LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY

“To win you need an acknowledged leader. It’s not as though we

didn’t look for this

leader. We did, and

how, but there isn’t one, and so ...”

Silvio Berlusconi,

who said he will seek

the post of Italy’s prime minister again because

his People of Liberty party

had been unable to find a

credible successor since he quit last year Article, this page

Delegates extend the Kyoto Protocol

DOHA, Qatar- Seeking to control global warming, nearly 200 countries agreed Saturday to extend the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that limits the greenhouse-gas output of some rich countries, but will cover only about 15 percent of global emissions.

The extension was adopted by a United Nations climate conference after hard-fought sessions and despite objections from Russia. The package of decisions also included vague promises of financing to help poor countries cope with climate change and an affirmation of a previous decision to adopt a new global climate pact by 2015.

The 2-decade-old U.N.

climate talks have so far failed in their goal of reducing the carbon-dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions that a vast majority of scientists say are warming the planet.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which controls the emissions of rich countries, is considered the main achievement of the negotiations, even though the U.S. rejected it because it didn’t impose any binding commitments on China and other emerging economies.

Hamas leader vows to construct state

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Khaled Meshal, the political leader of Hamas, vowed Saturday to build an Islamic Palestinian state on all the land of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“The state will come from resistance, not negotiation,” Meshal told tens of thousands of supporters on the 25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas. “Liberation first, then statehood.”

His voice rising to a shout, Meshal said, “Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north.

There will be no concession on any inch of the land.”

He also promised Palestinian prisoners held in Israel that they would be freed using the same methods that have worked in the past - the kidnapping of Israelis and Israeli soldiers, such as Gilad Shalit, who was released last year in a prisoner exchange after five years as a hostage.

Meshal was on his first visit to Gaza after 45 years of exile, having fled a West Bank village at 11 with his family during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Observers endorse

Ghana’s elections

ACCRA, Ghana - International observers endorsed Ghana’s presidential and parliamentary polls despite delays at polling stations that pushed voting into a second day Saturday.

“All of Africa was looking at Ghana to make sure that they live up to their reputation and their name of being a mature democracy,” said Ahmed Issak Hassan, head of an observer mission from the South Africa-based Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa. “I think so far the people of Ghana, the political leadership have lived up to that expectation.

Polls showed a very tight race with voters almost evenly split between President John Dramani Mahama and his main challenger, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Final results are supposed to be announced within 72 hours of the end of voting.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/09/2012