Davos, Switzerland - With the economic crisis likely to dominate much of 2009, world leaders in Davos Friday urged climate change issues to remain in focus.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the UN's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and others attending the World Economic Forum warned against letting the economic worries overshadow the need to solve the climate issues as the two were interconnected.
Damascus - A delegation from the US Congress arrived in Damascus late Friday for talks with the Syrian officials, a US Embassy spokesman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The congressional delegation, chaired by Democrat Representative Adam Smith, will discuss with Syrian officials US-Syrian relations and security cooperation.
This is the first US delegation to visit the Syrian capital after US president Barack Obama was sworn in on January 20.
Sao Paulo - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned rich countries Friday against turning to protectionism in the current global economic and financial crisis.
"It is a mistake to think that protectionism solves the problem. Protectionism, at this point, will make the problem worse," Lula said.
The president was in the northeastern Brazilian city of Belem, where he took part in the World Social Forum (WSF) a day earlier.
Cairo - Egypt Friday accused the Hezbollah leader in lebanon, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, of being "an agent of Iran" after he attacked Egypt in statements on Thursday.
"Hassan Nasrallah's criticism of Egypt confirms once more that he is nothing more than an agent of the Iranian regime and takes his orders from Tehran," said an unnamed Egyptian official.
Brussels - The European Union and China will meet in a summit before the end of June, EU officials said on Friday, two months after Beijing scrapped a top-level meeting in protest at EU leaders' meeting with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
EU leaders agreed with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao during talks in Brussels that "the eleventh EU-China Summit should be convened as soon as possible under the Czech Presidency of the EU," a statement from the European Commission, the EU's executive, said.
The Czech Republic took over the EU's rotating presidency on January 1 and is set to hand it over to Sweden on July 1.
Reykjavik - Talks to form an interim left-leaning government on Iceland continued Friday as the country was offered the prospect of speedy membership in the European Union.
The Social Democrats were this week given the task of forming an interim government with the Left-Green Movement. This came after mass protests forced the collapse of the government led by the conservative Independence Party and including the Social Democrats.
In addition to agreeing on a date for early elections, an interim government will need to set out a course for Iceland's stance to the European Union.
Davos, Switzerland - With the economic crisis likely to dominate much of 2009, world leaders in Davos Friday urged climate change issues to remain in focus.
Damascus - A delegation from the US Congress arrived in Damascus late Friday for talks with the Syrian officials, a US Embassy spokesman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Sao Paulo - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned rich countries Friday against turning to protectionism in the current global economic and financial crisis.
Cairo - Egypt Friday accused the Hezbollah leader in lebanon, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, of being "an agent of Iran" after he attacked Egypt in statements on Thursday.
Brussels - The European Union and China will meet in a summit before the end of June, EU officials said on Friday, two months after Beijing scrapped a top-level meeting in protest at EU leaders' meeting with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Reykjavik - Talks to form an interim left-leaning government on Iceland continued Friday as the country was offered the prospect of speedy membership in the European Union.
