New weather data shows that the world’s average temperature in 2012 barely slipped into the top 10 hottest years on record, despite the U.S. smashing heat marks.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says last year’s world average temperature was 58 degrees Fahrenheit (14.5 degrees Celsius). That’s a full degree above the 20th century average of 57 F (13.9 C).

That ranks 2012 as the 10th hottest year in NOAA records that go back to 1880. The hottest was 2010.

A La Nina and mild weather in Alaska, Canada and parts of Asia moderated the globe’s average temperature. The U.S. recorded its hottest year ever last year.

NASA, which measures temperatures differently, ranks 2012 as ninth warmest. Both agencies announced the data Tuesday.

 

The French embassy in Bamako sent an email ordering the immediate evacuation of all French nationals living in the Malian town of Segou.

The evacuation order was confirmed by the French owner of a hotel in Segou, who insisted upon anonymity because of the security situation. The hotel owner said that she received the order after the fall on Monday of the garrison town of Diabaly to the al-Qaida-linked rebels occupying northern Mali. Diabaly was seized by the extremists despite heavy bombardment by French special forces, bringing the militants to within 80 kilometers (49 miles) of the southern Mali town of Segou and within 400 kilometers (248 miles) of the capital, Bamako.

French President Francois Hollande authorized the airstrikes last week after the Islamists began their push south.

A southeast Nebraska woman has reported being bilked out of more than $26,000 by someone she met on a dating website.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the woman told deputies that an exchange of messages, phone calls and text began in July.

The woman, who is in her 50s, says the man said he was a civil engineer who traveled the world. He eventually told her he needed to borrow $1,200 for taxes and then more money. She says he told her she would be named a trustee of his mother’s estate, from which he would get a big inheritance and pay the woman back.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office says all she ever got from him were fraudulent documents. She and the man never met in person.

Marine officials say two whales washed up on New York’s Long Island just hours apart. One was dead and the other was later euthanized.

Newsday says they were discovered Sunday on separate stretches of East Hampton beaches.

The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation said they don’t believe the two events are connected.

The first whale was found dead around 8 a.m. in Napeague. Officials say there were no outward signs of what may have caused the death of the 59-foot-long finback whale.

At around 2:30 p.m., officials got a report of a 5-foot-long juvenile pygmy sperm whale in nearby Amagansett. The foundation says it was euthanized because it had skin lesions and appeared “sickly.”

Necropsies will be performed on both mammals on Monday.

UPDATE:

Authorities have identified a body found in a shallow pond in Lincoln as a retired Nebraska district judge.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports William Blue’s body was found Monday morning under a bridge over a creek near Legacy Estates, a retirement home.

The 86-year-old was a resident at Legacy, but he was not in assisted care and was able to come and go.

The newspaper reports police say Blue may have suffered a medical episode. Foul play is not suspected.

An autopsy is scheduled Tuesday.

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Authorities say the body of an elderly man has been found in a pond on the southeast side of Lincoln.

Police say a report on the body was made around 8:30 a.m. Monday. The pond is near a retirement estate, but it’s not clear yet whether the man lived there.

His name and other details about his death haven’t been released.

Bankruptcy filings in Nebraska have fallen to their lowest level since before the Great Recession.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports the total hit 5,820 in 2012, down 12 percent from 2011. The figure was the lowest since 2007, when the total was more than 5,360.

Attorney Trev Peterson handles bankruptcies for a Lincoln firm. He says improved economic conditions, especially in the housing market, have led to fewer foreclosures and have played a big role in the drop in filings.

Omaha attorney Sam Turco says the federal mortgage modification program has helped keep people out of foreclosure and bankruptcy.

In a news release earlier this month, American Bankruptcy Institute Executive Director Samuel Gerdano predicted that filings will fall again this year nationally.

Coca-Cola became one of the world’s most powerful brands by equating its soft drinks with happiness. Now it’s taking to the airwaves for the first time to address a growing cloud over the industry: obesity.

The Atlanta-based company on Monday will begin airing a two-minute commercial during the highest-rated shows on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC in hopes of becoming a stronger voice in the intensifying debate over sodas and their impact on public health.

The ad lays out Coca-Cola’s record of providing drinks with fewer calories over the years and notes that weight gain is the result of consuming too many calories of any kind — not just soda.

Coca-Cola says the campaign will kick off a variety of moves that help address obesity in the year ahead.

Following 10 years as The New School president in New York City and his failed Nebraska bid to return to the U.S. Senate, Bob Kerrey is going back to higher education.

Kerrey has taken a job as executive chairman of a startup in higher education, The Minerva Project. The for-profit university bills itself as more rigorous than Ivy League schools, with the ability to admit vastly more students for about half the cost of an Ivy League education. The school plans to begin classes in 2015.

Kerrey, a former Nebraska governor and two-term U.S. senator, says his new job will be based in San Francisco but will be part-time.