COP21: Paris climate deal ‘more likely’ after terror attacks
Nearly 150 global leaders are gathering in Paris on Sunday for a critical UN climate meeting, amid tight security.
The conference, known as COP21, will attempt to craft a long-term deal to limit carbon emissions.
Observers say that the recent terror attacks on the French capital will increase the chances of a new agreement.
Around 40,000 people are expected to participate in the event, which runs until 11 December.
The gathering of 147 heads of state and government is set to be far bigger than the 115 or so who came to Copenhagen in 2009, the last time the world came close to agreeing a long term deal on climate change.
While many leaders including Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping were always set to attend this conference, the recent violent attacks in Paris have encouraged others to come in an expression of solidarity with the French people.
Unlike at Copenhagen, the French organisers are bringing the leaders in at the start of the conference rather than waiting for them to come in at the end, a tactic which failed spectacularly in the Danish capital.
Considerable differences
Delegates are in little doubt that the shadow cast over the city by the attacks will enhance the chances of agreement.
Hong Kong’s ‘pink’ dolphins under threat from airport and Macau bridge
Conservationists fear Hong Kong’s unique dolphins are at risk of disappearing due to loss of habitat and pollution from two major construction projects
Sunday 29 November 2015 06.53 GMT
Conservationists have warned that projects to expand Hong Kong’s airport and build a new bridge to Macau could result in the loss of the city’s beloved “pink” dolphins.
Dolphin numbers have declined sharply in Hong Kong harbour over the past few decades, and campaigners fear that the large-scale construction work will drive the mammals away for good.
The Chinese white dolphin – popularly known as the pink dolphin due to its pale pink colouring – draws scores of tourists daily to the waters north of Hong Kong’s Lantau island.
It became Hong Kong’s official mascot for the handover ceremony in 1997, when Britain returned the territory to China. But despite the affection felt towards the dolphin, there may soon be none left.
Isis: David Cameron plans to go to war, but has not produced realistic plans for defeating the group
Despite all the furious rhetoric after the Paris killings, Isis does not look as if is going to be under pressure that it cannot withstand
David Cameron made a reasonable case last week for Britain going to war with Isis in Syria; what he did not do is explain how this war is going to be won by Britain or anybody else. Even now, 18 months after Isis captured Mosul, there is a tendency by world leaders to underestimate its political and military strength.
Mr Cameron said that “military action [by the US, UK and others] seeks to degrade Isis’s capabilities, so that Iraqi security forces can effectively secure Iraq and moderate forces in Syria can defend the territory they control”.
It would certainly be nice if that happened, except that the Iraqi state security forces are demoralised, dysfunctional and have had difficulty finding new recruits since they have been repeatedly defeated by Isis over the past two years. In Syria, we are to look to 70,000 “moderate” fighters whose existence Mr Cameron revealed to the House of Commons, but nobody in Syria has ever heard of.
Europe’s Jihadists: What the Paris Attacks Tell Us about IS Strategy
The biographies of those behind the Paris attacks offer deep insight into the structures and organization of Islamic State in Europe. And they confirm what experts have long warned about: The new jihadists have our cities in their sights. By SPIEGEL Staff
On the horrific evening in Paris that only ended after 130 people had been slaughtered in jihadist attacks, something strange happened at 10:28 p.m., a development that only came to the attention of investigators much later. On the upper end of Boulevard Voltaire, where the Bataclan concert hall is located, three terrorists were in the process of gunning down people with their Kalashnikovs and exchanging salvos with the police, who were closing in on them. At the lower end of the street, another man exited from the Metro — Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected leader behind the attacks.
He had just been a part of the group that had killed 39 people at La Belle Équipe, Le Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge. For a while afterwards, he had driven around aimlessly in a black SEAT through the neighborhood’s streets, before parking it in the Montreuil suburb. He was then caught on CCTV cameras at 10:14 p.m. inside the Croix de Chavaux Metro station, as he jumped the turnstile to avoid paying and traveled back to the scene of the crime.
Modern-day Syria and ‘Antigone’: Syrian women find strength through acting
How female Syrian refugees use an ancient Greek play to reconcile their own tragic pasts.
For Syrian women, “Antigone” is more than an ancient Greek tragedy.
It’s a way to come to terms with a brutal war that has torn apart their country and families. In a production put on by Syrian refugee women – none of whom have ever acted professionally – the women have chosen the play as a way to represent their stories.
“The play ‘Antigone’ was an opportunity for us to voice everything inside of us,” Wisam Succari, an actress in the production told NPR. “It’s a story which takes place in the context of a war and we, too, as Syrians, have fled a war.”
The production began running in December 2014 and was performed in Lebanon by an all-women cast of roughly 30 Syrian women. Most of the women are mothers and many are widows. And though they are relating to a play written by Sophocles 2,000 years ago, the themes from the play still resonate today.
Kenya arrests two men ‘linked to Iranian spy network’
Police detain two people they say were planning to carry out a “terror attack” in the capital, Nairobi.
Kenya has arrested two men it says are connected to an Iranian intelligence network that was planning an attack inside the country.
A Twitter account run by the Kenyan interior ministry said the men were planning a “terror attack” in the capital Nairobi and had travelled to Iran last month.
The men were identified as 69-year-old Abubakr Sadiq Louw and 25-year-old Yassin Sambair Juma, who it said were both from Nairobi.
A statement by the ministry described Louw as a “senior figure” in the city’s Shia Muslim community, adding the pair were working on behalf of Iranian state intelligence.
Go-between
The men are accused of receiving training from Iranian Revolutionary guards, who allegedly told them to target Western interests in Kenya.
Louw is said to have admitted being approached by Iranian intelligence officials in 2012, and agreeing to recruit Kenyan youths to carry out attacks.
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