Extended coverage on climate change ahead of next month’s UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark:
Militants connected to the Taliban and al Qaeda have targeted two elder leaders in northwestern Pakistan who spoke out against the Taliban, BBC News.
The number of deaths from the H1N1 in the U.S. is 4 times higher than the Centers for Disease Control had previously predicted. 4,000 people in the United States have died since April, Voice of America.
Thousands mourned Robert Enke, the German football goalie who committed suicide earlier this week. Enke was expected to be Germany’s goalie in the 2010 World Cup. Enke had been stricken by grief after the death of his young daughter, CNN.
The alleged mastermind of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried for his crimes in New York City. Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, and Ramzi Bin al-Shib will be tried by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. 5 other detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison (Omar Khadr, Mohammed Kamin, Ibrahim al Qosi, Noor Uthman Muhammed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri) will be tried by a military commission, CNN. Profile: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, BBC News.
In Canada, the Supreme Court is hearing an appeal by the government that seeks to remove an order by a lower court that Canada must do everything possible to bring Omar Khadr back to Canada. Khadr is a Canadian citizen who was captured as a child soldier in Afghanistan when he was just 15 years old. He has been held in Guantanamo for the past 8 years, Toronto Star. Watch the hearing live on C-SPAN2.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will hold a press conference about Guantanamo Bay detainee trials at 11am EST today. Watch live on C-SPAN.
The U.S. seized a New York City skyscraper and 4 mosques suspected of illegally funneling money to Iran today. The buildings were under the control of an Iranian foundation that was set up during the reign of the Shah of Iran. After a coup displaced the Shah in 1979, the members of the foundation were replaced with supporters of the current government, ABC News. The U.S. also renewed financial sanctions against Iran yesterday, Reuters.
The U.N. will host a summit on world hunger next week in Rome. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation says that over 1 billion people go hungry every day. The world produces enough food, but high prices for commodities such as wheat and rice and unfair trade practices limit access to food for the poor, Reuters. The FAO has called for a world hunger strike on Saturday to highlight the issue, FAO. Follow on Twitter: @faonews. Sign a petition to stop world hunger, 1 billion hungry.
UNICEF has issued a new report says that poor nutrition kills children around the world, CNN International. Report: Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition, UNICEF [pdf].
Overweight children in the United States are at increased risk of developing heart disease, CNN.
In an annual state-of-the-union address, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that he wants to modernize Russia’s economy, Bloomberg. Profile: Dmitry Medvedev, BBC News.
People around the world are honoring veterans and celebrating peace. Today is the 91st anniversary of the end of World War I. The leaders of Germany and France participated for the first time in a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris where German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy laid at wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Reuters.
“The Germans and the French, once bitter enemies, now stand united as neighbors in a way that nourishes hope and confidence that elsewhere in the world, too, deep trenches can be bridged and overcome,” Merkel said in her speech.
Today’s Armistice Day in the United Kingdom will be the first since the war ended in 1918 in which no veterans of World War I are present. The UK’s last 3 remaining WWI veterans died earlier this year, BBC News.
Recollections and personal stories on Veteran’s Day in the United States, New York Times.
A German man who killed a pregnant Egyptian woman in a courtroom in July has been sentenced to life in prison, BBC News.
The cause of the massive power outrage that affected parts of Brazil and Paraguay last night is still undetermined, AFP.
Naval vessels from North and South Korea clashed yesterday off the west coast of the two countries. Disputes over the placement of the sea border occur regularly, but this was the first time in 7 years that shots were fired. The North Korean vessel retreated after being hit, Associated Press.
Massive blackouts hit large parts of Brazil and Paraguay tonight. Millions of people are estimated to have lost power due to problems at the Itaipu hydro dam on the countries’ shared border. Major cities Sao Paolo and Rio de Janerio, among other cities, are believed to still be in the dark, but power has been restored to some parts of Paraguay, BBC News.
Former company officials say that senior members of the Blackwater security company paid about $1 million to Iraqi officials in bribes to buy their support after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. American and Iraqi investigators have called the killings unjustified, but Blackwater continued to operate in the country until this past spring, New York Times.
John Allen Muhammed, known as the D.C. Sniper, was executed tonight and pronounced dead at 9:11 pm EST in Virginia. Witnesses say he had no last words, BNO News.
Afghan police and U.S. troops have found a half-million pounds of ammonium nitrate, used to make deadly fertilizer bombs, in a cache in Kandahar. About 2,000 bomb-making devices (including timers and triggers) were also found and 15 Afghans were detained. Officials say the amount of bomb materials found could have made thousands of bombs, New York Times.
In a new report, the World Health Organization says that AIDS is the leading cause of death and disease in women aged 15 to 44 worldwide. Throughout the world, one in five deaths among women in this age group is linked to unprotected sex and lack of access to contraceptives, NPR. WHO press release on the report. Factsheet on women’s health, WHO. WHO report: Women and Health (pdf).
“Women generally live longer than men, but their lives are not necessarily healthy or happy,” Margaret Chan, the head of the United Nations health agency, said at the WHO on Monday.
25 people have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack at a market in Charsadda, Pakistan near the Afghan border today, Los Angeles Times.
The D.C. sniper, John Allen Muhammad, will be executed by lethal injection tonight unless Virginia Governor Tim Kaine intervenes. Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, killed 10 people in the Washington, D.C. area in 2002, Washington Post.
A memorial service will be held this afternoon at Fort Hood to honor the 13 killed and 30 wounded in last Thursday’s shooting by Army psychologist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, USA Today.
Google will be offering free wi-fi to travelers in 47 U.S. airports until January 15, 2010, Daily Tech.
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