The Australian government says it will push back a planned carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) by a year.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the delay was necessary because of the poor economic climate.

But he also suggested that Australia could pursue tougher emissions reductions targets if an international deal was reached.

Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, has asked a US court not to go ahead with a tax case involving more than 50,000 US customers with Swiss accounts.

UBS told a federal court in Florida it would violate Swiss laws on banking secrecy if it provided the information on its clients.

The US suspects 52,000 Americans of using UBS accounts to hide almost $15bn of assets and unpaid taxes.

This has led to "systematic and severe constraints on Palestinian development of water resources", says the report.

But the Palestinian Authority (PA) too gets part of the blame. It is struggling to establish even a basic water infrastructure and management, concludes the report.

Water supplies continue to "operate in a very inefficient emergency mode, with far reaching economic, social and environmental consequences".

 

President Obama, facing criticism at home for appearing too cozy with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, defended his overtures on Sunday, saying the handshakes and polite conversation the two leaders shared here were hardly “endangering the strategic interests of the United States.”

Mr. Obama, wrapping up a four-day swing through Latin America that included a summit meeting of Western Hemisphere leaders here, said he believed he had paved the way for “frank dialogue” with countries like Venezuela and Cuba, countries whose relations with the United States are, respectively, strained and practically nonexistent.