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Majority in poll says bush is a threat

By TIMES WIRES
Published November 4, 2006

A majority of people in Canada, Britain and Mexico think President Bush and his foreign policy pose a threat to world peace and worry the United States will invade Iran or North Korea within two years, according to polling released Friday.

The polls by Ottawa's EKOS Research also found that the respondents in Canada, Britain, Mexico and Israel believe Osama bin Laden poses the gravest danger to the world of five national or militant group leaders included in the poll, followed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Bush, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The poll found 69 percent of Britons, 62 percent of Canadians, 57 percent of Mexicans and 36 percent in Israel believe Bush's foreign policy has made the world less safe.

The polls surveyed 1,000 people in each country in October. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Switzerland

Greenhouse gases hit new high, agency says

Heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2005 and are still increasing, the U.N. weather agency said Friday in Geneva.

The measurements coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization show that the global average concentrations of carbon dioxide, or CO2, and nitrous oxide, or N2O, reached record levels last year and are expected to increase further this year, said Geir Braathen, a climate specialist at the agency.

"There is no sign that N2O and CO2 are starting to level off," Braathen said. "It looks like it will just continue like this for the foreseeable future."

The concentration of carbon dioxide rose by 0.5 percent last year, the agency said. Nitrous oxide was 0.19 percent higher.

MEXICO

Governor of Oaxaca says he will not quit

Embattled Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz vowed on Friday that he would not resign or take a leave of absence, even as demonstrators demanding his ouster were refortifying barricades torn down Thursday by federal police.

Speaking to foreign reporters, Ruiz said he has an obligation to the majority of Oaxaquenos who elected him in 2004 to see out his six-year term.

"No conditions exist in which I would resign," Ruiz said.

Ruiz also tamped down speculation that he was holding on until Dec. 1 - his two-year anniversary in office - so that he could choose a successor without elections being held. Most Mexican states require new elections if a governor resigns before reaching two years in office, Ruiz said, but Oaxaca sets the date at three years.

BRITAIN

Now try keeping up with these Joneses

Keeping up with Joneses now has a new meaning.

More than 1,200 people with the surname Jones gathered in Cardiff, Wales, and broke the world record Friday for the biggest get-together of people with the same last name, Guinness World Record officials said.

The old record was 583 people named Norberg in Sweden in 2004.

[Last modified November 4, 2006, 01:19:45]