Dec. 11, 2009
The Public Observer offers a look at upcoming news and presents a photo roundup of recent images by The Associated Press.
COPENHAGEN CLIMATE CONFERENCE CONTINUES
The United Nations' climate summit in Copenhagen goes into its second week with representatives from 192 countries starting to get down to the nitty-gritty details and bargaining. Environment ministers are considering a draft proposal that will come sharply into focus late in the upcoming week when 110 heads of state and government arrive in Copenhagen, including U.S. President Barack Obama.
ELECTIONS IN CHILE
Voters in Chile will head to the polls Sunday to elect a new president and opinion polls show that a right wing candidate could come to power for the first time since democracy was restored 19 years ago. The leading candidate is Sebastian Pinera, a billionaire with investments in Chile's main airline, most popular football team and a leading TV channel. Pinera, 60, lost a 2006 presidential bid to outgoing President Michelle Bachelet, who has proven to be a popular leader with approval ratings of 78 percent. If Pinera doesn't win the election outright Sunday, a second round of voting would take place Jan. 17.
OBAMA MEETS LEBANESE PRESIDENT
President Obama on Monday will meet with Lebanon President Michel Suleiman at the White House. The Lebanese parliament on Thursday approved a new national unity government that voted to allow Hezbollah to keep its arms. Hezbollah, a militant group opposed to Israel, has seats in the parliament and Cabinet and increasingly has become a potent political force in Lebanon. Suleiman heads a government that is slightly pro-Western, so he and Obama likely will discuss ways to strengthen relations between the two countries.
PHOTO ROUNDUP
Here's a look at recent images provided by The Associated Press.
Ice coats the cliff walls surrounding Multnomah Falls near Bridal Veil, Ore., on Wednesday after a cold snap hit the area. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)
People walk past Christmas lights Monday in the town of Varna, east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. (AP Photo)
Christmas trees decorate the square in front of the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco on Thursday. (AP Photo / Lionel Cironneau)
A strange light phenomenon is seen in the night sky above Skjervoy in northern Norway early Wednesday. According to some reports, the unexplained light may have been caused by the failure of a new Russian anti-submarine-based intercontinental missile which was being tested across the Norwegian-Russian border.(AP Photo/Anita Olsen, Scanpix, Norway)
Five surfers drop down the face of a large wave Monday at Waimea Bay located on the north shore of the island of Oahu. They were participating in the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau surf contest which has a 30- to 40-foot wave height requirement. (AP Photo/Eugene Tanner)
Majid Hassan, 37, weeps over his wife's coffin before her burial Wednesday in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, Iraq. She was killed when series of coordinated attacks struck Baghdad on Tuesday and killed more than 125 people. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)
Pearl Harbor survivors are honored Monday during the 68th anniversary of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor during ceremonies at Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
Actor Robert Downey Jr. is cheered Monday by his wife Susan, left, during a ceremony to put his hands and feet in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
A winter storm passes over downtown Los Angeles on Monday. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
A snow goose comes in for a landing to join others feeding on a farm field Thursday near Conway, Wash., in the Skagit Valley. According to the Audubon Society, up to 55,000 snow geese winter in western Washington, most gathering in the Skagit River Delta from mid-October to early May. Washington's population of the geese nest on Wrangel Island in Russia, north and west of the Bering Strait. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
People watch a dog fight Friday as the master of ceremony gestures in Kabul, Afghanistan. Every Friday, the Muslim day of rest, hundreds of people participate in the dog fights, which were banned when the Taliban religious army was in power. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
Czech model Eva Herzigova attends the British Fashion Awards at The Royal Courts of Justice in London on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Jorge Herrera)
Boys play in smoke rising from an area fumigated by a health worker, unseen, in Mumbai, India on Thursday. Municipal bodies often take up fumigation as a method of pest control especially to control mosquito related diseases like malaria and dengue fever. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
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