A cesspool of fraud and lies in the banking industry has come to light since the financial crisis of 2008, raising questions about how such rogue behavior could have happened.

What caused traders, asset managers and others in the money business to behave dishonestly?

The destruction of rainforests in Southeast Asia and increasingly in Africa to make way for palm oil cultivation is a "direct threat" to the survival of great apes such as the orangutan, environmentalists warned Thursday.

They said tropical forests were continuing to tumble at a rapid rate, with palm plantations a key driver, despite a decade-old drive by the industry's Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to encourage sustainable cultivation.

A meeting of donors in Berlin for a new global climate fund Thursday will aim to approach a $10-billion target to help poor countries cut emissions and prepare for global warming.

Hitting the initial financial goal for the so-called Green Climate Fund would be seen as a key step ahead of international talks in Peru next month, and in France a year later, on slashing worldwide carbon emissions.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday backed an "effective" climate pact being struck at global talks in France next year, but warned it could not come at the expense of the economy or jobs.

French President Francois Hollande, on a state visit to Australia, also laid out his aim of seeking the worldwide, binding agreement in Paris after world leaders failed to agree new curbs in Copenhagen in 2009.

Small volcanic eruptions could be slowing global warming by spewing sulfur aerosols that reach the upper atmosphere and reflect sunlight away from the Earth, U.S. scientists said Tuesday.

Researchers have long known that volcanoes can protect against global warming, but they did not think that minor eruptions did much to the atmosphere.

Environmental pressure group Greenpeace accused pipeline firm TransCanada of "dirty tricks" Tuesday, publishing leaked documents it said showed it plans to smear opponents of one of its projects.

TransCanada, the company behind the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to take oil to the United States, also plans to connect Alberta's oil sands to refineries and ports in eastern Canada.

A once-in-a-decade global forum on parks closed in Sydney on Wednesday calling for an urgent increase in ocean protection and stressing the economic benefits of natural sanctuaries.

The World Parks Congress, with representatives from 160 nations, outlined a pathway for achieving a global target to protect at least 17 percent of land and 10 percent of oceans by 2020.

Chinese scientists are planning to launch a Mars rover "around 2020", state media reported Tuesday, as the country pours billions into its space program and works to catch up with the U.S. and Europe.

Although the government has not officially announced plans for a Mars mission, officials from the China National Space Administration are currently lobbying to have it put on the agenda and have begun "preliminary research", the state-run China Daily reported.

Japan said Tuesday it has cut its Antarctic whale-catch quota by two-thirds in a move it hopes will convince international opponents it is conducting real science, not hiding a commercial hunt behind a veneer of research.

The International Court of Justice -- the highest court of the United Nations -- ruled in March that Japan was abusing a scientific exemption set out in the 1986 moratorium on whaling.

The smell of money hangs thick in the air as black crude oil bubbles up from what is billed as the world's oldest oil well, but this is not Texas or Saudi Arabia.

The sleepy village of Bobrka in southern Poland lays claim to the planet's first oil well and rig, one that is still pumping up enough black gold to be profitable.