SCIENCE

Overnight rain helped douse some of South Korea's worst-ever wildfires, authorities said Friday, as the death toll from the unprecedented blazes raging for nearly a week reached 28.

Australia will hold a general election on May 3, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday, locking in a showdown over climate action, nuclear power and a runaway housing market.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads Thursday to Guyana to offer to put the newly oil-rich nation under the US security umbrella as neighboring Venezuela asserts claims.

Wildfires in South Korea are now "the largest on record" having burned more forest than any previous blaze, the country's disaster chief said Thursday, as the death toll rose to 26.

US President Donald Trump ramped up his claims to Greenland on Wednesday, saying ahead of a visit by Vice President JD Vance that the United States needed to take control of the Danish island for "international security."

Chinese doctors said Wednesday that they had transplanted a liver from a genetically modified pig into a brain-dead human for the first time, raising hopes of a live-saving donor option for patients in the future.

Prince Harry said he had quit as patron of a charity he founded in southern Africa almost 20 years ago with a "heavy heart" amid a bitter boardroom battle, in a new blow to the royal living in self-exile.

Europe must seize on the "huge economic opportunities" offered by the green technology boom, Germany said Wednesday -- adding it was up to the United States if it decided to miss out.

Denmark welcomed on Wednesday Washington's decision to limit a US delegation's visit to Greenland to a US military base, after previous plans for the unexpected trip sparked criticism.

An "unprecedented" mass bleaching event has been recorded off Australia's western coast, scientists said Wednesday, turning huge chunks of a celebrated reef system a sickly dull white.

Jim Skea insists the IPCC, the UN climate panel he chairs, is not in crisis and remains relevant despite criticism it is too slow in publishing its landmark scientific reports on climate change.

By 2030, Coca-Cola products will account for an estimated 1.33 billion pounds (602,000 metric tons) of plastic waste entering the world's oceans and waterways each year, according to a stark new analysis published Wednesday by the nonprofit Oceana.

Alarming levels of coral bleaching have been recorded off Australia's western coast, scientists said Wednesday, turning huge chunks of a celebrated reef system a sickly dull white.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called Wednesday for a trade deal between South America's Mercosur bloc and Japan to counter growing US protectionism.

When waves come crashing over the sea wall in Chile's biggest port of San Antonio, dockers run for cover.

At least 18 people have been killed in one of South Korea's worst wildfire outbreaks, with multiple blazes burning and causing "unprecedented damage", the acting president said Wednesday.

US Vice President JD Vance said he would join his wife Usha on a trip Friday to Greenland, adding to pressure on the autonomous Danish territory that Donald Trump wants to take over.