The US produced 28 million tons of plastic waste in 2005 - 27 million tons of which ended up in landfills. Environmentalists fret about the petroleum needed to make it. Parents worry about the possibility of toxic chemicals making their way from household plastic into children's bloodstreams.

We think of plastic as essentially inert; after all, it takes hundreds of years for a plastic bottle to degrade in a landfill. But as plastic ages or is exposed to heat or stress, it can release trace amounts of some of its ingredients. Of particular concern these days are bisphenol-a (BPA), used to strengthen some plastics, and phthalates, used to soften others. Each ingredient is a part of hundreds of household items; BPA is in everything from baby bottles to can linings (to protect against E. coli and botulism), while phthalates are found in children's toys as well as vinyl shower curtains.

And those chemicals can get inside us through the food, water and bits of dust we consume or even by being absorbed through our skin. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 92% of Americans age 6 or older test positive for BPA - a sign of just how common the chemical is in our plastic universe.

Plastic makes up nearly 12% of our trash, up from 1% in 1960. You can literally see the result 1,000 miles (1,600 km) west of San Francisco in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling mass of plastic debris twice the size of Texas. The rising cost of petroleum may get plastic manufacturers to come up with incentives for recycling; current rates stand at less than 6% in the US

But the best way to reduce your plastic impact on the earth is simply to use less. Here's how. You can avoid plastic bottles and toys labeled with the numbers 3 or 7, which often contain BPA or phthalates, and steer clear of vinyl shower curtains and canned foods - especially those with acidic contents like tomatoes. Vom Saal counsels that the cautious should also avoid heating plastic in microwaves. But get rid of the stuff altogether? It's hard to go all the way!

With no other job prospects in this impoverished, remote northern village about 27 miles south of the front lines, roughly half the men of fighting age have enlisted in the army, navy, police or other security branches. "When we want to find a job, the easiest thing is to join the security forces," said Sisira Senaratna, 38, a 16-year police veteran who has two brothers who enlisted in the army and another in the police force. After a quarter century of civil war between government forces and Tamil rebels, fighting is so entrenched in this Indian Ocean island it has become a career for tens of thousands seeking a path out of rural Sri Lanka's brutal poverty.

Kadirage Leelawathi's entire family had already answered the call. Her husband joined the army 20 years ago after failing to scrape a living from his tiny farm. The family lived in a clay hut with a floor made of cow dung and used kerosene lamps for light, she said. They could only afford to eat meat once a week. "We couldn't make ends meet with three children," she said. "With the little money he earned from farming, we had a hard time even sending the kids to school."

With his army salary, they built a two bedroom concrete house with electricity, running water, a telephone, a 21-inch color TV and a 20-foot antenna piercing the sky. "I looked after my family, I served my country and I was able to raise our standard of living," he said. "I have no regrets."

Japan reignited the controversy Monday by announcing its intention to recommend in a government-approved teaching manual that students learn about Tokyo's claims to the tiny islands in the Sea of Japan. Japan claimed the islets in 1905, but then South Korea laid claim in 1952. Seoul effectively controls the rocky outcroppings - called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese - and has stationed police on them.

The area surrounding THE ISLANDS IS BELIEVED TO BE RICH IN FISH AND MAY ALSO HOLD UNDERSEA RESOURCES. Kwon told reporters after meeting with a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official in Tokyo that the dispute is "straining the relationship further between Japan and Korea." Kwon was expected to leave Japan later Tuesday.

Japan has a similar dispute with Russia over several islands in the Kurile chain it calls the Northern Territories.

Two years after standing its ground in a 34-day war with Israel, Hezbollah has reinforced its military wing and routed its US-backed adversaries in Lebanon - defying the United States, which sees it as a terrorist group and proxy of Tehran.

Hezbollah is now seeking reconciliation with its Lebanese rivals, hoping to cool sectarian tensions inflamed by its May takeover of Beirut. Those enmities could pose a threat to both the Shi'ite group and Lebanon if left unhealed.

For Iran, the stature of a group established with the help of its Revolutionary Guards in 1982 is a great asset in its own confrontation with the United States and other powers over its nuclear ambitions and influence in the Middle East. Hezbollah has replenished and expanded its arsenal since the 2006 war. Estimated to have received military and other aid worth several billion dollars from Iran, it is seen as one of the region's toughest fighting forces.

Researchers said more than 120,000 people were admitted to hospital emergency wards between 2002 and 2006 as a direct result of violence. In all, at least 2.5 million people in England and Wales are the victims of violence every year, which in 2003 cost the country 24.4 billion pounds and the NHS alone 2.2 billion pounds, the report said.

The team from the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University said the number of EMERGENCY ADMISSIONS FROM VIOLENCE ROSE ALMOST 30 PERCENT between 2002 and 2006. The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, also found admission rates were six times higher in poor areas.

The direct contribution violence makes to health inequalities is likely to be significant, with around 30,000 mainly poorer individuals requiring emergency admissions each year and 10 times that number presenting to A&E, the researchers said.

The price of staple groceries has risen by more than a fifth since July last year as food producers deal with soaring wheat, rice and energy costs, figures from "mysupermarket", the shopping comparison site show. The cost of a loaf of white bread from Tesco has risen by 50 per cent to 72p in the past year while the price of a 1kg bag of basmati rice at Sainsbury's has risen by 110 per cent to £1.89.

The gloomy retail figures will heighten fears that the country could be heading for a recession - as two consecutive quarters of negative growth show. Philip Shaw, an economist at Investec, said: "If sales are only held up by essential items such as food, this indicates a noticeable weakening in discretionary spending. It also raises the prospect that once the good weather ends there could be further slowdown in overall retail sales. This will worry the Bank of England as retail sales account for about 30 per cent of household consumption, which accounts for two thirds of GDP."

Core price inflation, which excludes food, beverages, tobacco and petrol, rose by 6.4 per cent in the year to June, up from 5.9 per cent, raising concerns that soaring oil prices may be causing second-round inflationary effects. This will pose an even deeper dilemma for the Bank of England.

Bishop Robinson, whose consecration has brought the worldwide Anglican Communion to the brink of schism, is on a visit to Britain timed to coincide with the Lambeth Conference, to which he has not been invited. He was preaching at St Mary's Church in Putney, south west London, on Sunday when he was interrupted by the heckler.

"At first, of course, I did not know what was going to happen and, with death threats having come in, that enters your mind," Bishop Robinson said. "I must say I was really overcome and got quite tearful afterwards with sadness for this young man. He clearly felt very strongly about what he believed. I thought, you know, there is this place in his heart that has been filled up with all this darkness and it could be filled with love."

Bishop Robinson has described the decision to bar him from the conference as a "mistake" but nevertheless expressed support for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who he said faced an "almost untenable" task in keeping the church together. "The Archbishop of Canterbury was doing exactly what he should be doing, which is trying to preserve the Anglican Communion," he said. "That is his intention and I support him in that."

ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court for an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the most senior figure pursued by the court since it was set up in 2002. Bashir is the first sitting head of state charged by an international court since Liberia's Charles Taylor and Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic. The Sudanese leader dismissed the charges and said the ICC had no jurisdiction in Sudan.

SUDAN WILL SEEK SUPPORT FROM ALLIES SUCH AS CHINA AND RUSSIA to get the U.N. Security Council - which asked the ICC to investigate crimes in Darfur in 2005 - to block any warrant. China declined to comment on the case, which arises at a bad time for Khartoum's biggest arms supplier and a major investor in its oil industry just weeks before the Beijing Olympics.

The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) says only half of the extra land needed by 2030 is available without eating into tropical forested areas. A companion report documents poor progress in reforming land ownership and governance in developing countries. Both reports were launched on Monday in UK government offices in London.

"Arguably, we are on the verge of a last great global land grab," said RRI's Andy White, co-author of the major report, Seeing People through the Trees. "It will mean more deforestation, more conflict, more carbon emissions, more climate change and less prosperity for everyone."

Some academics place their hopes in agricultural technologies including genetic engineering to boost crop yields. But since the spectacular successes of the Green Revolution, advances have been slow. In some areas, yields are falling - a trend which is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. However, eating into tropical forests to create extra agricultural land would, in turn, exacerbate climate change, with deforestation currently accounting for about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Collobrières, a village of 1,600 inhabitants in Provence, is motivated largely by profit: accepting the franc has boosted their business. "It's amazing how many francs people have kept at home," said Dominique Cardi, a gift shop owner. "Now they can spend them."

There is also a note of protest, however: nostalgia has grown for the colourful old money depicting French national heroes and its reappearance has warmed the hearts of those who complain that a distant Paris - not to mention Brussels - is out of touch. Ireland's rejection of the scaled-down constitution last month has aroused sympathy among the French: according to one poll 53% would have said no to the Lisbon treaty designed to facilitate the organisation of an enlarged 27-member EU.

In Collobrières the return of the franc coincides with widespread scepticism about an ever enlarging Europe. "HOW CAN WE GET 27 COUNTRIES TO AGREE WITH ONE ANOTHER?" asked Remy Fages, owner of a restaurant in the village square. "Perhaps in 100 years."

This approach was confirmed by Sarkozy's speech at the summit. He said: "THE GOAL OF THE SUMMIT IS TO LEARN HOW TO LOVE EACH OTHER IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, instead of continuing to hate and wage war". The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said after the meeting that the two sides had "never been as close to the possibility of reaching an accord as we are today", despite not talking or meeting the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, who disappeared during Mr Olmert's speech.

On the relationship between the EU and the Mediterranean Union Sarkozy was clear stating: "The European and the Mediterranean dreams are inseparable". WE WILL BUILD PEACE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN TOGETHER, like yesterday we built peace in Europe. WE WILL SUCCEED TOGETHER; OR WE WILL FAIL TOGETHER".

Mr Sarkozy's scheme is geographically ambitious, but politically modest. He is not proposing any supra-national laws or bureaucracies. All he wants is regular ministerial meetings. If only Mr Sarkozy would extend the logic to the EU, and drop his attempts to impose the Lisbon Treaty in plain defiance of the voters' verdict.

The Irish government last week announced the commissioning of an opinion poll to find out why its citizens voted the way they did. The report is expected to be completed by early September. EU leaders are due to hold a summit in October, although Irish officials told the paper it is unlikely the government will be in a position to present an action plan. That may have to await the December council.

The intention to revive the Treaty within this timeframe is echoed by the Spanish Europe Minister López Garrido, who is quoted in El Pais as saying, "The ideal would be a ratification of the Lisbon Treaty with sufficient time for it to be applied in the European elections."

POLISH RADIO REPORTS that Polish President Kaczynski, also attending the meeting in Paris, will today assure Sarkozy that Poland will not stand in the way of the ratification process.

PRAGUE MONITOR REPORTS that over one half of Czechs are of the view that their Parliament should not ratify the Lisbon treaty, according to a poll conducted by the STEM agency in June and released to CTK Friday.

Regulators took over the Pasadena-based lender on Friday after a bank run in which customers - panicked over IndyMac's survival prospects - WITHDREW $1.3 BILLION OVER 11 BUSINESS DAYS, regulators said. At a branch at IndyMac's headquarters, customers began arriving at 4am, five hours before the doors opened. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp now operates the thrift's 33 Southern California branches.

"I didn't think anything like this would happen," said retired teacher Charles Tengeri from Pasadena, who was first to emerge from the branch after withdrawing $171,000 - about two-thirds of his life savings. "I withdrew as much as I could. I know it's going to take a little time."

John Bovenzi, an FDIC official working as IndyMac Federal's chief executive, talked with customers as they waited for the doors to open, assuring one that "this bank is as safe and as sound as any bank in the country right now."

TAXPAYERS WILL BE SADDLED WITH DEBT if Congress approves U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's request for the authority to buy unlimited stakes in and lend to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Rogers said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Daniel Zimmerman predicted the mortgage finance companies' shares may fall another 35 percent.

"I don't know where these guys get the audacity to take our money, taxpayer money, and buy stock in Fannie Mae," Rogers, 65, said in an interview from Singapore. "So we're going to bail out everybody else in the world. And it ruins the Federal Reserve's balance sheet and it makes the dollar more vulnerable and it increases inflation." The chairman of Rogers Holdings, who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, also said the commodities bull market has a "long way to go" and advised buying agricultural commodities. The U.S. economy is in a recession, possibly the worst since World War II, Rogers said.

"THEY'RE RUINING WHAT HAS BEEN ONE OF THE GREATEST ECONOMIES IN THE WORLD," Rogers said. Bernanke and Paulson... "ARE BAILING OUT THEIR FRIENDS ON WALL STREET but there are 300 million Americans that are going to have to pay for this."

Santander said A&L shareholders would get one of its shares for every three they now hold in the UK bank. Shares in A&L soared by nearly 50% on Monday after it disclosed that it had received a bid approach, which the BBC revealed was from Santander. Santander is effectively offering 317 pence per A&L share and expects the deal to be completed by October.

"So there will be some concern that the disappearance of A&L as an independent entity would leave too much power in the hands of the big banks." David Cumming, head of UK equities at Standard Life Investments, described it as "a gorgeous deal" for Santander, saying the bank was acquiring Alliance & Leicester "on giveaway terms".

"Given the potential integration benefits, other banks must surely be reviewing their options. I would be amazed if no one else counters with a higher offer in the next few months." Shares in other lenders soared on the news, with Bradford and Bingley shares rising by more than 25%.