World


Police headquarters in Greek port under siege
PATRAS — Police headquarters in the Greek port of Patras was under siege by demonstrators yesterday, the fourth day of a wave of violence over the killing of a teenage boy by police, local authorities said. Demonstrators were attacking with stones and Molotov cocktails with riot police firing tear gas and trying to hold them back, the police said.

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Ukraine gets new coalition
KIEV — Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s party yesterday reformed a coalition with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc and a smaller group, resolving a damaging stand-off, the parliament speaker said. “The formation of a coalition” comprising the three groups was announced by the head of the small Litvin party,....

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UN climate chief downbeat on deal
POZNAN, Poland — The UN’s climate chief yesterday sounded caution over hopes that a new treaty to tackle global warming would be fully wrapped up by the end of 2009. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said it was possible only “the key political issues”....

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EU backs plan to build nuclear fuel bank by 2010
BRUSSELS — The European Union backs plans to build a nuclear fuel bank before 2010 which would ensure supplies and cut the need for nations to enrich uranium, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said. “We want the bank to be established very soon. In any case before the next NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) review conference in spring 2010,”....

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Czechs not to ratify Lisbon Treaty now
PRAGUE — The Czech Republic will not ratify the European Union’s reform treaty before it takes over the EU’s helm on January 1. In a bid to postpone the vote, the Czech parliament’s Lower House yesterday adjourned a session on the European Union’s reform treaty until February 3.

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Goal of halving hunger by 2015 elusive: UN
ROME — The goal of halving the number of hungry people in the world by 2015 is becoming ever more elusive, with 40 million more people plunged into chronic hunger this year, the UN food agency’s chief said yesterday. “For many countries, the world goal of reducing hunger by half is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve,”....

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