolen from one of the country's archaeological sites.

LiveScience.com - John Adams predicted in a letter to his wife Abigail that Americans would celebrate their Independence Day on July 2. Off by two days - not too bad for government work.