See blue ducks blanket the Thames, a fire truck submerged in a sinkhole, a historic landmark turned purple, and more in the week's best news pictures.

A meat-eating marsupial, a purring frog, and the first new dolphin species in three decades are among at least 1,300 plant and animal species discovered in Australia since 1999, a new report says.

The Japanese town made infamous by the movie The Cove has temporarily suspended its hunt. The annual Taiji hunt claims around 2,000 dolphins, killed by hand after being herded into a shallow cove. Video.

Like people at a crowded cocktail party, killer whales raise their voices to be heard in busy waters. This may mean the animals are wearing themselves out to communicate during hunts, new research suggests.

A "handsome" three-foot rodent is among the 40 potentially new species found on Mount Bosavi in central Papua New Guinea, one of the least explored places on Earth, conservationists say.

In a discovery worthy of a Dan Brown novel, archaeologists in Jerusalem say they've found an ancient ritual cup with an intentionally cryptic message.

A peek inside a dense nebula, a brightly colored "butterfly," and mirror-like galaxy reflections predicted by Einstein are among some of the first cosmic beauties snapped by the newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope.

An astronaut takes a walk outside, a white dwarf bulks up, a planet finder shows that habitable moons may be out there, and more in the week's best space pictures.