G20 leaders insist no more IMF cash unless eurozone boosts financial firewall

A communique agreed by G20 finance ministers in Mexico City last night said a decision by eurozone leaders to boost their own firewall was "essential" before any more external resources were allocated via the International Monetary Fund .

"Euro area countries will reassess the strength of their support facilities in March. This will provide an essential input in our ongoing consideration to mobilise resources to the IMF," the official said, quoting from the draft.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, said: "The rest of the world will only consider extra resources for the IMF once the eurozone themselves contribute more to supporting their own currency. We have to see the colour of the eurozone's money first – and, quite frankly, that hasn't happened. Until it does, there's no question of extra IMF money from Britain or probably anyone else."

G20 finance ministers did agree that any extra IMF funding would come via bi-lateral loans. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, added: "G20 countries must now strengthen resilience to further shocks that could result from still fragile financial systems, high public and private debt, and higher world oil prices."

The failure to reach an agreement on extra funds adds yet another delay in the tortuous process of trying to shore up the eurozone. It also dashes a timetable set out in Cannes in November when G20 leaders proposed boosting the IMF's war chest by as much as $600bn (378bn). The leaders had hoped the deal would be approved by the G20 finance ministers this weekend.

The G20 communique added: "We are reviewing options to ensure resources for the IMF could be mobilised in a timely manner."

A spat between America and Germany highlighted the growing impatience with eurozone members in the rest of the world. Tim Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, used his G20 speech to demand bigger efforts from eurozone leaders to solve the crisis.

"I hope we're going to see, and expect we'll see, continued efforts by Europeans to put in place a stronger and more credible firewall," he said. "The IMF can't move forward without more clarity on Europe's own plans."

The Canadian finance minister, Jim Flaherty, said eurozone leaders should not "leave countries hanging out there with austerity programmes and negative economic growth. That's a dead end. We need to see a more comprehensive eurozone plan for their countries."

European leaders are under pressure to combine the firepower of the two bail-out funds they've already established, the European Financial Stability Facility and its successor fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), and unleash the full powers of the European Central Bank by allowing it to become the lender of last resort.

Germany's Wolfgang Schaeuble fired back: "Let me be clear. It does not make any economic sense which would neutralise the interest risk in the eurozone, nor endlessly pumping money into stability funds, nor starting up the ECB printing press."

Mr Schaeuble insisted the rescue efforts were adequate. "I dare to say that Europe has done its homework," he said, claiming the reduction of eurozone bond yields in recent weeks "show we're on the right course".

The German Bundestag kicks off another roller-coaster week with a vote today on the 130bn (110bn) bail-out that was agreed by leaders last week. G20 finance ministers said in the communique they welcomed the deal which included the biggest sovereign bond restructuring in history.

Marie Colvin's killing piles pressure on Assad as civilian death toll rises

The deaths of the veteran Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin and the French photographer Rémi Ochlik amid a rising toll of civilian victims in Syria have prompted renewed calls for an end to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Their deaths came on a day in which, according to activists, more than 80 people were killed in the besieged district of Baba Amr in Homs, which has been under daily attack by the Syrian army for three weeks.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, called the journalists' deaths an assassination and said the Assad era had to end.

"That's enough now," he said. "This regime must go and there is no reason that Syrians don't have the right to live their lives and choose their destiny freely. If journalists were not there, the massacres would be a lot worse."

The foreign secretary, William Hague, said the deaths were "a terrible reminder of the suffering of the Syrian people – scores of whom are dying every day". He added: "Marie and Rémi died bringing us the truth about what is happening to the people of Homs. Governments around the world have the responsibility to act upon that truth – and to redouble our efforts to stop the Assad regime's despicable campaign of terror in Syria."

The Syrian ambassador to London was later summoned to the Foreign Office ,where officials told Dr Sami Khiyami the UK government was "horrified" by the violence in Homs.

Political director Sir Geoffrey Adams said he expected immediate arrangements to be put in place for Colvin's body to be repatriated, as well as for the medical treatment of British photographer Paul Conroy, who was also injured in the shelling.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Sir Geoffrey stressed that the British government was horrified by the continuing unacceptable violence in Homs, which has been under attack for 19 days.

"He noted that today alone the world had witnessed the death of more than 60 civilians, including children, on the single street of al-Hakoura in the Baba Amr neighbourhood.

"Our clear demand was for the violence to stop immediately. The Syrian authorities must implement the undertakings they had given to the Arab League, halt all violence against civilians, and start an orderly political transition before a single further death took place."

David Cameron told the Commons Colvin was a "talented and respected foreign correspondent" and her death was "a desperately sad reminder of the risks journalists take to inform the world of what is happening and the dreadful events in Syria".

Colvin and Ochlik were killed after an artillery shell hit the house in which they were staying. Three other foreign reporters, as well as seven activists from Baba Amr, were wounded on Wednesday. One of the injured, freelance photographer Paul Conroy, was travelling with Colvin.

Edith Bouvier, a freelance journalist working for the French paper Le Figaro, suffered serious leg injuries in the attack. Activists warned that she was at risk of bleeding to death.

Jean-Pierre Perrin, senior foreign correspondent at the French daily Libération, said he had been with Colvin and other journalists at a makeshift press centre in Homs and had left with her several days ago after being warned that the army was preparing an offensive and that journalists could be targeted. Colvin waited, decided the offensive against the press centre had not happened and returned to Homs.

Perrin told Libération the press centre, which had a generator and a patchy internet connection, was the only means of telling the world what was happening. "If the press centre were destroyed, there would be no more information out of Homs."

He said the army recommended "killing any journalist that stepped on Syrian soil". Journalists had been aware of this, and of reports of intercepted communications between Syrian officers that recommended killing all journalists between the Lebanon border and Homs, and making out they had been killed in combat between terrorist groups.

He said of his departure from Homs with Colvin: "We had been advised to leave the town [of Homs] urgently. We were told, 'If they find you, they will kill you'." So I left with the Sunday Times journalist [Marie Colvin], but later she wanted to go back when she saw the offensive hadn't happened."

In the deadliest time for the media since the uprising began, at least three citizen journalists have also been killed in recent days, in an apparent attempt by the regime to prevent news emerging from Homs. The three had played prominent roles in chronicling the army's assault on Homs.

One of them was video blogger Rami al-Sayed, known as Syria Pioneer, who had uploaded to the internet at least 200 videos of killing and destruction in his neighbourhood.

Colvin, a decorated foreign correspondent with more than 30 years' experience in conflict zones, and Ochlik, who won a World Press Photo award last month, died instantly when the shell struck the safe house provided for them by activists just after 9am. Colvin's body, along with Ochlik's, was recovered four hours later.

Colvin's editor, John Witherow, said in a statement: "Marie was an extraordinary figure in the life of the Sunday Times, driven by a passion to cover wars in the belief that what she did mattered. She believed profoundly that reporting could curtail the excesses of brutal regimes and make the international community take notice. Above all, as we saw in her powerful report last weekend, her thoughts were with the victims of violence.

"Throughout her long career she took risks to fulfil this goal, including being badly injured in Sri Lanka. Nothing seemed to deter her. But she was much more than a war reporter. She was a woman with a tremendous joie de vivre, full of humour and mischief and surrounded by a large circle of friends, all of whom feared the consequences of her bravery."

Colvin and Ochlik had been in Baba Amr for the past weekreporting the bloody siege of opposition-held parts of Syria's third city, which has claimed hundreds of lives and led to a humanitarian crisis. The house in which they were based was next to a hospital and had been the main refuge for all reporters who had made it to Bab al-Amr in the face of a relentless barrage by regime forces.

An activist for the campaigning group Avaaz who saw the attack said: "I left the house after it got struck and headed to a house across the street. The shelling continues and the bodies of the journalists are still on the ground. We can't get them out because of the intensity of the shelling even though we're only a few metres away from them."

Another witness said rockets continued to rain down on the area as the wounded tried to escape the bombed two-storey house. A graphic video posted on the internet showed the house in ruins – a scale of damage that could only have been caused by a heavy artillery round. Two bodies were visible in the rubble.

Three of the wounded were in a serious condition and in urgent need of treatment.

They faced a long and perilous drive to the Lebanese border where Red Cross officials were preparing to meet them.

The foreign editor of the Times, Richard Beeston, said on Twitter: "Terrible news about Marie Colvin. First worked with her Beirut 85. Most courageous, glamorous foreign corr I have ever met. Tragic loss."

Colvin used a web forum to make what is believed to be her last post on Tuesday. "I think the reports of my survival may be exaggerated," she wrote. "In Baba Amr. Sickening, cannot understand how the world can stand by and I should be hardened by now. Watched a baby die today. Shrapnel, doctors could do nothing. His little tummy just heaved and heaved until he stopped. Feeling helpless. As well as cold! Will keep trying to get out the information."

Marie Colvin's killing piles pressure on Assad as civilian death toll rises

The deaths of the veteran Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin and the French photographer Rémi Ochlik amid a rising toll of civilian victims in Syria have prompted renewed calls for an end to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Their deaths came on a day in which, according to activists, more than 80 people were killed in the besieged district of Baba Amr in Homs, which has been under daily attack by the Syrian army for three weeks.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, called the journalists' deaths an assassination and said the Assad era had to end.

"That's enough now," he said. "This regime must go and there is no reason that Syrians don't have the right to live their lives and choose their destiny freely. If journalists were not there, the massacres would be a lot worse."

The foreign secretary, William Hague, said the deaths were "a terrible reminder of the suffering of the Syrian people – scores of whom are dying every day". He added: "Marie and Rémi died bringing us the truth about what is happening to the people of Homs. Governments around the world have the responsibility to act upon that truth – and to redouble our efforts to stop the Assad regime's despicable campaign of terror in Syria."

The Syrian ambassador to London was later summoned to the Foreign Office ,where officials told Dr Sami Khiyami the UK government was "horrified" by the violence in Homs.

Political director Sir Geoffrey Adams said he expected immediate arrangements to be put in place for Colvin's body to be repatriated, as well as for the medical treatment of British photographer Paul Conroy, who was also injured in the shelling.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Sir Geoffrey stressed that the British government was horrified by the continuing unacceptable violence in Homs, which has been under attack for 19 days.

"He noted that today alone the world had witnessed the death of more than 60 civilians, including children, on the single street of al-Hakoura in the Baba Amr neighbourhood.

"Our clear demand was for the violence to stop immediately. The Syrian authorities must implement the undertakings they had given to the Arab League, halt all violence against civilians, and start an orderly political transition before a single further death took place."

David Cameron told the Commons Colvin was a "talented and respected foreign correspondent" and her death was "a desperately sad reminder of the risks journalists take to inform the world of what is happening and the dreadful events in Syria".

Colvin and Ochlik were killed after an artillery shell hit the house in which they were staying. Three other foreign reporters, as well as seven activists from Baba Amr, were wounded on Wednesday. One of the injured, freelance photographer Paul Conroy, was travelling with Colvin.

Edith Bouvier, a freelance journalist working for the French paper Le Figaro, suffered serious leg injuries in the attack. Activists warned that she was at risk of bleeding to death.

Jean-Pierre Perrin, senior foreign correspondent at the French daily Libération, said he had been with Colvin and other journalists at a makeshift press centre in Homs and had left with her several days ago after being warned that the army was preparing an offensive and that journalists could be targeted. Colvin waited, decided the offensive against the press centre had not happened and returned to Homs.

Perrin told Libération the press centre, which had a generator and a patchy internet connection, was the only means of telling the world what was happening. "If the press centre were destroyed, there would be no more information out of Homs."

He said the army recommended "killing any journalist that stepped on Syrian soil". Journalists had been aware of this, and of reports of intercepted communications between Syrian officers that recommended killing all journalists between the Lebanon border and Homs, and making out they had been killed in combat between terrorist groups.

He said of his departure from Homs with Colvin: "We had been advised to leave the town [of Homs] urgently. We were told, 'If they find you, they will kill you'." So I left with the Sunday Times journalist [Marie Colvin], but later she wanted to go back when she saw the offensive hadn't happened."

In the deadliest time for the media since the uprising began, at least three citizen journalists have also been killed in recent days, in an apparent attempt by the regime to prevent news emerging from Homs. The three had played prominent roles in chronicling the army's assault on Homs.

One of them was video blogger Rami al-Sayed, known as Syria Pioneer, who had uploaded to the internet at least 200 videos of killing and destruction in his neighbourhood.

Colvin, a decorated foreign correspondent with more than 30 years' experience in conflict zones, and Ochlik, who won a World Press Photo award last month, died instantly when the shell struck the safe house provided for them by activists just after 9am. Colvin's body, along with Ochlik's, was recovered four hours later.

Colvin's editor, John Witherow, said in a statement: "Marie was an extraordinary figure in the life of the Sunday Times, driven by a passion to cover wars in the belief that what she did mattered. She believed profoundly that reporting could curtail the excesses of brutal regimes and make the international community take notice. Above all, as we saw in her powerful report last weekend, her thoughts were with the victims of violence.

"Throughout her long career she took risks to fulfil this goal, including being badly injured in Sri Lanka. Nothing seemed to deter her. But she was much more than a war reporter. She was a woman with a tremendous joie de vivre, full of humour and mischief and surrounded by a large circle of friends, all of whom feared the consequences of her bravery."

Colvin and Ochlik had been in Baba Amr for the past weekreporting the bloody siege of opposition-held parts of Syria's third city, which has claimed hundreds of lives and led to a humanitarian crisis. The house in which they were based was next to a hospital and had been the main refuge for all reporters who had made it to Bab al-Amr in the face of a relentless barrage by regime forces.

An activist for the campaigning group Avaaz who saw the attack said: "I left the house after it got struck and headed to a house across the street. The shelling continues and the bodies of the journalists are still on the ground. We can't get them out because of the intensity of the shelling even though we're only a few metres away from them."

Another witness said rockets continued to rain down on the area as the wounded tried to escape the bombed two-storey house. A graphic video posted on the internet showed the house in ruins – a scale of damage that could only have been caused by a heavy artillery round. Two bodies were visible in the rubble.

Arlington Heights regulates composting in village

After more than a year of reworking and refining, Arlington Heights’ Village Board has put a composting ordinance on the books.

The ordinance allows backyard compost piles that follow best practice guidelines and are sufficiently set back from property lines. Compost piles were never banned, nor were they ever explicitly allowed in the village.

The idea for an ordinance first came to light in late 2010, after residents starting raising a stink about the smells coming from neighbors’ compost piles.

The village decided to act, and began drafting an ordinance that was set for approval last February, but was sent to the Environmental Commission instead when gardeners complained that it would limit the three-bin system, a widely accepted composting practice.

The village and the composting crowd finally agreed, and the new ordinance passed Monday night, officially allowing composting in the village.

Kris Solger, an Arlington Heights resident who has practiced backyard composting for more than 15 years, said many neighbors don’t even know she has compost piles tucked away into the back corner of her yard behind some evergreen trees.

She was happy to see the ordinance finally fall into place.

“I think it’s perfectly reasonable,” she said.

The ordinance defines composting as a mixture of decayed or decaying organic matter used to fertilize soil and only allows bin composting and sheet composting, spreading a thin layer of organic material across a garden area.

The bins must be located in the side or rear yard and must be placed a minimum of 5 feet from the property line or 25 feet from neighboring homes.

Soil, grass clippings, waste sod, wood chips, shredded paper, egg shells, coffee grounds, straw, leaves, cooked or uncooked vegetables as well as small amounts of activators are acceptable, but the compost cannot contain any meat or meat products, fatty food, bones, animal feces, diseased plants, treated wood, manure or non-plant materials.

The ordinance calls for composters to turn the piles frequent to prevent smells or wild animal infestation and allows newer composting techniques to be employed if they are approved by the director of building and health services and the Environmental Commission.

Tireless team pick up piles of rubbish to keep beach tidy

IT was a job that required plenty of enthusiasm and an eagle eye.

Dedicated volunteers braved the windy weather at the weekend to scour Hayling beach for litter.

More than 10 bags of rubbish were collected in just a few hours by members of the Hayling Coastal Conservation Group, a new team of people who are committed to helping conserve Hayling Island’s biodiversity.

Volunteers collected plastic bags, wrappers, cans and bottles that have been discarded on the beach.

While litter is unsightly to humans, it can have more serious consequences for fish, birds and seals, said Virginia Bazlinton, a member of the conservation group.

The 66-year-old, who teaches English as a foreign language, said: ‘If it gets into the sea, wildlife can swallow it.

‘We picked up bits of rope and fishing line and it can get tangled round birds.

‘It’s important to pick these things up. It shouldn’t be there.’

The group concentrated their efforts on Sinah Common, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and an important habitat for the south of England.

The unique coastal strip features various types of grassland habitat, mobile dunes, heath and saltmarsh that are home to many species of rare plants.

The work of the conservation group has included coppicing gorse growing in the area.

This allows other species of plant that are native to Hayling Island – such as the rare Childing Pink – to grow as there is more light getting through to ground level.

Other work being done by the group includes bat hunting, planting trees along the Hayling Billy Path and counting the different number of animal species at the Hayling oyster beds.

The group is being supported by the national conservation group BTCV, which last year launched a project to train local people into becoming beach wardens.

Mrs Bazlinton, who lives in Sidlesham Close, Eastoke, said: ‘I enjoy going out in the fresh air and doing something to improve the environment.

‘Also it’s the camaraderie between the group.

‘We are all like-minded people who enjoy doing the same thing.

‘We’re just ordinary people who do ordinary jobs and the group is open to anybody.’