WORLD / Asia-Pacific
US, China to get climate change chance at summit
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-07-16 09:02
SYDNEY - The world's two bi
Sports / Off the Field
Top Malaysian official resigns after latest defeat
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-16 09:41
KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 - The deputy president of the Football Association
of Malaysia has resigned, one day after the co-hosts suffered a second
straight heavy defeat in the Asian Cup.
Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said in a letter faxed to local news
agency Bernama on Sunday: "It is with deep regret that I would like to
inform you that I have decided to resign from all my positions in the FAM
today."
No reason was given for his resignation but Abdullah was known to be
unhappy with Malaysia's performance in Asia's premier international
tournament.
Abdullah, also an executive member of the Asian Football Confederation
(AFC), criticised coach Norizan Bakar after Malaysia lost 5-1 to China in
their Group C opener on Tuesday.
On Saturday, they suffered another heavy defeat, losing 5-0 to
Uzbekistan, and are almost certain to be eliminated from the competition.
His resignation completes a difficult few months for Abdullah, who was
also at a the centre of English Premier League champions Manchester
United's controversial trip to Malaysia.
The AFC put intense pressure on the FAM to cancel United's proposed match
against a Malaysia select team on July 27 in order not to divert
attention from the Asian Cup final two days later in Jakarta.
Abdullah made the bold decision to carry on with the match and risk the
wrath of both the AFC and FIFA.
In the end, his gesture of defiance was nullified with United cancelling
the match because of AFC's refusal to sanction their visit.
Abdullah was appointed FAM deputy president in February 1992 but resigned
one year later. He was re-elected in 1994 and held the position until his
resignation on Sunday.
Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are the other co-hosts in the 16-nation
tournament.
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ggest polluters, the US and China, will have
an unprecedented chance to thrash out action on climate change at an
upcoming summit in Australia, Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday.
US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao will be among
21 leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in
Sydney in September, where global warming is expected to be high on the
agenda.
"This will be the first and best opportunity for the two largest
polluters in the world -- the United States and China -- to come
together," Howard told reporters.
"At a lot of these other meetings, the Americans and the Chinese aren't
sitting down together, except as part of the enormous concourse of
everybody in the United Nations' ambit."
Howard said he expected there would be "a very significant discussion
about climate change" at the meeting.
"I'm not suggesting we are going to solve the problem of climate change
at APEC, but I do think it will be a principal point of discussion," he
said.
"Having both China and the United States around the same table is a huge
advantage."
Howard's conservative government has adopted a cautious approach to
climate change, joining the United States in refusing to sign the Kyoto
Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But as scientific evidence linking global warming to human activity
mounts and public pressure for action grows, the prime minister has
declared himself a "climate change realist" and embraced action including
emissions trading.
Fellow convert Bush said last month the US was ready to take a leading
role in a global bid to fight climate change but said China and India
must get on board.
"The US will be actively involved, if not taking the lead, in a
post-Kyoto framework, a post-Kyoto deal," Bush said on the sidelines of a
Group of Eight summit in Germany.
"By 2008 the world's emitters of greenhouse gases should come together.
Nothing is going to happen in terms of substantial reduction unless China
and India participate."
At the G8 meeting, however, the leaders of the world's wealthiest nations
were content to simply declare their intention to pursue "substantial"
cuts to dangerous greenhouse gas pollution, with no actual concrete goals
laid down.
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