UN praises US Senate effort to cap greenhouse gas emissions; IMF to calculate climate costs; Ukraine pres. backs Tymoshenko for PM...

6 December :: UN says US Senate plan to cap greenhouse gas emissions is step in right direction for US, for public health worldwide, in effort to reduce climate change impact; after new Australian gov't ratified Kyoto Protocol at Bali talks, US is only developed nation not signed on, while Bush admin. representative at Bali says the Senate proposal will not alter gov't policy at present... IMF to publish data and analysis on costs of climate change in 2008, in connection with talks about ways to "climate-proof" economies against the ill effects of volatile climate conditions... Reuters reports "Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko accepted on Thursday the leader of a pro-Western 'orange' coalition, Yulia Tymoshenko, as prime minister"; Tymoshenko and Pres. Yuschenko were allies in the 2004 'Orange revolution' that brought their pro-Western gov't to power, she was his first PM, but split after intense infighting; Parliament now needs to vote on her candidacy... Italian politician has shocked nation, outraged Jews, by saying gov't should treat immigrants according to a Nazi policy that punished 10 Italians for every one Nazi killed; policy is infamous throughout Italy, because Italians who opposed Nazis were brutally killed by Hitler regime, the 10-to-1 concept obviously asserting that group persecution or targetting of innocents, however light the punishment, violating democratic principles fundamentally; a front-page editorial in Il Giornale, a conservative paper that often sides with Bettio's party wrote "Even if he was drunk or his brain short-circuited [...] he must be condemned without appeal"... Fmr Mass. governor and fmr. GOP frontrunner, Mitt Romney, has used a speech in Texas to assure voters his Mormon faith will not intervene in his decisions as president; some analysts have attributed Romney's slipping poll numbers to skepticism about the Mormon church and the perception that he would take advice from church leaders...