It is too late to stop the first stages of global warming, the destruction of thousands of the world's species or prevent shortages of water across swathes of Africa and Asia that could provoke wars over the next 25 years, the UN has claimed.

A wasteful consumer society in rich countries, coupled with rapid population growth in poor ones, is threatening to destroy the natural resources on which human life is based, according to a report by the UN Environment Program.

The Global Environment Outlook report, GEO 2000, said that "full-scale emergencies" now exist as a result of water shortages, land degradation, tropical forest destruction, species extinction, overfishing and urban air pollution in the developing world's megacities.

It added that over the next 25 years the world would begin to run out of fresh water and "water wars" over scarce resources could spread across a wide belt of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. About 20 percent of the population already lacked access to safe drinking water and 50 percent had no access to a safe sanitation system.

Commenting on deforestation, it said that some 80 percent of the world's original forest cover had been cleared, fragmented or degraded. One quarter of the world's mammal species were now at significant risk of total extinction.

Urban air pollution problems were reaching "crisis proportions" in many of the megacities of the developing world and the health of many millions had been impaired as a result.

Friends of the Earth described the report as "a wake-up call to the world." Charles Secrett, director of FOE, said: "GEO 2000 proves that we are literally destroying the Earth."

President Ezer Weizman stated that if the current initiative between Israel and Syrian fails, the area might become hostile, leading to war. The president indicated the issues at hand are a matter of “war and peace” and Israel must do its utmost to make it work. The president on Wednesday met with leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, Minister of Labor & Social Affairs, Eli Yishai, in an attempt to win over the party’s support for the current talks with Syria. Coalition members who oppose the talks are the National Religious Party and the Yisrael B’Aliyah Party, both having voted against the peace initiative in this week’s Knesset vote.

China is close to fielding a revolutionary new antiaircraft early-warning defense system that worries U.S. intelligence analysts because it could defeat current Air Force tactics against enemy air defenses, Newsweek reported Sunday.The technology, which could detect U.S. stealth aircraft, including the F-117 bomber and perhaps even the futuristic F-22 fighter, has so alarmed the defense community that top military and industry experts have been called to a secret meeting in December to discuss the strategic implications.

"Everyone is wondering about the cost of defending Taiwan" if U.S. air power was suddenly vulnerable, Newsweek quoted an intelligence source as saying. Current antiaircraft defenses are cued by radars that detect and track incoming aircraft. But the radars are vulnerable because their signals can be jammed or missiles can be launched to ride back down the radar beams and destroy the transmitters.

Newsweek said China's new Passive Coherent Location (PCL) system tracked the signals of civilian radio and television broadcasts and picked up aircraft by analyzing the minute turbulence their flight caused in the commercial wavelengths. Because PCL does not transmit, its receivers cannot be detected and jammed or destroyed. The magazine said Lockheed Martin had developed a similar Silent Sentry system that it was trying to sell for low-cost air defense or air traffic control.

Congressional officials are concerned that Russia and China are teaming up against the United States in a new arms race -- with missiles employing American technology and funding provided by the Clinton administration.

According to the China expert for Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., Russia is selling the new Zvezda KH-31 missile to the Chinese military. Yet, against bi-partisan congressional opposition, the Clinton administration is financing the Russian military -- at the expense of American defense jobs -- by buying the same Russian missile to serve as a target drone for the U.S. Navy.

SCUD missile on mobile launcher erector. The SCUD threatened Israel and Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf war. The new Russian SS-27 mobile missile can hit America with H-bombs.

"The Russian KH-31 air-to-surface attack missile is being sold to China," said Richard Fisher, former member of the American Enterprise Institute, now working for Cox. "The Chinese appear to have backed down from a co-production deal on the KH-31," Fisher told WorldNetDaily. "They are making a flat-out buy (of missiles) from Zvezda."

"The KH-31P was designed by Russia to counter the radar of the Patriot surface-to-air missile, which Taiwan has already purchased, and the U.S. Aegis radar that Taipei would like to acquire," wrote Fisher in a recent defense report.

Fisher expressed his concern that the Russian Sukhoi SU-30 strike fighters newly acquired by the Chinese air force also will include weapons never before exported to Beijing. The new strike fighter is specifically designed to carry the KH-31 missile.

"The Sukhoi bureau hopes the SU-30 will become comparable to the U.S. Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle," wrote Fisher in the defense review. "It is likely that China will also buy from Russia a package of advanced laser and low-light targeting systems, plus a variety of bombs and missiles to equip its SU-30s. The KH-31P/KR-1 anti-radar missile will likely be a major weapon for the SU-30."

The Russian strike fighter sale to China also raised concerns of a new arms race in other defense analyst circles. Robert Karniol, Asia editor of Jane's Defense Weekly, said the Chinese SU-30 sale included spare parts, support and weapons systems. The deal will provide China "with a whole new range of air-launched missiles that the Russians previously refused to sell Beijing," Karniol said.

This month, the Russia Defense Ministry announced it will deploy 10 more mobile SS-27 TOPOL-M ballistic missiles, although it would not divulge where they would be deployed. The SS-27 will join the first batch of 10 TOPOL-M missiles that rolled into active service in 1998 for the Strategic Rocket Forces, replacing 10 older SS-19 missiles located at the Sarakov missile site 450 miles southeast of Moscow.

The SS-27 can carry up to 10 small nuclear warheads, or can be armed with a single massive H-bomb developed by the Russian Ministry of Atomics (MINATOM) Arzamas-16 site. According to Russian weapons engineers, the new Arzamas-designed warhead has an explosive force equal to over half a million tons of TNT.

In 1995 and 1996, Arzamas-16 illegally obtained U.S.-made IBM supercomputers exported with Clinton administration approval. The supercomputers were exported directly to the Russian weapons lab, using false commercial and non-military contracts. IBM pled guilty to the illegal export and paid a $8.5 million fine for their illegal sale.

SS-20 unique waffle fin system for mobile missiles. The Russian SS-27 is also equipped with similar fins for control during launch.

The SS-27 has a maximum range of 6,500 miles, is 74.5 feet in length, 6.06 feet in diameter and weighs in at just over 102,000 pounds. It is listed as a three-stage, solid propellant, "cold" gas-launched missile equipped with an Inertial/Stellar guidance system. The SS-27 is longer than the U.S.-built MX missile, but is one-half the weight. However, unlike the MX missile, the SS-27 is equipped with eight waffle-patterned folding fins for additional control during the first-stage firing.

Russian government officials recently threatened to deploy the SS-27 in larger numbers if the U.S. decides to field an anti-missile defense system to protect America. Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Vladimir Lukin told Moskovsky Komsomolets that Russia's security would not be weakened if the U.S. develops an anti-ballistic missile system.

In a speech this month carried by Radio Liberty, Lukin said, "Russia will be able to compete with U.S. space defense systems or will begin installing multiple warheads on the TOPOL (SS-27)." Lukin commented that the Russians would simply "churn" out more missiles. Lukin also stated that such a build-up would be "expensive, but not that expensive."

Moscow warned the United States Monday that it has enough weapons to overwhelm any anti-ballistic missile system, and threatened to deploy more atomic warheads if Washington builds a national missile defense system, Reuters quoted the Washington Post report. Nikolai Mikhailov, first deputy defense minister, told the Post the technology was available and would be used if ``the United States pushes us toward it.'' His comments followed last week's meeting between Russian and U.S. officials to discuss possible amendments to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM).

Russia's key method of trying to overcome any missile defenses would be to deploy more nuclear warheads atop its missiles, in the calculation that it could outnumber and penetrate any defensive shield, the Post said. Mikhailov gave few specifics, but said Russia could target any ABM facility with a nuclear warhead.

Russian spies are rebuilding a vast espionage network in the Czech Republic at a time when the country is being integrated into Nato's command structure as one of its newest members. According to a confidential Czech government report, seen by The Telegraph, half of the 63 diplomats and 104 other staff at Russia's palatial Prague embassy are spies protected by diplomatic immunity - giving them a safe window on the West.

There are significantly more Russian diplomats in Prague than in the other Nato newcomers Poland and Hungary. In Britain, which has a population six times that of the Czech Republic, Moscow has only 47 diplomats at its London embassy. Prague's Social Democratic government, eager to foster warm relations with Moscow, has shown little apparent concern. Ministers also appear somewhat ambivalent towards Nato. When the Kosovo conflict erupted a month after the Czechs joined the Western military alliance, Prague worked with the Greeks to construct a peace deal acceptable to President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. Prague has now become the regional centre of operations for Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU.