The landmark Paris agreement on climate change moved closer to reality Wednesday after 31 countries joined during the United Nations General Assembly.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced confidence that the accord, through which countries commit to take action to stem the planet's rising temperatures, would come into force by the end of the year.

Divers say a towering coral known as the "Big Mushroom" at the heart of a world-famous dive site in Taiwan has been toppled after Typhoon Meranti struck last week.

Activists are warning of a potential "thirst uprising" in Tunisia following protests over severe water shortages after one of the North African nation's driest summers on record.

Residents in the interior are suffering long water supply cuts, reservoirs are running dry and farmers are seeing significant losses, adding to social tensions in a country still struggling with instability since its 2011 revolution.

A smog outbreak in Southeast Asia last year may have caused over 100,000 premature deaths, according to a new study released Monday that triggered calls for action to tackle the "killer haze".

Researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities in the US estimated there were more than 90,000 early deaths in Indonesia in areas closest to haze-belching fires, and several thousand more in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.

August equaled July as the hottest month in modern times, the U.N.'s weather agency said Friday, warning that extraordinary temperatures were "set to become the new norm."

Hundreds of horseshoe crabs -- known as "living fossils" because they are among the Earth's oldest creatures -- have been found dead in southern Japan, confounding experts who study the alien-like sidewalkers.

American movie star Leonardo DiCaprio unveils on Thursday a new, free technology that allows users to spy on global fishing practices, in a bid to curb illegal fishing.

The release of Global Fishing Watch coincides with the Our Oceans Conference hosted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington on September 15 and 16.

Parts of Taiwan were brought to a standstill Wednesday as super typhoon Meranti skirted past the island's southern tip, bringing the strongest winds in 21 years and disrupting traffic ahead of a major holiday.

Although typhoon Meranti did not make landfall, the storm brought violent winds and torrential rain to eastern and southern Taiwan. 

India has launched a complaint before the World Trade Organization against the United States over alleged subsidies provided to renewable energy projects, a source close to the WTO said Monday.

Every Friday, a cargo plane loaded with three tonnes of waste cardboard takes off from wind-swept Easter Island, bound for the Chilean mainland thousands of miles away across the Pacific.