Modest deal on climate at UN talks

Modest deal on climate at UN talks

WARSAW, Poland

Avoiding a last-minute breakdown, annual U.N. climate talks limped forward Saturday with a modest set of decisions meant to pave the way for a new pact to fight global warming.

More than 190 countries agreed in Warsaw to start preparing “contributions” for the new deal, which is supposed to be adopted in 2015.

That term was adopted after China and India objected to the word “commitments” in a standoff with the U.S. and other developed countries.

The fast-growing economies say they still are developing countries and shouldn’t have to take on commitments to cut carbon emissions as strict as those for industrialized nations.

Activists: 44 killed in Syria strikes

BEIRUT

A string of government airstrikes on rebel-held areas in northern Syria killed at least 44 people Saturday, activists said, as al-Qaida-linked rebels captured one of the country’s major oil fields in the east.

An attack on the rebel-held town of al-Bab near the northern city of Aleppo was the deadliest of the three raids, killing 22 people, said Rami Abdurrahman, the director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Fighter jets also bombed two rebel-held districts of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Government warplanes missed their target in the Halwaniyeh neighborhood and sent bombs into a crowded vegetable market, killing 15 people, Abdurrahman said. Seven people died in a third airstrike in the Karam el-Beik district, according to the activist group.

Individual airlines to decide on phones

NEW YORK

The Federal Communications Commission might be ready to permit cellphone calls in flight. But what about the airlines?

Old concerns about electronics being a danger to airplane navigation have been debunked. And airlines could make some extra cash charging passengers to call a loved one from 35,000 feet. But that extra money might not be worth the backlash from fliers who view overly chatty neighbors as another inconvenience to go along with smaller seats and stuffed overhead bins.

That’s one of the reasons the country’s largest flight- attendant union has come out against allowing calls in flight. The FCC is proposing to lift an existing ban, and airlines would have to decide whether to let passengers make calls. The ban would remain in effect during takeoff and landing.

1 arrested in possible ‘knockout’ assault

NEW YORK

New York City police have arrested a man on charges of assault as a hate crime after a 24-year-old says he was punched in the face.

Police were investigating Saturday whether it was part of a so-called “knockout” assault, in which the object is to knock out an unsuspecting person with one punch. The man says he overheard a group talking about it before he was hit.

Amrit Marajh, 28, of Brooklyn, was arrested on charges of assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment as a hate crime because the victim is Jewish.

Ricin-letter suspect reaches plea deal

TEXARKANA, Texas

A Texas woman accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors, the Texarkana Gazette reported Saturday.

Authorities say the New Boston, Texas, actress mailed ricin-laced letters to Obama, Bloomberg and a leader of the mayor’s gun-control group. Court documents state the then-pregnant Richardson tried to frame her husband for the crime.

Associated Press