There is no conflict in believing in God and having some "extraterrestrial kinsmen'. It's not Steven Spielberg saying this but Jose Gabriel Funes, Vatican's chief astronomer. "The possibility of life

A deer with a single horn in the centre of its head

Some good ideas, but too little cash, were among the fruits of a global gathering

The cost of carbon dioxide emissions would need to be at least $200 per tonne - many times today's levels - to deliver the cuts scientists propose will be needed to avert the threat of global warming, the International Energy Agency said yesterday. The rich countries' energy watchdog warned that the cost of emissions, set by trading schemes or carbon taxes, would need to be that high to make investment in technologies such as hydrogen-fuelled vehicles commercially viable.

Rome: World food production must rise by 50% by 2030 to meet increasing demand, UN chief Ban Ki-moon told world leaders on Tuesday at a summit grappling with hunger and civil unrest caused by food price hikes. The secretary-general told the Rome summit that nations must minimize export restrictions and import tariffs during the food price crisis and quickly resolve world trade talks. "The world needs to produce more food,' Ban said.

Soaring prices at Europe's superMarkets and petrol stations require a coordinated response by the world's top eight economies rather than fiscal or monetary policy changes, EU finance ministers said on Tuesday. "We have to accept external shocks and we have to discuss (this) at a multilateral level," said Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia ahead of a monthly meeting of the EU's finance ministers.

Rich countries came under attack yesterday at the United Nations food summit for their biofuel subsidies and production targets, declining spending on development aid for agriculture and large subsidies to European and US farmers. Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, told heads of state and governments gathered in Rome that "nobody" understood why cereals had been diverted from human consumption "mostly to satisfy a thirst for fuel vehicles".

A United Nations summit on the global food crisis called on Tuesday for trade barriers to be reduced and food export bans scrapped to help stop the spread of hunger that threatens nearly one billion people. "Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when man-made," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the Rome summit, where the United States and Brazil defended biofuel production from charges that it pushes up world food prices.