Texas Sues Feds to Block Resettlement of 6 Syrian Refugees
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Texas has sued the U.S. government in an effort to block six Syrian refugees from resettling in Dallas this week.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday comes after the nonprofit International Rescue Committee defied orders from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to halt the arrival of Syrian refugees in Texas following the November attacks in Paris.
Texas wants to delay the arrival of the refugees for at least a week, until a federal judge can hear the challenge.
The Obama administration has said states don't have the authority to block refugees. Abbott is among more than two dozen governors, mostly Republicans, who have vowed to keep new Syrian refugees from resettling in their states.
Abbott earlier Wednesday called the planned arrival irresponsible.
North Korea digging new nuclear-test tunnel, satellite photos show
Images dating from October and early November show addition of fourth tunnel at test site Punggye-ri, say US researchers
Satellite photographs from October and early November indicate North Korea is digging a new tunnel for nuclear testing, a US research institute said on Wednesday.
A report on 38 North, a North Korea monitoring website run by Johns Hopkins University’s school of advanced international studies in Washington, said the images showed significant construction since April at Punggye-ri, on North Korea’s east coast, where three previous nuclear tests were conducted.
However, there are no signs any testing is imminent, it said.
The commercial images showed excavation of a new tunnel in addition to the three others where North Korea has either conducted nuclear tests or excavated tunnels in the past, the report said.Nicolas Henin: The man who was held captive by Isis for 10 months says how they can be defeated
'The winner of this war will not be the party that has the newest, the most expensive or the most sophisticated weaponry, but the party that manages to win over the people on its side'
A French journalist who was held hostage by Isis for 10 months has spoken out against air strikes in Syria, saying they represent “a trap” for Britain and other members of the international community.
Speaking in an interview with The Syria Campaign, Nicolas Henin put forward his strategy for combatting the militant group – a no-fly zone in opposition-held areas of Syria.
Mr Henin has previously spoken about how he was held for seven years in Syria, and how British national Mohammed Emwazi – known as Jihadi John – was among the jailors who subjected him to physical and psychological torture.
"Strikes on Isis are a trap,” he said.
Going for Broke in Paris: It's Now or Never for the Climate
This week, the most important event of the year began: 195 countries are negotiating the future of our planet in Paris. The world's most powerful leaders must now demand sacrifices from their citizens in order to save the climate.
With war, terror, debt drama and mass migration, 2015 was a year of crises and urgent problems. For politicians, it was a year of continual crisis management, often with uncertain outcomes. Many of the blazes have yet to be extinguished, but the greatest challenge is yet to come. This year's crises may have been staggering, but at least they were limited in terms of geography. But for the next two weeks in Paris, the global community will be deciding on the fate of our planet, our future and the basis of life for all of humanity.
It's up to us. At the climate conference in Paris, we will have the opportunity to demonstrate whether or not we are serious about climate protection -- whether we will live up to our responsibility to ourselves and to future generations to keep Earth in an at least halfway healthy state. Whether we are prepared to alter our behavior as consumers, shifting away from the comfort and growth of our excessive, more is better, culture to more modest and austere lives. Or whether we will continue to exploit nature, with devastating repurcussions. Scientists have already demonstrated the grave consequences climate change is having on our planet.
Nuns pose as prostitutes to save victims of sex trafficking
The international team of 1,100 religious sisters currently operates in 80 countries and seeks to combat human trafficking and slavery.
According to the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people, including children, live in slavery worldwide, many of them trafficked by gangs for sex work and unskilled labor.
A network of nuns is doing whatever it takes to solve the problem, according to its chairman.
The group, known as Talitha Kum take actions that include dressing up like prostitutes to infiltrate brothels worldwide in an effort to rescue victims of sex trafficking. The initiative launched in 2004 by British investment banker John Studzinski, consists of 1,100 sisters, and currently operates from 80 countries.
Ethiopia's Rastafarian community living in limbo
With few legal rights and no local IDs, people who came from distant lands struggle to fulfil their spiritual quest.
Rastafarians around the world see Ethiopia as their spiritual home. Many of them believe the country's last king, Haile Selassie, was a descendent of King Solomon and the messiah.
Many of the men travelled thousands of kilometres to live in what they say is their promised land. The town of Shashamane in southern Ethiopia is a place of pilgrimage for Rastafarians around the world.
The Rastafarians say they smoke marijuana because it is their sacrament - the equivalent of bread and wine given during Christian communions.
The nearly 800 Rastafarians who live in the area say they are fulfilling a prophecy that descendants of slaves will return to Africa.
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