UN chief: Give up meat to prevent global warming
The head of the UN's climate change panel has said that people should give up eating meat at least once a week in order to help prevent global warming. Economist Dr Rajendra Pachauri said reducing meat consumption was "the most attractive opportunity", and would be an easier way to make a dramatic impact in a short time than trying to change travel habits. He said: "Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there." Meat production causes a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. (Observer)
Two years to climate change meltdown 
What happened to the climate change consensus?
Pakistan shrugs as President Zardari sworn in
Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, will be sworn-in today as president of Pakistan after winning an indirect vote in the country's National Assembly and four provincial parliaments. His election was not widely celebrated publicly, with a poll last week showing that 44 per cent of the population rejected all three candidates for the post. Yesterday, a bomb in the western city Peshawar killed 17 and injured many more. Mr Zardari looks set to remain head of the Pakistan People's Party, despite also becoming head of state. (Observer)
Musharraf's going will change less than you may think
Reduce immigration, says Field
Labour rebel Frank Field is to team up with Nicholas Soames and other MPs to form the first cross-party immigration group, to call for a huge reduction in the number of immigrants settling in the UK. The move is a direct provocation to Gordon Brown. Field, who led the backbench rebellion over the 10p rate of tax, claims Britain's immigration policy is costing jobs and is deeply unpopular with voters. Meanwhile, another rebel MP, Rob Marris, backed down on the issue of a windfall tax on power generating companies, saying it was no longer a "deal-breaker". (Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday)
Obesity blamed on pollution
A major new scientific study says that pollution can make children fat. The research, conducted in Spain, found a link between exposure to chemical contamination, including pesticides, while in the womb and childhood obesity. One possibility is that a fungicide formerly used on wheat products, and which persists in the environment despite now being banned, could build up in the placenta or be passed through breast milk, causing fat cells to develop in the foetus. A fifth of all British children are now obese. (Independent on Sunday)
British lies over Kenya murder
The British authorities obstructed the investigation by John Ward into the death of his daughter Julie, who was murdered after almost certainly being raped in Kenya in 1988, a leaked report claims. The independent report, compiled for Lincolnshire police, says there is "clear evidence of inconsistency and contradictions, falsehoods and downright lies" by the Foreign Office and the British High Commision. Mr Ward suspects the authorities were trying to maintain good relations with corrupt Kenyan premiere Daniel Arap Moi. (Sunday Telegraph)
More bad weather is to hit the UK, with severe flood warnings in place across the north-east, North Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Forty homes close to the river Wansbeck in Morpeth, Northumberland were evacuated yesterday as water levels rose. Five people have been killed by the severe weather so far. (Observer)
A junior Government minister has apologised for bombarding a young female aide with suggestive text messages. Forty-one-year-old health minister Ivan Lewis (pictured), who had just divorced his wife at the time, sent so many messages to 24-year-old Susie Mason that she asked to be moved to another office. (Mail on Sunday)
The mother of Christopher Foster, the millionaire suspected of shooting dead his wife and 15-year-old daughter before setting fire to his home and taking his own life, said yesterday he had not told anybody he was in financial difficulties. Enid Foster said her son could not face telling his family "they were going to lose everything". (Independent on Sunday)
David Cameron has said he would like a general election "as soon as possible" as he held out fresh hope of tax cuts should the Conservatives get into power. Speaking three weeks before his party conference, Mr Cameron hinted he would bring in cuts for those who "put their backs into the British economy". (Sunday Telegraph)
Millions of people across the world are braced for extreme storms in one of the worst hurricane seasons in living memory. Haiti faces the threat of yet more bad weather as Hurricane Ike heads across the Caribbean with windspeeds of 120mph, while storm warnings have been issued all along the US Atlantic coast. (Independent on Sunday)
In pictures: Hurricane Gustav
The Large Hadron Collider, a vast science experiment to be switched on in Europe on Wednesday, may bring spin-off benefits including advances in healthcare and research into climate change, it has been claimed. Last week a legal challenge was launched to stop the project, which it was claimed could create a black hole. (Sunday Times)
Sarah Palin, Republican vice-presidential candidate, is outshining her running mate, such is the enthusiasm generated by her first tour of middle America. Meanwhile, she has been accused with her husband of mounting a "vendetta" against her brother-in-law, a state trooper in Alaska who was investigated at their insistance. (Sunday Times)
Alexander Cockburn: Sarah Palin, Boadicea of the backwoods
Sarah Palin 'affair': Media quiet as 'lover' named
In pictures: Sarah Palin's life
Speculation is mounting over the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The 66-year-old dictator, and self-proclaimed world's greatest golfer, has not been seen in public for more than three weeks. According to one report, five Chinese doctors are at his bedside. Mr Kim is said to have chronic heart disease and diabetes. (Independent on Sunday)
A former heavy-metal fan and computer nerd born in California who became al-Qaeda's propaganda chief may have been killed in a CIA-directed air strike on Pakistan's border, Western intelligence sources say. Adam Gadahn, who last year produced a DVD for Osama bin Laden, has not been heard from in months. (Sunday Telegraph)
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, is on the brink of suspending the Government's so-called "golden rule" under which the country can only borrow to invest and not to fund current spending. The golden rule is one of the fiscal principals which were the centrepiece of Gordon Brown's period as Chancellor. (Independent on Sunday)
The Business pages
China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, has built up an estimated £9bn of shares in UK FTSE-100 companies, including HSBC, Tesco and Unilever - far more than analysts had previously thought. Most of the stake purchases have taken place during the past year. (Sunday Telegraph)
US mortgage banks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are to be put into 'conservatorship' today, in the biggest financial bail-out of recent history. The US government is expected to inject between $15bn and $20bn of cash into the banks, which hold most of America's mortgages between them. (Sunday Times)
Freddie and Fannie: an American racket
Author Lynda La Plante, creator of Prime Suspect, has aroused anger from Holocaust survivors after it was alleged that parts of her 1993 novel Entwined bear striking similarities to Five Chimneys, a memoir published in 1947 by Auschwitz survivor Olga Lengyel. La Plante only admits she "used a researcher" while writing. (Independent on Sunday)
Robert Hughes, the Australian critic who is the world's best-known champion of modern painting and sculpture is to slam Damien Hirst's work as "absurd" and "tacky". In a TV essay to be shown this week, Hughes, famous for his 1980 series The Shock of the New, will protest at the over-commodification of art. (Observer)
Damien Hirst’s ‘middling merchandise’
Damien Hirst's brush with democracy
Mickey Rourke has pulled off a remarkable Hollywood comeback after The Wrestler won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion award for best picture. The film, in which the 51-year-old hellraiser plays an ageing wrestler who is told one more fight could kill him, was directed by Darren Aronofsky. Rourke, who enjoyed success in the 1980s with Diner, Angel Heart and Nine-and-a-Half Weeks, had been out of work for 15 years and was not paid for his role in the film. (Observer)
In pictures: The Venice Film Festival
