Thursday, December 10, 2009 COPENHAGEN: The European Union (EU) put pressure on the US and China to do more with their emission cut targets and called on the two countries to take a leadership role as the Copenhagen climate talks continued on the second day."The US and China have not offered to go far enough to combat climate change," CNN quoted a top EU official as saying Monday.Final negotiations at the conference "will be mostly about what will be delivered from the US and China," said Andreas Carlgren, Sweden's environment minister, who pressed US President Barack Obama to do more than he promised in a statement before the conference.The so-called "G2" concept, frequently mentioned in G20 summits this year, reappeared in many media to refer to the responsibility the two countries should assume.China and the US together cover half of the world's emissions so what they can deliver is very decisive, Carlgren said.Jin Canrong, a professor from Renmin University of China, told the Global Times in an interview that it is undeniable that China and the US are two major emitters, but the motive behind the EU’s statement is its intention to shift the burden to China and the US; in which case, they will bear the final result of the climate talks, be it good or bad.Last month China announced its plan to reduce 40 percent to 45 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of the GDP in 2020 compared with 2005 levels. This target was followed by the US' commitment of a 17 percent cut by 2020 below 2005 levels.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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