Paris' police authority is again cracking down on the city's rocketing air pollution with a 24-hour traffic-regulating scheme that aims to halve the day's emissions from road vehicles. Tonight and tomorrow NZT only vehicles with an even-numbered license plate will be allowed to use the roads in Paris and its nearest suburbs. A hundred and forty checkpoints around the city will root out any odd-numbered cars and turn them back. All day, public transport will be free.
Queensland is preparing for its fifth straight day of sweltering conditions, however relief is in sight. Yesterday saw a state-wide high of 44.6C at Windorah, with Dirrinbandi hitting 44C. Brisbane and southern coastal areas were only around 30C due to sea breezes. Weather bureau forecaster Dean Narramore said today would see similar conditions.
A new study says extreme downpours - like those that flooded Louisiana, Houston and West Virginia this year - will happen nearly three times as often in the United States by the end of the century, and six times more frequently for parts of the Mississippi Delta. Scientists point out that warmer air holds more moisture, so climate change will increase the frequency of extreme downpours.
A Jordanian pilot was killed when his F-16 fighter jet crashed outside an air base after a technical malfunction. The official news agency Petra says the aircraft crashed shortly after take-off. It identified the pilot as Major Ayed al-Deajah.
Amazon is testing a grocery store model with Amazon employees in Seattle that works without checkout lines. Called Amazon Go, shoppers scan their Amazon app when they enter the store, and then sensors register items that shoppers pick up and automatically charge them to the app. If a shopper puts the item back they aren't charged. The store offers ready-to-eat meals, staples like bread and milk and meal-making kits. It is expected to open to the public in early 2017.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he's asking the federal Government for US$35 million to cover costs related to security for President-elect Donald Trump. The security includes a New York Police Department detail at the president-elect's home on Fifth Avenue, Trump Tower.
At least 87 patients escaped from Kenya's only psychiatric hospital after they were left unattended when medical workers at public hospitals went on strike nationwide. "They scaled up the walls surrounding the wards and ... they just wandered away," said Dr Julius Odago, medical superintendent at Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital. Seventeen patients had been brought back to the hospital.
Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was a central figure in the 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslims from Srebrenica, prosecutors have told judges at his genocide trial. Prosecutors were making their closing arguments in Mladic's trial, the last major war crimes case at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which is winding down after more than 20 years.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he will visit Pearl Harbour this month with US President Barack Obama "to console the souls" of victims of Japan's surprise attack on US forces there 75 years ago. Abe, who will be the first serving Japanese prime minister to visit the naval base in Hawaii, said he wanted to demonstrate resolve to end the horror of war. This year, Obama become the first serving US president to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which the US attacked with an atomic bomb in 1945. Abe will visit Hawaii on December 26 and 27.
Officials say one person has died and two others were hurt when two vehicles fell into a water-filled sinkhole in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio Fire Department Chief Charles Hood says crews are trying to recover a body from an upside-down vehicle that's about 90 per cent submerged in 3.5m of water. Hood released no details about the deceased driver. The hole appeared after a sewer line ruptured during heavy rain.
Voter support for Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has fallen to its lowest level since he seized power, the latest Newspoll shows. The Coalition heads into Christmas with its two-party preferred vote up from 47 to 48 per cent but still trailing Labor, which has notched up its sixth successive lead, on 52 per cent, the poll taken for the Australian shows.
Britain's top judges vowed to consider with impartiality the contentious question of who has the power to trigger the UK's exit from the European Union - the government or Parliament. The Supreme Court justices acknowledged that the case has aroused strong feelings over how and whether to leave the EU. It also has major constitutional implications for the balance of power between the legislature and the executive.
A man accused of threatening an off-duty Muslim police officer previously commended for heroism is facing a hate-crime charge. The Brooklyn district attorney's office says 36-year-old Christopher Nelson was arraigned on a felony charge of menacing as a hate crime. Authorities say the officer, who was wearing a Muslim head covering, encountered a man yelling and pushing her 16-year-old son in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. When she intervened, the man referenced Isis and threatened to slit her throat. City officials hailed Officer Aml Elsokary as a hero in 2014, after she ran into a burning building to save a baby.