California eases water restrictions, but drought isn't over

DUNNIGAN, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom ended some of the state's water restrictions on Friday because a winter of relentless rain and snow has replenished the state's reservoirs and eased fears of a shortage after three years of severe drought. Newsom was careful not...

California governor ends some drought restrictions on lawn watering, call for 15% conservation after rainy, snowy winter

Scientists say mine plan claiming no swamp harm has errors

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Scientists for the federal government say documents that Georgia state regulators relied upon to conclude a proposed mine won't harm the nearby Okefenokee Swamp and its vast wildlife refuge contain technical errors and “critical shortcomings” that render them unreliable....

Farmers struggle in Argentina as drought withers their crops

URQUIZA, Argentina (AP) — The ground crackles as Guillermo Cuitino walks across dry farmland that should be green and lush this time of year. He grabs a soy plant and easily disintegrates its leaves with his hands. “This year’s drought was extreme,” the agricultural engineer...

Nevada to add gas plant as drought tests US West power grids

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Utility regulators in Nevada gave the state’s largest power provider clearance to start work on a $333 million project to build a natural gas plant in the state for the first time in nearly 15 years, signaling yet another consequence of the extreme drought conditions in the...

AP PHOTOS: World's water in focus as clean supplies squeezed

It's one of the world's most vital resources. In Paraguay, a man displaced by a rising river hauls heavy buckets of it to his temporary home. In the Philippines, a girl uses a manual pump to get just enough to wash. In Haiti children fill large jugs of it in dwindling ravines. Water...

African nations consider swapping debt for climate funding

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — African countries saddled with debt and ravaged by losses and damages from weather events like cyclones, drought and extreme temperatures have agreed to consider swapping debt to invest in climate action in a meeting of finance ministers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa....

Report: 43,000 estimated dead in Somalia drought last year

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A new report says an estimated 43,000 people died amid Somalia's longest drought on record last year and half of them likely were children under 5 years old. It is the first official death toll announced in the drought withering large parts of the Horn of...

A new report says an estimated 43,000 people died last year amid Somalia's historic drought, half of them children.

Millions of dead fish wash up amid heat wave in Australia

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Millions of fish have washed up dead in southeastern Australia in a die-off that authorities and scientists say is caused by depleted oxygen levels in the river after recent floods and hot weather. Residents of the Outback town of Menindee in New South...