ALMATY — The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan announced Saturday that a common economic space would be established among the three countries before 2012 to further enhance cooperation .
“We will further deepen the process of integration under the framework of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC). A common economic space will be established before Jan. 1, 2012,” said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev in a joint statement at an informal meeting of leaders from ex-Soviet nations held here.
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TIRANA — The European Union (EU) lifted visa restrictions for citizens from Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro on Saturday.
The visa-free policy applies to the Schengen zone of unrestricted travel, which covers 25 EU member states and three non-EU members, namely Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, but does not include Britain and Ireland.
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COPENHAGEN — The UN Climate Change Conference ended here Saturday with a legally non-binding agreement, the Copenhagen Accord.
The accord upheld the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” set by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, made arrangements for developed countries’ compulsory emissions cuts and developing countries’ voluntary mitigation actions, and included wide consensus on the key issues of long-term global emissions reduction objectives, funding and technology support, and transparency.
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WASHINGTON — In a rare early Saturday move, the U.S. Senate approved a defense budget bill for the fiscal year 2010 that would fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
By a vote of 88 to 10, the Senate passed the bill critical to the Obama administration, which is seeking finance for the two wars in the fiscal year 2010 starting from Oct. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2010.
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TEHRAN — Iran’s military judiciary has said that at least three prisoners were beaten to death by their jailers in a controversial prison during the unrest following this June’s presidential election, Iran’s satellite channel Press TV reported Saturday.
According to forensic reports, the three prisoners “died from injuries sustained during repeated beatings” in the Kahrizak prison in south Tehran, Iran’s judiciary organization for the armed forces was quoted as saying.
