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BANGKOK: Negotiators from up to 180 countries began
gathering here Sunday for talks aimed at reaching the most ambitious
treaty yet for sparing the Earth from the worst ravages of global
warming. The five-day talks, starting today, follow marathon
negotiations in December in Bali where the world set a 2009 deadline
for thrashing out a landmark pact to battle climate change. The
Bangkok meeting is the first step toward reaching that new
agreement, which should take effect when commitments on cutting
harmful greenhouse gas emissions under the existing Kyoto Protocol
expire in 2012.
--AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian
opposition party on Sunday condemned the government for its refusal
to free an ethnic Indian activist who was elected as a state
legislator while in detention. Lawyer M. Manoharan, standing for the
Democratic Action Party (DAP), soundly beat the government incumbent
in a Selangor state seat in the recent general election while being
held under the Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite
detention without trial.
--AFP
VIENTIANE, Laos: Cooperation
between the nations and people who share the Mekong River is the
most direct pathway to greater prosperity, said an official of the
Asian Development Bank here Sunday. The bank official made the
remarks as the prime ministers of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)
are engaged in bilateral meetings and informal sessions here on
Sunday, a day ahead of the Third GMS Summit.
--Xinhua
SEOUL: South Korean Foreign
Minister Yu Myung Hwan will meet with his Japanese counterpart
Masahiko Komura on bilateral cooperation in economy, regional
security, the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula and South
Korean President Lee Myung Bak’s scheduled summit with Japanese
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, during his visit from April 3 to 6, the
South Korean Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
--Xinhua
STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania: US
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton vowed to stay in
the race to the very end, despite warnings by prominent party
officials that a protracted primary fight could be damaging to
Democrats. But on Saturday, her rival, Barack Obama, rejected calls
for her to get out of the nomination race.
--AFP
BAGHDAD: The curfew in Baghdad,
which was imposed Thursday and slated to be lifted Sunday, has been
extended for an indefinite period, state television Al-Iraqiya
reported. The extension comes as violent clashes continue between
Shiite fighters and security forces in the capital and elsewhere.
--Xinhua
JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense
Minister Ehud Barak said the revival of peace talks with Damascus is
a key foreign-policy objective, according to a statement released
Sunday. Barak warned, however, that Israel still considers Syria a
threat to its security because of its support for the Lebanese
Hezbollah militia, against which Israel fought a 34-day war in the
summer of 2006. The two countries have technically been at war since
1948 and peace talks last broke down in 2000 over the fate of the
Golan Heights, which Israel seized in the 1967 war and annexed in
1981.
--AFP
BRUSSELS: NATO leaders will
strive this week to rally international support for their troubled
mission in Afghanistan as internal divisions undermine the fight
against a resolute Taliban insurgency. At a summit in Bucharest
starting Wednesday, NATO’s biggest ever, they will endorse a
“vision statement” to remind doubtful publics about why the
alliance has taken on such a formidable challenge and clearly set
out its goals.
--AFP
WARSAW, Poland: Border checks at
airports in nine Schengen-area newcomers vanished at midnight
Sunday, allowing 400 million people passport-free travel in the
24-country zone. Malta and eight fellow 2004 European Union
entrants—ex-communist Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia—all dropped passport
checks for air passengers who are Schengen state citizens.
--AFP
GABORONE, Botswana: Festus Mogae
is to stand down as Botswana’s president on Tuesday after a decade
in which his country cemented its status as one of Africa’s
success stories despite fears it could be wiped out by AIDS. Mogae,
who hands over the reins of power to his long-time heir apparent Ian
Khama, styled himself as the “chief executive” of a nation that
enjoys one of the highest standards of living on the continent
because of diamonds.
--AFP
HARARE, Zimbabwe: The main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Sunday claimed an
early lead ahead of the official announcement of results from the
general election where veteran leader Robert Mugabe is fighting for
an extended rule.
--AFP
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