Toxic haze blanketed Sydney yesterday triggering a chorus of smoke alarms to ring across the city and forcing school children inside, as “severe” weather conditions fuelled deadly bush blazes along Australia’s east coast.

UN climate negotiations in Madrid remained bogged down in the fine print of the Paris treaty rulebook, out-of-sync with a world demanding action to forestall the ravages of global warming.

In a bid to force Myanmar to bear economic, cultural, diplomatic and political pressure globally, 30 human rights, academic and professional organizations of 10 countries jointly launch a campaign to boycott the south Asian country.

Oil and gas groups were yesterday accused of seeking to influence climate talks in Madrid by paying millions in sponsorship and sending dozens of lobbyists to delay what scientists say is a necessary and rapid cut in fossil fuel use.

The most serious nationwide strike to hit France in years caused new misery for weekend travellers yesterday, with defiant unions dismissing proposals by the government and warning walkouts would last well into next week.

With young climate activists taking to the streets of Madrid, the UN climate chief and a leading scientist warned of a growing risk of social unrest as the effects of a warming world worsen inequality and poverty worldwide.

Conflicts over water are likely to flare up in Iraq, Mali and India in the coming year, according to the developers of an app launched yesterday which aims to help prevent violence by flagging up potential flashpoints.

NATO leaders set aside public insults ranging from "delinquent" to "brain dead" and "two-faced", declaring at a 70th anniversary summit they would stand together against a common threat from Russia and prepare for China's rise.

Germany expelled two Russian diplomats yesterday after prosecutors said Moscow could be behind the killing of a former Chechen rebel commander in a Berlin park.

The EU will not meet its environmental targets for 2020 but could achieve those for 2030 and 2050 if urgent action is taken, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said Wednesday.

The UN launched a humanitarian appeal for nearly $29 billion yesterday as climate change and increasingly protracted conflicts put tens of millions of people in urgent need of aid.

Democrat trailblazer Kamala Harris pulled the plug on her US presidential campaign Tuesday after a promising start to her bid was eroded by underperforming in a crowded field and a failure to raise sufficient funds.

Last month was the joint hottest November in history, satellite data showed yesterday, marking six consecutive months where the world either broke or equalled record temperatures.

Global carbon emissions boosted by soaring natural gas use are set to hit record levels in 2019 despite a decline in coal consumption and a string of countries declaring a climate emergency, researchers said yesterday .

The number of people at risk of being forced from their homes by river flooding could surge to as many as 50 million a year by the end of the century if governments do not step up action to tackle climate change, researchers warn.

Teenagers from four big Chinese regions outshone their contemporaries in Western nations in a keenly watched survey of education capabilities published yesterday, which also showed no improvement trend in developed countries over the past two decades.

Novelist Milan Kundera has regained Czech citizenship which he had lost after leaving Communist-ruled Czechoslovakia for France in the 1970s, Czech media said yesterday.

At least 208 people are believed to have been killed during a crackdown on protests in Iran last month that followed a fuel price hike, Amnesty International said yesterday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina calls upon the international community to adopt a time-befitting climate action plan and implement all provisions of Paris Agreement and other relevant global instruments and mechanisms to stop further degradation of environment.

The London Bridge attack pushes law and order towards the top of the British political agenda, with days to go before a snap election, after police said the assailant had previously been convicted of terrorism offences but freed early from prison.