Climate summit ends with only a nonbinding accord

Climate summit ends with only a nonbinding accord

COPENHAGEN — A historic U.N. climate conference ended Saturday with only a nonbinding “Copenhagen Accord” to show for two weeks of debate and frustration. It was a deal short on concrete steps against global warming but signaled a new start for rich-poor cooperation on climate change.

The agreement brokered by President Barack Obama with China and others in fast-paced hours of diplomacy Friday sets up the first significant program of climate aid to poorer nations. But although it urges deeper cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming, it does nothing to demand them.

Snowstorm causes change in planned topless protest

NEW YORK — Bicyclists who planned to go topless to protest the removal of a New York City bike lane have switched gears. Some pinned plastic breasts over their jackets as they rolled into a snowstorm.

Dozens of protesters biked through an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn on Saturday.

Bike messenger Heather Loop organized the event. She says the lane was removed because the neighborhood’s Hasidic Jews “can’t handle scantily clad women.”

Some Hasids say the issue is not showing leg but rather a concern for safety for the children being dropped off by school buses.

The protesters planned to ride through the streets without their tops, but wintry weather forced them to stay dressed.

Last party at GM plant

MANSFIELD, Ohio — Hundreds of people have attended the last holiday party at a General Motors stamping plant shutting down next month.

More than 400 people signed the guest register, toured the plant and stopped at a buffet line at the Mansfield/Ontario Metal Center plant Friday.

General Motors announced in May it would shutter the plant, which opened in 1955.

Since then, about 600 workers have retired or taken buyouts, and about 100 have accepted transfers to other GM facilities.

The factory still has about 420 hourly and salaried staffers and 130 temporary workers.

Shots fired at workers at Gaza Strip border

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Shots were fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday at Egyptians installing an underground barrier meant to choke off the smuggling of goods and weapons through tunnels into blockaded Gaza.

No one was reported injured in the attack, Palestinian and Egyptian officials said. But Egypt increased security in the border area after the fourth cross- border shooting since workers began building the metal barrier several weeks ago.

The construction would tighten a blockade imposed on Gaza by Egypt and Israel after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power over the tiny coastal territory in 2007.

Search intensifies for Nazi death-camp sign

OSWIECIM, Poland — Polish authorities stepped up security checks at airports and border crossings and searched scrap- metal yards Saturday as the search intensified for the infamous Nazi sign stolen from the Auschwitz death-camp memorial.

The brazen pre-dawn theft Friday of one of the Holocaust’s most chilling and notorious symbols sparked outrage from around the world, and Polish leaders have declared recovering the 16-foot sign a national priority.

The sign bearing the German words “Arbeit Macht Frei” — “work makes you free” — spanned the main entrance to the Auschwitz death camp, where more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed during World War II.

John Paul II, Pius XII move closer to sainthood

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI moved two of his predecessors closer to possible sainthood Saturday, signing decrees on the virtues of the beloved Pope John Paul II and controversial Pope Pius XII, who has been criticized for not doing enough to stop the Holocaust.

The decrees mean that both men can be beatified once the Vatican certifies that a miracle attributed to their intercession has occurred. Beatification is the first major step before possible sainthood.

Some Jews and historians have argued Pius should have done more to prevent the deaths of 6 million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.

In contrast to Pius, John Paul is greatly admired by Jews. During his 27-year pontificate he forged diplomatic ties with Israel; prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site; and was the first pope in history to visit a synagogue.

Associated Press