NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) –
The Dallas Cowboys spoiled New Orleans' bid for a perfect season with a 24-17 victory over the Saints on Saturday.

Marion Barber rushed for two touchdowns and Tony Romo stunned the playoff-bound Saints (13-1) with a long touchdown pass early in the game, as the Cowboys (9-5) stayed in the race for a post-season berth.

The result left the Indianapolis Colts (14-0) as the NFL's only unbeaten team this season.

"We knew coming in the significance of the game -- that they were undefeated and chasing history," Romo, who completed 22 of 34 passes for 312 yards, told reporters.

"So for us, this feels real, real good."

New Orleans staged a frenzied rally in the fourth quarter, scoring twice after trailing 24-3. But the Saints' bid for a tying touchdown ended on a fumble by quarterback Drew Brees after he was sacked at the Dallas 42 with seconds to play.

"As great as they (the Saints) are, we feel really good about our offense," Romo said. "And everybody was talking about them and nobody was talking about us. And I think as a team, that motivated us a lot."

CONFIDENCE BOOSTER

The win pulled the Cowboys, who have had trouble winning in December in recent years, within a half-game of the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC East lead.

"This gives us a chance to be the team we want to be," Dallas owner Jerry Jones said. "The guys gained a lot of confidence."

New Orleans have already claimed the NFC South title.

Romo connected with Miles Austin on a 49-yard scoring strike with the game less than four minutes old before Barber scored from the three-yard line six minutes later, giving the Cowboys a surprising 14-0 lead.

New Orleans, one of the league's top offensive teams, could manage only a field goal through three quarters of play and trailed 24-3 after Barber's second touchdown, a two-yard run.

Mike Bell finally got the Saints a touchdown on a one-yard run with 12:35 left in the game.

Brees, who completed 29 of 45 passes for 298 yards, had New Orleans back in the end zone four and a half minutes later on a seven-yard pass to Lance Moore.

But the bid for a tying touchdown ended when Dallas' DeMarcus Ware sacked Brees and forced a fumble.

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina; Editing by Peter Rutherford

BEIJING – China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, lauded Sunday the outcome of a historic U.N. climate conference that ended with a nonbinding agreement that urges major polluters to make deeper emissions cuts — but does not require it.
The international climate talks that brought more than 110 leaders together in Copenhagen produced "significant and positive" results, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said.
Disputes between rich and poor countries and between the world's biggest carbon polluters — China and the United States — dominated the two-week conference. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand action to cool an overheating planet.
The meeting ended Saturday after a 31-hour negotiating marathon, with delegates accepting a U.S.-brokered compromise. The so-called Copenhagen Accord gives billions of dollars in climate aid to poor nations but does not require the world's major polluters to make deeper cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the much-criticized outcome as a first step that paves the way for action. Merkel was quoted Sunday as telling the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that "Copenhagen is a first step toward a new world climate order — no more, but also no less."
Merkel said that "anyone who just badmouths Copenhagen now is engaging in the business of those who are applying the brakes rather than moving forward."
Yang said the positive outcomes of the conference were that it upheld the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" recognized by the Kyoto Protocol, and made a step forward in promoting binding emissions cuts for developed countries and voluntary mitigating actions by developing countries.
"Developing and developed countries are very different in their historical emissions responsibilities and current emissions levels, and in their basic national characteristics and development stages," Yang said in a statement. "Therefore, they should shoulder different responsibilities and obligations in fighting climate change."
He said the conference also created a consensus on key issues such as long-term global emissions reduction targets, funding and technology support to developing countries, and transparency. He did not go into details.
"The Copenhagen conference is not a destination but a new beginning," Yang said.
China has said it will rein in its greenhouse gas output, pledging to reduce its carbon intensity — its use of fossil fuels per unit of economic output — by 40 to 45 percent.
The Copenhagen Accord emerged principally from President Barack Obama's meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa. But the agreement was protested by several nations that demanded deeper emissions cuts by the industrialized world.
Its key elements, with no legal obligation, were that richer nations will finance a $10 billion-a-year, three-year program to fund poorer nations' projects to deal with drought and other impacts of climate change, and to develop clean energy.
A goal was also set to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 for the same adaptation and mitigation purposes.
In a U.S. concession to China and other developing nations, text was dropped from the declaration that would have set a goal of reducing global emissions by 50 percent by 2050. Developing nations thought that would hamper efforts to raise their people from poverty.

LONDON (Reuters) –
Stuck for Christmas gift ideas? Is your marriage or a friend's going through a rocky patch? How about a divorce voucher?

In an unusual take on the season of giving, a London law firm is offering Christmas gift vouchers for divorce advice.

The firm, Lloyd Platt & Company, which normally charges 325 pounds ($530) an hour, said it had been swamped with enquiries since it launched the vouchers early last week.

So far, more than 60 have been sold -- a snip at 125 pounds for a half hour session with a divorce lawyer.

The firm's founder, Vanessa Lloyd Platt, said she had been amazed at the response to the vouchers. "They seem to appeal to an enormously widespread spectrum of people looking for that 'must have' gift for Christmas," she said.

A spokesman for the Church of England called the vouchers sad.

"Divorce is a very personal matter and not really suitable for the idea of gift vouchers which are presents from other people," he said.

Demand for the vouchers could soar over the next few weeks.

Christmas tends to be a particularly stressful time for families, with a huge rise in people seeking advice each January, Lloyd Platt said.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Fullerton; Editing by Steve Addison)

OSLO – Although he doesn't show up at the Copenhagen climate talks until next week, U.S. President Barack Obama won't be far from global warming issues when he lands in Oslo Thursday to collect his contentious Nobel Peace Prize.
Greenpeace activists said they had laid out the message "Obama: our climate, your decision" in enormous cloth letters covering an area 500 feet by 170 feet (150 meter by 50 meter) in an empty field next to Oslo's Gardermoen airport.
"This is our message and we want to send it most importantly to the president himself," Greenpeace spokeswoman Bente Myhre Haast said, adding that she hopes it will be visible from Obama's flight path.
On the sidewalks near Oslo's lavish Grand Hotel, where Obama will stay, activists sprayed similar slogans on the pavement — from "you won it, now earn it" to "change the politics, save the climate."
The Norwegian committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize said it chose Obama for, among other achievements, bringing the U.S. into the fight against global warming and for supporting multilateral diplomacy.
But Greenpeace and other environmental groups dispute the decision, saying Obama hasn't done enough to combat climate change.
Anti-war activists, meanwhile, contend that Obama's decision to increase troop levels in Afghanistan by 30,000 soldiers made a mockery of awarding the president a prize whose mandate includes honoring those who work for "the abolition or reduction of standing armies."
It's been a decade since a sitting U.S. president visited Norway, and Norwegian anti-war and climate change activists both say they plan to use this rare occasion to make sure the president hears them.
On the anti-war front, Benjamin Endre Larsen — leader of Norway's Peace Initiative and a protest organizer — estimated that about 5,000 people will turn out on Thursday to voice their dissent from Obama's strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Demonstrators plan to gather in sight of Obama's hotel room balcony, where he is expected to wave to a torch-lit procession in his honor, and chant slogans playing on Obama's own campaign slogans, foremost among them: "Change: Stop the War in Afghanistan."
With all the attention Obama's visit has generated, about 2,500 police officers from all over the Nordic country have deployed to Oslo. The Norwegian military has also contributed support in the form of helicopters and sharpshooters.
Last week, city maintenance crews welded shut over 400 manholes in downtown Oslo, and police said they will remove all downtown trash cans on Wednesday afternoon to eliminate potential hiding places for bombs.
The Justice Ministry is shelling out 92 million kroner ($16 million) for security.
"This is the biggest — and most demanding — security operation in Norway's history," said Johan Fredriksen, chief of staff for the Oslo police.
Police and city work crews spent much of this week erecting barricades around Oslo's compact downtown to help control the crowds expected to surge into the capital when Obama arrives.
On Wednesday morning, Norwegian police armed with machine guns guarded the Grand Hotel as hotel workers installed bulletproof glass to protect the president during Thursday evening's procession.
Fredriksen said, however, protesters would be extended the same courtesy as Obama fans.
"Whether they're here to honor Obama or to put forth a message — we're here for both," he said.