A month-long record-breaking heatwave has sparked nearly 50 fires in the Moscow region and the capital is sweltering under a thick layer of smog.

Health experts say pollution levels in parts of the city are 10 times higher than normal safety limits and advise locals to stay indoors or wear masks.

A state of emergency has been declared in more than 20 drought-hit regions.

It is estimated a fifth of the country’s wheat crop has now died due to the lack of rain in what is thought to be the country’s worst drought for more than a century.

Scores have died in the heatwave, some drowning having taken a swim after drinking too much vodka.
Fully-clothed bathers

Emergency aircraft have already dropped several hundred tonnes of water to extinguish the blazes.

But dozens of peat and forest fires are still burning on the outskirts of the capital, says the BBC’s Richard Galpin in the city.

Health officials have warned the high concentration of carbon monoxide in the air makes breathing as dangerous as smoking several packets of cigarettes every day.

One of the largest fountains in the capital’s centre has been turned into a pool, with some people swimming in their bathing costumes while others are simply jumping in fully clothed.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been asked to commit 25bn roubles ($827m; £531m) towards the emergency effort.

The Roshydromet meteorological service had earlier predicted the smog would begin to clear on Thursday evening, saying temperatures were forecast to cool off over the weekend.

A judge will now set the bail conditions for Black, who is serving a six-and-a-half-year prison term for fraud. It was unclear when Black might be freed on bail.

Black formerly headed Hollinger International Inc., a media giant that published hundreds of newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, The Daily Telegraph of London and the National Post in Canada.

He was convicted in 2007 of fraud involving the sale of assets of Hollinger. However, the U.S. Supreme Court last month threw out the the law under which Black was convicted, setting up his appeal and request for release on bail while it is heard.

In 2001, Black gave up his Canadian citizenship so he could become a member of Britain’s House of Lords.

Faisal Shahzad told a court in Manhattan he wanted “to plead guilty and 100 times more”.

The Pakistani-born US citizen admitted all 10 charges so there will be no trial. He will be sentenced in October.

The petrol and propane bomb was left in a sports utility vehicle near Broadway theatres on 1 May but failed to ignite.

Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, in Manhattan’s Federal District Court, asked Shahzad a series of questions to ensure he understood his rights.

She asked him if he understood he might spend the rest of his life in prison, to which he said he did.

Asked by Judge Cedarbaum if he was sure he wanted to plead guilty, he launched into a statement, saying he wanted “to plead guilty and 100 times more”.

He said he wanted to let the US know that if it did not get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and stop drone attacks and meddling in Muslim lands, “we will be attacking US”.

Shahzad, 30, who wore a white skull cap, told the packed court: “One has to understand where I’m coming from. I consider myself… a Muslim soldier.”

He said he had chosen a warm Saturday night because Times Square would be crowded with people whom he could injure or kill.

He said he had packed the car with three separate bombs, hoping to set off a fertiliser-fueled bomb packed in a gun cabinet, a set of propane tanks as well as gas canisters rigged with fireworks to create a fireball.

He told the court he waited between two and a half minutes and five minutes for the bombs to erupt.

“I was waiting to hear a sound but I didn’t hear a sound. So I walked to Grand Central [station] and went home,” he said.

A street vendor saw smoke coming from the vehicle and alerted the police.

Shahzad was arrested two days later as he tried to take a flight to Dubai from New York’s John F Kennedy airport.

He co-operated with investigators for two weeks, waiving his rights that protect arrested suspects from incriminating themselves, before requesting a lawyer, justice officials say.

Sentencing was scheduled for 5 October.

The most serious charges against Shahzad, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, carry mandatory life sentences.
‘Bomb-making training’

During their investigation, the FBI traced the purchase of the Nissan Pathfinder SUV to Shahzad, a transaction that eventually led to his arrest.

While being interrogated, Shahzad revealed he had gone to Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region in December 2009 for bomb training with militants affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban, according to the indictment.

He is also alleged to have received about $5,000 in cash from an identified co-conspirator in Pakistan, whom he understood worked for the Taliban.

It said the same co-conspirator directed a second payment to Shahzad, of $7,000 in April, with which he bought a weapon, material to make the car bomb and the Nissan Pathfinder.

Two dozen people were taken to hospital and some 30 others remained unaccounted for.

Helicopters are taking part in the search in a remote, mountainous area in the state’s south-west.

The operation is focused on campsites along the Little Missouri and Caddo rivers in the Ouchita Mountains.

Mr Beebe said the deaths had occurred at about 0530, when the floodwaters reached their peak.

A river gauge at Langley, just south of Albert Pike in the Ouachita National Forest, showed the water rose 8ft (2.4m) in one hour, according to the US Geological Survey.

The National Weather Service said 7.6in (19.3cm) of rain had fallen overnight.

Some campers described how they had to cling to trees for hours to survive.

The remains of destroyed tents and damaged log cabins were later seen lining the banks of the swollen rivers.

The governor said damage to the area was comparable to a strong tornado.

‘People trapped’
Police spokesman Bill Sadler told US network CNN: “We believe there are still individuals trapped in the area.

“The primary mission of the Arkansas state police working with the local authorities right now is to get the living out of that area and locate the dead.”

Officials were bringing in a refrigerated truck to act as a temporary morgue, he said.

The authorities warned that it could take days to find survivors or recover bodies because of the rugged terrain.

Police originally put the death toll at 12 and later updated it to 20, but the governor’s office said the higher figure had been based on an erroneous figure from a rescue worker.

It is not clear whether all those killed were staying at the campsites washed away by the floodwaters.

Brigette Williams, of the American Red Cross in the state capital Little Rock, said between 200 and 300 people were believed to be in the area at the time but it was unclear how many were campers and how many local residents.

Rescue worker Gary Fox said the Albert Pike Recreation Area, a 54-unit campsite in the national forest, was packed with families on holiday when the floodwaters hit.

More than 20 people were taken to hospital and another 60 were rescued from the steep Ouachita Mountains valley.

The region includes a mix of campsites, hunting grounds and private homes.

Marc and Stacy McNeil of Marshall, Texas, survived by hauling their pick-up truck between two trees and standing in waist-deep water.

“It was just like a boat tied to a tree,” Mr McNeil said, describing how the truck bobbed up and down.

They said the water kept rising throughout the night. By dawn the rain stopped, the water receded and they were able to walk to safety.

National Guard troops are helping to look for those affected.

Alas, in this age of globalised uniformity, the truth is, probably not that much.

Most of the immigration and customs officials that you come across in those sunlight-starved arrivals halls aren’t very sunny themselves, as they mechanically stamp your passport or grudgingly wave you through.

But late the other night, I came across that rarest of bureaucratic beings – a middle-aged customs official with a sense of humour, a welcoming smile, blond dreadlocks which hung lazily over his shoulders, and a gloriously free spirit which he was delighted to share with a planeload of new arrivals from Australia.

He and his colleagues looked particularly kindly on us – a camera crew with almost as many bags as Imelda Marcos has shoes, which had arrived without one key item – the requisite paperwork to get us through customs.

“This need not be a major problem,” they said with their Kiwi twangs, as we were welcomed into New Zealand, a land of geniality in a far-flung corner of the world.

Controlled fury

I confess that I have long been an admirer, even before I discovered that you could watch rugby union here morning, noon and night.

Whereas most countries these days have 24-hour rolling news channels, with thumping music and explosive footage, New Zealand has round-the-clock rolling mauls, with thumping tackles and explosive footballers.

With a channel devoted solely to rugby, it also means that you never have to wait long before getting to view what is surely sports superlative pre-match ritual – the Maori war cry known as the haka.

This, of course, is where the national team, the fabled All Blacks, face down the opposition with puffed out chests, sharp slaps of their thighs, lizard-like tongues and fuming eyes that look like they’re about to burst, like ping pong balls, from their sockets.

If anywhere on the planet there’s a more eloquent expression of controlled fury then I would dearly love to see it.

But for now, I’m quite happy to be fed a steady diet of haka at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Wherever you flick to on New Zealand television, it’s hard to avoid a rugby star dressed in black – and rarely does a commercial break go by without one of the big-name stars trying to sell you something.

It takes a brave consumer, after all, to say no.

Sadly, the All Blacks have never managed to translate the dramatic range of their hakas to the more humdrum task of flogging white consumer durables, and most of them have the acting abilities of stage-struck waxworks.

Lifestyle superpower

Of course, I would not want you to think that my fondness for New Zealand merely flows from my love of rugby.

No, there’s the fabulous food and wine, some of the most flavoursome coffee that you will find anywhere in the southern hemisphere – if not the world – and the sharp freshness of the air, all of which make it one of the great lifestyle superpowers of the world.

There’s also a funky arts scene, and a deep-held love of literature – the Kiwis are very bookish.

And such has been the global success of its film industry – with global mega-hits like the Lord of the Rings trilogy – that Wellington is now known as Wellywood.

They’re even planning to erect giant capital letters high on a hill above the airport to spell out that success.

The irony is that the New Zealand film industry, under the tutelage of its most successful director, Sir Peter Jackson, is renowned for virtual reality.

This in a country where the real reality is so hard to beat.

Quaint fastidiousness

For all its attractions, there are times when it does feel like you are time-travelling in New Zealand.

Parts of it do feel like the land that the last four decades forgot. But its old-fashionedness can also be part of its subtle charm.

Take its televised coverage of Test cricket, where the commentators convene during the tea interval at a picnic table on the boundary. With quaint fastidiousness, they enjoy a pot of tea.

In other ways, though, New Zealand can be edgy and forward-thinking.

It was the first country to grant women the vote, and the first nation to see females occupy every high office of state.

It’s just about to launch the world’s most comprehensive emissions trading scheme to curb greenhouse gases, and some of its most senior civil servants are so with it, they look like they should be running organic supermarkets rather than the country.

Best of all, perhaps, is how non-indigenous New Zealanders live in such harmony with their indigenous compatriots.

Maori is taught in schools, a Maori chieftain adorns the country’s coat of arms, and the indigenous heritage is a shared national heritage.

I hope to return soon to explore the fiords and mountains of the South Island, perhaps even its ski fields, and sample some of the world’s finest Pinot Noir in the vineyards of Otago.

Next year it hosts the Rugby World Cup, but for now I will leave this country with my usual parting thought: “Why can’t the rest of the world be more like New Zealand?”

Maria Longhitano, a member of the breakaway Old Catholic Church, says she hopes her ordination will break down “prejudice” in the Roman Church.

The event may energise the debate among Roman Catholics about the role of women, a BBC correspondent says.

Pope Benedict is implacably opposed to women as priests.

His predecessor, John Paul II, even banned official discussion of the issue, BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott notes.

Although Mrs Longhitano will not be a Roman Catholic priest, her ordination in the borrowed Anglican church will be acutely uncomfortable for the Vatican, he says.

When seven Roman Catholic women were unofficially ordained in 2002 they were promptly excommunicated.

Mrs Longhitano, who says she has always wanted to be a priest and played with communion wafers as a child, has accused the Vatican of preventing women from fulfilling their vocation.

She said she hoped her ordination would galvanise debate among Roman Catholics about modernisation.

Some Catholics believe reform is necessary to reverse a decline in numbers and influence and an Austrian bishop said this week that the Church should eventually consider the ordination of women.

The Old Catholics broke away from the Vatican in the 19th Century, rejecting belief in the immaculate conception and the infallibility of the Pope.

Their Church – which leaves issues such as homosexual relationships and contraception up to the individuals’ consciences – has ordained women since 1996.

MOST French bosses have little time for a new law, now going through parliament, which would compel listed companies to lift the proportion of women on their boards to 40% by 2016. Xavier Fontanet, chief executive of Essilor, an eyewear firm, has quoted Charles de Gaulle as saying, “One may not command without having obeyed.” His point is that few women have had the 30 years or so of experience climbing the corporate ladder that a good director requires.

Nonetheless, the government is determined to make France the second country with a compulsory quota for women in the boardroom. (Norway was the first.) At the start of the year women occupied just 11% of the total of around 580 board seats at France’s biggest 40 firms. Now bosses will have to find as many as 170 new female directors in six years, according to OFG Research. “We are looking for women to fill every seat vacated by a man,” says Diane Segalen, vice-chairman of CTPartners, a headhunting firm in Paris.

In private, chief executives say they will look for female board members of a particular type: those who will look decorative and not rock the boat. One boss asked a headhunter for photographs of candidates and said he would treat looks as his first criterion, ahead of industry experience. A board member of a multinational company who opposes the 40% quota said that bosses could simply appoint their wives or—more subtly—their girlfriends.

Some recent appointments have certainly raised eyebrows. In March Dassault Aviation, a manufacturer of fighter planes and corporate jets, said it would nominate Nicole Dassault, the 79-year-old wife of Serge Dassault, its controlling shareholder, to its board. Mrs Dassault has little hands-on business experience. LVMH has nominated Bernadette Chirac, the 76-year-old wife of the former French president. Mrs Chirac’s qualifications, explained the company, were that she was female and that as first lady she supported fashion and regularly attended catwalk shows.

Companies with no family controlling shareholder, to be sure, will be expected to propose more qualified candidates. But finding them is not always easy. Sanofi-Aventis, a pharmaceuticals firm, was disappointed when Catherine Bréchignac, the head of the national science research agency, withdrew her candidacy. Some firms are tackling the shortage of senior women with direct experience of their industry by looking far outside. Vivendi, a telecoms and media group, for instance, found Aliza Jabès, the glamorous founder of NUXE, a beauty-products firm, having used her in an ad campaign for its corporate mobile-phone products.

So far, says Pierre-Yves Gomez of EMLYON Business School, appointments such as Mrs Chirac’s confirm that the first reaction of French chief executives is to find women who will not challenge them. Because companies must find a lot of them in a short time, some women will gather many board seats. One female director, indeed, has had seven offers since January. A perverse effect of the quota, therefore, says Mr Gomez, may be to reduce rather than increase board diversity.

The fishing boat Tai Yuan 227 was hijacked last week about 700 nautical miles (1,300 kilometers) northeast of the Seychelles, the release said Monday. The Seychelles are an archipelago of 115 islands about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) east of Africa.

A skiff firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the boat, and a pirate crew climbed aboard the fishing vessel late Thursday, the EU naval release said.

The Taipei Rescue Command Centre reported the ship hijacked on Friday.

The ship has a crew of 28. All are believed well, the release said.

The fishing vessel was last seen heading toward the Somali coast.

Hijackings by Somali pirates are a common occurrence off the coast of Africa. Recently the pirates have been ranging farther into the Indian Ocean.

The brewery is the central attraction. More than 3,000 wide-eyed tourists visit every day, filing off buses to marvel at the production site of their favorite beer.

What many do not know is that the Tsingtao Brewery Group was recently accused of violating environmental standards. It is just one of 20 companies named on a “polluters’ blacklist,” including major companies such as Hitachi, Philips and China’s most popular instant noodle maker, Master Kong.

The Green Choice Consumer Action list is backed by 34 different NGOs, including the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, Green Earth Volunteers, Friends of Nature and Wild China. They allege the companies either polluted or failed to disclose their emissions.

“This campaign is just beginning to let the public know that many brand name products damage the environment,” says Wang Yongchen, chairwoman of Green Earth Volunteers. “We shouldn’t be living a polluted life because of uninformed choices. Our goal, our hope is to take them off the market.”

“Tsingtao has been so irresponsible,” Wang continues. “Their wastewater discharge never met standards. And we’ve dealt with it a couple of times, discussing the problem and it’s never been resolved.”

The Green Choice Consumer Action list was published online, where China’s massive Internet population is buzzing about it.

“We shouldn’t buy products from these companies,” one blogger writes. “We should choose other green brands. That way we actually contribute to pollution control in China.”

Another types, “This is a misleading list for common Chinese people. Green brands are expensive. Big brands are reliable.”

The question remains whether common Chinese people, with historically low but rising incomes, will go green if given a choice.

“I think in China issues of the environment are strong and topical at the moment,” says consumer analyst Ray Ally of Landor Associates.

Landor recently conducted a brand survey that shows consumers in China are actually more concerned about green issues than consumers in the United States or Europe. For example, 45 percent of those surveyed in China said they consider it very important that a company is green when thinking about which brands to purchase, compared to 23 percent in the United States.

Ally adds, “In China, it’s quite fashionable to be green.”

If they are willing to pay for it, it could mean a 1.3 billion-strong silent majority influencing companies to clean up their act.

CNN contacted several companies on the list for a response. Philips, Hitachi and Master Kong all denied requests to be interviewed and did not provide statements. Some companies such as Motorola did respond to the study. The electronics company stated in an e-mail to CNN,

“In our facilities and operations, Motorola aims to minimize environmental impact … To achieve this, we meet or exceed all applicable environmental, health and safety, legal and other requirements to which we subscribe in the countries where we do business.”

Motorola also stated it was removed from the 2008 edition of this list after it was proven they were meeting standards, and does not understand why the 2010 edition was not updated to reflect their standing.

Tsingtao Brewery Corporation invited us to tour their factory with their top environmental director.

“While profits are important,” says Caihong Wang, “Tsingtao also makes every effort to reduce the negative effect to the environment.”

The company says it has invested $18 million over the last three years to improve environmental practices. But critics charge the company’s wastewater disposal protocol is not good enough. Company officials acknowledge their Qingdao-based factory produces about 1,000 tons of beer on an average day, and about 3,600 tons of wastewater. The wastewater is biologically treated on-site in giant pools where it’s combined with aerobic microorganisms.

Tsingtao says about 15 percent of the water is recycled on factory property; the rest is sent into the Qingdao city water sanitation system. Wang points out that the company has reduced water consumption by 28 percent over the last few years, and says, “Environmental management is long-term continuing work and it has a very important place in our company’s strategy.”

The Qingdao city government said that Tsingtao Beer cooperates by allowing its pollution water levels to be monitored by the city government system. Government officials declined to comment on whether or not Tsingtao has ever actually been in violation of water pollution standards.

Loyal customers who fill Qingdao’s restaurants and bars every evening stand by their favorite beer.

“I’ve heard about this from the media,” says beer drinker Mr. Li, referring to news of Tsingtao’s alleged environmental negligence. “I believe the people of Tsingtao can deal with this.”

He raises his glass for a toast to a possibly hung over, but potentially greener tomorrow.

Up to 5,000 barrels of oil a day are thought to be spilling into the water after last week’s explosion on a BP-operated rig, which then sank.

President Barack Obama has pledged “every single available resource” to help.

The US navy has been deployed to help avert a looming environmental disaster.

The US Coast Guard said it had sent investigators to confirm whether crude oil had begun to wash up on parts of the Louisiana shoreline.

‘National significance’

“This is a very, very big thing,” said David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

He told the Associated Press news agency: “And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling.”

An emergency shrimping season was opened on Thursday to allow fishermen to bring in their catch before it was fouled by the advancing oil.

The US government has designated the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as an “incident of national significance”.

This allows it to draw on resources from across the country to deal with the leak.

Louisiana’s governor, Bobby Jindal, has declared a state of emergency and asked for federal funds to deploy 6,000 National Guard soldiers to help with the clean up.

The Louisiana coastline, with its rich shrimp and oyster beds, is the most threatened by the spill.

Navy vessels are helping to deploy booms to contain the spill.

President Obama has dispatched high-level administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, to the area.

He has also ordered environmental agency officials to inspect all offshore oil rigs and platforms to make sure they adhere to US safety codes.

Speaking at the White House, Mr Obama said: “While BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and clean-up operations, my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the Department of Defence, to address the incident.

“And I have ordered the Secretaries of Interior and Homeland Security, as well as Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency to visit the site on Friday to ensure that BP and the entire US government is doing everything possible, not just to respond to this incident, but also to determine its cause.”

‘Devastating’

The US Coast Guard said earlier that up to 5,000 barrels of oil a day – five times the previous estimate – might now be leaking into the water.

BP’s chief operating officer of exploration and production, Doug Suttles, said the company was using remote operative vehicles (ROVs) to try to find out how much oil was leaking into the sea.

“This is very, very difficult to estimate,” Mr Suttles told reporters.

“Down below the surface we actually can’t meter this oil so we can just observe it… what our ROV pictures show to us on the sea floor hasn’t changed since we first saw the leak… but what we can say based on what we’re picking up on the surface it looks like it is more.”

Mr Suttles estimated something between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels a day was leaking.

A resident of Bay Saint Louis in Mississippi, John Gerger, told the BBC the smell of oil was becoming stronger along the Gulf Coast.

“It’s as though a diesel truck is parked in the front yard,” he said. “The potential impact of the slick could be devastating on an area that has just recovered from [Hurricane] Katrina.

“Fishing and shrimping is such an important industry here, and could take a massive hit. Local fishermen have been advised to go out and try to recover as much as they can before the slick approaches land.”

Lawsuit

Efforts to stem the flow are being complicated by the depth of the leak at the underwater well, which is about 5,000ft (1,525m) beneath the surface.

Wednesday saw a US Coast Guard crew set fire to part of the oil slick in an attempt to save environmentally sensitive wetlands.

A “controlled burn” of surface oil took place in an area about 30 miles (50km) east of the Mississippi River delta.

Engineers are working on a dome-like device to cover oil rising to the surface and pump it to container vessels, but it may be weeks before this is in place.

It is feared that work on sealing the leaking well using robotic submersibles might take months.

BP is also working on a “relief well” to intersect the original well, but this is experimental and could take two to three months to stop the flow.

Under US law, BP will be expected to meet all the costs of the spill clean-up operation.