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President Obama, who had planned to speak at the climate change summit in UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen on Wednesday, will now only arrive on Dec. 18, the White House said Friday.

After two years of work, and 12 years after their last attempt, 190 nations gather in Copenhagen from Monday to try to avert dramatic climate change -- what one minister called the most difficult talks ever embarked upon by humanity.

Kenya could lose up to 3 percent of its $35 billion GDP annually by 2030 due to global warming, a donor-funded study on the impact of climate change on east Africa's biggest economy showed on Friday.

Chilean retailer Hites raised $43 million on Thursday, selling a near 30 percent stake in the company in an initial public offering that the company said would help expand its businesses.

Droughts and floods stoked by global warming threaten to destabilize China's grain production, the nation's top meteorologist has warned, urging bigger grain reserves and strict protection of farmland and water supplies.

Looking to work overseas? Head to Canada, Australia or Thailand, according to an annual global survey which found recession-hit Britain was one of the worst locations to live for expatriates.

The developed world should pay African countries to preserve their vast forests to help the fight against climate change, some of the continent's governments will argue at next month's summit in Copenhagen.

Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven returned Friday, concluding an 11-day mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, bringing astronaut Nicole Stott back to Earth after spending 91 days in space. The shuttle touched down as scheduled at 9:44 a.m. EST under cloudless skies, guided by the commander, Col. Charles O. Hobaugh of the Marines, and the pilot, Capt. Barry E. Wilmore of the Navy.

Greece's biggest refiner, Hellenic Petroleum, on Thursday reported third-quarter net profit of 60 million euros ($89.26 million) after a loss in the same period last year, as the value of its oil inventories rose.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has sent its final proposal on whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to human health and welfare to the White House for review, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told Reuters on Monday.

Rich countries and developing nations fought over climate change on Saturday, failing to make progress on financing ahead of a major environmental summit in Copenhagen next month.

CNOOC Ltd has agreed to buy a minority stake in four prospects in the Gulf of Mexico from Norway's Statoil, opening crude oil reserves in the U.S. Gulf to China for the first time.

The Maldives could achieve its aim of becoming carbon neutral well before its 2020 target, the Indian Ocean island nation's president said Monday.

After about 25 years, those sneaky, lizard-like aliens are back. Once again, they want to take over Earth and, maybe, destroy or consume the populace. But so what? In exchange for their malevolence, they promise to provide a world of fast-paced, eye-catching action and provocative drama.

Australia needs to adopt a national policy to combat rising sea levels, which may see people forced to abandon coastal homes and banned from building beachside homes, said a parliamentary climate change committee.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday unveiled a new strategy toward Sudan, offering incentives if the Khartoum government worked toward peace, but said it faced tougher steps if it failed to act.

Global warming will leave the Arctic Ocean ice-free during the summer within 20 years, raising sea levels and harming wildlife such as seals and polar bears, a leading British polar scientist said on Thursday.

Following are the negotiating positions of the top greenhouse gas emitters in the run-up to a U.N. meeting in Copenhagen in December due to agree a new pact for combating climate change

Undersea earthquakes caused panic in the South Pacific on Thursday, sending islanders fleeing to higher ground on fears of a second devastating tsunami in as many weeks, but a series of waves proved to be tiny and harmless.

As many as 6.2 million Ethiopians need emergency humanitarian assistance due to severe drought, an official from the Oxfam charity said on Monday.

Rescuers pulled bodies from the mud and twisted rubble and fished bloated corpses from the South Pacific off Samoa Wednesday as the death toll from a series of tsunamis climbed further.