The great and good of Austrian science are passing around a petition to confront the government over funding cuts announced late last year.

NEW DELHI—India's long nuclear winter has come to end. On Wednesday, the government’s nuclear power utility inked a deal to buy at least two power reactors from France—India’s first major nuclear purchase from the West since it exploded an atom bomb in 1974 and came under international sanctions.

The European Commission today approved an action plan that would improve protections for sharks, skates, and rays. "It's an important accomplishment and a useful first step," says Ellen Pikitch, who directs the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University.

Continuing his quest to bring to light researchers' conflicts of interest, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) has introduced an amendment to the stimulus package the Senate is considering that would force the National Institutes of Health to keep a tighter leash on its grantees.

Some biomedical researchers are changing their behavior inside and outside the lab because of concerns that malefactors might misuse knowledge about their research, according to a new survey of U.S. life scientists.

The Albuquerque Journal reported yesterday that the Obama Administration is considering transferring control of the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories to the Defense Department from DOE.

ScienceInsider has learned that the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hopes to hold a joint hearing next Thursday on the nominations of John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco for the respective positions as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Cass Sunstein, the Obama Administration's choice to head a powerful White House office overseeing all federal regulations, hasn't been confirmed yet, but he's already making his presence felt. His fingerprints are all over two recent presidential directives that lay the groundwork for the most far-reaching revision of regulatory policy in 15 years.

Note: This item has been corrected. It previously cited GAO as the source of the report.

With the hope of centralizing research on human and animal diseases in the United Kingdom, the Royal Society today published a policy statement calling for the creation of a National Institute of Infectious Diseases.