AFP

The recent discovery of a huge underground lake in Sudan could spell an end to four years of conflict in the drought-stricken region of Darfur, a US geologist said Wednesday.

Water containing some radioactive materials leaked from a nuclear power plant in Japan after a strong earthquake Monday, a spokesman for the firm running the facility said.

About 300 oil industry workers gathered in Iraq's main oil port of Basra on Monday to protest a draft law that they said would allow foreigners to pillage the country's wealth."

Oil is a key factor keeping Australian troops in the US-led war in Iraq, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said Thursday, before his boss Prime Minister John Howard sharply contradicted him. By Neil Sands

Concern about global warming has more than doubled since last October, a worldwide consumer survey released on Wednesday by research group Nielsen has found.

Communism may be oppressive, but it seems as though capitalism is bad for men's health, according to a recent study which found significant increases in mortality rates after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Food production in developing countries will halve in the next 20 years unless wealthy nations lower their rate of consumption, the Stockholm Environment Institute warned at a weekend conference. By Anita Purcell-Sjoelund

Recent floods in Asia and Britain, and heatwaves in southern Europe, show the world must be better prepared to cope with the impact of climate change, the United Nation's top disaster prevention official said Wednesday.

A searing heatwave has killed at least 46 people across southern Europe while in Britain torrential rain claimed three lives and forced hundreds to flee a creaking dam. By Anca Teodorescu

With much of England bracing itself for the "wettest day in 50 years" the 121st Wimbledon got off to the kind of soggy start that has become as traditional as strawberries and cream at the biggest tournament in tennis. By Angus MacKinnon

The development of Canada's oil sands is laying waste to its great northern forest and western plains, say critics who point to skyrocketing greenhouse gas emissions, diverted rivers and razed backwoods. By Guillaume Lavallee

Global warming could create some 200 million climate refugees by 2040 and the bulk of the affected will be people living in poor countries, Greenpeace warned on Wednesday.

A group of US scientists have warned that a UN panel on climate change underestimated the scale of sea-level increases this century resulting from global warming, The Independent reported on Tuesday.

Nigeria filed a lawsuit Monday for seven billion dollars (5.2 billion euros) damages from Pfizer over a drug test in which about 200 children were either killed or deformed, court officials said.

About a thousand anti-globalisation and anti-poverty campaigners are convening in Mali on Monday for a forum to counter the G8 summit of rich states due in Germany this week.

Punches and kicks flew, eggs and insults were hurled, and several global gay rights supporters were arrested Sunday as activists defied a state ban and briefly staged Moscow's second ever Gay Pride march. By Karim Talbi

The Spanish government on Friday said it had agreed a process to calculate the extent of severe flood damage and get emergency aid to the areas worst affected after several days of heavy rain in much of the country.

US President George W. Bush has been told to prepare for a British U-turn on Iraq once Gordon Brown becomes prime minister, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said.

At least one billion people risk fleeing their homes over the next four decades because of conflicts and natural disasters that will worsen with global warming, a relief agency warned Monday.

Israel's pro-settler policies in the occupied West Bank town of Hebron have forced thousands of Palestinians to leave and businesses to close, an Israeli rights report said on Monday.

Global warming threatens to wreak economic havoc across the Mediterranean basin, warned scientists from 62 research institutes who have banded together to study the regional consequences of climate change and propose ways to adapt. By Marlowe Hood

As Australian farmer Philip Bell coaxed his cattle along the road, a bystander nodded toward a straggler ambling behind the rest of the herd searching for an overlooked tussock of grass. By Neil Sands

A demand by China, India and Brazil that rich nations accept they are mainly responsible for global warming has held up progress at a key UN climate change conference here, delegates said Wednesday. By Emmanuel Angleys

For the first time in its history, the UN Security Council on Tuesday will debate climate change, a sign that the burning issue is increasingly being seen as a major threat to world security.

India on Thursday test-fired a nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile which can reach the Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai, defence officials said.

American plans to build a missile defence system in Europe would "fundamentally alter the continent's geo-strategic landscape," Russia's foreign minister said in an article published on Wednesday.

US beekeepers have been stung in recent months by the mysterious disappearance of millions of bees threatening honey supplies as well as crops which depend on the insects for pollination.Bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has see

US fast-food giant Burger King said Wednesday it was beefing up its purchases of pork and eggs from farmers who practice humane animal treatment. By Justin Cole

US Vice President Dick Cheney has assured political allies that an early withdrawal of US forces from Iraq would not be allowed, despite efforts by Congress to impose a deadline on US combat operations there.

Tens of thousands demonstrated yesterday across several European cities in protest against the war in Iraq, ahead of the fourth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.