There may have been nothing quite like it since Mr Toad escaped from jail disguised as a washerwoman. But a century after Kenneth Grahame's 1908 classic Wind in the Willows, the warty amphibians have been found to be suffering even greater gender confusion.

Scientists are warning that an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Northern Ireland is on the verge of disintegration, even though it is now the middle of the southern hemisphere's winter.

Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future, with an unprecedented ability to extend lifespans and increase the power of ordinary people – but is likely to blow it through inequality, violence and environmental degradation. And governments are not equipped to ensure that the opportunities are seized and disasters averted.

The chief executive of Tesco, Sir Terry Leahy, has called Gordon Brown's recent attack on food waste "well-meaning but wrong-headed". In an interview today in The Independent on Sunday, the boss of the £51.8bn supermarket chain dismissed allegations that the company wastes food, encourages binge drinking and is destroying the face of rural England. "We hardly waste anything," Sir Terry said. "Our waste is just 1 per cent. That's not thrown away; it's just sold at a reduced price."

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Was the stress of being named PETA’s 2008...
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