11.   Yet the Chinese say they are confident that all the problems will be solved before the conferences open.

12.   A conference opens Tuesday to address how countries can cut greenhouse gases.

13.   A U.N. conference on biodiversity opens Sunday to refine ways of protecting forests and controlling the invasion of dangerous plants and organisms to nonnative areas.

14.   A monthlong global conference opens Monday on renewing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

15.   A three-week conference opened Monday afternoon in Vienna, and unanimously elected Swedish Foreign Ministry official Johan Molander its chairman.

16.   A regional U.N. drug conference opened Monday in Beirut to find ways for Middle Eastern countries to cooperate in the campaign against drug trafficking and production.

17.   A U.N. health conference opened Saturday to discuss problems of eastern Mediterranean nations, including the paucity of locally produced vaccines and medicines.

18.   Also, Arab energy conference opens in Damascus, Syria.

19.   An international conference on homosexuality opened Thursday amid strong criticism from the Orthodox Church of Romania, where the topic is still taboo.

20.   An international anti-euthanasia conference opens here Friday to fight the Dutch mercy killing policy, the most permissive in the industrialized world.