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Poland to Host UN Climate Talks in 2013
This decision was adopted on Friday by negotiators from over 190 countries who gathered two weeks ago in the capital of Qatar, Doha, for the current round of talks.
Deeply divided on funding for poor countries and the fate of unused carbon emission permits, the participants of the Doha conference failed to yield a global climate pact to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.
Poland, which heavily relies on coal production, was chosen on the basis of geographical rotation as next year marks the turn of East European countries to host the annual event.
The country has been struggling to sell its unused emission quotas as there are only a few potential buyers and developing countries want the emission permits scrapped altogether.
The Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was first negotiated in 1997 with the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.
After last year’s Climate Change Conference in Durban, 35 Kyoto Protocol member states agreed to adopt a universal legal treaty on climate change by 2015 after the initial agreement expires in 2012.
The United States has never joined the Kyoto Protocol, while Japan, New Zealand, Canada and Russia have already announced they will not be signing up to a new interim commitment to the treaty.
As a result, the extension would only cover about 15% of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases.Media agencies
Vote counting is on way in Ghana’s presidential and parliamentary polls.
Ghana has in its credit of five elections since military rule ended in 1992.
Political analysts believe the stakes are higher than ever as commercial oil production that began in 2010 is expected to expand.Mr Mahama wants to spend Ghana’s new wealth on large investments in infrastructure, while Mr Akufo-Addo is advocating free secondary education.
As a top exporter of cocoa and gold, Ghana is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
Voting continued for a second day in some areas after breakdowns in a new biometric voting system meant many were unable to cast their ballots on Friday. Experts and observers say the election has been largely peaceful.Results had been expected as early as Sunday but it was unclear if the timeframe would remain after the extension.A second round is possible on 28 December if no candidate wins an outright majority.
Mr Mahama, speaking after casting his vote on Friday, said the elections would “go down in history as the best ever to be held in Ghana”.
Mr Akufo-Addo expressed hope that the polls would remain peaceful.Mr Mahama took over as president after John Atta Mills died in July. His National Democratic Congress is also defending a narrow parliamentary majority. Media agencies
Italian Premier Mario Monti to resign
by sagarmedia
Only hours earlier, Berlusconi announced he would run for a fourth term as premier, aiming for a dramatic comeback, considering the billionaire media baron quit in disgrace in November 2011.Former Prime Minister Mr Berlusconi said he will run for office again next year.He said Mr Monti’s austerity policies had harmed Italy.Mr Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party withdrew its support from the government on Thursday.
The office of President Giorgio Napolitano, who met for nearly two hours with Monti at the presidential palace, said the premier told the head of state that without the support of Berlusconi’s party, “he cannot further carry out his mandate, and consequently made clear his intention to resign” once Parliament passes a crucial budget bill soon.
Political turmoil in Italy, mired in recession and trying to escape the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, could spook financial markets, which, with Monti at the helm, had steadily regained faith in the country’s ability to honor its debts.
Standard & Poor’s rating agency, indicating on Friday that it could lower Italy’s rating if the recession endures well into 2013, cited “uncertainty” over whether the next Italian government could stay the tough course
Egypt : Prez Morsi Annuls Constitutional Declaration
“The decision has been made to issue a new constitutional declaration,” Islamist politician Selim al-Awa said after the meeting.
Awa also said the referendum on a new draft constitution will not be postponed and will take place at the scheduled date, on December 15.
Prime Minister Hisham Qandil told journalists on Saturday that Morsi has agreed to delay the referendum on a new draft constitution and amend the controversial decree giving him broader powers he issued on November 22.
Morsi met with leaders of several opposition political parties in his residence on Saturday. The sides were discussing ways out of the current political crisis in the country as part of a national dialog the president called for on Thursday.
“The country’s political forces and the president, who gathered on Saturday to hold a national dialog, have agreed to establish a commission to amend the constitutional declaration,” Qandil said.
Morsi’s constitutional declaration expanded his executive authority by barring the courts from challenging his decisions. Egypt’s highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, slammed the move as “an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings.”
Opposition groups have been rallying against the constitutional declaration and Morsi’s decision to hold a nationwide referendum on the new Constitution on December 15, which they described as too hasty. The referendum’s postponement is one of the Egyptian opposition’s key demands.
Earlier this week, violent clashes between Morsi’s supporters and opponents left seven people dead and hundreds injured.
Egypt’s armed forces on Saturday told both sides to resolve the crisis over Morsi’s new powers through dialog, saying it would prevent Egypt from going into “a dark tunnel.”
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