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Global climate talks agree modest package, fund
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Global climate talks agree modest package, fund
The world's governments approved a modest plan on Saturday to combat climate change, including a new "Green Climate Fund" to help poor nations, after sidelining objections by Bolivia.
Cardboard versions of London's Big Ben, Mexico's Angel of Independence, Cairo's Great Pyramid of Giza and Agra's Taj Mahal stand in the ocean at the Gaviota Azul beach in Cancun December 8, 2010. REUTERS/Gerardo Garcia
By Gerard Wynn and Timothy Gardner
CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - The world's governments approved a modest plan on Saturday to combat climate change, including a new "Green Climate Fund" to help poor nations, after sidelining objections by Bolivia.
"This is a new era of international cooperation on climate change," Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa told delegates at the end of two weeks of talks that were overshadowed by disputes between rich and poor countries.
The deal, reached at extended overnight talks, comprises the Green Climate Fund, measures to protect tropical forests and ways to share clean energy technologies. It also reaffirms a goal of raising an annual $100 billion in aid for poor countries by 2020.
Espinosa banged down her gavel on the deal despite objections by Bolivia, which said the plan demanded too little of developed nations in cutting greenhouse gases. Bolivia said approval of the package violated a need for consensus.
"I urge you to reconsider," Bolivian delegate Pablo Solon told Espinosa. After repeated anti-capitalist speeches by Solon, Espinosa retorted that Bolivia's objections would be noted in a final report but could not derail a deal by 190 nations.
The plan was unlocked after delegates simply put off until 2011 a dispute between rich and poor nations over the future of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto obliges almost 40 developed nations to cut emissions until 2012.
The deal does not include a commitment to extend Kyoto beyond 2012, when its first period expires, but it would prevent a collapse of climate change negotiations and allow for some modest advances on protecting the environment.
There were low expectations for the Cancun meeting after the U.N.'s climate summit in Copenhagen last year fell short of a binding treaty to slow more floods, droughts, storms, heatwaves and rising sea levels that scientists say are caused by global warming.
Many of the accords from Cancun will simply firm up non-binding deals from Copenhagen, which were endorsed by only 140 nations.
Failure in Cancun would have undermined faith in the ability of U.N. talks to guide a trillion-dollar overhaul of the world economy as it shifts toward China and India and away from developed nations.
"It's really pretty historic," said Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.
"It's the first time that countries have agreed to such a broad set of instruments and tools that are going to help developing countries in particular," she said.
Earlier, the United States, China and dozens of other countries rallied around the plan.
(Writing by Alister Doyle, editing by Eric Beech and Bill Trott)
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Vet faces 5 charges in Westboro incident
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Vet faces 5 charges in Westboro incident
BY DEB GRUVER AND TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Ryan J. Newell
Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
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This home was build for Ryan Newell in Marion recently. Newell, who lost both legs in combat while in Afghanistan, is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on 500,000 bond. (Dec. 1, 2010)
Newell faces additional felony charge
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Veteran charged with stalking Phelps
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Ryan Newell is "Army to the bone," friends and family say of the decorated military veteran who joined the service at 17, lost both legs in an explosion in Afghanistan and now stands accused of stalking
members of a controversial Topeka church.
Proud of his service and proud of his country, he never blamed anyone for his injuries and felt guilty, his grandmother said, that he survived when two of his brothers in combat did not.
Prosecutors charged Newell, 26, with five misdemeanors Thursday, including stalking and three counts of criminal use of a firearm in an incident involving the Phelps family of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church. He also was charged with
false impersonation of a law enforcement officer.
The Phelps family often protests at military funerals, saying that the deaths of soldiers are God's way of punishing the country for homosexuality.
"I knew he detested those guys that protested against the GIs that got killed, which I don't blame him there. I do, too.... It was their freedom he was protecting, too," said Newell's grandfather, Jim Crosby, though he noted they had never
discussed the Phelps family.
Sedgwick County sheriff's detectives arrested Newell mid-morning Tuesday in the Wichita City Hall parking lot after a detective saw him following a van that carried Westboro church members.
The church members were meeting in City Hall with police officials. Detectives found Newell in a vehicle backed into a parking space. In the vehicle, investigators found two handguns, a rifle and more than 90 rounds of ammunition, sources
have said.
The stalking charge accuses Newell of actions targeted at Westboro members and putting them in fear for their safety.
The weapons charges accuse him of unlawfully carrying and concealing or possessing with "intent to use" an M4 rifle, .45-caliber Glock handgun and .38-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun.
"I just can't imagine him wanting to hurt anybody," his grandmother, Bonnie Crosby, said.
Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went to Newell's home, and his wife turned over items — including firearms — to law enforcement, said a source close to the investigation.
Newell, who appeared in the courtroom through a video connection with the Sedgwick County Jail, was seated in a wheelchair and was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit. He was ordered to have no contact with members of the Westboro
Baptist Church or the Phelps family.
Two lawyers appeared in court offering to represent Newell, who grew up in Goddard. He told Judge Ben Burgess that he had also received offers from a number of other lawyers.
Burgess quipped, "The more the merrier, I suppose."
Newell remains in jail on $500,000 bond.
Army service
Newell received many medals for his service, including the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, his grandfather said.
"He was very proud of those."
His grandmother said Newell "felt that being in the Army was the best thing he could have done."
"I can understand, I think partly, what I felt when those people were out there yelling...'' she said of Westboro members. "I don't particularly like them going to funerals. I can understand why he didn't like that. Because he went to go do a job,
and he lost his legs doing that job."
Newell lost his legs when an improvised bomb exploded while he was serving in Afghanistan in 2008.
"He wasn't supposed to be the gunner that night," Bonnie Crosby said. "He was supposed to be driving the vehicle. The guy in charge was tired. He let Ryan be the gunner. That saved his life that night. He really didn't like that. It bothered him.
It bothers him if anybody over there is killed."
Westboro did not protest at funerals of the soldiers who were killed in the bombing that wounded Newell, said Westboro spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper.
Reactions in Marion
News of Newell's arrest hadn't reached many people Wednesday in Marion, where Newell lived.
Marion barber Bill Holdeman was planning to go hunting this weekend with Newell's father-in-law.
"I thought he was going out hunting with us," Holdeman said.
"I didn't know anything about this, but I can see why it would shake him up," Holdeman said of the church's protests at military funerals. "I don't think there's any service guy who likes those... up there in Topeka.
"If he's against them," Holdeman said of Newell, "I'm sure the hell for him."
A customer sitting in Holdeman's barber chair getting a buzz cut said, "Well, good for him," when he learned about what investigators say Newell did. "It's time for someone to take a stand against those people."
A Marion retiree who did not want to be named said that he helped build the Newells a home through the nonprofit group Homes for Our Troops. The home is specially designed to accommodate Newell's disability.
Workers started the house in March and finished at the end of June. Most materials and labor were donated.
The volunteer said he didn't know Newell before the project and "while we were working there, he was fairly quiet. He would come around occasionally."
He said he, too, was surprised about Newell.
"It's kind of disappointing," he said.
Newell's wife, Carrie, appeared tired and worn when she answered the door at their home Wednesday. She declined to talk to a reporter, as did her father.
Ryan and Carrie Newell met when his mother was in a nursing home, his grandparents said. Carrie worked at the nursing home. They were married over the phone while he was overseas.
Newell's grandparents
Bonnie Crosby described her grandson as "just a good kid, we thought."
He liked sports growing up and played baseball and "liked to swim and the whole bit."
When he decided to go into the military, she said, "We didn't want him to go. His mother didn't want him to go, either. But that's what he wanted to do."
Newell's mother, Beverly, died seven years ago of a malignant brain tumor. Newell was serving in Iraq at the time, Bonnie Crosby said, and was called home when doctors thought his mother had five days to live.
He was able to get home in time, Bonnie Crosby said.
The Crosbys said they talk to Newell about once or twice a month and kept in touch with him by letter and phone when he was overseas. They visited him when he was recovering at a military hospital.
The Crosbys visited Newell and his wife and children at Thanksgiving. Newell and his wife have two children of their own and two other children who live with them.
"I think he looked better that day than I'd seen him in a long time," Bonnie Crosby said.
Newell, she said, has had some problems with his prosthetic legs.
"He's just had a lot of health problems," she said.
Desire to help police
Marion Police Chief Josh Whitwell said federal agents came to talk to him Wednesday.
He said he knew Newell pretty well, although it had been a while since he had seen him.
"He's a pretty likable guy," Whitwell said. "Everyone around here likes Ryan."
Whitwell said he went to school with Newell's wife in Marion and got to know Newell before he left for Afghanistan. Newell asked about using the Police Department's firing range for training.
After he was injured and returned home, Newell asked Whitwell about helping out with the Police Department.
"He's very knowledgeable about weapons and has a ton of tactical training," Whitwell said.
Newell never spoke about the Phelps family to him, Whitwell said.
"I hate to see him going through more than he's already going through," Whitwell said.
Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com.
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Untitled
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Vet faces 5 charges in Westboro incident
BY DEB GRUVER AND TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Ryan J. Newell
Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
| Buy this photo
This home was build for Ryan Newell in Marion recently. Newell, who lost both legs in combat while in Afghanistan, is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on 500,000 bond. (Dec. 1, 2010)
Newell faces additional felony charge
Click here to see the video in full screen or to e-mail to a friend.
Veteran charged with stalking Phelps
Click here to see the video in full screen or to e-mail to a friend.
Ryan Newell is "Army to the bone," friends and family say of the decorated military veteran who joined the service at 17, lost both legs in an explosion in Afghanistan and now stands accused of stalking
members of a controversial Topeka church.
Proud of his service and proud of his country, he never blamed anyone for his injuries and felt guilty, his grandmother said, that he survived when two of his brothers in combat did not.
Prosecutors charged Newell, 26, with five misdemeanors Thursday, including stalking and three counts of criminal use of a firearm in an incident involving the Phelps family of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church. He also was charged with
false impersonation of a law enforcement officer.
The Phelps family often protests at military funerals, saying that the deaths of soldiers are God's way of punishing the country for homosexuality.
"I knew he detested those guys that protested against the GIs that got killed, which I don't blame him there. I do, too.... It was their freedom he was protecting, too," said Newell's grandfather, Jim Crosby, though he noted they had never
discussed the Phelps family.
Sedgwick County sheriff's detectives arrested Newell mid-morning Tuesday in the Wichita City Hall parking lot after a detective saw him following a van that carried Westboro church members.
The church members were meeting in City Hall with police officials. Detectives found Newell in a vehicle backed into a parking space. In the vehicle, investigators found two handguns, a rifle and more than 90 rounds of ammunition, sources
have said.
The stalking charge accuses Newell of actions targeted at Westboro members and putting them in fear for their safety.
The weapons charges accuse him of unlawfully carrying and concealing or possessing with "intent to use" an M4 rifle, .45-caliber Glock handgun and .38-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun.
"I just can't imagine him wanting to hurt anybody," his grandmother, Bonnie Crosby, said.
Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went to Newell's home, and his wife turned over items — including firearms — to law enforcement, said a source close to the investigation.
Newell, who appeared in the courtroom through a video connection with the Sedgwick County Jail, was seated in a wheelchair and was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit. He was ordered to have no contact with members of the Westboro
Baptist Church or the Phelps family.
Two lawyers appeared in court offering to represent Newell, who grew up in Goddard. He told Judge Ben Burgess that he had also received offers from a number of other lawyers.
Burgess quipped, "The more the merrier, I suppose."
Newell remains in jail on $500,000 bond.
Army service
Newell received many medals for his service, including the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, his grandfather said.
"He was very proud of those."
His grandmother said Newell "felt that being in the Army was the best thing he could have done."
"I can understand, I think partly, what I felt when those people were out there yelling...'' she said of Westboro members. "I don't particularly like them going to funerals. I can understand why he didn't like that. Because he went to go do a job,
and he lost his legs doing that job."
Newell lost his legs when an improvised bomb exploded while he was serving in Afghanistan in 2008.
"He wasn't supposed to be the gunner that night," Bonnie Crosby said. "He was supposed to be driving the vehicle. The guy in charge was tired. He let Ryan be the gunner. That saved his life that night. He really didn't like that. It bothered him.
It bothers him if anybody over there is killed."
Westboro did not protest at funerals of the soldiers who were killed in the bombing that wounded Newell, said Westboro spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper.
Reactions in Marion
News of Newell's arrest hadn't reached many people Wednesday in Marion, where Newell lived.
Marion barber Bill Holdeman was planning to go hunting this weekend with Newell's father-in-law.
"I thought he was going out hunting with us," Holdeman said.
"I didn't know anything about this, but I can see why it would shake him up," Holdeman said of the church's protests at military funerals. "I don't think there's any service guy who likes those... up there in Topeka.
"If he's against them," Holdeman said of Newell, "I'm sure the hell for him."
A customer sitting in Holdeman's barber chair getting a buzz cut said, "Well, good for him," when he learned about what investigators say Newell did. "It's time for someone to take a stand against those people."
A Marion retiree who did not want to be named said that he helped build the Newells a home through the nonprofit group Homes for Our Troops. The home is specially designed to accommodate Newell's disability.
Workers started the house in March and finished at the end of June. Most materials and labor were donated.
The volunteer said he didn't know Newell before the project and "while we were working there, he was fairly quiet. He would come around occasionally."
He said he, too, was surprised about Newell.
"It's kind of disappointing," he said.
Newell's wife, Carrie, appeared tired and worn when she answered the door at their home Wednesday. She declined to talk to a reporter, as did her father.
Ryan and Carrie Newell met when his mother was in a nursing home, his grandparents said. Carrie worked at the nursing home. They were married over the phone while he was overseas.
Newell's grandparents
Bonnie Crosby described her grandson as "just a good kid, we thought."
He liked sports growing up and played baseball and "liked to swim and the whole bit."
When he decided to go into the military, she said, "We didn't want him to go. His mother didn't want him to go, either. But that's what he wanted to do."
Newell's mother, Beverly, died seven years ago of a malignant brain tumor. Newell was serving in Iraq at the time, Bonnie Crosby said, and was called home when doctors thought his mother had five days to live.
He was able to get home in time, Bonnie Crosby said.
The Crosbys said they talk to Newell about once or twice a month and kept in touch with him by letter and phone when he was overseas. They visited him when he was recovering at a military hospital.
The Crosbys visited Newell and his wife and children at Thanksgiving. Newell and his wife have two children of their own and two other children who live with them.
"I think he looked better that day than I'd seen him in a long time," Bonnie Crosby said.
Newell, she said, has had some problems with his prosthetic legs.
"He's just had a lot of health problems," she said.
Desire to help police
Marion Police Chief Josh Whitwell said federal agents came to talk to him Wednesday.
He said he knew Newell pretty well, although it had been a while since he had seen him.
"He's a pretty likable guy," Whitwell said. "Everyone around here likes Ryan."
Whitwell said he went to school with Newell's wife in Marion and got to know Newell before he left for Afghanistan. Newell asked about using the Police Department's firing range for training.
After he was injured and returned home, Newell asked Whitwell about helping out with the Police Department.
"He's very knowledgeable about weapons and has a ton of tactical training," Whitwell said.
Newell never spoke about the Phelps family to him, Whitwell said.
"I hate to see him going through more than he's already going through," Whitwell said.
Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com.
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York couple wanted in dismemberment killing arrested
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York couple wanted in dismemberment killing arrested
LOS ANGELES - A York couple far from home and suspected of cutting up a Good Samaritan into pieces were arrested after being found in an abandoned office building just several miles from the slaying.
Police thought Edward Garcia Jr., 36, and his 25-year-old wife, Melissa Hope Garcia, had left Southern California and may have returned to York. On Friday, a fugitive task force arrested the pair, who were living in squalid conditions in an abandoned office building in Hollywood.
The Garcias have been charged with murder and the special circumstances of torture in the Thanksgiving killing of Herbert
Authorities believe they were trying to rob White, who had befriended them and gave them money.
It appears that White "initially was attempting to help both suspects, then somehow things got out of hand at the hotel room," said Los Angeles police Detective Julio Benavides.
Investigators believe the couple were going to take away White's body but were interrupted. The hotel room was rented by the Garcias.
Police interviewed the couple Friday night. Investigators said that while they couldn't reveal if there was a confession, the Garcias were upset about what happened.
"Their attitude toward it, was there was some remorse involved," said Los Angeles police Detective Richard Arciniega. "Mr. Garcia basically apologized to the (White) family for his actions."
A 3½-inch "hunting-type" knife has been found that was used to kill White, police said. The couple are believed to be the only suspects.
Both appeared to have sores on their faces caused by drug use and Melissa Garcia, who also goes by the name of Melissa Turner, had recently cut her hair and put red streaks in it, authorities said.
"They were asleep when we kicked the door in," Brown said. "They were coherent but they looked like they were on the downside of a drug binge."
Authorities learned of the Garcias' whereabouts through tips, including information from York. Several homeless people were staying in the same abandoned building where they were found.
Arciniega said the White family is relieved the couple were arrested and apparently so is Edward Garcia.
"One thing Mr. Garcia did say was that he was glad it's over," Benavides said.
The Garcias are expected to be arraigned in court Monday. The couple had several previous arrests for robbery in Pennsylvania.
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U.N. Conference Adopts Modest Climate Deal
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U.N. Conference Adopts Modest Climate Deal
Cancun Meeting OKs Green Climate Fund to Help Poor Countries Reduce Carbon Emissions
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Greenpeace activists hold images of world landmarks submerged Wednesday in the water off Cancun, where the United Nations Climate Change Conference is being held. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Though the accords were limited, it was the first time in three years the 193-nation conference adopted any climate action, restoring faith in the unwieldy U.N. process after the letdown a year ago at a much-anticipated summit in Copenhagen.
After debating into the early hours, the conference overrode a lone objection by Bolivia, which argued the plan did not do enough to do enough combat climate change.
The Cancun Agreements created institutions for delivering technology and funding to poorer countries, though they did not say where the funding would come from.
COP 16 Climate Change Conference, Cancun
In urging industrial countries to move faster on emissions cuts, it "recognized" the goal recommended by scientists to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial countries by 25 to 40 per cent from 1990 levels within the next 10 years. Current pledges amount to about 16 percent.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, in a 4 a.m. speech, declared the conference "a thoroughgoing success," after two separate agreements were passed. The agreements shattered "the inertia of mistrust" that had settled over the frustrated efforts for a broad climate treaty, he said.
One of the agreements renewed a framework for cutting greenhouse gas emissions but set no new targets for industrial countries. The second created a financial and technical support system for developing countries facing grave threats from global warming.
Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, the conference president, gaveled the deal through early Saturday over the objections of Bolivia's delegate, who said it was so weak it would endanger the planet.
Decisions at the U.N. climate talks are typically made by consensus, but Espinosa said consensus doesn't "mean that one country has the right to veto" decisions supported by everyone else.
The accord establishes a multibillion dollar annual Green Climate Fund to help developing countries cope with climate change, though it doesn't say how the fund's money is to be raised. Last year in Copenhagen governments agreed to mobilize $100 billion a year for developing countries, starting in 2020, much of which will be handled by the fund.
The agreements also set rules for internationally funded forest conservation, and provides for climate-friendly technology to expanding economies.
Espinosa won repeated standing ovations from a packed conference hall for her deft handling of bickering countries and for drafting an acceptable deal that fully satisfied no one.
Environmentalists cautiously welcomed the deal.
It "wasn't enough to save the climate," said Alden Meyer of the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists. "But it did restore the credibility of the United Nations as a forum where progress can be made."
The Cancun deal finessed disputes between industrial and developing countries on future emissions cuts and incorporates voluntary reduction pledges attached to the Copenhagen Accord that emerged from last year's climate summit in the Danish capital.
It struck a skillful compromise between the U.S. and China, which had been at loggerheads throughout the two week conclave on methods for monitoring and verifying actions to curtail greenhouse gases.
"What we have now is a text that, while not perfect, is certainly a good basis for moving forward," said chief U.S. negotiator Todd Stern. His Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, sounded a similar note and added, "The negotiations in the future will continue to be difficult."
The accord "goes beyond what we expected when we came here," said Wendel Trio of the Greenpeace environmental group.
Underscoring what's at stake in the long-running climate talks, NASA reported that the January-November 2010 global temperatures were the warmest in the 131-year record. Its data indicated the year would likely end as the warmest on record, or tied with 2005 as the warmest.
The U.N.'s top climate science body has said such swift and deep reductions are required to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.8 F) above preindustrial levels, which could trigger catastrophic climate impacts.
Solon protested that the weak pledges of the Copenhagen Accord condemned the Earth to temperature increases of up to 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 F), which was tantamount to "ecocide" that could cost millions of lives.
He also complained that the text was being railroaded over his protests in violation of the U.N.'s consensus rules.
In the 1992 U.N. climate treaty, the world's nations promised to do their best to rein in carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases emitted by industry, transportation and agriculture. In the two decades since, the annual conferences' only big advance came in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, when parties agreed on modest mandatory reductions by richer nations.
But the U.S., alone in the industrial world, rejected the Kyoto Protocol, complaining it would hurt its economy and that such emerging economies as China and India should have taken on emissions obligations.
Since then China has replaced the U.S. as the world's biggest emitter, but it has resisted calls that it assume legally binding commitments - not to lower its emissions, but to restrain their growth.
Here at Cancun such issues came to a head, as Japan and Russia fought pressure to acknowledge in a final decision that they will commit to a second period of emissions reductions under Kyoto, whose current targets expire in 2012.
The Japanese complained that with the rise of China, India, Brazil and others, the 37 Kyoto industrial nations now account for only 27 percent of global greenhouse emissions. They want a new, legally binding pact obligating the U.S., China and other major emitters.
Photo Essay Planet Ice
Photographer James Martin captures changes wrought by a warming climate.
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