A big new study says as the world gets warmer, people are more prone to get hot under the collar. Scientists found that aggressive acts like violent crimes and wars become more likely with each added degree.

The research analyzed 60 studies of such things as the historic collapses of empires, recent wars and violent crime rates in the United States. They found a common thread: Extreme weather — hot or dry — means more violence.

Puerto Ricans are used to wet tropical weather, but the past few weeks have unleashed a series of storms of almost biblical proportions, destroying hundreds of homes, sweeping away cars and leaving tens of thousands without power.

It has been the wettest July ever recorded in the U.S. island territory, with 14 inches (36 centimeters) so far drenching the capital. More rain fell on July 18 than had ever come down in a 24-hour period.

Deep in India's northeast, villagers use grass to sound-proof their huts from deafening rain, clouds are a familiar sight inside homes and a suitably rusted sign tells visitors they are in the "wettest place on earth".

Oddly enough, lifelong residents of Mawsynram, a small cluster of hamlets in Meghalaya state have little idea that their scenic home holds a Guinness record for the highest average annual rainfall of 11,873 millimeters (467 inches).

Environmentalists accused a Thai energy firm on Tuesday of understating the extent of a major pipeline leak as the navy warned the oil slick might reach the mainland.

Tourists were leaving the resort island of Ko Samet in the Gulf of Thailand as workers in protective suits used hoses, buckets and shovels to clean up blackened sand and oil which washed ashore on a once-idyllic beach.

Australia's most powerful computer was unveiled Wednesday, in a boost for climate scientists who need to crunch vast amounts of data to make forecasts and pinpoint extreme weather, officials said.

The Australian National University in Canberra has named the supercomputer Raijin after the Japanese god of thunder, lightning and storms.

Indonesia and India on Tuesday were named as the world's biggest catchers of sharks in an EU-backed probe into implementing a new pact to protect seven threatened species of sharks and rays.

Indonesia and India account for more than a fifth of global shark catches, according to the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.

Scientists are coming closer to understanding the evolutionary reason behind monogamy, with two new studies out Monday exploring different advantages of the practice that pairs mates for the long haul.

A leading theory had been that men stuck around to help raise children -- especially ones, as among humans, who take a long time, and a great deal of energy to rear to adulthood.

Nepal's number of Royal Bengal tigers in the wild has soared 64 percent to 198 in just four years, according to a government survey released Monday.

Experts attributed the rise to a crackdown on poaching as the government vowed to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Monday assured Malaysia that European rules on declaring product ingredients would not "discriminate" against palm oil, the target of environmentalists over its ecological impact.

Malaysia is second only to Indonesia in the production of palm oil, which is blamed for the destruction of huge swathes of rainforest to make way for vast plantations of the palm trees from which the edible oil is derived.

Thai navy personnel battled Monday to clean up a beach on a popular tourist island after oil from a pipeline leak washed up in a national park.

Roughly 50,000 liters of crude oil gushed into the sea on Saturday about 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the coast of the eastern province of Rayong, operator PTT Global Chemical said.