Hurricane Maria has strengthened into a major hurricane and is expected to intensify further as it moves through the Leeward Islands and the north-eastern Caribbean Sea, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Tuesday.

Australia had its hottest winter on record with temperatures up by two degrees celsius on average and it is related to worsening climate change, according to a leading scientific group.

Delta Electricity, the only company to declare an interest in buying AGL's ailing Liddell power station, has all but ruled out any purchase.

A villager in Kenya was herding animals recently when he came upon a head-turning sight. A ghostly creature with a mighty long neck was grazing off in the distance.

A shortage of rail capacity in the Hunter Valley prompted by rising coal exports led three of the country's biggest power stations to run down stockpiles to their lowest in years.

A koala has been released back into the wild after miraculously surviving a 16 kilometre trip clinging onto the underside of a car wheel arch.

At the beginning of spring, we all know to expect swooping magpies.

Skiers and snowboarders are continuing to hit the slopes in Australia's ski resorts with spring providing conditions that have been described as the best in years.

Greek authorities have insisted they are doing everything they can to clean up pollution following the sinking of an oil tanker.

The video also shows a black bear, deer, mountain lion, and black bear cub.

• ANALYSIS

Brain-eating amoeba might be the only way to explain the government's energy policy.

The exceptionally dry conditions around Sydney and much of the state have prompted the Rural Fire Service to scale back hazard reduction burning this weekend.

Your afternoon chocolate bar may be fuelling climate change, destroying protected forests and threatening elephants, chimpanzees and hippos in West Africa, research suggests.

China is mourning the death of the world's oldest panda, Basi, who passed away at the age of 37.

Up to 70 flights have been cancelled in and out of Sydney airport as strong winds buffet the runways.

Official estimates of the risk of an electricity shortfall this summer are exaggerated, the Australian Solar Council says.

The Pope said those who failed to act were "stupid" and would be judged by history for failing in their "moral responsibility".

New species of spider named after the Sapphire Coast.

• COMMENT

In Australia's self-induced and largely imagined energy crisis, it seems any ambit claim - particularly if it encourages coal - can generate immediate and unwarranted media and political attention.

When meerkats want to move as a group, they call to each other. Capuchin monkeys trill. Gorillas grunt. Honeybees make what is called a piping sound.

Brother and sister snow leopard kittens romped as they made their public debut at Los Angeles Zoo.

Sydney, the Hunter and two other regions of NSW will have total fire bans on Wednesday as the temperature spikes into the 30s and winds pick up.

Damaging winds reaching up to 90km/h could hit Canberra, the Snowy Mountains and the coast.

• EXCLUSIVE

An independent study has found unexpected valley bulging and fractures reaching the surface above a major coal mine in the greater Sydney catchment, prompting WaterNSW to seek greater scrutiny of future mining applications.

AGL's Liddell power station shouldn't receive funds more usefully invested elsewhere to improve Australia's energy prospects says Christiana Figueres, the former United Nations climate chief.

A baby great white shark has been rescued after washing ashore at Manly on Sydney's northern beaches.

The discovery that a North Stradbroke Island lagoon is millenniums older than originally thought could reshape climate change research.

A scathing independent investigation into water theft has found the state's enforcement ineffectual and unprofessional.

The right-wing US radio host has suggested that the "panic" caused by the hurricanes benefits retailers, the media and climate change activists.

• COMMENT

Thee timing of the storms, combined with the historic awfulness of them, feels more sinister than simple coincidence.