The possibility that 2010 would emerge as the warmest year on record was raised by scientists after the year began with a period of El Nino conditions - unusually warm waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which transfer heat from the ocean to the atmosphere.

However, a switch to the opposing La Nina conditions halfway through the year cast doubt on whether the record would be broken.

Although December was exceptionally cold in some places - the coldest for 100 years across the UK - other regions, such as Greenland and eastern Canada, saw unseasonably warm weather.

The WMO notes a number of extreme weather events ocurring during 2010, including:

Chinese President Hu Jintao has acknowledged that "a lot still needs to be done" in China over human rights.

Mr Hu was speaking at a rare joint news conference with US President Barack Obama on the first full day of his state visit to the US.

Asked to justify China's human rights record, Mr Hu said China had "made enormous progress recognized in the world".

Mr Obama said he saw China's "peaceful rise" as good for the United States.

"The US has an interest in seeing hundreds of millions of people lifted out of poverty," Mr Obama said.

Bank of America Gears Up for WikiLeaks Fallout; Wall Street Takes Note

By Justin Grant January 03, 2011 URL:

Bank of America is gearing up to defend itself in the event that it proves to be the bank that WikiLeaks' Julian Assange has pledged to take down.

After seeing its stock swoon last November amid rumors that Assange was in possession of an executive's hard drive containing potentially damning information about the firm, Bank of America has been on high alert.

“People I don’t even know are calling me horrible names,” said Ms. Corfield, an art teacher who had pleaded the case of struggling teachers. “The mantra is that the problem is the unions, the unions, the unions.”

I drew the "Starwarts of the Jungle" in 2003 for either a strip cartoon or short animation which I started. Animation is a long long long process. I did not have the right computer programs, so I was making do with iMovie frame by frame, with sound from GarageBand... Then I moved onto Powerpoint with less frames. The characters were of course all the political warts including this one below. I eventually produced a CD with several comments on the iraq war, as "Piece of Peace" in a limited release of 50...

I sold 49 units and kept one for myself...