SCIENCE

Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast his ballot Tuesday in India's ongoing general election after giving several inflammatory campaign speeches accused of targeting minority Muslims.

Authorities were racing against time on Sunday to rescue people from raging floods and mudslides that have killed more than 50 and forced nearly 70,000 to flee their homes in southern Brazil.

Panama votes Sunday in a presidential election with the frontrunner's participation confirmed after a last-minute court decision validated his run against seven other contenders.

China launched a probe on Friday to collect samples from the far side of the Moon, a world first as Beijing pushes ahead with an ambitious programme that aims to send a crewed lunar mission by 2030.

G7 ministers agreed a timeframe Tuesday for phasing out coal-fired power plants, setting as a goal the mid-2030s, in a move hailed as significant by some environmentalists but slammed as "too late" by others.

They are hailed for their omega-3 fatty acids and micronutrients, but Norway's salmon are not in the best of health themselves at the fish farms where they are bred.

G7 energy ministers have agreed a time frame for phasing out coal-fired power plants, a British minister said Monday, as the UN warned "excuses" for failing to take bold actions on climate change were "not acceptable".

Humza Yousaf announced his resignation as Scotland's first minister on Monday, before he was due to face two confidence votes this week sparked by his ditching of junior coalition partners in a row over climate policy.

Arjan Smit gazes out over his tulip fields, a riot of red and pink flowers he has cultivated all his adult life and part of a family business his grandfather started in 1940.

Pope Francis presided over mass in Saint Mark's Square in Venice on Sunday, warning of environmental damage and over-tourism in a closely watched visit, the first for the ageing pontiff outside Rome since last year.

South and Southeast Asia braced for more extreme heat on Sunday as authorities across the region issued health warnings and residents fled to parks and air-conditioned malls for relief.

India's six-week-long election resumed Friday with millions of people lining up outside polling stations in parts of the country hit by a scorching heatwave.

The gentle roar of the ocean lulled Indian mother-of-two Banita Behra to sleep each night, until one day the encroaching tide reached her doorstep.

In a small town high in the Colombian Andes, Clovisnerys Bejarano kneels before a glass box holding the petrified corpse of her mother, who died 30 years ago, but looks as if she might just be asleep.

Global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions "most likely" exacerbated the intense rains that lashed the UAE and Oman last week, causing deaths and widespread flooding, an expert group of scientists said Thursday.

Millions of people across South and Southeast Asia sweltered through unusually hot weather on Thursday, as the Thai government said heatstroke has already killed at least 30 people this year.

Venice launched a new scheme Thursday to charge day-trippers for entering the historic Italian city, a world first intended to ease the pressure of mass tourism -- but many residents are opposed.

Migrants, vaccines, pedophilia rings -- old conspiracy theories are resurfacing ahead of the US election despite being repeatedly debunked, in what researchers call "zombie" falsehoods that appear to resonate with polarized voters.

The UK readied on Tuesday to start detention of migrants within days before deporting them to Rwanda, after the controversial plan cleared its final hurdle, sparking criticism from the UN and rights groups.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in neighbouring Iraq on Monday for his first state visit there in years, with water, oil and regional security issues topping their agenda.

Heat stress in Europe is increasingly threatening people's health as global warming makes summers there hotter and deadlier, two leading climate monitors warned on Monday.

Organisers of the Paris Olympics have promised a "great national party" for the country, but with 100 days to go, France's bitter politics and gloomy mindset are dampening the mood.

Australia's famed Great Barrier Reef is suffering one of the most severe coral bleaching events on record, leaving scientists fearful for its survival as the impact of climate change worsens.

Pakistan has initiated discussions with the IMF over a new multi-billion dollar loan agreement to support its economic reform program, its new finance minister told AFP on Monday.

Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, whose penchant for python and flamboyant animal prints made him the darling of the international jet set for decades, died Friday at 83, the luxury company said.

The battle against climate change is increasingly being fought in the courtroom, as national governments, specific laws and individual companies are targeted over their role in the crisis -- sometimes successfully.

Activists gathered outside Europe's top rights court on Tuesday as it prepared to decide in three separate cases if states are doing enough in the face of climate change.

Online disinformation and hate speech are poisoning politics the world over, but in South Korea there have also been real-life acts of violence in a deeply polarised electorate before polls on Wednesday.

Gracefully rising above a din of croaking frogs as the sun sets, a pelican flies over Lake Karla, one the largest inland expanses of water in Greece.