Greenpeace members climb atop Parliament

TORONTO – Members of Greenpeace easily breached security and scaled two Parliament buildings in Ottawa to stage a protest on the roof yesterday, the opening day of the climate conference in Copenhagen. The 19 protesters unfurled a massive banner reading "Climate Inaction Costs Lives" as police, fire trucks and ambulances gathered below. Greenpeace spokeswoman Jessica Wilson said it was a protest against the rapid expansion of the massive oil sands mines in northern Alberta. Fourteen people climbed atop the West Block building and five climbed atop the Senate entrance to the Centre Block building. Twenty people – including one on the ground – were arrested and face charges of mischief and possibly more, police said.

Officials recommend postponing elections

BAGHDAD – Iraq's electoral commission yesterday recommended a 45-day delay in parliamentary elections until February 27, raising concerns that the postponed balloting could complicate the planned withdrawal of US combat troops and bring a possible surge of violence. American commanders have noted the chance of increased pre-election bloodshed aimed at destabilising the pro-Western government. A series of attacks struck around the country as officials tried to hammer out the election timetable, including an explosion outside a Baghdad elementary school that killed 10 people, including six children. The recommendation for February 27 voting was sent to Iraq's presidential council, which still must approve it, said Qassim al-Aboudi, a senior electoral commission official. Though other dates remained on the table, there was little reason to believe the council would raise objections.

Moldova's communists block Lupu as president

CHISINAU – Moldova was plunged into a year of uncertainty after the Western-leaning coalition failed to get parliament to elect Marian Lupu as president yesterday due to a walkout by the powerful opposition communists. The communist boycott left the Alliance for European Integration with only the votes of its 53 deputies – eight short of the 61 needed to secure Lupu's election to the top job. The outcome means acting president Mihai Ghimpu is likely to dissolve parliament in the second half of 2010 and call an election in a new bid to end a prolonged political stalemate in Europe's poorest country.

Gunmen kill seven soldiers in northern Turkey

ISTANBUL – Unidentified gunmen killed at least seven soldiers in an attack in northern Turkey, state-run news agency Anatolian reported yesterday, citing provincial officials. The gunmen targetted a vehicle carrying the soldiers in Tokat province's Resadiye district, television channels reported. Other soldiers were reported to have been wounded. It was the worst attack since Kurdish militants killed 10 soldiers with a remote-controlled bomb in southeast Turkey in April.

Rights group accuses Britain on rendition cases

LONDON – A legal rights group said yesterday the British government misled parliament about two terrorism suspects who were subjected to rendition. Clive Stafford Smith, director of the London-based rights group Reprieve, said the government must reveal what it knows about the cases of two men captured by British soldiers in Iraq in 2004 and turned over to American forces, who flew them to Afghanistan, where they remain incarcerated. Reprieve is bringing legal action against Britain to force it to reveal more about the cases, which first came to light in February when John Hutton, Britain's defence secretary at the time, told parliament the two suspects were members of a banned Pakistani extremist group known as Lashkar-e-Taiba. Hutton's statement came after British officials had denied for years that they were involved in cases of "extraordinary rendition" — in which someone suspected of supporting terrorism is transferred to a foreign nation for imprisonment and interrogation without formal charges or trial.

President 'awake and mentally alert'

RABAT, Morocco – Guinea's military strongman, hospitalised in Morocco with a gunshot wound, is conscious and speaking, the country's foreign minister said yesterday as he tried to tamp down speculation that Capt. Moussa (Dadis)Camara is badly hurt. Alexandre Cece Loua said he has spoken with Camara in the hospital and called his condition "encouraging". Few details have emerged about the nature of Camara's wounds since he was shot in an assassination attempt in Guinea on Thursday.

Senior figures held as Sudan bans rally

KHARTOUM – Police arrested three senior members of south Sudan's main political party and scores of supporters at a rally held outside Sudan's parliament yesterday in defiance of an official ban, witnesses and officials said. The three men were later released and two, Pagan Amum, secretary general of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, and his deputy Yasir Arman, received a hero's welcome at their party's headquarters in Khartoum.

Police warn of more suicide bombings

MOGADISHU – Somalia's hardline al Shabaab rebels have prepared two suicide bombers disguised as military and police officers who are planning to strike Mogadishu's seaport and airport, the Somali police said yesterday. A suicide bomber disguised as a woman in a veil blew up a medical graduation ceremony in the capital on Thursday and killed at least 22 people, including three government ministers, several doctors, students and their relatives. Western security agencies say the failed Horn of Africa state is a safe haven for militants including foreign jihadists who use it to plot attacks across the region and beyond.

Annan urges Kenya to tackle Nairobi slums

NAIROBI – Former UN chief Kofi Annan urged Kenya yesterday to accelerate efforts to improve living conditions in Nairobi's squalid slums, which experts say could pose a threat to stability and national security. Annan chaired weeks of talks last year that gave birth to the country's coalition government and ended post-election violence in east Africa's biggest economy that killed at least 1,300 people and drove another 300,000 from their homes. The capital's shanty towns became ethnic battlegrounds during the crisis, and aid workers say the slums – with their huge numbers of marginalised youths – are "ticking time bombs" ahead of the country's next poll in 2012.