Months of scorching temperatures sometimes over 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in parts of India this year — its worst heat wave in over a decade — left hundreds dead or ill. But the official number of deaths listed in government reports barely scratches the surface of the true toll and that's affecting future preparations for similar swelters, according to public health experts.

India now has a bit of respite from the intense heat, and a different set of extreme weather problems as monsoon rain lashes the northeast, but for months the extreme heat took a toll on large swaths of the country, particularly in northern India, where government officials reported at least 110 heat-related deaths.

It's as if the sky opened up and dropped everything it had in a matter of minutes. Giant raindrops combined with hail to transform an otherwise toasty summer day into a white wintry scene, at least for a few minutes.

Then it all turned to red mud.

Freya, a 6-month-old lion cub rescued from the wildlife trade in Lebanon, poked a curious nose out of her transport crate and sniffed the air. Satisfied, she took her first cautious steps in her new forever home in a sanctuary in South Africa.

Freya's relocation to the Drakenstein Lion Park is only a partial success story.

With cease-fire talks faltering in Gaza and no clear offramp for the conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border, the daily exchanges of strikes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have sparked fires that are tearing through forests and farmland on both sides of the frontline.

The blazes — exacerbated by supply shortages and security concerns — have consumed thousands of hectares of land in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, becoming one of the most visible signs of the escalating conflict.

New Zealand's annual cat-killing contest plans to expand next year, the event's organizer said Wednesday, describing feral felines as a grave threat to native wildlife.

Feral cats prey on endangered birds, bats and lizards, according to New Zealand's department of conservation, and they are blamed for driving some species into extinction.

The death toll from flash floods that hit Switzerland after storms at the weekend rose to six Wednesday after a body was discovered in the southeastern canton of Ticino, police said.

The melting of Alaska's Juneau icefield, home to more than 1,000 glaciers, is accelerating. The snow covered area is now shrinking 4.6 times faster than it was in the 1980s, according to a new study.

Researchers meticulously tracked snow levels in the nearly 1,500-square mile icy expanse going back to 1948 with added data back to the 18th century. It slowly shriveled from its peak size at the end of the Little Ice Age around 1850, but then that melt rate sped up about 10 years ago, according to a study in Tuesday's Nature Communications.

Firefighters battled wildfires that broke out on the eastern Aegean islands of Chios and Kos Monday and injured five people, as Greece's prime minister warned of a dangerous summer ahead and said the public's help was essential in limiting the impact of wildfires.

Emergency services issued evacuation orders for those in the Metohi area of western Chios on Monday morning, urging them to head to a nearby beach. By the evening, more than 140 firefighters, along with eight teams of firefighters specializing in wildfires, seven water-dropping planes and three helicopters were fighting the blaze.

A powerful storm has swept through countries in the western Balkans after several days of sizzling temperatures, killing two people and damaging houses, pulling out trees and flooding streets, officials said on Tuesday.

Heavy rain, hail and strong winds tore through Slovenia on Monday before pushing east to pummel Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and finally Montenegro on Tuesday morning. The storm sent temperatures plummeting in just several hours.

The U.N. weather agency said Tuesday that Tropical Cyclone Freddy, a deadly Indian Ocean storm that lashed eastern Africa last year, was confirmed to be the longest-lasting cyclone ever recorded at 36 days.

Freddy topped the previous record held by Hurricane John, which struck Hawaii and lasted almost 30 days in the northern Pacific three decades ago, the World Meteorological Organization said as it released a study which began as Freddy waned in March last year.