World

In the sweltering heat of India's Thar desert, where summer highs soar above 50 degrees Celsius, an architecturally striking school is an oasis of cool thanks to a combination of age-old techniques and modern design.

The Rajkumari Ratnavati girls' school uses the same yellow sandstone as the 12th-century fort in nearby Jaisalmer, in India's western state of Rajasthan, dubbed the "golden city" due to the colour of the rock.

Flash floods wrought havoc in Bangladesh on Friday as the country recovers from weeks of political upheaval, with the death toll rising to 13 and millions more caught in the deluge.

The South Asian nation of 170 million people, crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers, has seen frequent floods in recent decades.

Icelandic authorities said Friday that a second fissure had formed on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula after lava started spewing forth for the sixth time in the region since December.

After weeks of warnings, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said Thursday that a new eruption had started at 9:26 pm (2126 GMT) that evening, following a series of earthquakes.

Apple will allow iPhone and iPad users in the European Union delete the App Store or its Safari browser, the tech giant told developers on Thursday.

Apple had long fiercely protected the App Store as the lone gateway for digital content to get onto its popular mobile devices. The change comes as the company loosens its grip on devices in the EU due to the bloc's landmark new digital rules.

Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond said in a statement Wednesday that it had discovered in Botswana a diamond as large as the palm of a hand, which, in terms of carats, would make it the world's second-largest diamond.

A massive 2,492-carat diamond -- the second largest in the world -- has been discovered in Botswana, the Canadian mining company that found the stone announced Thursday.

A celebrated Australian penguin famous for raising chicks as part of an unlikely same-sex couple has died, a Sydney aquarium said on Thursday.

Male gentoo penguins Sphen and Magic caught the attention of zookeepers, and then the world, when they built a nest of pebbles together in 2018.

They take off their flip flops and put on ski suits and gloves. Outside this Madrid mall, it's scorching, but at Snozone, customers are happy to ignore the summer heat -- and environmental issues.

An icy breeze in the lobby and a polar bear at the entrance plunge these summer visitors into another world at the Xanadu shopping centre 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Madrid.

At a tiny outpost in the wine world, Ireland's handful of winemakers are cautiously eyeing long-term growth potential as climate change warms up its cool climate.

According to Ireland's meteorological service, typically rainy Irish summers are getting warmer and drier on average.

Venezuela is at a crossroads, with the government of strongman Nicolas Maduro doubling down on his disputed reelection victory and the opposition vowing to resist "to the end."

The choice, say analysts, is between entrenching authoritarianism or democratic change.

Smugglers disguised $5 million worth of methamphetamine as watermelons and tried to truck them across the border from Mexico, US border agents said.

More than 4,500 pounds (2,000 kilograms) of the addictive drug were wrapped in paper packages painted to look like the juicy fruit and hidden amongst other cargo.

A Paris court Thursday rejected an appeal by a French-Vietnamese woman who has been trying to sue Monsanto and other makers of Agent Orange for the chemical's use in the Vietnam war.

Tran To Nga, who was born in what was then French Indochina, accused 14 agrochemicals firms of causing grievous harm to her and others by selling Agent Orange to the American military, which used the herbicide to devastating effect in Vietnam.