Reuters

Britain, Europe's biggest natural-gas consumer, should meet its electricity needs by relying on gas-fired plants and renewable energy sources in the next decade rather than nuclear power, a group of lawmakers said in a report released Sunday.

The Bush administration publicly asserted that two trailers captured by U.S. troops in Iraq in May 2003 were mobile "biological laboratories" even after U.S. intelligence officials had evidence that it was not true, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

South Korea suffered its worst yellow dust storm in four years at the weekend, a choking pall of sand mixed with toxic chemicals, and meteorologists warned on Monday of more to come. By Jon Herskovitz

The United States urged China on Tuesday to clean up its environment ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as China's top environmental agency warned Beijing citizens to stay home to avoid serious air pollution.

Two environmental groups said on Monday soil samples from an area east of New Orleans hit by an oil spill during Hurricane Katrina last year show high levels of diesel and arsenic contamination.

An experimental vaccine against H5N1 bird flu only appears to work at the very highest doses, meaning it will be harder than feared to protect the population against a pandemic, researchers said on Wednesday.

Insured property losses from hurricanes in Florida and the Gulf Coast are likely to be 40 percent higher for at least the next five years, a leading consultant said on Thursday in one of the most forward-looking studies in the industry. By Ed Leefeldt

About 40 percent of the Amazon's rainforests could be lost by 2050 unless more is done to prevent what could become one of the world's worst environmental crisis, scientists said on Wednesday.

Abortion rights supporters on Tuesday responded to South Dakota's strict new abortion law by organizing protests, raising money and debating whether to use legal action or a statewide vote to try to strike down the law.

Evidence that humans are to blame for global warming is rising but governments are doing too little to counter the threat, the head of the United Nations climate panel said on Monday. By Alister Doyle

Global trading in greenhouse gas credits grew explosively last year to be worth more than nine billion euros, 25 times the value of deals recorded in 2004, according to a report published on Tuesday.

Britons must use less water or face rationing as the country suffers its worst drought in a century, the head of the country's Environment Agency said on Friday.

The Carlyle Group is set to boost its investment in the renewable energy sector as demand from US state entities is rising, the firm's founder and managing director, David Rubenstein, said on Wednesday. By Michael Flaherty and Siobhan Kennedy

Honda Motor Co. plans to sell a low-cost hybrid car, a version of its popular Fit subcompact, a Japanese daily reported, signalling the auto maker's long-term commitment to the fuel-sipping powertrain.

Scarce rains are stirring fears of a repeat of 2005's severe drought in France and Spain this year, with water reserves already low and falling, officials said on Thursday. By Sybille de La Hamaide

Greenland's glaciers are dumping twice as much ice into the Atlantic Ocean now as five years ago because glaciers are moving and melting more quickly, researchers said on Thursday. By Maggie Fox

Democratic lawmakers on Thursday slammed the Bush administration's proposal to cut funds for a government program that helps poor people "weatherize" their homes, even though the White House's energy task force recommended increasing money for the program. By Tom Doggett

Bolivia's foreign minister says coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine, are so nutritious they should be included on school breakfast menus.

NASA, accused of censoring its scientists on global warming and the origin of the universe, pledged on Wednesday to reform its policies to ensure "open and full communications."

A deadly fungus is creeping through Panama, killing hundreds of thousands of amphibians and putting the country's national symbol, the golden frog, at risk of extinction, scientists say. By Mike Power

Global warming could threaten the new Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest, within a decade, a Chinese researcher said in remarks published on Sunday.

A top British environmentalist said on Friday the developing world needed to spend at least $40 billion more every year to fight climate change.

Two major glaciers in Greenland have recently begun to flow and break up more quickly under the onslaught of global warming, a new study said on Friday, raising the spectre of millions drowning from rising sea levels. By Jeremy Lovell

Germany's SolarWorld has bought Shell Group's loss-making silicon solar operations for an undisclosed sum, making it the biggest player in the US solar energy market, it said on Thursday. By Mantik Kusjanto and Anneli Palmen

US President George W. Bush said on Tuesday "America is addicted to oil" from the Middle East and must break its dependence, in a State of the Union speech that promised aggressive American engagement around the world in defiance of critics. By Steve Holland

U.S. forces in Iraq, in two instances described in military documents, took custody of the wives of men believed to be insurgents in an apparent attempt to pressure the suspects into giving themselves up. By Will Dunham

All five of the hottest years since modern record-keeping began in the 1890s occurred within the last decade, according to analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. By Deborah Zabarenko

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday there was strong international consensus against Iran's nuclear plans and time had run out for talking to Tehran.

The $25 billion American reconstruction effort in Iraq was hobbled from the start by understaffing, a lack of technical expertise, bureaucratic infighting, secrecy and rising security costs, The New York Times reported on Monday.

A human rights group said on Wednesday that torture and other abuses committed by the United States in its war on terrorism have damaged American credibility and hurt the global human rights cause. By Paul Eckert