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MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - The world's top polluting nations were told on Wednesday to prepare for decades of weather turmoil, even if they act now to curb emissions and pursue green energy sources. Environment and energy ministers meeting in the Mexican city of Monterrey vowed to work faster to control global warming as scientists told them each year wasted in curbing greenhouse gas emissions would cost them dearly. The informal talks did not set emissions-cutting targets, but delegates agreed on the need to expand the global carbon trading market to provide investment for green initiatives. British Environment Secretary David Miliband...

Pack up or die, street vendors told By Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad and Colin Freeman (Filed: 04/06/2006) As the purveyors of nothing spicier than the odd dash of hot chilli sauce, Baghdad's falafel vendors had never imagined their snacks might be deemed a threat to public morality. Now, though, their simple offerings of chickpeas fried in breadcrumbs have gone the same way as alcohol, pop music and foreign films - labelled theologically impure by the country's growing number of Islamic zealots. In a bizarre example of Iraq's creeping "Talibanisation", militants visited falafel vendors a fortnight ago, telling them to pack...

Dutch told to return land they won from the sea By David Rennie in Zaamslag (Filed: 27/05/2006) A photograph of a grinning boy, riding a toy tractor, has pride of place in the kitchen of Aarnout and Magda de Feijter, the owners of a 148-acre farm in the Dutch province of Zeeland. The picture is of their first grandson, Louis, and the de Feijters have always dreamed that he will one day take over the expanse of wind-rippled flax fields that has been in their family since 1835. The de Feijters on the dyke protecting their farm But there are...

Traders Sports, one of the biggest gun dealers in the state, hopes a hearing in U.S. District Court next week will keep them in business. Traders has been under scrutiny for several years by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), which is trying to shut down the gun dealer. The ATF decided to revoke Traders gun permit on June 1. After an audit in 2003, the ATF claims that Traders can’t account for 1,767 weapons, and that guns sold at Traders turn up in crimes at an alarming rate. ATF spokeswoman Marti McKee said she couldn’t comment on...

MP told she is 'not a citizen' By Joan Clements in The Hague (Filed: 17/05/2006) The Dutch MP who lied to gain asylum fought back tears yesterday as she confirmed she was resigning her seat after being told her citizenship may be withdrawn. Somalian-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali also said she was leaving for America. She said her job was now "impossible" after a "shocking" letter from Rita Verdonk, the immigration minister, saying Miss Hirsi Ali could no longer consider herself Dutch because of the lies she told the immigration authorities in 1992.

War on terrorism will last 20 years, West told By Isambard Wilkinson in Kundi Ghar (Filed: 01/05/2006) "The West cannot expect quick results in the war on terrorism," said a young Pakistani major as he surveyed the restive Afghan province of Paktika from a bunker 10,000ft up in the mountains. "It took 20 years to create this situation and it will take the same to resolve it. The tribesmen here have a medieval mind-set and foreign fighters are entrenched in the community." Pakistani soldiers watch the border with Afghanistan It has been eight years since America first launched cruise missiles...

Find a job and a future in Britain, French told By Colin Randall in Paris (Filed: 06/04/2006) As protesters throughout France continue their revolt against job law reform, the French author of a new guide to working in Britain says his country is in dire need of "our own Maggie Thatcher". Vladimir Cordier, 30, an economics graduate, abandoned his native Normandy eight years ago for London after refusing to settle for what he saw as a hopeless future in France. After finding work in a call centre, he changed jobs several times and now earns between £40,000 and £50,000 a...

Teachers told to find sterilisation 'volunteers' in villages By Peter Foster in New Delhi (Filed: 25/02/2006) Thousands of primary school teachers have been ordered to find two "volunteers" for sterilisation as part of a draconian solution to India's population explosion. The order was issued to 6,400 teachers in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state (pop 170 million), where the teachers have been given until March 31 to meet the "sterilisation target" or face disciplinary action. The plan, imposed by a district magistrate in the southern city of Allahabad, is a radical approach to dealing with India's population of almost 1.1...

Actor Bruce Willis wanted to serve his country as far back as the Gulf War. His friends laughed at him, telling him he was too old. Undaunted, Willis looked into himself – only to find out they were right. He was too old. So the star of "Die Hard," "The Sixth Sense," "Hostage" and dozens of other movies, did the next best thing. He traveled to Iraq with his band, the Accelerators, to entertain troops with the USO. He is also planning to join returning troops at Fort Lewis in Washington state Nov. 5. "The idea of serving my country...

A lawyer for San Diego's retirement system determined in May 2004 that board members likely had broken the state conflict-of-interest law – a conclusion reached in private one year before prosecutors brought charges against six current and former pension trustees. In a May 13, 2004, memo, Michael A. Leone wrote that it was "probable" that a court would find that the law was broken when the trustees voted to adopt a city proposal to continue underfunding the pension system while simultaneously enhancing future benefits for city workers. The memo is one of 60,000 documents and e-mail messages released last week...

Private attorneys hired by San Diego's pension system determined that the pension board violated the trust of current and future retirees by allowing the City Council to continue delaying full payment of money it owed the fund. The attorneys, in a March 5, 2003, legal opinion made public yesterday, said pension board members placed their needs above those of the retirement fund and its beneficiaries when they agreed to a 2002 city proposal to underfund the pension system by temporarily reducing the annual payment into it. The arrangement, which also cleared the way for the city to increase employee pension...

US airmen told to stay away from capital By David Sapsted (Filed: 12/07/2005) All 12,000 American airmen based in Britain have been banned from going near London because of the bombings. The directive, issued on Friday, indefinitely bans USAF personnel, most of them based at the huge airfields at Lakenheath and Mildenhall in Suffolk, from going inside the M25. Families of the servicemen and women are being "highly encouraged" to stay away, too. While Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, was boarding an Underground train yesterday and declaring that "we don't let a small group of terrorists change the way...

Four detectives allegedly stole $100,000 worth of marijuana during a drug raid at St Kilda Marina then conspired to sell it, a jury was told yesterday. The County Court heard that the four men, from St Kilda police station, intercepted the drugs after a tip-off. Crown prosecutor Colin Hillman, SC, told the court that a drug dealer, Daniel May, had allegedly arranged to deliver the cannabis, from South Australia, to an associate at the marina in May 1999. Mr Hillman said the cannabis was wrapped in vacuum packs and moved from Mr May's Patterson Lakes home to the marina using...

Republicans vow retaliation in ethics feud Democrats are told to expect rash of inquiries into actions By KAREN MacPHERSON BLADE WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - Angry House Republicans yesterday warned their Democratic colleagues to expect a spate of inquiries into possible ethics violations in retaliation for forcing GOP leaders to jettison controversial new rules for ethics probes. The Republican admonitions came a day after House GOP leaders, under intense pressure from Democrats, made a rare policy reversal and grudgingly scrapped ethics rules they had pushed through the House only a few months ago. Republicans contended the rules made the ethics process...

Informer told police of Spanish bomb plot By Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid (Filed: 25/04/2005) A political row over the al-Qa'eda train bombings in Madrid was rekindled yesterday after it emerged that a police informer had issued a warning three months before that Islamist terrorists were plotting the massacre. The Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, which came to power three days after the attacks, accused its centre-Right predecessor of "lies" and a "monumental lack of foresight" after the information emerged when security services documents were made public by the judge in charge of the case, Juan del Olmo. The...

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WASHINGTON (Nov. 15) - Two television advertisements for Pfizer Inc.'s impotence drug Viagra should be withdrawn for claiming a return of sexual desire and omitting key information, the Food and Drug Administration said in a letter to the company released on Monday. The ads, with a voice-over that includes "Remember that guy who used to be called 'wild thing'?" and later says "He's back," failed to mention major side effects and why certain patients should not take Viagra, the FDA said. The FDA's letter, dated Nov. 10, also said the 30- and 15-second ads omit to mention that Viagra is...

SAN FRANCISCO - Top deputies to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley were informed that consultants hired to do nonpartisan voter education work were attending Democratic events on his behalf and attempting to boost his public image, according to documents obtained by a newspaper. Memos titled "Week-Ahead Reports" show that top officials in Shelley's office were routinely informed of the contractors' upcoming schedules and plans, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. A "Democratic Club" luncheon and efforts to "get exposure for KS (Kevin Shelley) in Southern California" were among activities mentioned in the memos. The newspaper's report is the latest revelation in...