Australian firefighters are struggling to control a massive bush fire that already destroyed 40 percent of the UNESCO world heritage-listed Fraser Island before a heatwave hit Monday.

The fire on the world's largest sand island, off Australia's east coast, has been raging for more than six weeks and is consuming large swathes of the island's unique forests.

Indonesia's Mount Ili Lewotolok erupted Sunday, belching a column of smoke and ash four kilometers (2.5 miles) into the sky, triggering a flight warning and the closure of the local airport.

Elite runners brushed off poor air quality and a surge in coronavirus cases Sunday in India's capital for the Delhi Half Marathon, one of the country's first major sporting events since the pandemic started.

Sydney recorded its hottest November night as Australia's largest city suffered through a weekend heatwave that saw daytime temperatures peak above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Hit by the coronavirus pandemic and a sharp drop in oil prices, biofuel demand has declined for the first time in two decades and may struggle to recover, according to experts.

Huthi rebels in Yemen have agreed  to a United Nations mission to inspect and repair the abandoned fuel tanker Safer -- currently anchored off Hodeida and at risk of causing an oil spill -- the U.N. said Tuesday. 

Several thousand people in south-eastern India fled their homes on Wednesday, out of the path of a cyclone due to slam coastal areas after midnight, bringing with it heavy rain.

Former secretary of state John Kerry helped broker the landmark Paris Agreement and signed it on behalf of the United States, a decision subsequently reversed by President Donald Trump.

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, hit record highs last year and have continued climbing this year, despite measures to halt the pandemic, the UN said Monday.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that while lockdowns and other measures had cut emissions, this had not curbed record concentrations of the greenhouse gases that are trapping heat in the atmosphere, raising temperatures, causing sea levels to rise and driving more extreme weather.

U.S. President Trump on Sunday defended his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord, calling it "unfair and one-sided" even as President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to rejoin the landmark agreement.