AFP

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who triggered the demise of the Soviet Union's Communist empire, said in an interview that the United States was "intoxicated" by its power and should not impose its will on others.

The Iraq war is now as unpopular at home as the Vietnam war was in 1968, but in the absence of a military draft and a clear way out, Americans are not taking to the streets, analysts say.

US military officers, breaking with domestic and international legal precedent, said that "war on terror" military tribunals at the Guantanamo naval base could allow evidence obtained through torture. By Rob Jennings

Global warming could cause ice at both poles of the Earth to start melting this century, driving up sea levels, according to a major study published by the British government.

Pakistani police tear-gassed tribesmen who burned down a US-funded aid agency office after the deaths of 18 villagers in an airstrike targeting Al-Qaeda's number two, witnesses said.

An extraordinary burst of global warming that occurred around 55 million years ago dramatically reversed Earth's pattern of ocean currents, a finding that strengthens modern-day concern about climate change, a study says.

"Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order."

Portugal is turning to wind, wave and solar power to reduce its huge dependence on oil imports and meet its international commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Saturday in Montreal, host of the UN Climate Change Conference, to demand that governments worldwide take concrete measures against global warming.

The impact of spiralling pollution on the planet poses a threat to civilisation just as catastrophic as much-vaunted weapons of mass destruction, Britain's top scientist warned on Monday.

Urgent action is needed to tackle domestic violence against women, which is widespread, deep-rooted and largely hidden in a wide range of societies, a study by the UN health agency said.

A mutated strain of bird flu has been found in samples taken in Cambodia, but it is not known if the new strain is more lethal than that which has killed four people here, health officials said.

The world may not end with a bang or even a whimper -- just a burp! This is the worrying scenario sketched by a French expert, who has discovered that the world's cattle are huge contributors to global warming because of the methane emitted by their belches. By Odile Meuvret

Former US president Bill Clinton sharply criticised George W. Bush for the Iraq War and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the swelling US budget deficit.

Rolling Stones superstar Mick Jagger said he was "shocked" by British Prime Minister Tony Blair's attitude toward Iraq and doubts whether the legendary rock and roll band will one day perform in Baghdad, the magazine El Pais Semanal reported on Sunday.

A new draft US defense paper calls for preventive nuclear strikes against state and non-state adversaries in order to deter them from using weapons of mass destruction and urges US troops to "prepare to use nuclear weapons effectively."

The Greenpeace environmental group denounced a UN report that radiation released from Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant nearly two decades ago may cause fewer deaths than expected as "whitewashing" the impact of the world's worst nuclear accident.

At least 965 Iraqis were crushed to death or drowned in a stampede on a Baghdad bridge as vast crowds of Shiite pilgrims were sent into panic by rumours of suicide bombers in their midst

At least 20 oil rigs and platforms are missing in the Gulf of Mexico and a ruptured gas pipeline is on fire after Hurricane Katrina tore through the region, a US Coast Guard official said.

Bomb seeking robots, spy planes and a handheld device that translates a soldier's English commands or questions into Arabic are some of the high-tech battlefield equipment developed for use by US forces in Iraq.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld attacked signs of a softening will to wage a global war against terrorism, declaring that "resolve, not retreat" was needed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Telesur, the Latin American television network created by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to counter the "hegemony" of international networks like CNN, hit the airwaves for the first time.

Brazilian Health Minister Humberto Costa said he was aiming to halve the cost of a key HIV / AIDS medicine by breaking the patent of the Abbott Laboratories drug under an international agreement.

The debate on global warming is likely to see President George W. Bush in an awkward position at next week's G8 summit, with no change in his administration's position on signing the Kyoto protocol.

The US government has a new plan to freeze US assets of individuals or companies doing business with entities in Iran, North Korea and Syria thought to be involved in weapons programs.

President George W. Bush defended the war in Iraq, telling Americans the United States was forced into war because of the September 11 terror strikes.

British officials believed the U.S. favored military force a year before the war, documents show. By John Daniszewski

"What happens in America is -- what seems bizarre -- that some of the recommendations that we give to families to prevent underweight of children are the same as we give to prevent overweight. We recommend families not to give their children junk food."

The House passed a bill Wednesday that would make it illegal to dodge parental-consent laws by taking minors across state lines for abortions, the latest effort to chip away at abortion rights after Republican gains in the November elections. By Laurie Kellman

Amnesty International blasted the United States for failing to launch an independent probe into Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison scandal, a year after images of abused detainees first shocked the world.