CHRISTIE WHITMAN, sometime opponent of the Bush administration over environmental issues and a lightning rod for the administration’s critics, resigned yesterday as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

AS negotiators finished a global plan to tackle poverty and save the environment, Russia said yesterday it will soon ratify the Kyoto Protocol a move that would bring the key climate change agreement into effect.

European environment ministers have condemned America’s rejection of the Kyoto Protocol and its policies on greenhouse gas emissions, calling it a political move to preserve the energy-burning US lifestyle that has nothing to do with economics.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said today there is no cause for alarm over increased levels of asbestos and dioxin in city's air following the destruction of the World Trade Center.

President George W Bush will not implement the climate treaty negotiated in Kyoto but will seek an alternative that would "include the world" in the effort to reduce pollution.