Iceland has resumed its commercial hunting of fin whales after a two-year suspension by landing the first of an expected 180 whales in Hvalfjördur. The first kill prompted protests from environment and animal welfare groups that the hunt is "cruel and unnecessary".

Undercover pictures taken aboard the Hvalur 8 by Greenpeace show the harpooned whale being cut up for meat that is likely to be exported to Japan. Fin whales are the second largest animal on earth after the blue whale and are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species...

It has now been more than 45 days since Solar Impulse took off from San Francisco for an across-the-nation journey powered only by the sun, and already there’s fatigue in some corners. When Solar Impulse finally landed in Washington, DC this weekend, there were no jubilant crowds of the type that met Charles Lindbergh when he arrived in Paris after his epic transatlantic flight.

In fact, if you’re not getting regular e-mails from the Solar Impulse team or following along on social media in real-time, there’s a good chance that you missed the landing of Bertrand Piccard at Washington Dulles International Airport – it was just past midnight eastern time on Sunday, a time when most of the nation was already asleep...

Congratulations are in order again for “Doonesbury” creator Garry Trudeau, Universal Press Syndicate Managing Editor Sue Roush announced in an e-mail to newspaper editors recently.

Trudeau’s “Alpha House,” a streaming video program (like a TV show except not on TV but available through the online Amazon Prime streaming service) was picked by viewers from 14 series pilots for development into a full series. The show, starring John Goodman as one of four Republican congressmen sharing a house in Washington, D.C., is expected to be out in November.

That means Trudeau will need to devote his summer to the show, Roush said. And that means no new “Doonesbury” strips in the News Tribune — or anywhere else — until at least about Labor Day...

Amazon.com Inc decided not to turn pilot project "Zombieland" into a full TV series, but is going ahead with "Alpha House," as the world's largest online retailer enters the next stage of its foray into original video creation...