A baby girl was forced to live hidden in the boot of her parents' car for almost two years in a case that has appalled France and that investigators say "defies the imagination".

Neighbours and the media today questioned how the tiny child could have been hidden undetected for so long.

Mechanics carrying out repairs on a Peugeot 307 family estate car in Terrasson-Lavilledieu in the Dordogne were alerted to the child's presence after hearing "strange noises that sounded like moans" coming from the rear of the vehicle.

The mother, 45, a Portuguese woman known only as Rose-Marie, claimed that these came from "toys". But the men insisted on opening the boot and were horrified to discover a small, dehydrated and apparently feverish child lying naked in its own excrement.

The mechanic who found the girl, Guillaume Iguacel, said today he was still in shock from the discovery.

"I'm still having trouble sleeping, it was a horrifying sight, seeing this little girl in her own excrement, not able to hold up her head, white as a sheet," he said.

Mr Iguacel said the girl's mother appeared to have little concern for her daughter.

"We were deeply shocked because she didn't find this abnormal. We told her to remove the little girl (from the boot) and give her something to drink right away," he said.

Paramedics were called and she was immediately taken to hospital.

The U.S. Navy had its share of secrets on Treasure Island, but few were better kept than what's taking place on a mysterious barge just off the island.

The barge, with a four-story stack of shipping containers, is out in the open for all to see. But the project's purpose has been kept under wraps, and virtually no one wants to talk about it for the record, from the harbor office at Clipper Cove to the Treasure Island Development Authority to the U.S. Coast Guard.

"I don't know anything about it, honestly I don't," a voice on the intercom at the Clipper Cove told KPIX 5. "It's a complete mystery to me."

There has, of course, been speculation about the barge's purpose, much of it centering on the belief that it's a water-based data center for Google.

KPIX 5 has learned that Google is actually building a floating marketing center, a kind of giant Apple store, if you will - but for Google Glass, the cutting-edge wearable computer the company has under development.

When Alicia Beltran was 12 weeks pregnant, she took herself to a health clinic about a mile from her home in Jackson, Wis., for a prenatal checkup. But what started as a routine visit ended with Beltran eventually handcuffed and shackled in government custody - and at the center of a first-of-its-kind federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state's fetal protection law.

On July 2, Beltran, 28, met with a physician's assistant at West Bend Clinic at Saint Joseph's Hospital in West Bend, Wis., for her prenatal visit. When asked to detail her medical history, Beltran admitted a past struggle with the painkiller Percocet. But that was all behind her, Beltran said: She had been taking Suboxone, a drug used to treat Percocet dependency. Lacking health insurance and unable to afford the medication, Beltran had used an acquaintance's prescription and self-administered the drug in decreasing doses. She had taken her last dose a few days before her prenatal visit.

According to Beltran, the physician's assistant recommended she renew her use of Suboxone under a doctor's supervision. After Beltran declined, she said she was asked to take a drug test, which was negative for all substances except Suboxone.

Two weeks later, a social worker visited Beltran at home and told her that she needed to continue Suboxone treatment under the care of a physician, said Beltran, who again declined. Two days later, Beltran found police officers at her home, who arrested and handcuffed her.

According to the police report, the officers took Beltran to a hospital, where she underwent a doctor's exam. Her pregnancy was found to be healthy and normal, her lawyers say. Police then took her to Washington County Jail to await a hearing - hours later, she was led into a courtroom, handcuffed and shackled at the ankles, where a county judge ordered her to spend 90 days in a drug treatment center.

"Alicia had no idea she was giving information to the physician's assistant that would ultimately be used against her in a court of law," said Linda Vanden Heuvel of Germantown, Wis., one of Beltran's attorneys. "She should not have to fear losing her liberty because she was pregnant and she was honest with her doctor."

France is in shock after the "imagination-defying" discovery of an infant girl who was kept in the trunk of a car by her parents for about a year and a half since birth.

The girl was naked and dehydrated when she was found and rescued by the mechanics at a garage in the town of Terrasson, southwestern France, on Friday.

An ongoing effort to improve the soured Russian-Belarusian relations came under threat this week after reports that Belarus secret police tried to arrest a Russian citizen in downtown Moscow.

Igor Evstratov was apprehended by four men as he was boarding a train to St. Petersburg, a source at Russian potash producer Uralkali told Prime news agency.

Evstratov was a senior executive at Belaruskali before Uralkali terminated a cartel with the Belarusian fertilizer maker last summer.

Evstratov was freed by Russian police after a well-timed shout for help as he was being led away, Belaruspartisan.org news website said Friday.

Thousands of demonstrators have been protesting across Portugal against salary cuts and public sector reforms imposed by the government under the country's international bailout deal. Rallies were held in more than a dozen cities.

Sacramento, California - Gov. Jerry Brown will allow parole of a woman sentenced at age 16 to life in prison for killing a man who forced her into prostitution, his office said.

Sara Kruzan, 35, was convicted of first-degree murder for killing George Howard in a Riverside, Calif., hotel room. Kruzan has said he sexually assaulted her when she was 11 and forced her into prostitution when she was 13.

She was tried as an adult and sentenced to life in jail without the chance of parole, but a new law that went into effect in January has changed her sentence, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday

Sen. Leland Yee, D-Calif., started championing her case as an example juvenile offenders he thinks should have softer punishments.

Kruzan is the "perfect example of adults who failed her, of society failing her. You had a predator who stalked her, raped her, forced her into prostitution, and there was no one around," Yee told the newspaper.

The law allows new sentencing hearings for juveniles sentenced to life in prison with no parole. In September, Brown signed a second bill requiring parole boards to review the cases of juveniles tried as adults who have served 15 years or more of their sentences, the Times said.

Under the new laws, more than 1,000 prisoners currently in the California prison system are eligible for parole hearings.

From the "just wait until they hear about Al Gore's 24 hour demand for a carbon tax" department comes this story from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology

People don't put a high value on climate protection

Without further incentives selfish behaviour will continue to dominate

People are bad at getting a grip on collective risks. Climate change is a good example of this: the annual climate summits have so far not led to specific measures. The reason for this is that people attach greater value to an immediate material reward than to investing in future quality of life. Therefore, cooperative behaviour in climate protection must be more strongly associated with short-term incentives such as rewards or being held in high esteem.

Would you rather have €40 (about $55 USD) or save the climate?

When the question is put in such stark terms, the common sense answer is obviously: "stop climate change!" After all, we are well-informed individuals who act for the common good and, more particularly, for the good of future generations. Or at least that's how we like to think of ourselves.

Unfortunately, the reality is rather different. Immediate rewards make our brains rejoice and when such a reward beckons we're happy to behave cooperatively. But if achieving a common goal won't be rewarded until a few weeks have gone by, we are rather less euphoric and less cooperative. And if, instead of money, we're offered the prospect of a benefit for future generations, our enthusiasm for fair play wanes still further.

An international team of researchers led by Manfred Milinski from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology has shown how poorly we manage collective risk. "Our experiment is based on an essay which Thomas Schelling, the Nobel laureate in economics, wrote back in 1995″, explains Milinski. Schelling pointed out that it was today's generation which would have to make the efforts for climate protection, while it would be future generations who would gain the benefits. So the people of the present have little motivation actually to do anything. Does this gloomy theory withstand experimental scrutiny?

Officials in Brunswick County are trying to get the word out about changes that will affect food stamp recipients nationwide: Though benefits will go up in October, they will drop in November.Summary

Facts - Rise, then fall

Though social services employees cannot determine how much any individual will receive after food stamp benefit changes, they estimate the cuts for those receiving the maximum benefits as follows:

Household size	Prior to Nov. 1	After Nov. 1	Difference
1	$200	$189	$11
3	$526	$497	$29
4	$668	$632	$36
5	$793	$750	$43
6	$952	$900	$52
7	$1,052	$995	$57
8	$1202	$1,137	$65
Each additional member	$150	$142	$8

Source: Brunswick County government

In October, the program's annual cost-of-living adjustment will provide an increase in the amount of benefits program recipients see, effective Oct. 1. Reductions will follow in November as a result of the loss of funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was put in place in 2009, Brunswick officials said.

"In other words, people will see an increase in benefits in October, but then see a reduction in November," said Cathy Lytch, Brunswick County's social services director, in a statement. "We know this reduction will create a hardship, which is why we want people to be aware that there will be a decrease, so they can plan ahead."

According to estimates, the change will cut a family of three receiving the maximum benefit by $29 a month, from $526 to $497.

Despite the cost-of-living boost some recipients will see this month, all will see cuts in November, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

British comedian, actor, writer and activist Russell Brand in the spotlight

But before we change the world, we need to change the way we think.

When I was asked to edit an issue of the New Statesman I said yes because it was a beautiful woman asking me. I chose the subject of revolution because the New Statesman is a political magazine and imagining the overthrow of the current political system is the only way I can be enthused about politics.

When people talk about politics within the existing Westminster framework, I feel a dull thud in my stomach and my eyes involuntarily glaze. Like when I'm conversing and the subject changes from me and moves on to another topic. I try to remain engaged but behind my eyes I am adrift in immediate nostalgia; "How happy I was earlier in this chat," I instantly think.

I have never voted. Like most people I am utterly disenchanted by politics. Like most people I regard politicians as frauds and liars and the current political system as nothing more than a bureaucratic means for furthering the augmentation and advantages of economic elites. Billy Connolly said: "Don't vote, it encourages them," and, "The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever being one."