International

A leading British newspaper claims the United Nations body on climate change has made a blunder of Himalayan proportions over key evidence on global warming.

The Sunday Times says a key finding on melting glaciers by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change may have been simply taken from a press interview with an obscure Indian scientist.

Latest reports say the finding that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is now likely to be retracted due to the blunder.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after the strongest earthquake to hit the poor Caribbean nation in more than 200 years crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters. Untold numbers were still trapped.

The devastation was so complete that it seemed likely the death toll from Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake would run into the thousands.

Watch continuing coverage of the earthquake in Haiti on CNN, Channel 91 Sky Digital.

A major earthquake struck southern Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and inflicting a catastrophe on the impoverished Caribbean nation, its ambassador to the United States said.

"The only thing I can do now is pray and hope for the best," the ambassador, Raymond Joseph, told CNN.

The magnitude 7.0 quake struck about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince shortly before 5 p.m. Joseph said he had little information about the extent of damage from the quake, but one government official -- the only one he was able to reach -- told him houses had crumbled "on the right side of the street and the left side of the street."

By Philip Duncan

After the sensational flop that was the Copenhagen climate meeting I can't help but think what incredibly bad timing nature has for those leaders who were set with the task of convincing us the world is getting hotter.

Following a recent news story that confirms the past decade was the hottest decade in recorded history much of the northern hemisphere has been plunged into record breaking cold - and it's grabbing the headlines on all the major news organisations.

A sharp Arctic front sweeping the United States has brought unusual snow to many of the deep southern states, leaving normally balmy Florida shivering from record icy lows.

At least nine deaths were blamed on the freezing snap that blanketed much of the central part of the country this week, CNN said on Saturday.

In sub-tropical Florida, Key West -- the southernmost point in the continental United States -- had its coldest day in 112 years, with a low of 8.3 degrees Celsius.

Scores of flights have been cancelled across Europe as snow covers swathes of the continent, severing key highways and disrupting rail and electricity links.

Germans were urged on Saturday to buy enough food and medicines to last for up to four days in the face of a blizzard. The government said all non-essential travel should be avoided.

More than 200 flights were cancelled at Frankfurt, Europe's third largest airport, on Saturday, spokesman Juergen Harrer said, adding that many more had been delayed.

Icy weather in Britain is playing havoc with the latest round of English Premier League football fixtures. The total number of matches postponed tomorrow morning is now up to four with Hull City's match against Chelsea the latest to join the list.

Fulham's match against Portsmouth, Burnley's game against Stoke City and Sunderland's match against Bolton have already been forced to move to another date.

In the UK it is widely believed that snow precedes the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Everything shudders to a cold and rather embarassing halt.

Here in South East London, we've only seen a few centimetres of snow so far, however, forecasters say that worse is to come tonight (Wednesday evening). It has been snowing since 10pm yesterday (Jan 5th) non stop.

Millions of people living in southern England and the Home Counties were told to prepare themselves for up to 40cm of snow last night as Britain remained in the grip of the longest prolonged spell of cold weather for 30 years.

Not everyone has been so concerned about the unusually high levels of snow though.

Those able to get out and enjoy the weather in Britain have done so in style.

The dream of a white Christmas was turning into a nightmare for some as forecasters predicted a heavy snowstorm would continue on Friday across parts of the central United States.