September 07, 2007

Climate Negotiations Continue At APEC Summit Among Security Concerns

The 19 leaders participating in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney reached a preliminary agreement today on a pact designed to combat global warming.

Australian President John Howard and President Bush vowed to make climate change the focus of this year's APEC summit. However, an agreement between the widely variant nations has been hard to come by, as industrialized and developing countries have squabbled over who should foot the bill for cleaning up the planet.

But several days of negotiation have yielded a bill that all are hoping will prove acceptable. After so much build up, if Bush leaves Australia with nothing signed, it will be viewed as a big defeat.

An APEC climate change agreement has the potential to affect global warming policy worldwide, as four of the globe's biggest polluters -- the U.S., Russia, China and Japan -- are participating in the talks.

AP has more details on the negotiations and on some of the specific initiatives that have been proposed.

While international leaders meet behind some of the tightest security Sydney has ever seen, thousands plan to gather on Saturday to protest Bush's presidency and the Iraq war. The Sydney Herald Sun reports that organizers of the Stop Bush movement expect around 10,000 demonstrators.

One group of local TV comics spent time in jail on Friday after a prank that went a bit too far. Eleven crew members from the show "The Chaser's War on Everything," broadcast on ABC (Australia's public television network), were thrown behind bars after they entered the grounds of the InterContinental Hotel, where Bush is staying during the summit.

The group was inside a fake motorcade displaying Canadian flags and was waved through two security checkpoints before approaching the hotel. They were not discovered until one emerged from a car dressed as Osama bin Laden, in a long beard and robes.

ABC maintained that the group had no intention of doing any harm and did not realize they were entering restricted space. Sydney police displayed no sense of humor about the arrest, instead alluding to snipers stationed around the city and claiming that the members of the show are lucky that nothing worse happened.

All 11 have been released on bond, charged with entering a secure area, but more serious charges are being considered, according to the BBC.

Posted at 3:13 PM
Posted to: Asia, Climate Change, President Bush
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