The largest natural lake west of the Mississippi is shrinking past its lowest levels in recorded history, raising fears about toxic dust, ecological collapse and economic consequences. But the Great Salt Lake may have some new allies: conservative Republican lawmakers.

The new burst of energy from the GOP-dominated state government comes after lake levels recently hit a low point during a regional megadrought worsened by climate change. Water has been diverted away from the lake for years, though, to supply homes and crops in Utah. The nation's fastest-growing state is also one of the driest, with some of the highest domestic water use.

A major winter storm with millions of Americans in its path spread rain, freezing rain and heavy snow further across the country on Thursday, disrupting travel as roads in many states were left icy by the wintry mix and airlines canceled thousands of flights due to the weather.

A long stretch of states from New Mexico to Maine remained under winter storm warnings and watches and the path of the storm stretched further from the central U.S. into more of the South and Northeast. Heavy snow was expected from the southern Rockies to northern New England, while forecasters said heavy ice buildup was likely from Texas to Pennsylvania.

Torrential rains in Brazil's Sao Paulo state between Friday and Sunday left at least 18 people dead, authorities said.

"Since last Friday, the turmoil caused by the bad weather caused 18 deaths, including seven children and left around 500 people without homes or displaced," said the Sao Paulo state government, citing the Civil Defense body.

Nursed back from near death, a skittish vulture flaps its wings and returns to the grey skies above India's capital after weeks of tender care from two devoted brothers.

Dolce&Gabbana announced Monday that it would drop the use of animal fur in all its collections starting this year, and transition to eco-friendly faux fur.

The Milan fashion house joins other luxury brands, including Armani, Gucci, Prada and Moncler, in adhering to guidelines set by the Fur Free Alliance, a network of animal rights groups around the world.

Ski racers settling into the start gate for Alpine World Cup events in the Rocky Mountains in early December squinted through sunshine that carried the temperature toward 50 degrees and glanced down at a course covered with pristine — and manufactured — snow.

If they looked up and across the way, beyond the finish line, they saw adjacent hills that were brown and barren as can be, with nary a trace of powder or any indication that this was a setting for athletes who would be heading to the Beijing Olympics that begin Feb. 4.

Regular citizens have taken the fight against illegal logging into their own hands in the pine-covered mountains of western Mexico, where loggers clear entire hillsides for avocado plantations that drain local water supplies and draw drug cartels hungry for extortion money.

In some places, like the Indigenous township of Cheran in Michoacan state , the fight against illegal logging and planting has been so successful it's as if a line had been drawn across the mountains: avocados and cleared land on one side, pine forest on the other. But it has required a decade-long political revolt in which Cheran's townspeople declared themselves autonomous and formed their own government.

Divers, vets and the coast guard were mounting a rescue operation Friday to help a whale calf that had become trapped in shallow water in a seaside area of the Greek capital.

The animal was an injured young Cuvier's beaked whale, or Ziphius cavirostris, according to Arion, a research organization that provides veterinary care for stranded cetaceans. The species usually inhabits deep waters, and it was unclear how it had been injured and why it became stranded in the Alimos area of southern Athens.

Top diplomats of the United States and the world's other worst climate-polluting nations talked global warming together Thursday for the first time since November's U.N. summit, with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry urging tougher commitments by the end of the year from governments falling short on emissions cuts.

The urging came after the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland ended with the world still on track to heat up well above the level that the world's nations have agreed to strive for.

The Australian government on Friday pledged to spend another 1 billion Australian dollars ($704 million) over nine years on improving the health of the Great Barrier Reef after stalling a UNESCO decision on downgrading the natural wonder's World Heritage status.

Critics argue the investment is a bid to improve the ruling conservative coalition's green credentials ahead of looming elections while doing nothing to change the greatest threat to the coral: rising ocean temperatures.