U.N. culture and science body UNESCO on Tuesday awarded a prize financed by the leader of Equatorial Guinea despite fierce criticism from rights groups who decried the move as "shameful".

Rights groups and Western nations have condemned the life sciences award, financed to the tune of $3 million (2.5 million euros) over five years, because of accusations that President Teodoro Obiang Nguema rules with an iron grip and heads a government festering with corruption.

Through a labyrinth of hallways deep inside a 1950s-era building that has housed research that dates back to the origins of U.S. space travel, a group of scientists in white coats is stirring, mixing, measuring, brushing and, most important, tasting the end result of their cooking.

Their mission: Build a menu for a planned journey to Mars in the 2030s.

A new biodiesel plant in Cuba -- the first of its type -- is turning seeds from the so-called "bellyache bush" into a green energy source, it was announced Monday.

Jatropha seeds are rich in oil but toxic for human consumption, explained Jose Sotolongo, director of the province's Center for Applied Technology for Sustainable Development.

NASA's Curiosity rover is on target to arrive on Mars on August 6 for a two-year mission to find out whether microbial life once existed on the Red Planet, the U.S. space agency said Monday.

Landing the car-sized rover is of course no easy task, NASA scientists say.

Caterpillars belonging to a species of butterfly previously unknown as far north as Canada have been discovered in Montreal, in a sign that this country's cool climate is warming, researchers said Monday.

The city's botanical garden and insectarium said the giant swallowtail butterflies (Papilio cresphontes Cramer) were recently found for the first time on a prickly ash plant there.

Tens of thousands of people rallied at a Tokyo park Monday demanding that Japan abandon nuclear power as the country prepares to restart another reactor shut down after last year's tsunami-generated meltdown at the Fukushima power plant.

Led by Nobel-winning novelist Kenzaburo Oe, pop star Ryuichi Sakamoto and visual artist Yoshitomo Nara, the protesters expressed outrage over a report that blamed the Fukushima disaster on Japan's culture of "reflexive obedience" and held no individuals responsible.

Rights groups on Monday denounced UNESCO's plans to award a science prize financed by Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema as "shameful" and "utterly irresponsible".

The U.N. culture and science body is due to award the prize at a ceremony in Paris on Tuesday, but rights groups and Western nations have condemned the award because of accusations that Obiang rules with an iron grip and heads a government festering with corruption.

A Soyuz rocket blasted off with an international crew of three toward the International Space Station on Sunday in a mission testing the reliability of Russia's crisis-prone space program.

NASA's Sunita Williams and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and Yury Malenchenko of Russia started their journey on top of the Soyuz-FG under the open skies of the Kazakh steppe on schedule and without a hitch.

Sri Lankan scientists have identified a new genus of fresh water fish and named it after the evolutionary biologist and renowned atheist Richard Dawkins.

Lead researcher Rohan Pethiyagoda said the new genus, named Dawkinsia, comprises nine species that are found only in South Asia and are characterized by long filaments that trail from the dorsal fins of males.

The space weather forecast for Earth looks a bit stormy this weekend, but scientists said not to worry.

A solar storm was due to arrive Saturday morning and last through Sunday, slamming into Earth's magnetic field. Scientists said it will be a minor event and they have notified power grid operators, airlines and other potentially affected parties.