SAN FRANCISCO - FEW events in the technology world can rival the attention a new iPhone launch draws, but the return of Steve Jobs to Apple would surely be one of them.

The new, souped-up iPhone 3GS goes on sale this Friday, as investors and gadget lovers alike await the presumed re-emergence of Apple's famed chief executive, who has been on medical leave for about six months.

NEW YORK - NEW Yorkers have long been able to keep tabs on the national debt, but they now have a highly visible counter to track greenhouse gas emissions.

A 21-meter-high billboard outside Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania Station, not far from the Empire State Building, features a carbon counter.

WELLINGTON (New Zealand) - AUSTRALIA and New Zealand announced Thursday a non-lethal whale research expedition to the Antarctic, a direct challenge to Japan's research program that kills up to 1,000 whales a year.

The six-week expedition, to set sail in a New Zealand ship early next year, will prove that whales can be studied without killing them, the two governments said in a joint statement.