The material was taken from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit - a world-renowned climate change research centre - before it was published on websites run by climate change sceptics.

It has been claimed that the emails show that scientists manipulated data to bolster their argument that global warming is genuine and is being caused by human actions.

One email seized upon by sceptics as supposed evidence of this, refers to a "trick" being employed to massage temperature statistics to "hide the decline".

The university yesterday confirmed that research data had been stolen and published online and said it had reported the security breach to police.

See Nomad's Climate Wars: Hacker's Paradise.

BANJUL, Nov 21 (IPS) - The Beijing Platform for Action in 1995 set out an agenda to address gender equality in priority areas, including poverty, education, and health care. It also committed governments to address violence against women, equitable access to economic resources and decision-making power.

"Overall, there has been progress made, but we are not yet there," said U.N. Under-Secretary General Dr Abdoulie Janneh at the opening of a regional review of progress implementing the Beijing plan.

Six hundred people from 43 African countries took part, including gender experts, civil society organisations, and government officials were present in the Gambian capital, Banjul for the review.

There was good news with respect to women's representation in government. Participants were encouraged by the growing number of women in powerful political positions in Africa.

Liberia has the continent's first female head of state, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and women serve in senior positions in several other countries as speakers of parliament, prime ministers and vice-presidents, including the host for the conference, the Gambia, whose vice president, Aja Isatou-Njie-Saidy, attended every session.

A variety of affirmative action measures including quotas have helped six countries elect parliaments comprising at least 30 percent women; Rwanda's legislature has the highest proportion of women in the world, with 56 percent of members of parliament being women.

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope agreed to seek closer relations between Anglicans and Catholics at a meeting in Rome, the Vatican has said.

It follows tensions over the Vatican's offer to welcome disenchanted Anglicans into the Catholic fold.

Pope Benedict's proposal would allow Anglicans to convert while preserving many of their traditions and practices.

A Vatican statement said the "cordial" talks reiterated "the shared will" to move toward closer relations.

It said the discussions, which lasted around half an hour, "also focused on recent events between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion."

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents cast a tie vote on human embryonic stem cell research on Friday, defeating a rare effort to limit such research at a university system beyond what state and federal laws allow. The 4-to-4 vote, which took place in Lincoln, in essence leaves the university's policy in line with President Obama's expansion of the research that federal money may cover. It was a major disappointment for groups that have led a sustained campaign against the research and saw the Nebraska fight as a possible new front in the national debate over the matter.

University administrators, meanwhile, described the decision as a victory that would allow them to continue attracting top scientists and applying for federal research grants in the field. They said those activities would be impossible if the university was limited to working with only the smaller number of stem cell lines allowed under President George W. Bush.

"I'm very happy for the citizens of Nebraska, who hopefully will now benefit from human embryonic stem cell research in Nebraska," Dr. Harold M. Maurer, chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, said after the crowded, tense meeting ended.

Supporters said embryonic stem cells, which can transform into nearly any type of tissue, hold unique potential for treating macular degeneration, diabetes, stroke and other ailments. Opponents of the research, which requires the destruction of embryos to create the lines, argued that the study of adult stem cells and a newly developed process to reprogram adult stem cells so that they seem to mimic the nature of embryonic stem cells offer more -- and more ethical -- promise.

At the Peace in Medicine Healing Center in Sebastopol, the wares on display include dried marijuana -- featuring brands like Kryptonite, Voodoo Daddy and Train Wreck -- and medicinal cookies arrayed below a sign saying, "Keep Out of Reach of Your Mother." The warning tells a story of its own: some of the center's clients are too young to buy themselves a beer.

Several Bay Area doctors who recommend medical marijuana for their patients said in recent interviews that their client base had expanded to include teenagers with psychiatric conditions including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"It's not everybody's medicine, but for some, it can make a profound difference," said Valerie Corral, a founder of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, a patients' collective in Santa Cruz that has two dozen minors as registered clients.

Because California does not require doctors to report cases involving medical marijuana, no reliable data exist for how many minors have been authorized to receive it. But Dr. Jean Talleyrand, who founded MediCann, a network in Oakland of 20 clinics who authorize patients to use the drug, said his staff members had treated as many as 50 patients ages 14 to 18 who had A.D.H.D. Bay Area doctors have been at the forefront of the fierce debate about medical marijuana, winning tolerance for people with grave illnesses like terminal cancer and AIDS. Yet as these doctors use their discretion more liberally, such support -- even here -- may be harder to muster, especially when it comes to using marijuana to treat adolescents with A.D.H.D.