Image copyrightReutersImage captionDemonstrations were held worldwide on Sunday to call for action in Paris
Nearly 150 global leaders are gathering in Paris amid tight security for a critical UN climate meeting.Like_Us_Please!Click_Here
The conference, known as COP21, starts on Monday and will try 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.
Image copyrightHawkeyImage captionReligious pilgrims have walked to Paris from many parts of Europe to support a strong outcome
"I believe that it will make a deal more likely, because what I feel from the parties is that they are very eager to move," said Amjad Abdulla from the Maldives, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States in the negotiations.
A former UK government adviser on climate change and now chairman ofenvironmental think tank E3G, Tom Burke, believes that some leaders will push the line that, by tackling rising temperatures, you remove one of the causes of terrorism.
While the mood music around the event is very positive, there are still considerable differences between the parties.
Already planned to be tight even before the attacks
Following the attacks, border controls temporarily imposed. They were set to begin on 30 November anyway
Almost 1,000 people considered security risks refused entry since 13 November
8,000 police and gendarmes to carry out border checks
2,800 of them at the conference venue at Le Bourget north of Paris
120,000 police and troops already mobilised across France since the attacks
Sale and transport of flammable materials such as gas cylinders, domestic solvents, barbeque firelighters and firecrackers banned until 13 December
Some major roads to be closed for two days
One key problem is what form an agreement will take. The US for instance will not sign up to a legally binding deal as there would be little hope of getting it through a Senate dominated by Republicans.
"We're looking for an agreement that has broad, really full participation," said US lead negotiator Todd Stern at a news briefing earlier this week.
"We were quite convinced that an agreement that required actually legally binding targets would have many countries unable to participate."
Many developing countries fundamentally disagree. As does the European Union.
Image copyrightHawkeyImage captionSecurity all over Paris is highly visible ahead of the arrival of world leaders
"We must translate the momentum we have seen on the road to Paris into an ambitious, operational, legally binding agreement," said EU commissioner Miguel Arias Canete, in a statement.Earn 20$_Earn 20$_Earn 20$Click_Here
As well as the form there are also many issues with the content.
There are a wide range of views on what the long-term goal of the agreement should be.
While it will ostensibly come down to keeping temperatures from rising more than 2C above the pre-industrial level, how that will be represented in the text is the subject of much wrangling.Earn 20$_Earn 20$_Earn 20$Click_Here
Some countries reject the very notion of 2C and say 1.5C must be the standard. Others want to talk about decarbonising the world by the middle or end of this century.
For major oil producers the very idea is anathema.
'Trust and confidence'
While the fact that more than 180 countries have put forward national plans to cut emissions is a major strength of this conference, there are still big questions marks about how to verify those commitments that will actually be carried out.
"People in the negotiations, people outside the negotiations are going to be looking for the capacity to have trust and confidence in what countries say they are doing," Todd Stern told reporters.
"[You] can't run the system without that."
UN climate conference 30 Nov - 11 Dec 2015
COP 21 - the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties - will see more than 190 nations gather in Paris to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the threat of dangerous warming due to human activities.
While there is some consensus among the parties that the plans will need to be reviewed every five years, there is no question of punitive restrictions if a country doesn't meet its targets.
And among the many other issues in dispute, almost inevitably, is money. While rich countries promised they would give $100bn by 2020 to the developing world back in 2009, the cash has been slow in coming. Right now there is no agreement about what happens after 2020.
While there is a general air of optimism and a willingness to get a deal done, success isn't guaranteed this time round. Many believe that a country such as India, with close to 300 million people without electricity, will refuse to sign up to a strong agreement that limits future fossil fuel use.
If that happens, the whole process could come unstuck, as nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.
Tom Burke for one believes that going against the flow will be particularly difficult this time round.
"I think one of the reasons people will find it hard to hold out at the end will be because of the level of political capital that Obama has invested in climate change, making it clear it is a primary legacy issue for him," he said.
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The man suspected of storming a Planned Parenthood clinic and killing a police officer and two others in Colorado on Friday told the officers who arrested him “no more baby parts,’’ after being taken into custody, according to a law enforcement official.Earn 20$_Earn 20$_Earn 20$Click_Here
The attack on the clinic was “definitely politically motivated,’’ the official — who was briefed on the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity because it is still unfolding — told The Washington Post. NBC News, which first reported the comment attributed to suspect Robert Lewis Dear, said Dear also mentioned President Obama in a range of statements to investigators that left unclear his precise motivation in targeting the clinic in Colorado Springs.
Yet even as authorities worked to determine the exact motive and released few details about the shootings, the politics of the highly charged abortion issue seemed to outstrip their efforts to be methodical. While antiabortion activists denied any knowledge of Dear and said that he is not affiliated with their movement, pro-choice activists countered that rhetoric by conservatives against Planned Parenthood had precipitated the nation’s latest mass shooting.
In last few years, scores of people have died in mass shootings in the U.S. Here's a list of some of the victims from some of the tragedies.
Dear is accused of killing two civilians in addition to University of Colorado police officer Garrett Swasey, as well as injuring at least four other officers and five more civilians. He is being held without bond and is scheduled to make his first appearance in court on Monday, where he is expected to face state murder charges. A law enforcement official said federal charges are also being considered.Earn 20$_Earn 20$_Earn 20$Click_Here
The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs said Swasey, 44, had been with the campus police department for six years and that he responded to the initial reports of an active shooter.
Authorities say Dear was armed with a long gun and also brought into the building several items that could have been explosive devices.
Police first received a call reporting an “active shooter” from inside the Planned Parenthood clinic at 11:38 a.m. local time Friday, prompting response from both Colorado Springs police, as well as Swasey. By 12:11 a.m., a county SWAT team was en route.
But the incident turned into a standoff and a search, with the shooter holed up in the Planned Parenthood building, at times exchanging gunfire with officers searching for both him and potential victims. Police say officers used a “Bearcat” — which is a large tactical vehicle — to enter the Planned Parenthood building and evacuated 24 people. An additional 300 people were sheltered in place in the surrounding buildings.
Dear was taken into custody at 4:52 p.m. A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said Dear immediately began discussing his motivations with investigators.
Suspect confirmed as Robert L. Dear date of birth of 4/16/1958 pic.twitter.com/4v2GtIsUgT
#CSPD confirming the Planned Parenthood building has been cleared. Crime scene investigation is on going.
State investigators and federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI are also involved in the investigation.
President Obama was briefed on the situation Friday, a White House official said. On Saturday, the president released a statement noting that the gunman’s motive remains unknown but urging the public not to let such incidents “become normal.”
“The last thing Americans should have to do, over the holidays or any day, is comfort the families of people killed by gun violence — people who woke up in the morning and bid their loved ones goodbye with no idea it would be for the last time,” the statement said.
“And yet, two days after Thanksgiving,” the statement said, “that’s what we are forced to do again.”
While acknowledging that investigators have more to uncover, one Planned Parenthood official suggested the incident may be rooted in the “poisonous environment” that feeds domestic terrorism.
“We don’t yet know the full circumstances and motives behind this criminal action, and we don’t yet know if Planned Parenthood was in fact the target of this attack,” Vicki Cowart, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said in a statement. “We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country. We will never back away from providing care in a safe, supportive environment that millions of people rely on and trust.”
The shooting arrives during a period of heightened scrutiny for Planned Parenthood. In July, an antiabortion group released a series of secretly filmed videos from a clinic in Denver that showed staffers discussing the extraction of tissue from aborted fetuses before that tissue is sent to research facilities. The videos, which Planned Parenthood officials have noted were heavily edited to bolster critics’ false claims, provoked a series of nationwide protests in August aimed at cutting off federal funding for the health care organization. Planned Parenthood officials said the protests were designed to intimidate and harass patients.
Health centers associated with Planned Parenthood have been the targets of threats and violence because of the organization’s role in providing abortions and lobbying for reproductive rights. Abortion rights groups say threats against abortion providers rose sharply last summer in the wake of the undercover “sting” operation that produced the videos.Earn 20$_Earn 20$_Earn 20$Click_Here
In a Twitter message released Friday by Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountain, a clinic spokesman said 28 other regional health centers will remain open “no matter what.”
“We maintain strong security measures and always work closely with law enforcement agencies to ensure our very strong safety record,” the statement said.
In New York, Detective Brian Sessa said the police department had deployed response vehicles to Planned Parenthood locations throughout the city out of “an abundance of caution.” He added that there were no specific threats.
The heart of @PPRM is broken tonight: pic.twitter.com/gC0yyA7VJk
“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the brave law enforcement officers who put themselves in harm’s way in Colorado Springs,” Cecile Richards, president and chief executive of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “We are profoundly grateful for their heroism in helping to protect all women, men and young people as they access basic health care in this country.”
The Planned Parenthood family grieves for Officer Garrett Swasey's family, friends and colleagues dealing with heartbreaking loss tonight.
Today and every day, we #StandWithPP. https://t.co/oifqTQLx1X
A burst of gunfire early on gave way to relative calm in the afternoon, but witnesses said gunfire started again in the evening.
Police warned media not to set up too close to the scene because it was not secure. Many workers and shoppers in the area were told to hunker down in place, whether it be in the kitchen of their restaurant or the back seat of their car. Some remained there for hours as snow accumulated and the sky darkened.
As of 4 p.m., police had not identified or made voice contact with the shooter. Buckley said officers then managed to get into the building and shout at the suspect to give himself up, after which he emerged from the building with his hands raised.
Before that, police had evacuated a number of people from the building, and they were taken to a hospital for evaluation. Footage from television stations showed people in medical jackets and scrubs being ushered through the snow into waiting vehicles.
Sydney Downey, 20, who works at Sally Beauty Supply nearby, said people inside the store heard gunshots about 11:45 a.m.
“A lot of gunshots,” Downey said, “like, too many to even count.”
She said police and firefighters swarmed Centennial Boulevard, where the clinic is located, and crowded around a nearby bank. An officer came by the beauty supply store to make sure that the doors were locked and that those inside were safe, she said.
“He said, ‘Get back away from the windows,’ and left, and that was it,” Downey said. After that, Downey said, she remained huddled in a back room with the store manager and a customer.
Brigitte Wolfe, who works at a Japanese restaurant across the street from the clinic, said she first learned something was amiss when police SWAT and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives vehicles pulled up out front.
She heard no gunshots. “We just thought it was some random whatever happening, and then we turned on the news and started seeing what was going on,’’ she said.
Suddenly, about 3 p.m., police and ATF agents banged on the restaurant’s door “and told us to hide where there was no windows because the shooter was active,’’ Wolfe said.
She and several employees and customers hid in the restaurant’s kitchen. Wolfe said the police and agents commandeered the restaurant’s dining room. Gunshots were audible as police used an armored vehicle to evacuate people from the Planned Parenthood clinic.
Wolfe said that the medical facility had been the scene of protests most weekends but that there had never been any violence until Friday.
Ozy Licano told the AP that he was in the clinic’s parking lot when Dear spotted him and turned his weapon on the confused civilian, who escaped in his car.
“He came out, and we looked each other in the eye, and he started aiming, and then he started shooting,” Licano said. “I saw two holes go right through my windshield as I was trying to quickly back up and he just kept shooting, and I started bleeding.”
“He was aiming for my head,” he added. “It’s just weird to stare in the face of someone like that. And he didn’t win.”
Alice Crites, Jennifer Jenkins, Julie Tate, Niraj Chokshi and Jerry Markon contributed to this report.