The father of Brazil

The US is the country most likely to lead the emergence of electric cars as a means of mass transportation, according to research by McKinsey, the global consultancy.

A new electric-vehicle index compiled by McKinsey puts the US ahead of France, Germany and other western European countries that have up to now been in the vanguard of clean-vehicle technology.

More than half a million people trapped by floods in north-west Pakistan are facing increasingly desperate conditions as monsoon rains prevent helicopters from reaching the worst-hit areas.

The UN warned on Sunday that the number of people affected by the worst floods in living memory has risen to 6m from an estimated 4m last week as the rising waters have spread south, swelling the Indus river

The gas-fired plant in Marchwood, near Southampton
Power play: the gas-fired plant in Marchwood, near Southampton

If the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon rig is not stopped soon it could be the final blow to an already dying Mississippi delta, environmentalists are warning.

The cost to BP of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, in terms of the clean-up, compensation for the fishing and tourism industries, and possibly punitive damages, could be $10bn (

When Barack Obama took office, he declared a

Britain tried to breathe life into flagging international climate change talks on Wednesday with an offer to continue the Kyoto protocol beyond 2012 when its provisions expire.

China will ramp up construction of dams, reservoirs and wells in response to a severe drought in the country

Forty-eight hours after an earthquake devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the first emergency assessment teams were yesterday still trying to establish just how many people had died.

The sketchy picture from the area underlined the mammoth task facing an international rescue mission that swung into action yesterday.

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