A severe heatwave sweeping India has killed at least five people this week in the capital, New Delhi, the Times of India newspaper said on Wednesday, following the hottest night in six years.
Billions across Asia are grappling with extreme heat this summer in a trend scientists say has been worsened by human-driven climate change.
The deaths were reported from Monday in hospitals across the Indian city of 20 million, where water shortages have intensified, the paper added.
Its power consumption touched an all-time high on Tuesday, when the minimum nighttime temperature reached 33.8 degrees Celsius (93 F), it said.
Since March, temperatures have soared to 50 degrees C (122 F) in Delhi and the nearby desert state of Rajasthan, while more than twice the usual number of heatwave days were recorded this season in northwest and eastern India.
The conditions were the result of fewer thundershowers and warm winds blowing from neighbouring arid regions into India.
The United Nations’ shipping agency on Thursday paused an evacuation effort to get hundreds of stranded ships and thousands of seafarers out through the Strait of Hormuz after a vessel was attacked in the Gulf of Oman.
At least 164 people were confirmed dead on Thursday after two powerful earthquakes wreaked havoc in and around Venezuela's capital Caracas, trapping people beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings and setting off powerful aftershocks.
The city mayor told busy Parisians to slow down on Thursday as large parts of Western Europe remained in the grip of a deadly heatwave that has claimed dozens of lives, disrupted power supplies, and shut schools and cultural landmarks.
President Donald Trump's administration has asked the US Congress on Wednesday for $87.6 billion in additional funding, most of it related to the Iran war, setting the stage for another fight with lawmakers already frustrated with the conflict.
An earthquake of magnitude 6.9 has struck Japan's northeast coast on Thursday, but no tsunami warning was issued, no injuries were immediately reported and no irregularities were found at nuclear facilities, the authorities said.