The world's top decision-making body on the environment is meeting in Kenya's capital this week to discuss how countries can work together to tackle environmental crises like climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity.

The meeting in Nairobi is the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, and governments, civil society groups, scientists and the private sector are attending.

A cargo ship abandoned in the Gulf of Aden after an attack by Yemeni rebels is taking on water and has left a huge oil slick, in an environmental disaster that U.S. Central Command said Friday could get worse.

Rubymar, a Belize-flagged, British-registered and Lebanese-operated cargo ship carrying combustible fertilizer, was damaged in a Sunday missile strike claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

At least eight people died in Rio de Janeiro state due to landslides and floods caused by heavy rains Thursday, Brazilian authorities said. A 6-year-old was listed as missing in the countryside city of Mendes.

Four of the dead, including an 8-month-old, were members of the same family in the city of Barra do Pirai, officials said. The family's house was destroyed by a landslide.

Animal activists have fashion brands squarely in their sights this Milan Fashion Week, hoping to pressure Italian brands Max Mara and Fendi to give up fur in future collections.

An activist from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) stormed the Fendi runway on Wednesday brandishing a sign saying "Animals are NOT clothing".

Photographer Matt McDonald had lived on Puget Sound for years, but had never seen a whale, so he was elated when he spotted a giant marine mammal just off Seattle's waterfront one evening.

The excitement was short-lived. As McDonald tracked the whale in his camera's viewfinder, a state ferry that dwarfed the animal came into the frame. The next morning he saw on the news that the humpback whale had died in the collision he witnessed.

After a dry start to winter, California's rainy season is finally well under way.

December downpours sent water racing through streets in coastal Ventura County and the city of Santa Barbara. Flash floods hit San Diego in late January, and back-to-back atmospheric river-fueled storms arrived earlier this month, causing wind damage in Northern California and hundreds of mudslides in Los Angeles. Yet another storm blew through over Presidents Day weekend.

Just a few years ago, someone who wanted to install a rooftop solar connection in India faced getting multiple approvals, finding a reliable company to install the panels and spending heavily before seeing the first surge of clean energy.

But that's changing. The government has streamlined the approvals process, made it easier for people to claim subsidies and pushed mountains of cash — including $9 billion announced this month — to encourage faster adoption of technology that's seen as critical for India to reach its clean-energy goals.

Peva Levy said he felt a powerful, natural energy known as "mana" when he surfed Teahupo'o's waves on a piece of plywood for the first time, rushing down a crumbling white surf in front of an untouched volcanic beach several years before the steady streams of surfers started arriving when the village got its first asphalt road over fifty years ago.

"It was a secret spot," the surfer and Tahitian native remembered, as he stood on the pristine beaches of Teahupo'o on the island's south side, waves crashing off in the distance. "But it was not a secret spot for a long time."

Italy's northern Lombardy region imposed severe antismog measures across Milan and eight surrounding provinces Tuesday to combat a particularly bad period of air pollution.

The measures bar heavy motor vehicles from operating during the day and impose limits on heating and industrial agricultural activities in the nine provinces.

Another wet winter storm swamped California with heavy rainfall on Monday, flooding the runways at a regional airport and leading to several rescues on swollen rivers and creeks.

The Santa Barbara airport, on the state's central coast, closed Monday after as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain had fallen in the area by noon, covering the runways with water.