Smuggled puppies, raging fires, a Sistine ceiling, and more in the week's best news photos.

Iran's largest saltwater inland lake is diminishing because of drought, alarming environmentalists.

Scientists are one step closer to creating a Harry Potter-like invisibility cloak. But when we'll be able to hide under the high-tech garments is a matter of "will and money," experts say.

Archaeologists in Israel announced new discoveries at what the team believes is the tomb of the biblical King Herod on Wednesday.

Sloping features at Mars's mid-latitudes are the largest bulk of water ice not at the poles and could be leftover from past climate changes, radar data suggest.

Long seen as myth, an ancient Amazon civilization may have been fueled by a man-made soil. Scientists are racing to recreate the recipe, which they say might fight hunger and global warming.

Newly discovered fossils of the oldest known swimming turtles show the reptiles first took to water some 165 million years ago, researchers say.

The first genetic blueprint from an extinct animal could reveal what separates the fuzzy giants from elephants—and may open the door to a "resurrection."