UN CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE AGREES TO EXTEND THE KYOTO PROTOCOL

After days of tense negotiations the delegates at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Doha, were able to reach a deal on a package of agreements, as well as extending the Kyoto protocol until 2020.

Kyoto is still the only legally binding agreement on green house gas emissions. The nations who are signed up to Kyoto produce 15% of the total green house gas emissions. The protocol locks in only developed nations, excluding major developing polluters such as China and India, as well as the United States which refuses to ratify it.

The major stumbling block was over climate funding for poorer nations. Delegates agreed that developed countries would increase their contributions from $30 billion in 2010-2012, to $100 billion (76 billion euros) per year by 2020. The fund will be used to help poorer nations deal with the impact of climate change, and switch to greener energy sources.

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ITALY’S PM MONTI ‘TO RESIGN”. SILVIO BERLUSCONI TO RETURN TO POLITICS

Italian PM Mario Monti has said he intends to step down as Prime Minister, after he lost the support of the parliament, earlier this week.

Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right party People of Freedom withdrew their support for the Prime Minister, making him feel as though he no longer has the support of the Parliament.

Monti has said he will resign immediately if he can quickly pass next year’s budget through parliament. Some believe the withdrawal of support by the People of Freedom Party was an attempt to undermine Monti’s ambitious debt reducing budget.

Disgraced former PM Silvio Berlusconi has said he will run in elections early next year. The media tycoon is still facing charges of underage sex, and was convicted for tax fraud earlier this year. He is currently appealing his conviction.

Read More: Italy’s PM Monti “to resign” France 24
Silvio Berlusconi confirms return to politics France 24

UK GOVERNMENT BEGINS PUSH TO LEGALIZE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, along with other senior members of the Conservative Party have come out in support of same-sex marriage. They are uniting under the slogan “Freedom to Marry”.

The move has angered many within the Conservative party, who hold to a traditional view of marriage. Prime Minister David Cameron would like to legalize gay marriage, and allow marriage ceremonies to take place in churches, but also let churches who do not want to conduct same-sex marriages, the right to refuse.

The UK already allows civil partnerships for gay couples, but the group of 19 senior Tories has said, “We recognise that civil partnerships were an important step forward in giving legal recognition to same sex couples. But civil partnerships are not marriages, which express a particular and universally understood commitment.”

Sources within the coalition say that the government is keen to have a bill voted on before Easter next year. Conservative backbenchers are calling for any such vote to be a free vote.

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SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN WINS SEAT ON BANKING COMMITTEE

Elizabeth Warren is widely regarded as one of the strongest progressive voices in the Senate. She received widespread praise from Democrates at the Democratic Convention and went on to win Massachusetts from Republican Sen. Scott Brown.

The fight became the most expensive to be fought over in the election. Wall Street donated heavily to Scott Brown’s campaign, keen to stop Warren from winning. Now Wall Street will have Sen Warren on the banking committee. The powerful committee has the job of overseeing the implementation of the Dodd-Frank bill and other banking regulations.

Read More from The Huffington Post

SYRIA: ASSAD COULD BE GETTING READY TO USE CHEMICAL WEAPONS

As the civil war continues in Syria, there are renewed fears that Bashar al-Assad may use Chemical Weapons against his own people.

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said at a press conference after a meeting with NATO leaders, “Our concerns are that an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons, or might lose control of them to one of the many groups that are now operating within Syria… And so as part of the absolute unity that we all have on this issue we have sent an unmistakable message that this would cross a red line and those responsible would be held to account.”

The United States has pledged support for the Syrian opposition. There will be a meeting in Morocco next week to discuss what further steps need to be undertaken to help resolve the conflict in Syria.

Read More ‘Desperate’ Assad could use chemical weapons in Syria, says Hillary Clinton- The Telegraph

MAN PUSHED TO DEATH ON SUBWAY TRACKS

A 58-year-old subway passenger was killed on Monday after he was pushed onto the tracks of an onrushing train in Manhattan by a man who had been mumbling to himself as he walked along the platform, the police said.

The passenger, identified by the police as Ki-Suck Han of 52nd Avenue in Queens, tried to climb back onto the platform but did not make it; he was struck by a southbound Q train in the 49th Street station. He was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, the police said.

The assailant fled and remained at large on Monday night, the police said. Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, described the attacker as a black man in his mid-20s in a tan shirt and black pants who was carrying a black jacket and wearing a woolen hat.

On Monday night, two police officials and a priest were seen escorting a woman believed to be the victim’s wife from a Queens apartment to a van. They made no comment to reporters outside.

Courtesy New York Police Department

A still from a surveillance camera video in which the attacker is seen confronting the victim.

more at  Man Pushed to Death on Subway Tracks – NYTimes.com.

SUBWAY RIDER, ALLEGEDLY PUSHED, CAN’T SCRAMBLE OFF TRACKS IN TIME – LATIMES.COM


December 4, 2012, 7:19 a.m.

It’s a subway rider’s worst nightmare: being pushed onto the tracks. On Monday, it happened in midtown Manhattan where, according to witnesses, one man shoved another in front of an oncoming train, which crushed the victim to death before horrified onlookers.

Police on Tuesday were still searching for the alleged pusher, who was captured on surveillance video seconds before the attack in a verbal altercation with the victim, who was identified as 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han of Queens, N.Y. The attack occurred about 12:30 p.m.

Witnesses, who included scores of people standing on the platform at the station on West 49th Street and 7th Avenue, said Han tried to scramble back onto the platform after landing on the tracks a few feet below, but he was crushed between the side of the platform and the Q train, which slammed on its brakes but could not stop in time.

One witness facing the oncoming train repeatedly snapped his camera in hopes the flash would warn the conductor early enough to stop. Others on the platform waved their hands and yelled at the conductor as Han stood up from where he had landed, faced the train then began trying to climb off the tracks as the train sped toward him.

“There was a huge gasp from all the spectators,” the man who took pictures of the incident, R. Umar Abbasi, said of the moment when he saw Han pushed, the New York Post reported. “I just started running, running, hoping that the driver could see my flash,” said Abbasi.

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NEW STEVE JOBS FILM TO CLOSE OUT SUNDANCE FESTIVAL

A biographical film called jOBS about Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs and starring Ashton Kutcher will close out the popular Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 17-27 in Park City, Utah, according to a schedule of the event posted late Monday. Kutcher, currently the star of the TV show, “Two and a Half Men,” is playing the lead role in the movie, which was directed by Joshua Michael Stern. “The true story of one of the greatest entrepreneurs in American history, jOBS chronicles the defining 30 years of Steve Jobs life,” according to the film festivals web site. Other subjects of separate biopics at the festival include Jack Kerouac, Richard Cheney, Mariel Hemingway, Jeremy Lin and Anita Hill.

more at New Steve Jobs Film To Close Out Sundance Festival | Fox Business.

LED ZEPPELIN GET A WHOLE LOTTA LOVE FROM PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA – NEWS – MUSIC – THE INDEPENDENT

 

 

They may have been sitting down in their tuxes rather than tearing across the stage in their flares, but in the words of Barack Obama: “Guys who are not completely youthful can still rock.”The President aged 51 hailed the remaining members of Led Zeppelin average age 66 for “making us all feel young” as they received a lifetime achievement award in the Kennedy Center Honours.“When Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham burst on to the musical scene in the late 1960s, the world never saw it coming,” Mr Obama said at the awards ceremony on Sunday, at which actors Dustin Hoffman and comedian David Letterman were also honoured.“It’s been said that a generation of young people survived teenage angst with a pair of headphones and a Zeppelin album,” the President added.

more…

via Led Zeppelin get a whole lotta love from President Barack Obama – News – Music – The Independent.

WALL STREET ISN’T BACKING JACK LEW FOR TREASURY – THE TERM SHEET: FORTUNE’S DEALS BLOG TERM SHEET

Wall Street thinks Obama’s likely Treasury Secretary pick doesn’t know jack about the market.

jack-lew

FORTUNE — Jack Lew, the frontrunner to be named Treasury Secretary in Obama’s second term, isn’t Wall Street’s first choice for the key economic post. He’s not even its second.

“I’ve talked to a bunch of investors and it’s seen as a net negative going from [Tim] Geithner to Lew,” says Chris Krueger, senior political analyst at Guggenheim Partners. “Who does Wall Street want? Not Jack Lew.”

Lew, 57, spent three years on Wall Street working at Citigroup (C) as the chief operating officer of its alternative asset investment management unit. One of the funds Lew’s group invested in was run by John Paulson, who at the time was betting heavily against the housing markets and banks. But that’s not the part of Lew’s resume that anyone seems to remember. And it’s certainly not the important part.

More… Fiscal Cliff: A modest proposal

EUROPE’S FIRST GAY FRIENDLY MOSQUE OPENS IN PARIS FRANCE


Europe’s first gay friendly mosque has opened in Paris, France. The new mosque opened in a small room inside the house of a Buddhist monk.

The “mosque” has been critised by Muslim leaders in Paris who have said that it is, “against the spirit of Islam”. However the founder of the mosque says he is breaking “prejudices in Islam”.

The mosque will also break with traditional Muslim teaching of women. The founder, French-Algerian gay rights activist and practicing Muslim Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, says he wants to also allow women to lead Friday prayers.

Read More at France 24

BUGARACH, FRANCE – SURVIVING DECEMBER 2012 – ‘END OF THE WORLD’?

Bugarach - the place to be this December?

Bugarach – Surviving the ‘end of the world’ on upside-down mountain

Bugarach is a small village which lies at the foot of the ‘Pic de Bugarach’, the highest peak in the Corbieres Mountains, in south-west France, though the ‘pic de Bugarach’ is set apart from the other mountains as a whole and stands alone. It is also know as the ‘upside down mountain’ because the layers at the top of the mountain are older than the layers at the bottom.

It has become a world focal point for the 20 December 2012 ‘end of the world’ occultists who believe the Pic de Bugarach is the only place that will survive on earth, and is attracting many occult groups from around the world.

In the 1960’s ad 70’s the area was a favorite place of the Hippies, towards the end of the 20th century it became associated with the ‘New Age’ movement, as the mountain was believed to hold mystical powers, and rumors began to spread that Bugarach would be the only place to survive the apocalypse of 2012. 

According to cult followers, the mountain houses extra-terrestrials who are willing to save any humans who want to leave planet earth with them.

In 2011, the french “Interministerial Mission for monitoring and combatting cultic deviances” (MIVLUDES), paid extra attention to the area over concerns about mass suicides.  MIVLUDES aim is to prevent ritualized deaths by doomsday cults such as the ‘Order of the Solar temple’ which lost members to ritualized killings in the Alps in 1995.

Preparations, which began in 2010, to cope with the mass influx of people to this small village with a population of less then 200, are still in progress, the towns Mayor Jean-Pierre Delord, when interviewed in 2010 said

 

“This is no laughing matter, if tomorrow 10,000 people turn up, as a village of 200 people, we will not be able to cope. I have informed the regional authorities, and want the army to be on hand if necessary come December 2012”

 

In response to the Masses of visitors to the area, the authorities recently decided to limit access to the peak from 19 December 2012 to 23 December 2012. In addition, there will be 100 policemen and firemen who will control access to the village.

 

The Internet has become awash with items from the village, including pebbles from the mountain sold as talismans, and online prayers for sale. The Mayor told the guardian in an interview in November 2012

 

“the Bugarach sign at the entrance to the village has been stolen for the third time…”

Upside down mountain

This Southern corner of France has seen a ‘cauldron of mystic fables and occult conspiracy theories’. The nearby village of Rennes-de-Chateau was described in the Cadogan guide as ‘the vortex of Da Vinci code madness’….. the village which is just a short distance away from Bugarach received over 100,000 visitors when Dan Brown’s the “Da Vinci Code” was at the height of it’s popularity.

Watch this space through December for updates and more information, as this story unfolds.

UN VOTES TO GRANT PALESTINE NON-MEMBER OBSERVER STATUS

The UN has voted overwhelmingly in favour of granting Palestine non-member observer status- 138 in favor, 9 against, 41 abstentions. Israel had threatened before the vote to retailed with financial penalties if the vote was passed.

The move in effect recognises Palestinian statehood, and will give them access to a number of different bodies, like the International Criminal Court.

Before the vote Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had told the General Assembly that it “is being asked today to issue the birth certificate of Palestine.”

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Random Events, Free Will, Pre-destiny or Something Darker ?