Katrina left 800,000 people homeless in New Orleans in 2005. Right, Sandy on satellite

Hurricanes, referred to as “acts of God” by insurers and seen by others as harbingers of the effects of climate change, are becoming more common as an unexpected side-effect of efforts to reduce pollution, research indicates.

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Independent Crossword

The 10 Best architecture books

Put some structure into your coffee-table reading matter with these weighty tomes about the buildings that surround us.

The funnel of a tornado almost touches the ground near South Haven, Oklahoma

200 mph winds, 12 miles of devastation: What makes a tornado?

There are reports that debris was carried over 100 miles from Moore

'It's a complete gut job': Eerie new photographs emerge of abandoned New York subway station that is STILL closed and in need of $600 million repairs following Hurricane Sandy

Until October last year, the South Ferry subway station was used by an estimated 30,000 people every day

Second wind: Musician Ruby Fenn plays a lyre made from a Second World War helmet

Make music, not war: Post War Orchestra converts weapons into musical instruments

Turning pistols into piccolos sounds like the kind of hippie dream that died out with flared trousers. But a group of UK musicians is doing just that, taking the theatre of war and giving it its own orchestra pit.

Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been in the right place at the right time

Page 3 Profile: Marco Rubio, the Republican Party Senator for Florida

Isn't he the next Republican presidential candidate?

UK snow: Commuters face battle with ice, floods and plummeting temperatures, as it is revealed wintry blast could last until mid March

Commuters could face miserable journeys to and from work well into next month

Quvenzhané Wallis, in Beasts of the Southern Wild

DVD & Blu-ray review: Beasts of the Southern Wild (12)

Quvenzhané Wallis is astonishing as six-year-old Hushpuppy, who lives with her often absent father (“Daddy could have changed into a tree or a bug, there wasn't no way to know”) in the poverty-stricken “Bathtub” area on the Louisiana Bayou.

Davos call for $14trn 'greening' of global economy

Political and business leaders warned of need to ensure sustainable growth
A tractor cuts down corn in a field designated as zero yield on a farm near Terre Haute, Ind., on July 31. Bloomberg News photo by Victor Blue

Bloomberg's best photos for 2012

Time after time in 2012, Bloomberg photographers came through with striking, pointed, poignant and just plain beautiful images, from the dire impact of Hurricane Sandy to the people voting on Greece's role in the European Union, from Facebook's IPO fiasco to the Fukushima Dai-Ichi meltdown.

UN Climate Conference: Fighting climate change is moral, vital, and in our own interests

Amid the political horse trading, politicians ignore climate change at their peril

Talks on new climate pact start in Qatar

Attempts to create a new climate treaty failed in Copenhagen three years ago

Think America's game is up? Take a trip to New Orleans and you'll find a different story

The city was decimated by Katrina, but now it's blazing a recovery trial

US President Barack Obama talks with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (2nd L), Senator Chuck Schumer (C, back to camera), D-NY, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (2nd R) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (R), D-NY, as he visits a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) on Staten Islan in New York City

Obama seeks to avoid Katrina comparison with Sandy response

President Barack Obama on Thursday promised residents of New York and New Jersey hit by superstorm Sandy that they will get a coordinated federal, state and local effort to rebuild their devastated neighborhoods.

New Yorkers are still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Sandy

Sandy homeless trapped between forces of nature and market

Lorraine Massoni crawled north on Brooklyn's Coney Island Avenue in a rented minivan along with her three children, hoping she wouldn't miss an apartment viewing in her hunt to relocate from a flooded Rockaway home.

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The great war photographer was not one person but two. Their pictures of Spain's civil war, lost for decades, tell a heroic tale
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Before you stuff your luggage with this year's Man Booker longlist titles, the case for some varied poolside reading alternatives
What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

Rupert Cornwell: What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

The CIA whistleblower struck a blow for us all, but his 1970s predecessor showed how to win
'A man walks into a bar': Comedian Seann Walsh on the dangers of mixing alcohol and stand-up

Comedian Seann Walsh on alcohol and stand-up

Comedy and booze go together, says Walsh. The trouble is stopping at just the one. So when do the hangovers stop being funny?
From Edinburgh to Hollywood (via the Home Counties): 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Edinburgh to Hollywood: 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Hugh Montgomery profiles the faces to watch, from the sitcom star to the surrealist
'Hello. I have cancer': When comedian Tig Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on

Comedian Tig Notaro: 'Hello. I have cancer'

When Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on
They think it's all ova: Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Our chef made his name cooking eggs, but he’s never stopped looking for new ways to serve them
The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

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The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

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