New York  - The Walt Disney Company said Wednesday that earnings rose in the third quarter led by profits from its theme parks and cable television networks.

Net profits rose 9 per cent to 1.3 billion dollars, or 66 cents per share, including one-time profits, from 1.2 billion, or 58 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. Nearly half the profit came from the purchase and sale of subsidiaries, including the acquisition of Disney Stores North America and the sale of movie. com.

New York  - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will not endanger peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Visiting the United Nations, Barak said that Olmert, who has been ensnared by a corruption scandal, made the right decision by not seeking re-election as Kadima party leader, meaning he will leave office in September.

New York  - The temperature in the United Nations Secretariat will go up a few degrees in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions and save money, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.

On Friday, the landmark headquarters of the United Nations in New York will heat up and the more than 4,000 employees will be working in 25-degree-Celsius temperatures, up from 22 degrees. The major conference rooms will be a little bit cooler, at 23.9 degrees Celsius.

New York  - Starbucks reported losses in its third quarter due to costs related to the closure of 600 stores in the United States, the coffee giant said Wednesday.

The Seattle, Washington-based firm lost 7 million dollars in the quarter down from earnings of 158 million dollars in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose 9 per cent to 2.6 billion dollars.

New York  - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Wednesday for tough UN sanctions to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Barak met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at United Nations headquarters in New York, saying that economic sanctions would hurt Iran's nuclear programmes. Iran has said that its uranium enrichment programme was intended for peaceful, civilian nuclear energy and not for weapons.

"We believe that no options should be removed in this regard from the table," Barak told reporters.

New York  - The UN Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday to terminate the mission of military observers at a disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The 15-nation council decided to entirely withdraw the mission, which since last year had begun relocating their personnel out of a temporary security zone after Eritrea increasingly limited the peacekeepers' movements with measures such as cutting off petroleum for their transportation.