An Italian naval vessel specialized in marine pollution clean-up arrived Tuesday in waters off Tunisia where a tanker laden with diesel fuel capsized at the weekend.

The death toll from devastating floods in and around the South African port city of Durban has risen to 306, the government said, after roads and hillsides were washed away as homes collapsed.

Honda is investing 5 trillion yen ($40 billion) over the next decade in research, especially to realize a major shift to ecological electric vehicles, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday.

The products and services in the works will account for more than half of its 8 trillion yen ($64 billion) research and development budget in that time and will be tailored for each major market, the U.S., China and Japan.

Rescuers hampered by mud and rain on Tuesday used their bare hands and shovels to search for survivors of landslides that smashed into villages in the central Philippines, as the death toll from tropical storm Megi rose to 42. 

More than 17,000 people fled their homes as the storm pummeled the disaster-prone region in recent days, flooding houses, severing roads and knocking out power.

Spain's Civil Guard says it is investigating a businessman in the eastern Valencia region who owned a private taxidermy collection with more than 1,000 stuffed animals, including just over 400 from protected species and at least one specimen of a North African oryx, already extinct.

The collection would fetch 29 million euros ($31.5 million) on the black market, the Civil Guard said Sunday in a statement, adding that its owner could be charged with trafficking and other crimes against the environment.

A German Cabinet minister has apologized for taking a long vacation shortly after devastating floods last year in the state where she was then a senior official, but it isn't clear whether the move will help relieve pressure on her.

Anne Spiegel became the minister for families and women in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Cabinet in December. Before that, she was the environment minister and deputy governor of Rhineland-Palatinate state — the region worst hit by floods in July that killed more than 180 people in Germany.

An unusually early heat wave brought more extreme temperatures Monday to a large swath of India's northwest, raising concerns that such weather conditions could become typical.

The India Meteorological Department forecast that the temperature in New Delhi would reach 41.8 degrees Celsius (107.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, nearly eight degrees above normal.

U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea has participated in the inauguration of the Hinterland Archaeological Heritage Project in Jabal Moussa, funded by the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, the U.S. Embassy said on Monday.

UK climate activist group Extinction Rebellion shut down London's iconic Tower Bridge on Friday after two of its protesters abseiled over its sides.

The capital of the United Arab Emirates announced Wednesday it would start banning single-use plastic bags from June, the oil-rich country's latest move to advance its ambitious carbon reduction goals.

The statement from Abu Dhabi's government-run media office did not specify how the upcoming ban would be enforced, whether by fining businesses distributing the ubiquitous thin bags or charging people for their use. The emirate also said it plans to completely get rid of single-use Styrofoam cups, plates and food containers by 2024.