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New York - The United Nations promoted on Thursday energy efficiency as a tool to alleviate poverty, help development and save businesses and consumers as much as 900 billion of dollars a year by 2020.

Energy efficiency is part of negotiations to achieve a new Kyoto Protocol in December when governments meet in Copenhagen. The current protocol will expire in 2012. Its main targets have been to cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

Sana'a, Yemen - At least 18 people drowned and 29 were missing after a smugglers' boat carrying 88 African would-be migrants capsized off Yemen, the UN refugee agency reported Thursday.

The boat overturned after taking on water while still far from shore amid strong winds and rough seas, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

It said the accident took place late Monday off the Yemeni town of Bourom, some 500 kilometres east of the southern port city of Aden.

Berlin - Joining worldwide moves to crack down on excessive corporate pay, Germany's parliament voted Thursday to double the freeze period on executives' stock options.

In a key change, the German practice of taking out liability insurance so that executives do not have to pay for their mistakes will be modified.

In future, executives will have to pay up to 10 per cent of any court-awarded damages from their own pockets.

The EUR/USD popped slightly yesterday as Tuesday's positive economic sentiment data carried over into Wednesday's session.  However, Wednesday's rise failed to touch 1.40 and the EUR/USD is consolidating around our 3rd tier uptrend line right now.  When viewing the 1-hour, we notice the currency pair continues to register larger volume to the downside than the upside.

Therefore, we believe considerable momentum to the downside remains.  The near-term test will be the ability of the EUR/USD to stay above our 2nd tier downtrend and uptrend lines.  These two trend lines are reaching an inflection point within the next 24-48 hours, highlighting the importance of the moment.                 

Brussels - The Eu