World Briefs

Robert Orr, assistant secretary-general for policy coordination and strategic planning, said the president-elect's comments on the need to address climate change have raised "a lot of hope" -- particularly at a time when some governments are talking about delaying their efforts to curb emissions, partly because of the economic crisis.

Representatives from 190 countries are meeting in the Polish city of Poznan from Dec. 1-12 to work toward an ambitious new treaty that hopefully will be adopted at a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009. It would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Canadian leader suspends Parliament to keep power

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended Parliament on Thursday to avoid almost certain defeat in a confidence vote -- an unprecedented move allowing him to retain power and confront Canada's flagging economy.

The Conservative leader won the approval of the unelected representative of the head of state for the power to shut down Parliament until Jan. 26, hoping to buy enough time to develop a stimulus package.

"Today's decision will give us an opportunity -- I'm talking about all the parties -- to focus on the economy and work together," Harper said.

Harper, whose party won re-election just two months ago, said a budget will be the first order of business when Parliament resumes.

Three opposition parties have united against Harper, charging he has failed to insulate Canada from the global financial crisis. The credit crisis and a global sell off of commodities have slowed Canada's resource-rich economy, and the finance minister said last week he expects a recession.

The parties, which control the majority of seats in Parliament, had scheduled a confidence vote for Monday in which Harper was virtually certain to lose -- a defeat that would have forced his government from power.

Flood washes away some qualms over barrier project

VENICE, Italy -- The luxury Bauer hotel was inundated by calls of concern and cancellations this week -- but was spared the floodwaters that swamped most of the city.

Though just a few steps from the city's lowest point -- St. Mark's Square -- the Bauer and other Venetian businesses kept the waters at bay using metal barriers to block doorways.

It's a lesson that may help wash away remaining resistance to an elaborate project to build mobile barriers that will prevent flooding from reaching Venice and its artistic treasures.

While Venetians take floods in their stride, the swirling waters that burst the banks of the city's famed canals have convinced many here of the wisdom of a euro4.3 billion ($5.43 billion) project to build towering metal gates designed to protect Venice from being deluged.

Israeli soldiers drag

settlers out of Hebron house

HEBRON, West Bank -- Israeli soldiers and police stormed a disputed building in the biblical city of Hebron on Thursday, dragging out 250 young settlers in a raid meant to send a warning to Jewish extremists fighting to keep what they see as God-promised land.

But activists responded with a wave of attacks on Israeli forces and Palestinians in the West Bank, even as Israeli politicians and some settler leaders denounced them.

This city of 170,000 Palestinians, with about 600 of the most extreme Jewish settlers living among them in small enclaves, is the traditional burial site of Abraham, the shared patriarch of both Jews and Muslims, and has been a focal point of Israeli-Arab violence for decades.