Ennobling people from outside Parliament to make them ministers should be “exceptional”, cross-party MPs say.

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Three years after efforts by Congress to reform the immigration system went down in flames, the issue is slowly re-emerging onto the national stage as two senators from the opposite sides of the political aisle work on crafting another bill.

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THE Scottish Government has unveiled a vision for Scotland to lead the way globally in key technology to capture carbon dioxide from power stations and store it underground.

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FOXES and crows should be culled in the Scottish uplands to protect threatened wading birds, scientists have argued.

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PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has sent his “sincere condolences” to the family and friends of three asylum seekers who died in an apparent suicide.

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If there is one clear message coming out of the ECO:nomics Conference, it’s that we need to assign a price or cost to carbon emissions, and soon

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MIAMI — AccuWeather.com said Wednesday it expects five hurricanes to hit the U.S. coast in the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane season, which begins on the first day in June, Reuters reported.

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UNHCR and other agencies also cater for asylum seekers and urban refugees, bringing the total to 142,758, according to UNHCR’s 28 February figures. “Overall, the food security situation in the country deteriorated last year in comparison to the previous year,” UNHCR said in a briefing document.

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Foreign Secretary David Miliband is to urge the Afghan president to seek a political solution to the conflict with the Taliban.

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ABC Correspondent Craig McMurtrie returns to Haiti to ask how the 1.3 million homeless people will survive after emergency workers leave.

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The Broome Shire has accused the West Australian Government of failing to address what it calls the “third world” living conditions of Aboriginal visitors to the town.

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GORDON Brown will today be urged to improve the way asylum seekers with mental health issues are handled by authorities in the wake of the “exceptional tragedy” in whi

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The Department of Environment and Climate Change says Newcastle felt the effects of a big tsunami 50 years ago, making it important to be prepared for any future events.

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The United Nations will today announce an independent review of errors made by its climate change advisory body in an attempt to restore its credibility.

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The State Government is coming under pressure to release more land for housing as the state enters another mining boom.

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About 25 detainees are involved in an incident at an immigration removal centre near Gatwick Airport, the UK Border Agency says.

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HOUSTON — Energy Secretary Steven Chu told participants at a major energy industry gathering here today that they need to ac…

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In case you didn’t catch it, the World Bank’s top official for Africa just thumbed her nose at the dozens of renewable energy companies lining up to build clean energy in Africa’s dirtiest economy.

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Bangladesh’s government is ignoring the plight of thousands of starving Burmese refugees, a US medical charity warns.

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Under a potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information.

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Victims of torture seeking sanctuary in Britain are being denied vital healthcare in detention centres and the community, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found.

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Scientists have discovered that the drastic decline in Arctic musk ox populations that began roughly 12,000 years ago was due to a warming climate rather than to human hunting. The research is the first study to use ancient musk ox DNA collected from across the animal’s former geographic range to test for human impacts on musk ox populations.

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Three people who apparently threw themselves from a tower block in Glasgow on Sunday morning may have been asylum-seekers who had just been informed they were to be deported, it has been suggested.

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Recent news of mammoth icebergs the size of small U.S. states breaking off Antarctica may sound dire. But those events mostly represent business as usual at the world’s southernmost continent, scientists say.

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Obama will meet on Monday with Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC). But let’s be clear. If the meeting is just to “hear more” about immigration reform, it’s not going to cut it.

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GORDON Brown came under renewed fire yesterday as he announced hundreds of vehicles to protect troops during a surprise visit to Afghanistan.

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The Government faces criticism over allegations of abuse of asylum seekers by British guards during their detention and removal from this country. A report to be published next week is expected to make recommendations regarding the use of force by immigration officers and private security guards.

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IN the last week of her historic presidency, the last thing Michelle Bachelet wanted to confront in Chile was the ghost of General Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship.

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The Chilean navy has sacked the head of its oceanography service, saying he failed to provide a clear warning of the deadly tsunami that followed last Saturday’s massive earthquake.

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Lilongwe — As they slept soundly on the night of Feb. 28, a family of four was killed when their house collapsed over their heads in Malawi’s southern district of Chikhwawa.

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School twinning programmes with Third World countries are promoting “neocolonialist” views among pupils, according to research.

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White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro said Obama will meet with Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Monday.

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Chile sacks the head of its oceanographic service following the quake and tsunami, as the official death toll drops to 452.

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The UK Met Office says evidence that human activity is causing climate change is stronger now than in a 2007 assessment.

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The UK is planning to stop attempts to secure “politically-motivated” arrest warrants for visiting foreign officials, the prime minister has said.

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Geologists have found evidence that sea ice extended to the equator 716.5 million years ago, bringing new precision to a “snowball Earth” event long suspected to have taken place around that time. The new findings — based on an analysis of ancient tropical rocks that are now found in remote northwestern Canada — bolster the theory that our planet has, at times in the past, been ice-covered at …

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Findings come from a comprehensive study that evaluated marathon race results, weather data, and air pollutant concentrations in seven marathons over a period of 8 to 28 years. The top three male and female finishing times were compared with the course record and contrasted with air pollutant levels, taking high temperatures that were detrimental to performance into consideration.

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For the majority of the world’s poor, poverty is predominantly a rural issue. What role can philanthropists play in creating the conditions necessary for wide-spread economic growth in rural areas’

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The ongoing El Niño of 2010 is affecting north Pacific Ocean ecosystems in ways that could affect the West Coast fishing industry, according to scientists. Researchers report a stronger than normal northward movement of warm water up the Southern California coast, a high sea-level event in January and low abundances of plankton and pelagic fish — all conditions consistent with El Niño.

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Small and medium entrepreneurs are expected to benefit from the World Bank-funded Cluster Competiveness Programme (CCP) to be launched today.

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Climate change is one reason malaria is on the rise in some parts of the world, new research finds, but other factors such as migration and land-use changes are likely also at play. The research aims to sort out contradictions that have emerged as scientists try to understand why malaria has been spreading into highland areas of East Africa, Indonesia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

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Scientists have found evidence of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor near Antarctica, formerly a blank spot on the map for researchers wanting to learn more about seafloor formation and the bizarre life forms drawn to these extreme environments.

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What’s Your Reaction’ What’s the real reason Greece is in so much trouble’ Old people. The country has a massively generous pension system that’s breaking the government’s back. Remember, the recession hasn’t even been all that deep in comparison to other countries.

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Tens of thousands more immigrants were also given the right to settle in the UK – the total was up 30% to more than 190,000.

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Environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee finds out why the Severn River’s eel population is facing an uncertain future.

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A new report by the Wildlife Trusts highlights the importance of the Severn estuary both for biodiversity and people

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An audit of Apple’s suppliers has found all sort of transgressions. But will we ever take notice of the real reasons that our cheap electronics are so inexpensive’ Was your iPod built on the back of child labour’ That’s something everyone should be wondering after Apple said an audit of factories highlighted numerous failures at factories that supply it – and other companies – with electronics …

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Offers nervy burghers Street View delete tool The man behind Google Street View assured Germany the firm didn’t want to invade as it sought to allay the country’s privacy concerns today.… What is your recession sales strategy’

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Two RAF Typhoon fighter aircraft were scrambled after reports of a disruptive passenger on board a Heathrow-bound transatlantic flight.

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Elizabeth Quigley recounts the life of Scotland’s first female MP, Katharine (Kitty) Murray.

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