According to a top Canadian military general, Taliban forces in Afghanistan utilize forests of ten-foot tall marijuana plants to evade Canadian troops. The plants provide a nearly impenetrable barrier, and dense camouflage, for Taliban militias, and render thermal devices for detecting movement obsolete. Marijuana plants, according to General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, absorb energy and heat, which allows Taliban forces to evade thermal detecting devices used by Canadian forces. "It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices . . . and as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests," the general remarked at a press conference in Ottawa.

Steve Weinkseldaum was arrested on Tuesday as agents from the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were led to his home on a tip that he was boarding wild animals. According to an AP report, agent Roy Gross said, "It appeared to be like I was walking into a rain forest" in his home, because "he had alligators stacked up. He had plants growing. It was tight to walk. "

Police have received hundreds of tips, have searched the Ocala National Forest to no avail, and will now begin looking at local alligators stomachs in the search for two-year-old Trenton Duckett. Marion County Sheriff's Office has requested the search of one eight-foot alligator's stomach. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said they will be looking for bone, fabric, and hair inside the animal.

The Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources has filed charges against Motortrade Co. , before the regional trial court Branch 51 in Sorsogon City, Philippines for violation of Presidential Decree 953, which prohibits the nailing of anything, including advertisements, on trees which could cause injury to them. The law states that "any person who cuts, destroys, damages or injures naturally growing or planted trees of any kind, flowering or ornamental plants and shrubs, or plants of scenic, aesthetic and ecological values. . . shall be punished with imprisonment. "

A 28-year-old environmentalist from Machynllet, Powys in England, is planning on traveling some 9,770 miles by land to be a bridesmaid at a wedding in Australia because she does not want to contribute to air pollution by flying. Barbara Haddrill said the trip would take her six weeks to accomplish at a cost of $3,800.