The countries involved in air strikes on Colonel Gaddafi's forces in Libya are coming under pressure to ban the use of toxic depleted uranium (DU) weapons because of the dangers they could pose to civilians.

The US has refused to rule out the use of DU shells in Libya, though it claims not to have fired any so far.

"I don't want to speculate on what may or may not be used in the future," the US air force spokeswoman, Paula Kurtz, said yesterday.

The US admitted using A-10 tankbuster aircraft designed to destroy armoured cars and tanks, and which are capable of firing 3,900 armour-piercing DU-tipped shells per minute.

Engineers pinned their hopes on chemicals, sawdust and shredded newspaper to stop highly radioactive water pouring into the ocean from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant Sunday as officials said it will take several months to bring the crisis under control, the first time they have provided a timetable.

Concrete already failed to stop the tainted water spewing from a crack in a maintenance pit, and the new mixture did not appear to be working either, but engineers said they were not abandoning it.

The Fukushima Da-ichi plant has been leaking radioactivity since the March 11 tsunami carved a path of destruction along Japan's northeastern coast, killing as many as 25,000 people and knocking out key cooling systems that kept it from overheating. People living within 12 miles (20 kilometres) of the plant have been forced to abandon their homes.

The government said Sunday it will be several months before the radiation stops and permanent cooling systems are restored. Even after that happens, there will be years of work ahead to clean up the area around the complex and figure out what to do with it.

"It would take a few months until we finally get things under control and have a better idea about the future," said Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama. "We'll face a crucial turning point within the next few months, but that is not the end."

His agency said the timetable is based on the first step, pumping radioactive water into tanks, being completed quickly and the second, restoring cooling systems, being done within a matter of weeks or months.

A 3-year-old boy died Saturday after falling out of a roller coaster at a suburban Chicago amusement park, police said.

The boy was sitting near the front of the Python Pit roller coaster at the Go Bananas amusement park when he got underneath the ride's safety bar, Norridge Police Chief James Jobe said. He suffered head injuries in what Jobe described as "a tragic accident."

The boy was on the ride with his twin brother when he fell out of the coaster while it was moving, Jobe said. The Cook County medical examiner's office said the boy died at the park. Police said a state inspector was at the scene.

Top female boxer Rola El-Halabi, who is recovering in hospital after being gunned down by her step-father before a world title fight, may never return to the ring, her promoter said on Sunday.

El-Halabi, 26, was shot her in the hands, feet and knees in her dressing room as she prepared to fight for the WIBF world lightweight title in Karlshorst, Berlin, on Friday night.

Two security guards were also shot during the attack, but are recovering in hospital having also undergone surgery.

"Her operation went smoothly, but the shots were intended to end her career and it seems almost certain that that will happen," her promoter Malte Mueller-Michaelis told SID, an AFP subsidiary.

El-Halabi's 44-year-old attacker was overpowered by police at the boxing hall and arrested shortly after the shooting, while nearly 600 spectators were quickly evacuated.

"I was with my coach and manager in the changing room when Dad rushed into the room, threatening us with a gun and shouted 'All out!," El-Halabi told Sunday's edition of German daily Bild.

Did all the manned U.S. lunar landings between July 1969 and December 1972 actually take place or were they hoaxes?

A Canadian book publisher has taken a closer look at images acquired by the Apollo 14 astronauts just before they left the moon 40 years ago.

What Robert Godwin uncovered will probably provide more ammunition for those who doubt a U.S. astronaut ever set foot on Earth's celestial neighbour.

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are credited with being the first humans to set foot on the moon, on July 20, 1969.

One frequently used argument is that video of the Stars and Stripes planted on lunar soil appears to show the flags blowing in the wind - even though there's no atmosphere on the moon.

Godwin says two frames of film taken from the Apollo 14 lunar lander in February 1971 may lead some people to believe that's true.

In one frame, the American flag is pointed to the right, while in another frame, it's pointing in another direction - to the left.

Godwin, 53, says he was drawn to Apollo 14 after viewing high-resolution images of that landing site which were taken recently by a lunar reconnaissance satellite.

Living as an actor is rather like living life on the trapezes in a circus. Every time you jump on, you have to pray that when the time comes for you to jump off there is another trapeze swinging your way.

I have been very lucky. So far they have kept swinging by and over the years I have had more than my fair share of roles on stage and television, including Upstairs Downstairs, The Darling Buds Of May, Dinnerladies, Acorn Antiques and Cranford.

Then there are the films, parts that have, to my surprise, given me quite a saucy reputation. After Calendar Girls, people might well think of me as something of an exhibitionist. I am not.

Tokyo -- A first attempt to plug a cracked concrete shaft that is leaking highly radioactive water into the ocean off Japan failed Saturday, so officials are now exploring alternatives, spokesmen for Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.


Power plant workers had been trying to fill the shaft with fresh concrete, but that did not change the amount of water coming out of the crack, the spokesmen said at a news conference that ran late into the night Saturday.

Their "plan B" is to use polymers to stop the leak, the spokesmen said. A Tokyo Electric expert will visit the site Sunday morning and decide what polymer to use before the work begins.

Workers will then break the shaft's ceiling and insert the polymer in a different spot from where they tried to place the concrete, they said.

Japan's government warned on Sunday it may take months to stop radiation leaking from a nuclear plant crippled by a huge earthquake and tsunami three weeks ago, as more bodies were recovered in devastated areas of northeast Japan.

An aide to embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the government's priority was to stop radiation leaks which were scaring the public and hindering work on cooling overheated nuclear fuel rods.

"We have not escaped from a crisis situation, but it is somewhat stabilized," said Goshi Hosono, a ruling party lawmaker and aide to Kan.

"How long will it take to achieve (the goal of stopping the radiation leakage)? I think several months would be one target," Hosono said on a nationwide Fuji TV programme on Sunday.

Bouncing down a dirt road a couple of summers ago, past a gentle patchwork of barnyards and soybean fields in central Iowa, farmer Kent Friedrichsen strained over the steering wheel of his van and stared through the windshield in dismay.

His soybean fields, where he'd used seeds developed by Monsanto Co. and sprayed with its popular glyphosate weed killer Roundup Ready, were littered with yellowed leaves and dead plants. Four days earlier, the plants had been waist high and emerald green.

Nearby, in fields where he had planted seeds that weren't genetically engineered and didn't use glyphosates, the soybean plants were still healthy and lush.

Rats "bigger than kittens" are set to lay siege to New York City, according to people who used to be paid to get rid of them.

They told AM New York that deep cuts to the city's pest control staff could cause a spike in rat infestations.

From AM New York:

Citywide, the 311 hotline received about 10,500 rodent complaints in 2010, up more than 5 percent from 2009. In 2011, complaints are up 9 percent through the beginning of March compared to the same period a year ago.

"There's going to be a major epidemic during the summer with the rodents," said Rosemarie Vasquez, a former city pest control aide.