Mercury: Last year tied with 2003 as the fourth-hottest year the world has experienced since records began in 1880, according to data released by the National Climatic Data Centre in the US. This made it the 37th consecutive year that the global temperature was above average contrary to some reports that global warming has slowed. The combined land and sea surface temperature last year was 0.62C higher than the 20th century average, while the land surface temperature was 0.99C warmer. Nine of the 10...