United Nations: Report previews Earth Summit issues

More than 100 world leaders attending this month’s Earth Summit must tackle the double threat of widespread poverty and increasing environmental devastation that has left billions of people facing food and water shortages, a new U.N. report said Tuesday.

The report reviews the most authoritative data from U.N. and international organizations about the use of natural resources and presents a sobering assessment of a planet in peril and in need of a massive global commitment to secure the future for the world’s children.

According to its findings, forests are being destroyed, drought is becoming more intense, sea levels are rising, agricultural production can’t keep up with the demand for food, many plant and animal species are at risk of extinction, and air and water pollution are killing millions of people.

“The real threat that we face now is the insidious global spread of poverty and environmental stress and that is the real security threat that we need to address,” said U.N. Undersecretary-General Nitin Desai, who will chair the Earth Summit from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4 in South Africa.

Russia: Dutch aid worker reported kidnapped

Gunmen in southern Russia kidnapped a Dutch leader of Medicins Sans Frontiers in the second abduction of an aid worker in the troubled North Caucasus region since July, officials said Tuesday.

Arjan Erkel, head of the medical aid group’s mission in Dagestan, a Russian republic bordering Chechnya, was taken late Monday on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the Dagestan capital, police said.

Medicins Sans Frontiers, also known in English as Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement that Erkel, an employee of the organization’s Swiss branch, was on his way home when his “car was intercepted by a local vehicle with three men on board two of them armed.” Erkel was pushed into the other car, the group said.

Erkel is the second employee of the group to be taken hostage in southern Russia. In January 2001, U.S. citizen Kenneth Gluck was held by gunmen in Chechnya for 25 days.

England: Burrowing rabbits make medieval find

Burrowing rabbits keen on home improvement were credited Tuesday with the discovery of a rare medieval glass window.

Archaeology experts said the rabbits had dug up large quantities of glass from the highly decorated window of a 14th century manor house as they refurbished their warren in central England.

Paul Stamper, English Heritage’s ancient monuments inspector for the West Midlands, said the rabbits had chosen a grass-covered hump that once formed the foundation of a moated manor house.

English Heritage was aware a wealthy family had lived on the Warwickshire site in the Middle Ages, but only house platforms and a moat remain visible.

An archaeology team working on a separate project noticed the rabbits were throwing more than just roots and soil from their burrow and alerted English Heritage, which is responsible for preserving historic monuments.

“Normally windows would have been removed and used elsewhere but in this case it looks as though the window was simply left on the site and became incorporated into the rabbits’ warren,” said Stamper.