The summary predicts that global warming will cause the glaciers in the Himalayas to melt. Hundreds of millions of people, particularly in the poorer countries, will be threatened by water scarcity, hunger, flooding and the spread of tropical diseases.

The Brussels report is the second of a planned series of three IPCC reports on climate change. The first report was presented two months ago in Paris and it focused on the causes of climate change.

The third report, which focuses on solutions, will be presented at the end of April in the Thai capital of Bangkok.

The climate conference will be attended by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and European Union Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas and Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnic.

Dimas has criticized the United States and Australia for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse gas emissions. He called on Washington to cooperate instead of "having a negative attitude in international negotiations."

Last month, the 27-nation EU agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 from the 1990 levels. ?

Less than a day after a devastating tsunami hit the Solomon Islands, a smaller earthquake struck early Tuesday near the South Pacific chain of islands. The U.S. Geological Survey reported an earthquake of 6.2 on the Richter scale struck about 305 kilometers west-northwest of Honiara, on Guadacanal, the capital of the Solomons, about 10:20 a.m.

There were no reports of further damage after Tuesday's quake.

The tsunami and huge 8.1 earthquake that devastated the western Solomon Islands Monday killed at least 20 people and left many more missing, a senior police officer said.

"We are now of a view that here are about 20 confirmed dead overall, but I am rather fearful that the number will increase today as we get around to the various locations," said Solomons Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Marshall.

He said many more people were missing. Earthquakes are regular events in the Solomons, a poor country of 450,000 people spread over 1,000 islands closer to Papua New Guinea than Australia.

Entire villages were destroyed Monday after the 8.1-magnitude quake caused a tsunami that struck towns in the country's Western Province and a state of emergency was declared by the government.

Sky news in Australia reported hundreds of people were missing after the town of Gizo was first shaken by the earthquake, whose epicentre was just 40km away, and then by punished by a wave reported to be at least 10 feet high.

"The main number of the deaths were in Gizo, where a number of villages were affected," Marshall said.

Separately, police spokesman Mick Spinks said 13 villages had been destroyed.

"Virtually all the houses have been destroyed" in the affected villages, the spokesman said.

"The priority this morning is to use aircraft to get around all the islands in the Western Province to see what the level of the problem is," Marshall said.

He said rough terrain and poor communications were hampering efforts to assess the damage and loss of life.

Aircraft and boats with aid workers and officers on board were racing to the area to estimate damage and bring help to survivors.

"It's been a long night for a lot of people, in the area of Gizo in particular, there is no electricity and there have been a lot of tremors overnight and people have had to move to higher ground," Marshall said.

The premier of the Western Province said there were up to 4,000 people camping out in Gizo.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded at least 10 quakes measuring between 5.0 and 6.2 in magnitude overnight.

The Moscow City Court upheld a city ban on gay pride parades in the city on Monday, dismissing an extraordinary appeal by parade organizers challenging a ruling by the Tverskoy district court. Organizers say they are prepared to appeal to the Russian Supreme Court, and believe that the high court will be "more objective" in its decision. The parade is currently scheduled for May 27; a valid application for permission to hold the parade due two weeks in advance.

The parade organizers announced in February that they were considering filing a lawsuit against the Moscow city government with the European Court of Human Rights. In 2006 the parade was held despite a ban upheld by the Moscow Court and ended in violence when approximately 100 religious and nationalist extremists attacked [Washington Post report] the gay rights activists. Additionally, approximately 200 gay rights supporters were arrested for defying the ban. Another Moscow court ruled in August that bans on such parades are legal, citing safety concerns.

Stoddart said she would petition Canadian authorities to encourage the US to rely on existing, more transparent measures such as anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing mechanisms rather than subpoenas.

In November the European Commission's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party found that SWIFT violated European privacy laws when it released similar information about cross-border wire transfers by European citizens to the US government. The New York Times and other papers revealed the once-secret program in June 2006, prompting sharp criticism from the Bush administration, which defended the initiative. According to US government officials, the program targeted those with suspected ties to Al Qaeda.

http://www.privcom.gc.ca/aboutUs/message_e.asp

Meanwhile, South Australian Premier Mike Rann has been accused of hypocrisy by Australian Democrats for saying he wants an assurance from the federal government that the state will be safe when Hicks is finally released. Rann is being criticized because his South Australian Labor Party has been pressing for Hicks' return for the past five years and now that the process is moving forward, he is expressing concern over the issue.

Arab residents of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk expressed anger Sunday at the government's plan to encourage relocation of the city's Arab population. Most of the city's current residents were forced to move to the now ethnically diverse, oil-rich city during the "Arabization" phase of Saddam Hussein's Anfal campaign, which drove out Kurds and brought in Shiite Muslims. The Iraqi government hopes to encourage relocation by offering 20 million dinars and a piece of land to each Arab family that voluntarily leaves the city.

Iraqi Kurds have expressed desire to incorporate the city into the nearby Kurdistan region. The compensation scheme has angered both Shiite and Sunni Arab parliament members over the fear that Kurds will attempt to seize control of the city in a move towards declaring independence from Baghdad. Iraqi Justice Minister Hashim Abderrahman al-Shebli [Wikipedia backgrounder] submitted his resignation to the Cabinet last week in the midst of the debate over the relocation scheme. Under the Iraqi constitution, a referendum must be held by the end of the year to determine the future of the city.

The raids have been widely criticized by human rights and migrant organizations as only targeting non-white workers. The law was introduced last year after a period of increased unrest among migrants and citizens, including a fight in the northern town of Kondopoga between ethnic Chechens and locals which ended with two Russians dead.