The minister came under attack from Opposition parties and NGOs in India which attacked him for taking unilateral stand, deviating from long held Indian position that it will not accept any internationally legally binding emission cuts.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said the progress at the climate conference here have been "insufficient", warning that the absence of a "breakthrough" would condemn the lives of billions of people "to smaller futures".
The Kyoto Protocol is the "make or break" issue for UN climate talks in Cancun, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said, as he pointed not only Japan but many other countries are opposed to continuation of the treaty that legally binds industrialised nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Defending United States diplomats after WikiLeaks' revelations that they were spying on United Nation's officials from several nations including India, a top American official on Tuesday said the country's representatives were involved in building relationships like their foreign counterparts. "Our diplomats are doing what diplomats do around the world every day, which is build relationships, negotiate, advance our interests," US envoy to the UN Susan Rice said.
Two weeks ahead of the annual meet on climate change, to be held in Cancun, Mexico, the UN climate chief observed that there is 'optimism for the planet' since countries are taking climate change seriously at home.
In its 29th year, the annual 'Hotelier of the World' award winner is selected on the basis of votes cast by readers of the magazine in more than 150 countries.
Just a week after President Barack Obama's endorsement for India's permanent membership in the UN Security Council, the US has said no breakthrough is expected "anytime soon" on the UNSC reforms.
"I don't think you heard anybody say that in the course of the President's three-day visit (to India), we're looking to counterbalance China in any way," Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, told journalists in New York and Washington during a digital video press conference.
In a significant development, Jammu and Kashmir has been removed from the UN list of unresolved disputes, giving a setback to Pakistan which has been asking the world body to intervene on the issue.
"If I'm allowed to be very, very frank, India's role in Afghanistan is to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan," Musharraf, who is attempting to script a comeback into Pakistani politics, said.
United States President Barack Obama will quietly encourage India to cool tensions with Pakistan and not push New Delhi to change its strategy towards its neighbour, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Shannon, who gave voice to the lioness cub in the popular Broadway show in New York, waged a six month long battle against leukemia but could not be saved even after getting a cord-blood transplant in August.
American intelligence officials had intercepted suspicious parcels containing books, papers and compact discs from Yemen to Chicago in September, and they now suspect those packages could have been a dry run for planning the route for the mail bombs last week.
The 22-year-old woman arrested by Yemeni authorities in connection with the two parcel bombs sent on US-bound flights was released with no charges and investigators now believe it was a case of identity theft.
The US had lost communication with nearly 50 intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles, one-ninth of its arsenal for 45 minutes over the weekend, even as defence officials said that there were no chance of an accidental launch or foul play, a media report said on Wednesday.
"Get lost" was what the US officials in Islamabad told the young Moroccan wife of 26/11 accused David Headley when she informed them that her husband was planning a terror attack in India with the help of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
Continuing his tirade against the just-concluded Commonwealth Games, former Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said India should have focused on improving the plight of its poor instead of spending thousands of crores on the event which only "denigrated" its image.
As the terror alert of an Al Qaeda backed attack in Europe continues, the New York police carried out a drill on Thursday to prepare against attacks on the lines of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
India was elected to the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member with a thumping majority of votes, including that of Pakistan, in what was quickly described by New Delhi as significant.
After a gap of 19 years, India was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, a position which would help it push more aggressively for the reform of the world body's top organ. India secured an emphatic win, with 187 of the 191 member states in the General Assembly backing its candidature and one member state abstaining from the vote.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances