A NASA plan to send astronauts to an asteroid was met with skepticism Wednesday when NASA Chief Charlie Bolden presented the idea to top space officials in Congress — though their doubts may not be enough to sink the program.

My first encounter with a pink beach had occurred back in 1988 on a small island off the north coast of Sardinia, Italy. This was the island of Budelli, part of the La Maddalena archipelago, named after Saint Mary Magdalene by the Romans.

A symposium focusing on green building development is to take place with the aim of bringing nearly 20 Taiwanese and French government officials, scientists and architects together on the issue, the event organizers said yesterday.

A rare Asian barbestelle (東方寬耳蝠) was seen settling into a bat house constructed at the Shei-Pa National Park (雪霸國家公園), officials from the park headquarters said yesterday.

A global long-term cooling trend ended late in the 19th century and was followed decades later by the warmest temperatures in nearly 1,400 years, a sweeping study of temperature change showed.

“Tung flowers are blossoming all over New Taipei City.” This was the message yesterday from Pong Huey-yuan (彭惠圓), New Taipei's Hakka Affairs commissioner, who added that there are 19 trails offering scenic tung flower viewing throughout the city's 10 districts.

Acid rain occurs on 60 percent of rainy days in Zhongli City in Taoyuan County, the highest percentage in Taiwan, according to a three-year academic study commissioned by the Environment Protection Agency.

Earth was cooling until the end of the 19th century and a hundred years later, the planet's surface was on average warmer than at any time in the previous 1,400 years, according to climate records presented on Sunday.

Progress towards the use of cleaner fuel technology has stalled, with production of the world's energy as “dirty” now as it was two decades ago, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

Chinatrust Commercial Bank leads the global banking industry in terms of green certifications by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the company announced yesterday.