WELLINGTON, New Zealand: A mass-stranding of whales on a New Zealand beach has left 36 of the creatures dead and threatens 40 more. Department of conservation area manager John Mason said 99 pilot whales stranded themselves on day on Farewell Spit on the South Island. By Tuesday, 36 whales had died and another 40 remained stranded and were still in danger.

India ranks a dismal 134 among 187 countries in terms of human development index in the UNDP's latest Human Development Report. BEGGING ON A busy street in Mumbai. According to the HDR, ending absolute deprivations could increase higher-order capabilities, expand people's choices and advance human development.

ADELAIDE, Australia: More than 50 dead New Zealand fur seals have been found washed up on a beach in South Australia in unexplained circumstances, environmental officials said on Tuesday. The discovery was made on Sunday in the remote Lincoln National Park with three of the seals taken to the University of Adelaide where post-mortem examinations were carried out Tuesday.

Two further tremors rattled the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Friday as scientists predicted aftershocks from last year's devastating earthquake would last for decades.

The two latest aftershocks, the largest with a magnitude of 5.0, shook New Zealand's second-largest city just hours after a briefing called to address concerns about a large number of tremors in recent weeks.

Insurance industry damage claims from natural disasters like the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand reached a record $105 billion in 2011, said Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer.

The cost to insurers from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March, which caused nearly 16,000 deaths, was estimated at $35-$40 billion, the company said on Wednesday in a review of last year's natural disasters.

An earthquake in New Zealand in February added a further $13 billion to insurers' claims payout for the year, Munich Re said.

New Zealand will ban the use of U.N.-backed industrial gas offsets to stop any distortion to its carbon trading scheme and bring it into line with programs in Europe and Australia, the government said on Thursday.

Climate change minister Nick Smith said offsets from projects that destroy potent greenhouse gases hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) and nitrous oxide (N2O) would be banned from Dec 23 unless emitters had already entered into binding forward purchase agreements.

A series of strong earthquakes struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch today, rattling buildings, sending goods tumbling from shelves and prompting terrified holiday shoppers to flee into the streets.

There was no tsunami alert issued and the city appeared to have been spared major damage.

One person was injured at a city mall and was taken to a hospital, and four people had to be rescued after being trapped by a rock fall, Christchurch police said in a statement.

Australia and New Zealand said on Monday they could link their carbon trading schemes as soon as 2015, immediately after Australia's government moved from a fixed carbon tax to the world's second-largest market scheme to cut pollution.

After talks in Durban, South Africa, on the sidelines of global talks on a successor to the Kyoto climate pact, Australia's Minister for Climate Change Greg Combet and his New Zealand counterpart Tim Groser said both countries were aiming to link their two schemes as soon as possible.