International

"April 2010 was the hottest April ever recorded, with an average temperature of 14.5 degrees celsius (58.1 degrees  Fahrenheit), the UN weather agency said Tuesday."

"The United Nations appointed Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica on Monday to be its climate chief to head stalled international talks on how to contain the world's greenhouse gas emissions."

"A landmark study will include some evidence that those who regularly hold long conversations on handsets are at increased risk of developing potentially fatal brain tumours."

"Far too many of the world's plants and animals -- and the wild places that support them -- are at risk of collapse, a U.N. report finds, despite a global goal set in 2002 for major improvement by this year."

"A La Nina weather phenomenon, the lesser-known cousin of the more famous El Nino weather anomaly, will most likely develop in the second half of 2010, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said Thursday."

"South Africa's minister of tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk is front-runner to replace Yvo de Boer as UN climate chief, sources familiar with the selection process told Reuters on Thursday."

"Japan's Atomic Energy Agency says it has restarted a controversial nuclear reactor, more than 14 years after its operations were suspended."

"More than 250 U.S. scientists on Thursday defended climate change research against 'political assaults' and warned that any delay in tackling global warming heightens the risk of a planet-wide catastrophe."

Audio recordings of a key meeting of leaders at the December 2010 Copenhagen climate summit depict in detail the dynamics of a diplomatic failure.