COP21: Progress reported on key issue of loss and damage
Negotiators are edging towards a compromise on one of the most divisive issues between countries at the COP21 climate change talks in Paris.
"Loss and damage" is the idea that compensation should be paid to vulnerable states for climate-related events that they cannot adapt to.
The issue has provoked heated arguments and walkouts at previous conferences.
But here in Paris, negotiators from the US and small island states are said to be "closer" to an agreement.
For small island states and some of the least developed countries, the question of loss and damage has become one of the most important aspects of the climate negotiations in recent years.
While the vulnerable countries believe there are many impacts of climate change that they can adapt to, they have been seeking a mechanism that would compensate them for those events that they cannot cope with.
Killed by a Russian bomb, a five-year-old visiting relatives in Syria
Raghat’s mother thought her village was a safe distance from Isis – but Syrians accuse Russia of targeting civilian areasEmma Graham-Harrison in Reyhanli
Five-year-old Raghat loved singing, nail polish, teasing her toddler sister, the alphabet she was starting to learn at nursery, and goofing for the camera. In the last photos of her, taken barely 10 minutes before the Russian bombs landed, she shows off a new bracelet and freshly painted nails with glee, then squeezes a kiss from her squirming baby sister.
“I only took my children back to Syria for six days,” says her mother, Suheer, her eyes welling up as she plays a video on her smartphone, bringing a shadow of her daughter momentarily back to life. Her son Hossein, only four himself, leans in to smooth away her tears. Too young to really understand why his sister has vanished, he comforts his mother with a soft patter of “mummy, no, mummy”.
Raghat now lies miles away, across the Turkish border in Syria, buried in the town of Habeet, near Idlib, where she died in October alongside her grandfather and her cousin Ahmad. When the attack finished she was found wrapped in Ahmad’s arms. A 28-year-old maths teacher, he had tried to race her to shelter when the first bomb fell.Sharia courts in Britain lock women into 'marital captivity', study says
Exclusive: Academic with unprecedented access to Islamic divorce hearings says courts fail to report domestic violence
Sharia courts in Britain are locking women into “marital captivity” and doing nothing to officially report domestic violence, according to an academic who gained unprecedented access to Islamic divorce hearings.
Judges at the courts “uphold the theory and practice of the strong hold men have over women”, and set out to frustrate women whose husbands do not want them to leave, according to the study seen by The Independent.
The findings, which are to be unveiled in the Houses of Parliament next month, are based on the most detailed and informed analysis of the workings of British sharia courts ever undertaken by an independent researcher.
The Right Stuff: Marine Le Pen and the Growing Influence of Front National
By Julia Amalia HeyerMarine Le Pen has managed to pull the Front National from the extremist fringe into the political center. The right-wing populists could even emerge as France's strongest party in upcoming regional elections. But the real prize is in 2017.
Five days after Black Friday in Paris, Marine Le Pen is walking through a convention center in the northern part of the city. It's a sunny day, but the air is stuffy inside the building, where Le Pen is dressed in black from head to toe, including her pointed ankle boots, and is carrying a red shoulder bag. It's her first public appearance since the Paris attacks and her choice of events is symbolic. The convention is focused on domestic security, with all manner of law enforcement tools laid out amid the bright red carpeting. Le Pen looks worn out. Her exhaustion is evident even under her characteristically thick layer of makeup.
She stares straight ahead as she walks past rapid-fire weapons and bullet-proof vests in khaki and camouflage, before stopping at a booth operated by the customs authority to look at a model coast guard ship in a glass case -- a better choice of backdrop than the "new generation assault weapon" on display at the booth opposite.
Smiles mark uneasiness for 'most endangered tribe' on Earth
December 5, 2015 - 11:30AMDom Phillips
Caru Indigenous Land, Brazil: Wirohoa does not have a driver's licence, a television or a mobile phone. He does not know how old he is and walks barefoot around the indigenous village of Tiracambu, in the Brazilian Amazon.
Last December he, his mother Jakarewaja and his aunt Amakaria left the forest where they had lived their whole lives as nomadic hunter-gatherers, isolated from modern society.
"We were very happy living in the forest," said Wirohoa, who does not use a surname, and is estimated to be about 25.
The family's move to a village brought decidedly mixed results. The two women caught tuberculosis; like other hunter-gatherers, their immune systems are especially susceptible to modern diseases. Wirohoa found a wife.
The trio's story illustrates the decreasing options available to the roughly 100 hunter-gatherers of their tribe, the Awa, caught between the difficulties of surviving in the diminishing forest and the dangers posed by illness and development in the contemporary world outside.A lawyer leads a life on the wild side – rescuing those sold into slavery
Van Ngoc Ta rescues Vietnamese women and girls trafficked to China for the sex trade as well as victims of forced labor.
LONDON — Trained as a lawyer, Van Ngoc Ta never imagined that he would spend his evenings posing as a gang lord in brothels.
Over the past 10 years, Van Ta has played an active role in anti-trafficking charity, Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, that rescues Vietnamese women and girls trafficked to China for the sex trade as well as victims of forced labor.
Undercover operations in red light districts, car chases, and brushes with organized gangsters are all part of the job for Van Ta, 34, whose mild manner belies his adventurous life.
"When I started training as a lawyer I thought I'd be in a black suit presenting clients at court," said Van Ta, who was awarded Nov.18 the anti-slavery award at Trust Women, a women's rights and trafficking conference organized by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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