Heavy rains have lashed much of Chile, damaging homes, flooding roads, knocking out power and causing mudslides that have swept through residential areas.

Storms have drenched the center and south Chile throughout the week, displacing people and closing schools. More than 2,000 homes have been damaged and 60,000 have lost power. Heavy winds caused a large tree to fall on a tractor, killing one person late Wednesday.

A tropical disturbance that brought a rare flash flood emergency to much of southern Florida delayed flights at two of the state's largest airports and left vehicles waterlogged and stalled in some of the region's lowest-lying streets.

"Looked like the beginning of a zombie movie," said Ted Rico, a tow truck driver who spent much of Wednesday night and Thursday morning helping to clear the streets of stalled vehicles. "There's cars littered everywhere, on top of sidewalks, in the median, in the middle of the street, no lights on. Just craziness, you know. Abandoned cars everywhere."

Despite the complication of recent heavy rain, swimming in the River Seine is still the plan at the Paris Olympics after a $1.5 billion investment to improve the water quality.

"No reasons to doubt," International Olympic Committee executive Christophe Dubi said Thursday at an online briefing after hearing from city officials and Summer Games organizers. "We are confident that we will swim in the Seine this summer."

There's lots of talk of change in Britain's election campaign, but little talk about climate change.

The U.K.'s July 4 vote to choose a new government comes after one of the wettest and warmest winters on record, part of trends that scientists attribute to global warming. But discussion of climate and the environment has taken a back seat to Britain's sluggish economy, high cost of living and creaking health care system — and whether, as polls suggest, the governing Conservatives' time is up after 14 years in power.

An extreme weather phenomenon known as the dzud has killed more than 7.1 million animals in Mongolia this year, more than a tenth of the country's entire livestock holdings, endangering herders' livelihoods and way of life.

Dzuds are a combination of perennial droughts and severe, snowy winters and they are becoming harsher and more frequent because of climate change. They are most associated with Mongolia but also occur in other parts of Central Asia.

A tropical disturbance has brought a rare flash flood emergency to much of southern Florida as residents prepared to weather more heavy rainfall on Thursday and Friday.

Wednesday's downpours and subsequent flooding blocked roads, floated vehicles and delayed the Florida Panthers on their way to Stanley Cup games in Canada against the Edmonton Oilers.

Authorities in Greece are closing down the Acropolis in Athens during the afternoon on Thursday for a second day as the country swelters under unseasonably high temperatures.

The Culture Ministry said the hilltop citadel, which is Greece's most popular ancient site, would be closed from midday to 5 p.m. (0900-1400 GMT) because of the heat.

By Aron L. Crowell, Smithsonian Institution and Judith Dax̱ootsú Ramos, University of Alaska Southeast

Five hundred years ago, in a mountain-rimmed ocean fjord in southeast Alaska, Tlingit hunters armed with bone-tipped harpoons eased their canoes through chunks of floating ice, stalking seals near Sít Tlein (Hubbard) glacier. They must have glanced nervously up at the glacier's looming, fractured face, aware that cascades of ice could thunder down and imperil the boats – and their lives. As they drew near, they would have asked the seals to give themselves as food for the people and talked to the spirit of Sít Tlein to release the animals from his care.

Amid Mexico's heat wave and drought, suffering birds are getting air-conditioning and monkeys with heatstroke are being rescued by non-governmental groups.

The government, meanwhile, has been more preoccupied with cooling down animals at state-run zoos, giving lions frozen meat popsicles. It's not the only frosty treat: One rescue group is feeding distressed owls with rat carcasses shipped in frozen from Mexico City.

The first heat wave of the year is expected to maintain its grip on the Southwestern United States for at least another day Friday, a day after records tumbled across the region with temperatures soaring past 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) from southeast California to Arizona.

Although the official start of summer is still two weeks away, roughly half of Arizona and Nevada were under an excessive heat alert, which the National Weather Service extended until Friday evening. The alert was extended through Saturday in Las Vegas, where it's never been hotter this early in the year.