Reuters

Australia, already the world's driest inhabited continent, is gripped by its worst drought in 100 years which has decimated crops and created a crisis among its farming community.

Israel's attorney general told the government on Monday it could not cut electrical power to the Gaza Strip as part of its sanctions against the Hamas controlled territory, although he did approve other measures.

Small amounts of radioactive waste have been found on the site of the London 2012 Olympics Park. By Martyn Herman

Kansas on Thursday joined a growing list of US states that have rejected plans for coal-fired power on concerns over greenhouse gas emissions when it denied permits for two controversial 700-megawatt units. By Bernie Woodall

Biofuel supporters are fighting criticism that the "green", alternative transport fuel has raised food prices and harms the environment, amid mounting evidence that the debate is harming the industry. By Gerard Wynn

The global economic boom has accelerated greenhouse gas emissions to a dangerous threshold not expected for a decade and could potentially cause irreversible climate change, said one of Australia's leading scientists. By Michael Perry

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Monday his administration's approach of emphasizing voluntary approaches to address climate change was working and he denounced Kyoto-style mandatory caps as "bad policy." By Caren Bohan

Leading environmental groups pressed Toyota Motor Co Thursday to drop its opposition to the tougher of two fuel economy proposals in Congress, calling the automaker's stance contradictory.

The gap between America's richest and poorest is at its widest in at least 25 years, with the wealthiest taking home a record share of the nation's income that exceeds even the previous high in 2000. By Karey Wutkowski

Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to former US Vice President Al Gore and the UN climate panel widens a definition of peacemaking and will raise pressure for the world to agree a new deal to combat global warming.

Former U.N. military commanders, pressure groups and diplomats urged the United Nations on Tuesday to pass more stringent controls on the global arms trade. By Edith Honan

Some 15,000 wildebeest have drowned in the Mara river during their annual migration between Tanzania and Kenya, shocking tourists and baffling conservationists, officials said on Wednesday.

Chrysler LLC and the United Auto Workers union reached a tentative labor agreement on Wednesday, ending a strike against the No. 3 U.S. automaker just over six hours after it began. By Poornima Gupta and Kevin Krolicki

The United States will have warmer-than-normal temperatures this winter in most of the country, except for the northern Plains and Northwest states, government weather experts predicted on Tuesday.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday blamed America's energy problems on timid Washington politicians and said if elected he would pursue bold proposals to fight global warming. By Steve Holland

The world's biggest nuclear operator, France's EDF, is considering building four new reactors in Britain if given the go ahead and says it can have the first of them running by the end of 2017. By Pete Harrison

Aime Assou should have started his final year of school this week but like hundreds of thousands of farmers across West Africa, floods have left his family without enough money to buy food let alone pay his fees. By Nick Tattersall

Six years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the "war on terror" is failing and instead fuelling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements, a British think-tank said on Monday. By Kate Kelland

A growing sense of urgency is pushing world leaders to agree a new treaty to fight climate change but the U.S. presidential election might still foil hopes of a deal by the end of 2009, experts told a Reuters summit. By Alister Doyle

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Tuesday if elected president he would pursue a global ban on nuclear weapons as he sought to pick up ground on his front-running rival, Hillary Clinton.

Large tracts of ice on the Arctic Ocean have halved in thickness to just 1 meter (3 ft) since 2001, making the region more accessible to ships, a researcher said on Tuesday. By Alister Doyle

A new global climate deal should be reachable by 2009, with nations outside the Kyoto Protocol more sympathetic to such a pact, the U.K.'s chief scientific adviser said on Tuesday. By Jane Lee

While there has been much talk that Arctic trade routes will open up as northern ice melts, shipping companies and experts say using the fabled Northwest Passage through Canada's Arctic archipelago would be too difficult, too dangerous and totally impractical.

China, which makes 70 percent of the world's lightbulbs, has agreed to phase out incandescent bulbs in favor of more energy-efficient ones, part of a push by a leading world environmental funding agency. By Deborah Zabarenko

Arctic sea ice declined this year to the lowest levels registered since satellite assessments started in the 1970s, extending a trend fueled by human-caused global warming, scientists said on Monday. By Will Dunham

Primate scientist Jane Goodall said on Wednesday the race to grow crops for vehicle fuels is damaging rain forests in Asia, Africa and South America and adding to the emissions blamed for global warming. By Timothy Gardner

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had the same message on Monday at a special session on climate change, urging quick action to stem emissions that heat the planet. By Deborah Zabarenko

Arctic sea ice melted to its lowest level ever this week, shattering a record set in 2005 and continuing a trend spurred by human-caused global warming, scientists said on Thursday. By Deborah Zabarenko

Biofuel production and burning agricultural by-products in power plants contributed to Hungary's severe drought this year, an academic expert said on Thursday. By Andras Gergely

Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu has broken an official silence over Syria's accusations that Israel bombed its territory, hinting the reported mission was of strategic significance and a success. By Dan Williams