A cloud of freezing smog forced the cancellation of around 100 flights at London Heathrow airport on Tuesday, as city authorities issued a "black" alert about air quality in the British capital.

Governor Jerry Brown late Monday declared a state of emergency for counties across California to help deal with damage from powerful December and January storms.

Drought-stricken California was hard-hit by rainstorms that struck in early December, and high winds and heavy rains from a storm that began in early January and continued through the weekend.

Chinese state media say Beijing will spend $2.7 billion to fight air pollution in the capital this year.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday that part of the money will be used to close or upgrade more than 2,000 polluting factories, replace the use of coal with clean energy on the outskirts of the city and phase out 300,000 high-polluting older vehicles.

Last year, the Earth sweltered under the hottest temperatures in modern times for the third year in a row, U.S. scientists said Wednesday, raising new concerns about the quickening pace of climate change.

Temperatures spiked to new national highs in parts of India, Kuwait and Iran, while sea ice melted faster than ever in the fragile Arctic, said the report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Animal rights activists Wednesday demanded the closure of an Indonesian zoo after skeletal sun bears were pictured begging for food from visitors and eating their own dung.

The outgoing Barack Obama administration announced Tuesday a contribution of half a billion dollars to the UN Green Climate Fund, just three days before Donald Trump takes over the White House.

The $500 million payment, announced by State Department spokesman John Kirby in a statement, is the second from the United States to support the United Nations Green Climate Fund, which aims to mitigate the effects of climate change in the world's poorest countries.

China is suspending local meteorological bureaus from issuing smog alerts, media reported Wednesday, raising suspicions the government is attempting to suppress information about the country's air pollution as public anger over the issue grows.

More than 80 dolphins known as false killer whales have died off the southwest coast of Florida after getting stranded in shallow waters, U.S. officials said.

A pod of 95 of the dolphins, which are black in color and look like killer whales without white markings, became stranded in the Gulf Coast off Everglades National Park, the park said on Twitter.

More than 100 of Britain's top climate scientists on Monday urged Prime Minister Theresa May to press U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to safeguard government-led research on global warming.

Heavy snow has trapped around 1,000 motorists in northwestern Tunisia, the prime minister's office said Monday.

Drifts blocked roads including a major highway in the province of Jendouba on Sunday evening, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed's office said.