The EU said Monday it will ban open water trawling of sea bass during the spawning season through April in order to ensure the stock's survival.

The European Commission, the EU executive arm, said it is working with Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands to implement the ban which should take effect at the end of January.

The fall in oil prices poses a threat to global efforts to boost renewable energy use and lower carbon emissions, France's ecology and energy minister said Monday.

"There is a real risk of the re-orientation of consumption towards fossil fuels, the ones that cause global warming and thus very severe climatic changes," Segolene Royal said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Abu Dhabi.

Offshore sailors' biggest enemy — the lack of wind — stalled Volvo Ocean Race boats as they approached one of the most challenging parts of the nine-month event on Sunday.

The six-strong fleet has been crawling along at speeds of around five knots or less for much of the past week as it edged through the Bay of Bengal toward the Malacca Strait, leading into the South China Sea on the third leg of the nine-month, 38,739 nautical mile race.

Halfway through the rainy season, the key reservoir for the hemisphere's largest city holds just 6 percent of its capacity, and experts warned Friday that Sao Paulo authorities must take urgent steps to prevent the worst drought in more than 80 years from drying it out.

The system of reservoirs and rivers that provide water to millions in this city have received less rainfall than hoped during the first weeks of the wet season, raising fears they won't be replenished as hoped. Rainfall during the first two weeks of January totaled just 2.9 inches (7.1 centimeters), well below the historic average for the month of 10.7 inches (27.1 centimeters).

Record-breaking temperatures scorched the planet last year, making 2014 the hottest in more than a century and raising new concerns about global warming, US government scientists said Friday.

The much-anticipated report by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was confirmed by an independent analysis from the US space agency NASA that reached the same conclusion.

A government plan to shoot up to 184 wolves from a helicopter to reduce their population and save caribou herds in western Canada drew sharp criticism from conservation groups Friday.

British Columbia said the killings are needed to save herds in the South Selkirk Mountains and South Peace regions of the province from possible extinction due to wolf predation.

Smoke rises from a volcano some 65 km south-west of the South Pacific nation Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa, as seen in this image from New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, released on January 15, 2015View Photo

Smoke rises from a volcano some 65 km south-west of the South Pacific nation Tonga's …

SpaceX has released dramatic footage of its booster rocket trying to land on a floating ocean barge after a launch — an unprecedented attempt that ended in a fiery explosion.

The video released Friday shows the 14-story rocket hitting the football field-sized barge at an angle, lighting up the night sky off the Florida coast.

A British-built space probe that disappeared without trace more than a decade ago has been spotted on the surface of Mars, the UK Space Agency said on Friday.

The Beagle 2 lander "has been found partially deployed on the surface of the planet, ending the mystery of what happened to the mission," the UK Space Agency said in a statement.

A new species of legless amphibian resembling a giant earthworm or a snake has been discovered in a remote but threatened area of Cambodian rainforest, conservationists said on Friday.

The grey-brown creature -- Ichthyophis cardamomensis -- was found in Cambodia's southwest Cardamom Mountains, an area under threat from habitat loss, according to Fauna and Flora International (FFI).