Associated Press

The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people will not have enough water, top scientists are likely to say next month at a meeting in Belgium.

Just an hour's drive outside this traffic-choked metropolis where U.S. President George W. Bush kicks off a Latin American tour Thursday, sugar cane fields stretch for hundreds of miles (kilometers), providing the ethanol that fuels eight out of every 10 new Brazilian cars.

The poor must adapt to climate change using local knowledge, according to experts from around the world gathered at a conference in Bangladesh.

A suspected al-Qaida-linked insurgent leader accused of financing attacks and recruiting fighters was captured in southern Iraq, police said Friday. The U.S. military, meanwhile, said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties in fighting in Ramadi, the volatile capital of Anbar province.

China's recent anti-satellite weapons test and its continued military buildup are "not consistent" with its stated aim of a peaceful rise as a global power, Vice President Dick Cheney said Friday. By Rohan Sullivan

A World Bank study has found that a rise of one 1 meter (3.3 feet) in sea levels from global warming would force about 60 million people in developing countries to abandon their homes as waters submerged large swaths of coastal areas.

The Dixie Chicks completed a defiant comeback on Sunday night, capturing five Grammy awards after being shunned by the country music establishment over the group's anti-Bush comments leading up to the Iraq invasion. By Nekesa Mumbi Moody

He 'has put climate change on the agenda,' two Norwegian sponsors say

Representatives met recently in Georgia and agreed on the need for urgent action. Details on the talks will be disclosed in Washington on Wednesday. By Rodrique Ngowi

Meat and milk from cloned animals may not appear in supermarkets for years despite being deemed by the government as safe to eat. But don't be surprised if "clone-free" labels appear sooner. By Libby Quaid

Ranchers and farmers hope lack of rain that hurt state's economy will end in 2007. By Betsy Blaney

Floods Kill at Least 94 People in Indonesia, Malaysia; Looting Breaks Out in Abandoned Areas. By Binsar Bakkara

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told The Associated Press on Thursday that Iraq is "worth the investment" in American lives and dollars and said the U.S. can still win a conflict that has been more difficult than she expected. By Anne Gearan

Rivers of ice at the Equator -- foretold in the 2nd century, found in the 19th -- are now melting away in this new century, returning to the realm of lore and fading photographs. By Charles J. Hanley

The military in Fiji ordered a state of emergency a day after overthrowing the government. But some resistance developed. By Ray Lilley

Scientists are peering into the clouds near the top of the world, trying to solve a mystery and learn something new about global warming. By Beth Duff-Brown

A U.N. agency said Saturday that Israel laid mines in Lebanon during this summer's war between the Jewish state and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group — the first time Israel has been accused of planting mines during the latest fighting.

'Very different and frightening world' coming faster than expected, scientists warn. By Seth Borenstein

Americans' approval of President Bush's handling of Iraq has dropped to the lowest level ever, increasing the pressure on the commander in chief to find a way out after nearly four years of war.

Signs of warming continue in the Arctic with a decline in sea ice, an increase in shrubs growing on the tundra and rising concerns about the Greenland ice sheet. By Randolph Schmid

The United States, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, staunchly defended its record on battling global warming Wednesday, as the U.N. chief lamented a "frightening lack" of international leadership on climate change. By Elizabeth A. Kennedy

Immigrants arrested in the United States may be held indefinitely on suspicion of terrorism and may not challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts, the Bush administration said Monday, opening a new legal front in the fight over the rights of detainees.

A long-awaited report by an international scientific network will offer much stronger evidence of how man is changing Earth's climate, and should prompt balky governments into action against global warming, the group's chief scientist said Monday. By Charles J. Hanley

Presidential advisor Karl Rove blasted Democrats on Friday for even suggesting the U.S. withdraw from Iraq, saying the U.S. can't leave one of the world's largest oil reserves in terrorist hands. By Todd Richmond

Researchers fear more than half the world's coral reefs could die in less than 25 years and say global warming may at least partly to blame. By Mat Probasco

More than 10 million people are at risk for lung infection, cancer and shortened life expectancy because they live in the 10 worst-polluted cities in the world, according to a report issued Wednesday. By Tracee Herbaugh

About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year, according to a poll in that country. By Barry Schweid

The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. By Randolph E. Schmid

The defense minister urged Colombians not to lose faith in the military after army officers were accused of staging bomb attacks — one of which killed a civilian and wounded 10 soldiers — that were attributed to leftist rebels.

The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, a former lawyer at the agency says. By John Dunbar