Prague  - Czech President Vaclav Klaus, one of the most prominent climate change doubters, is about to get a new platform: the European Union presidency.

Klaus has called man-made global warming a myth and questioned sanity of Al Gore, the former US vice president who received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for turning a spotlight on climate change.

Most recently, Klaus expressed hopes the EU would give up its ambitious plan to spearhead the global struggle against climate change in the face of the global financial crisis.

From his vantage point in Prague's Hradcany castle, Klaus could be involved in negotiating a new set of EU climate laws while the Czech Republic chairs the EU in the first half of 2009.

Copenhagen  - The challenge of saving the world from global warming has not fallen to a revolutionary or a visionary, but a down-to-earth conservative politician and mother of two.

Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's climate and energy minister, will host next year's crucial UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, meant to find a successor to the Kyoto protocol on global emission levels.

In this exclusive interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, the 48-year-old former journalist explains how to win over the sceptics and singles out a global price on carbon and a cap-and-trade system as the most efficient way of delivering greenhouse gas cuts.

dpa: Ms Hedegaard, why do we need a deal in Copenhagen?

Santiago  - Extreme rainfall and spreading drought are signalling rapid climate change in Latin America, prompting concern that wrenching changes like migration will worsen social equality.

A greater concentration of land ownership, changes in water supplies and an expansion of deserts are the likely consequences as temperatures rise, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says.

Vienna  - When UN talks on a new climate-saving pact resume in Poland next week, the global economic crisis will loom large.

Resistance to the cost of fighting global warming has grown, notably in Europe, which has traditionally set the pace in international efforts to cut fossil fuel use.

Now, countries like Italy and Poland say ambitious EU plans are too expensive.

New York - More than 5 million people have signed a petition to support the UN campaign to end violence against women, a programme spearheaded by Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman, the UN said Tuesday.

The petition was presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to mark Tuesday's International Day to End Violence Against Women.

"We thought that the more names we collected, the stronger our case to make ending violence against women a top priority for governments everywhere," Kidman said at a press conference at UN headquarters in New York.

The campaign, known as "Say NO," was managed by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), for which Kidman serves spokeswoman and goodwill ambassador.

New York  - Half of Zimbabwe's 12 million people would require food assistance and some households have already cut back on the number of meals a day, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.

Ban said in a statement that the news from Zimbabwe was "distressing" because of the collapse of health, sanitation and education services in addition to an escalating outbreak of cholera.