Climate change is "a myth," sea levels are not rising and Britain's chief scientist is "an embarrassment" for believing catastrophe is inevitable. These are the controversial views of a new London-based think-tank that will publish a report today attacking the apocalyptic view that man-made greenhouse gases will destroy the planet. \nThe International Policy Network will publish its long-awaited study, claiming that the science warning of an environmental disaster caused by climate change is "fatally flawed." It will state that previous predictions of changes in sea level of a meter over the next 100 years were overestimates. \nInstead, the report will say that sea level rises will reach a maximum of just 20cm during the next century, adding that global warming could, in fact, benefit mankind by increasing fish stocks. \nThe report's views closely mirror those held by many of US President George Bush's senior advisers, who have been accused of derailing attempts to reach international agreement over how to prevent climate change. \nThe report is set to cause controversy. The network, which has links with some of the President's advisers, has received cash donations from the US oil giant ExxonMobil, which has long lobbied against the climate change agenda. Exxon lists the donation as part of its "climate change outreach" program. Environmentalists on Saturday said the network report was an attempt by US neoconservatives to sabotage Prime Minister Tony Blair's attempts to lead the world in tackling climate change. \nIt has close links to the Washington-based organization, the Competitive Enterprise Institute which is run by Bush's top climate adviser Myron Ebell. It was Ebell who recently launched an astonishing personal attack on Britain's chief scientist Sir David King after he described climate change as a greater threat than terrorism.
SYMBOLIC: The bill sponsored by a cross-party group of lawmakers was hailed as a ‘historic moment’ in the fight for marriage equality, but is unlikely to pass Lawmakers in South Korea have proposed the country’s first same-sex marriage bill, in a move hailed by civic groups as a defining moment in the fight for equality. The marriage equality bill, proposed by South Korean lawmaker Jang Hye-yeong of the minor opposition Justice Party and co-sponsored by 12 lawmakers across all the main parties, seeks to amend the country’s civil code to allow same-sex marriage. The bill is unlikely to pass, but forms part of a trio of bills expected to increase pressure on the government to expand the idea of family beyond traditional criteria. The two other bills relate to
OUTSPOKEN: Cresenciano Bunduquin, who was killed by motorcycle-riding shooters, hosted a program about ‘hard-hitting’ local issues such as illegal gambling and politics A radio broadcaster was yesterday fatally shot outside his home in the central Philippines, police said, the latest in a long list of journalists killed in the country. Cresenciano Bunduquin, 50, was killed by motorcycle-riding shooters in Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro province, police Colonel Samuel Delorino said. One of the assailants died after Bunduquin’s son hit the shooters with his vehicle as they fled the scene of the pre-dawn attack. “The remaining suspect was able to run off. The hot pursuit operation is still ongoing,” Delorino said. The archipelago nation is one of the most dangerous places in the world for
‘NATURAL CAUSES’: New evidence indicated Kathleen Folbigg’s two daughters died of myocarditis caused by genetics, while a son died of a neurogenetic disorder An Australian woman who spent 20 years in prison was pardoned and released yesterday based on new scientific evidence that her four children died by natural causes as she had insisted. The pardon was seen as the quickest way of getting Kathleen Folbigg out of prison and a final report from the second inquiry into her guilt could recommend that the state Court of Appeals quash her convictions. Folbigg, now 55, was released from a prison in Grafton, New South Wales, following an unconditional pardon by state Governor Margaret Beazley. Australian state governors are figureheads who act on instructions of governments. New South
ADMITTED TO FAILURE: North Korea apparently used a new launch pad, which might accommodate bigger space launch vehicles, a Washington-based expert said Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, said her country would soon put a military spy satellite into orbit and promised Pyongyang would increase its military surveillance capabilities, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported yesterday. “It is certain that [North Korea’s] military reconnaissance satellite will be correctly put on space orbit in the near future and start its mission,” Kim Yo-jong, a powerful government official in her own right, said in an English-language statement carried by the KCNA. Her remarks came after the failure of a North Korean satellite launch on Wednesday. It might take weeks or more to resolve the
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