TOKYO - GOOGLE has long been the king of search, dominating rivals including Yahoo and Microsoft.

But it increasingly sees social networks such as Facebook as challengers to its search engine, a company official said Monday.

PARIS - MINISTERS from economies accounting for 80 per cent of the globe's greenhouse gases met on Monday and heard warnings that 'the world's destiny' may lie in the outcome of a mooted climate change pact.

French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, opening the gathering of the so-called Major Economies Forum (MEF), pointed to the aim of forging a planet-wide treaty in Copenhagen in December under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

KATHMANDU (Nepal) - A SHERPA from Nepal who holds the world's record for scaling Mount Everest said on Monday the planet's highest peak was littered with trash and warned that its glaciers were melting because of global warming.

Mr Appa, who like most Sherpas goes by only one name, scaled the peak last week not to draw attention to his own amazing feat - he has now climbed Everest a record 19 times - but to the impact that global warming is having on the majestic site.