Reuters

It's too soon to say whether ethanol will help slow global warming, the head of the United Nations Environment Program said on Monday, ahead of a meeting by the world's two biggest ethanol producers to discuss building a world market in the biofuel. By Andrea Welsh

How hot is it? So hot that Inuit people around the Arctic Circle are using air conditioners for the first time. And running out of the hard-packed snow they need to build igloos. And falling through melting ice when they hunt. By Deborah Zabarenko

Declaring the global warming debate over, an international team of scientists urged the world's nations on Tuesday to act now to keep climate change from becoming a catastrophe. By Deborah Zabarenko,

As the midday sun beats down on the world's largest tiger reserve, fishermen in a small wooden boat slowly manoeuvre their way through the mangrove forests fringing the Bay of Bengal.

Former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla is mentally unfit to stand trial on terrorism charges and physically unable to tell his lawyers what happened to him in a U.S. military prison, doctors who examined him for the defense said in court on Thursday. By Jane Sutton

Greenhouse gases widely blamed for causing global warming have jumped to record highs in the atmosphere, apparently stoked by rising emissions from Asian industry, a researcher said on Friday. By Alister Doyle

Things are getting hotter in Congress around climate change, but can meaningful legislation be enacted to really turn the tide? By Tara Lohan

If we don't find alternative jet fuels soon, air travel will become limited to the ultra wealthy. By Gregory Lamb

Drought cycles are coming more often to northeastern Uganda: every two years instead of every five. Residents could cope, if it wasn't for the bandits. By Tim Cocks and Euan Denholm

Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Thursday the Islamic Republic would target U.S. interests around the world if it came under attack over its disputed nuclear program. By Parisa Hafezi

Carbon trading under the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol could provide a $100 billion stop-gap to clean up coal-based developing country economies until the likes of China and India are ready to accept binding emissions caps. By Gerard Wynn

The world's poor, who are the least responsible for global warming, will suffer the most from the effects of climate change, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told global environment ministers on Monday. By Daniel Wallis

The world's elite will hold discussions on climate change and the Middle East next week at their annual rendezvous in the chic Swiss ski resort of Davos, this time with few distractions from Hollywood stars. By Laura MacInnis

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accelerated his socialist revolution on Monday by seeking increased powers from Congress, nationalizing utilities and telecommunications companies and promising to strip the central bank of its autonomy. By Brian Ellsworth and Christian Oliver

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should call a meeting of heads of government to decide the next steps against global warming, the UN official responsible for tackling climate change said on Monday. By Francois Murphy

The death toll from mudslides in southeast Brazil soared to 50 following torrential rain in recent days, Brazil's Civil Defense service said on Sunday, with more downpours forecast for this week.

This year is set to be the hottest on record worldwide due to global warming and the El Nino weather phenomenon, Britain's Meteorological Office said on Thursday. By Jeremy Lovell

Energy giant ExxonMobil borrowed tactics from the tobacco industry to raise doubt about climate change, spending $16 million (8.2 million pounds) on groups that question global warming, a science watchdog group said on Wednesday. By Deborah Zabarenko

President George W. Bush and his top advisers made a "big mistake" in their justification for invading Iraq, Gerald Ford told journalist Bob Woodward in an interview embargoed until after the former president's death.

Electric utility Southern California Edison and Australian-based Allco Finance Group Ltd. have signed the biggest contract for wind power in US history, the two companies said on Thursday. By Bernie Woodall

Smog-reduction regulations proposed by the Bush administration in 2004 are too weak, a US court ruled Friday, sending the rules back to the Environmental Protection Agency for reworking. By Chris Baltimore

Radical action is needed to save a "hollowed-out and fatally weakened" Iraqi state and ease violence that a new Pentagon report says is at an all-time high, a prominent think-tank warned on Tuesday. By Ross Colvin

This year is on track to be the warmest on record in Spain, a country which was already hot before global warming set in, the government said on Tuesday.

Thirteen US states sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Monday for failing to set air quality standards that could save up to 24,000 lives a year.

Venezelan President Hugo Chavez's dominant political party said on Monday it was dissolving, laying the keystone for a single ruling party that critics fear is Chavez's attempt to turn Venezuela into Cuba.

Britain gave a green light on Monday for the world's biggest offshore wind farm, hoping it will help curb greenhouse gases and global warming. By Jeremy Lovell

The first Adelie penguin chicks of the season -- black fluffballs small enough to hold in the hand -- started hatching this month, and the simple fact that there are more of them in the south and fewer of them further north is a sign of global warming, scientists say. By Deborah Zabarenko

India, considered to be one of the world's top polluters, said on Thursday that it was not doing any harm to the world's atmosphere despite increasing emissions of greenhouse gases. By Nita Bhalla

This year is set to be the sixth warmest worldwide since records began, stoked by global warming linked to human activities, the British Meteorological Office and the University of East Anglia said on Thursday. By Jeremy Lovell

Just as Bill Clinton used the battle cry "It's the economy, stupid!" to keep his 1992 presidential campaign focused, political leaders worldwide are chanting a new mantra based on growing alarm about global warming. By Erik Kirschbaum