The United Nations’ annual climate summit descended on Durban, South Africa, this week, but not in time to prevent the tragic death of Qodeni Ximba. The 17-year-old was one of 10 people killed in Durban on Sunday, the night before the U.N. conference opened. Torrential rains pummeled the seaside city of 3.5 million. Seven hundred [...]
US refusal to negotiate legally-binding carbon emissions cuts risks derailing a UN summit convened to tackle climate change, environmental groups have warned in a letter to Hillary Clinton. The letter, signed by 16 different organisations and sent to the US Secretary of State, said that while President Barack Obama pledged in November 2008 to “engage [...]
BUJUMBURA, 30 November 2011 (IRIN) – Amid growing concerns about a wave of political assassinations in Burundi, a former police officer has announced the formation of a new armed group, with the aim of overthrowing a government he accuses of numerous killings, rampant corruption and economic incompetence. The army quickly denied a new rebellion was [...]
Europe is taking the toughest negotiating stand it has ever adopted on global warming. At this week’s UN climate talks in Durban, the bloc will depart from decades of “dovish” practice by insisting stiff conditions must be met by China and other developing countries if a global climate treaty is to be arranged. The hardline [...]
The Syrian revolution—a broad-based, non-sectarian, democratic anti-despot national movement—has failed. Mass demonstrations never materialized in Damascus and Aleppo. The military and security forces didn’t crack. The Alawite on Sunni crackdown (Alawites form the backbone of the army/security forces/irregular goon squads) fomented sectarian divisions, with most non-Sunnis minorities cleaving desperately to the Assad regime. Prosperous Sunnis [...]
Pope Benedict XVI called Sunday for delegates attending this week’s U.N. climate change conference in South Africa to craft a responsible and credible deal to cut greenhouse gases that takes into account the needs of the poor. For more on this story, visit: Pope calls for responsible, credible climate deal | World news | The [...]
Israel is to release millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenues it had frozen as a punitive sanction for the past month, a move that threatened the Palestinian Authority’s ability to pay public sector salaries this week. Despite the vigorous opposition of hardline foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s inner cabinet agreed to pay the $100m [...]
Associated Press= ROME (AP) — The United Nations has completed the first-ever global assessment of the state of the planet’s land resources, finding in a report Monday that a quarter of all land is highly degraded and warning the trend must be reversed if the world’s growing population is to be fed. The U.N. Food [...]
A native American community in remote Alaska this week revived legal efforts to hold some of the world’s largest energy companies accountable for allegedly destroying their village because of global warming. The so-called “climigration” trial would be the first of its kind, potentially creating a precedent in the US courts for further climate change-related damages [...]
