WORLD IN BRIEF

Cash crunch looms over climate talks

The global financial crisis will make it harder for countries to agree on an ambitious new treaty to combat global warming and underscores the need to make green technologies profitable, U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said Thursday. “Climate change is an environmental problem looking for an economic answer,” he said. “The challenge … is to achieve green economic growth.” De Boer spoke ahead of a major two-week climate change conference that begins Monday in Poznan, Poland, where participants from more than 190 countries will work on the details of a climate change accord.

Missile shield plan clears a hurdle

The upper chamber of the Czech parliament on Thursday approved a deal with Washington to accept a U.S. missile defense installation. The deal still needs approval by the lower chamber, where the vote is expected to be close because the governing coalition has too few seats to guarantee passage.

Panicked refugees flee across border

More than 10,000 Congolese civilians fled to Uganda in a matter of hours Thursday to escape renewed fighting. Roberta Russo, the U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman in Uganda, said the refugees reported attacks by rebels and said “they have seen many dead bodies.” In New York, the U.N.’s top Congo envoy told the Security Council that peacekeepers have opened several investigations into whether war crimes are being committed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, pointing to evidence of targeted killings.

Disputed voting puts aid in doubt

The U.S. says it will freeze about $64 million in anti-poverty aid to Nicaragua amid accusations that local elections were fraudulent. The dispute involves Nov. 9 municipal elections in which President Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista party won a majority of the country’s mayorships. The opposition has proposed legislation to cancel the results, arguing the vote was fraudulent and that the government refused to allow international observers.

Sentence stiffened for comedian-critic

A court inside Myanmar’s notorious Insein prison sentenced a comedian who has criticized the government’s slow response to a May cyclone that killed more than 84,000 people to 14 more years in prison Thursday, bringing his total prison term for pro-democracy offenses to 59 years. The junta alleged comedian-activist Zarganar caused public alarm and communicated with exiled dissidents for interviews he gave to foreign media outlets in which he said the government was too slow in responding to the disaster.

Europe expands passport-free zone

Switzerland will join the European Union’s passport-free travel zone next month under an agreement reached Thursday. The EU’s 27 interior ministers said Switzerland, which is not a member of the bloc, had met the necessary security standards to join the borderless zone, which already includes 24 European countries. Swiss authorities will drop identity checks at land borders Dec. 12 and will lift controls at airports as of March 29.

Pirates hit ship off West Africa

Pirates attacked a Chinese fishing vessel off Sierra Leone in a rare attack off West Africa, officials said Thursday. Four of the pirates, all from neighboring Guinea, were killed early Wednesday in a clash with the Sierra Leone navy, police said, and the remaining four were arrested. Piracy has become increasingly common off the coast of Somalia in eastern Africa, but with the exception of some attacks on oil vessels off Nigeria, it has been relatively uncommon off West Africa.

Jab at elderly sparks outrage

Japan’s gaffe-prone prime minister is in trouble again —- this time for a remark criticizing the elderly for racking up medical expenses and being a tax burden. “They’re hobbling around and constantly going to the doctor,” Prime Minister Taro Aso was quoted as saying in a transcript of a Nov. 20 meeting of ministers on economic policies. Aso also said the elderly should be faulted for not exercising enough. The transcript was released overnight, drawing immediate criticism in the Japanese media and forcing an apology from the prime minister Thursday. Aso said he had intended to talk about the value of preventive medicine and merely highlight the gap between people who take care of their health and those who do not.

Blinding ordered for acid thrower

Iranian newspapers said a court sentenced a man who blinded a woman with acid also to be blinded with acid under the country’s Islamic law. Thursday’s reports said 27-year-old Majid, who was identified only by his first name, confessed to attacking Ameneh Bahrami in 2004 to dissuade anyone else from marrying the woman he loved. Wednesday’s ruling was based on the Islamic law system of “qisas,” or eye-for-an-eye retribution.