U.N. pushes for action on global warming
UNITED NATIONS – U.N. experts are warning that the level of global warming gases is rising rapidly, and delaying action will reduce options for dealing with the worst impacts of climate change.
The findings were in the final draft of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.N.-sponsored body that provides the scientific basis for climate negotiations.
The report, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, says that global warming will continue to increase unless countries shift quickly to clean energy and cut emissions.
It said that despite national policies and international efforts aimed at mitigating climate change, emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are warming the planet grew 2.2 percent per year on average between 2000 and 2010.
Iranian president defends nuclear deal
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani criticized domestic opponents of the nuclear deal struck with world powers, a news agency reported Thursday, an apparent rebuke of hard-liners challenging him in the Islamic Republic.
The semi-official ISNA agency quoted Rouhani as telling oil workers in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan: “A group does not want sanctions to be lifted. They are opponent to having normal ties with the world for the sake of their personal interests.”
Rouhani did not elaborate. However, hard-liners claim the deal tramples on Iran’s enrichment rights and have called it a “poison chalice.” Despite that opposition, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, has supported Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, calling them “sons of the revolution” and “our own children.”
Last week, the so-called P5+1 world powers Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States and Iran agreed to make Monday the start of implementing the terms of the Geneva deal struck in November.
Davos Forum calls income gap threat
LONDON – The gap between the rich and the poor is the most likely threat to the global economy in coming years, the World Economic Forum said Thursday in a risk assessment ahead of the gathering of political and business leaders in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
The Forum, which hosts the annual gathering, said income disparity in the wake of the global financial crisis is the “most likely risk to cause an impact on a global scale in the next decade” and warned of a “lost generation” of young people that could stoke tensions in society.
“The generation coming of age in the 2010s faces high unemployment and precarious job situations, hampering their efforts to build a future and raising the risk of social unrest,” the Forum said in Global Risks 2014, which was compiled with contributions by 700 global experts.
Syria agrees to let aid into battle zones
BEIRUT – The Syrian government allowed supplies to enter two contested front-line areas near the capital, a relief official said Thursday. Activists said the death toll from two weeks of infighting in the north between rebel forces and an al-Qaida-linked group climbed to more than 1,000 people.
The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Khaled Iriqsousi, told The Associated Press that enough supplies to feed 10,000 people for a month entered the Damascus suburbs of al-Ghezlaniya and Jdaidet al-Shibani on Thursday.
Associated Press
