The US Navy is unlikely to try to shoot apart an errant satellite due to rough seas in the Pacific, a senior US military official said.

"We don't anticipate the weather being good enough today," said the official, briefing reporters at the Pentagon on condition of anonymity.

The official said that assessment could change but at the moment it did not appear the Pacific would be calm enough to ensure a successful operation for the Navy ship charged with firing a missile at the satellite.

The Pentagon said last week that President George W. Bush decided to let the Navy try to shoot down the satellite because of the danger that its fuel tank could leak deadly toxic gas if it enters the atmosphere and reaches Earth.

Alcohol ban challenged

Liquor makers in central China's Henan province are planning a legal challenge to fight a ban on Communist Party officials and civil servants drinking alcohol at lunch during work days.

The ban, introduced in January last year, has led to more than 100 local cadres being reprimanded for ignoring it.

Local restaurants are complaining they have taken a hit in terms of fewer lunch customers and lower revenues from not selling as much alcohol.

"Drinking is a private affair and holding public office shouldn't keep someone from consuming alcohol as long as it does not affect their work," lawyer Kang Yinzhong, representing the Henan Alcohol Association, was quoted as saying.

Satellites spot lost Mayan temples

Modern archaeologists have found the ruins of ancient Mayan cities in the Guatemalan jungle by peering down from space.

Archaeologists and Nasa scientists began teaming up five years ago to search for clues about the mysterious collapse of the Mayan civilisation in Central America and southern Mexico. In fact archaeologist William Saturno recently discovered five sprawling sites with hundreds of buildings using a spy satellite that can see through clouds and forest to reveal differences in the vegetation below.

Mr Saturno said the satellite images made it easier to find ruins covered for centuries by dense jungle vines and trees and the result is a virtual road map of the buried structures from nearly 640 kilometres above the earth's surface.

Mugabe turns 84

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe turns 84 today.

Born on the Kutama Mission northwest off Harare and educated by Jesuits, Robert Gabriel Mugabe earned seven university degrees, three while jailed for opposing white minority rule under Ian Smith's white government of then-Rhodesia.

He became leader of the Zanu liberation movement in the mid-1970s and Prime Minister when the Zanu-PF won independence elections in 1980. He took office as president in 1987.

In 2000, Mr Mugabe tasted defeat when voters rejected a new constitution that would have given him more power.

He turned on the small white minority, blaming them for the referendum defeat, and told them to go to Britain while allowing his government to seize more than half of the white-owned farms, often with violence.

Mr Mugabe was elected to his third term as President in 2002 but his crackdown against opponents, including journalists, has increased his international isolation.

Once hailed as a model African democrat, the former Marxist guerilla has held fast to power despite a deepening political and economic crisis that has ruined Zimbabwe.

Giant waste bin in London

Campaigners are taking a giant waste bin onto the streets of London today to drive home the point of how much rubbish is generated every day.

Armed with statistics on the vast amount of waste generated and the tiny amount that is recycled, the campaign hopes to make people wake up to what they are throwing away every day.

"One Bin Day is designed to make people think about what they buy, use and throw away," said Envirowise programme director Dr Martin Gibson.

According to Envirowise, a government-funded programme aiming to put sustainability at the core of British business practice, Britons throw away in waste the equivalent of their own body weight every five days.

Britons throw away 12 billion aluminum cans and six billion bottles a year, Envirowise said.