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The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anna has revealed that during his recent tour of the Middle East, most leaders told him that the US-led invasion of Iraq and its aftermath had been a disaster for the region. The White House said it disagreed with Mr. Anna's characterization of / events in Iraq. Our world affairs correspondent Mike Woodridge has more details.

Kofi Anna's differences with the US over Iraq were quickly exposed after the invasion. In the Secretary-General's final months in office he showed today that he remains forthright on the issue. Just back from the Middle East though not Iraq itself, he said most leaders felt the invasion had destabilized the region. But he said opinions were divided over what should happen now. There were many leaders who felt that having created the problem the Americans could not walk away and they should stay until the situation improved.

A gunman has killed a woman and injured at least 19 other people at a college in the Canadian city of Montreal. Police said their officers later shot the attacker dead. Witnesses said the man dressed in a black trench coat and military boots opened fire without warning in a college cafeteria. He then pursued fleeing students up stairways as others barricaded themselves in classrooms. These witnesses described the sad scene.

The most terrifying image I saw was this one guy who was running across the window, and he was telling us to get out, to get out, and I did not know what's going on so I presumed there was a bomb in the school.

We were all running, we were hiding in the bushes and there was debris flying from the bullet *** next to us. We saw all kinds of people getting shot outside and he walked in the school and started shooting everyone else.

The deputy chairman of Russia's Central Bank has been seriously wounded in a shooting in Moscow. Andrei Kozlov who's in charge of banking supervision was attacked by two gunmen outside a sport‘s stadium where bank staff were playing football. His driver was killed in the attack. Correspondents say contract killings of businessmen and bankers occur regularly in Russia where business disputes often turn violent.

American government scientists say the periodic climate phenomenon known as El Nino has developed in the Pacific Ocean threatening / extreme weather in many parts of the world. The scientists at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA say this El Nino is likely to strengthen towards the end of the year and into early 2007. S P has this report.

El Ninos begin with the warming of waters in the eastern Pacific, and the scientists at NOAA Climate Prediction Center say threre has been in a steep rise in water temperature over the past two weeks. There's also / been drier than average weather in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, countries which were often the first to show the effects of a new El Nino. The scientists say this latest phenomena may explain why this year's Atlantic hurricane season has so far been weaker than expected. Winds are associated with the El Nino disrupt/ and weaken storm formation. They are also predicting a mild than average winter for much of North America and wetter weather for the US Gulf / Coast in Florida.

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The leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa have called for greater unity between the world's developing countries. At their summit in Brasilia, the President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said increased cooperation between his country, India and South Africa, should be extented to include as many developing economies as possible. The leaders put special emphasis on jointly developing or alternative forms of energy such as * . They also reiterated their calls for broad reform of the United Nations Security Council which they say should include one or more developing countries as permanent members.

A week after a toxic waste scandal brought down the government of Ivory Coast, teams of Ivorian and French experts still tried to establish exactly what material was composed of. Tons of waste from a ship were dumped in leaking drums in at least 11 open air locations in Ivory Coast's biggest city ,/ Abidjan. Our correspondent James C is there.

The latest health ministry figures show that nearly 16,000 people have sought treatment and 6 have died as the result of the toxic waste. The numbers increased dramatically each day. This does not necessarily mean that the health situation is deteriorating just as rapidly .However, a state of panic seems to set in. There are complains that not enough medicines are available too. Meanwhile, teams of French and Ivorian experts are attempting to find out what exactly the toxic waste was composed of.

The government in Pakistan has delayed presenting to parliament the bill making it easier to prosecute rape cases after a strong opposition from Islamic parties. The legislation is intended to allow rapists to be tried under civil law and not just Islamic laws while victims can face prosecution for a dentary unless they produce 4 male witnesses to testify on their behalf. The government says this makes it almost impossible to prosecute in rape cases