OSLO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Climate change may have "serious, pervasive and irreversible" impacts on human society and nature, according to a draft U.N. report due for approval this week that says governments still have time to avert the worst.

Delegates from more than 100 governments and top scientists meet in Copenhagen on Oct 27-31 to edit the report, meant as the main guide for nations working on a U.N. deal to fight climate change at a summit in Paris in late 2015.

They will publish the study on Nov. 2.

European Union leaders on Friday agreed to cut emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, in a shift from fossil fuels towards renewable energies, and urged other major emitters led by China and the United States to follow.

"The report will be a guide for us," Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who will host a U.N. meeting of environment ministers in Lima in late 2014 to lay the groundwork for the Paris summit, told Reuters.

He said the synthesis report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), drawing on three mammoth scientific reports published since September 2013, would show the need for urgent and ambitious action in coming years.

EU Climate Change Goal Pits Green Business Against …Play video

Many governments want the 32-page draft to be more clearly and punchily written in warnings of more powerful storms, heat waves, floods and rising seas. The United States said some tables "may be impenetrable to the policymaker or public".

In a paragraph summing up the risks, the draft says that a continued rise in world greenhouse gas emissions is "increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems."

It adds that "a combination of adaptation and substantial, sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can limit climate change risks."

ALL AFFECTED

Among more than 2,000 comments on the text by governments, the European Union said the IPCC should add that "all regions are affected, regardless of wealth".

EU Reaches Deal To Cut Greenhouse Gas EmissionsPlay video

The United States called for clarification of the meaning of "irreversible". Jonathan Lynn, spokesman of the IPCC, said that the meeting would take account of all comments.

Past reports have warned that warming could, for instance, trigger impacts irreversible on human time scales such as a runaway meltdown of Greenland's ice that would raise sea levels and swamp coasts from Florida to Bangladesh.

Two artists were to unveil 100 tonnes of ice on Sunday in 12 massive blocks brought from near Nuuk, Greenland, outside Copenhagen's City Hall to remind delegates of the risks.

"We can save the ice by burning less coal, conserving electricity, and driving better cars," Danish Climate Minister Morten Helveg Petersen said of the Ice Watch exhibit.

The IPCC says that it is at least 95 percent certain that human activities, led by the burning of fossil fuels, are the main cause of climate change since 1950, up from 90 percent in the previous assessment in 2007 and 66 percent in 2002.

Opinion polls indicate many people, especially in the United States, are unconvinced and suspect that natural variations in climate are to blame. That gap between public and scientific opinion is a big complication for work on the Paris accord.

(Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Stephen Powell)

The report, meant as a guide for nations working on a U.N. deal, is due to be approved this week.
Guidelines for countries

By Dasha Afanasieva

MURSITPINAR Turkey (Reuters) - Islamic State militants tried to seize a border post in the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish frontier overnight but were repulsed by Kurdish fighters, Kurdish officials and a monitoring group said on Sunday.

Islamic State fighters have been trying to capture Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, for over a month, pressing their assault despite U.S.-led air strikes on their positions and the deaths of hundreds of their fighters.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence in Syria's three-and-a-half-year-old conflict, said on Sunday it had confirmed that 815 people had been killed in the fighting for the town over the last 40 days, more than half of them Islamic State fighters.

Idris Nassan, a local Kurdish official, said Islamic State fighters had shelled Kobani's border gate on Saturday night but Kurdish fighters had pushed them back in the south and west.

"Of course they will try again tonight. Last night they brought new reinforcements, new supplies, and they are pushing hard," he said.

View gallery

Kurdish refugees from Kobani watch as thick smoke covers the Syrian town of Kobani during fighting b …

To lose the border gate, the only official way for the Kurdish fighters in Kobani to cross into Turkey, would be a major blow to the fighters defending the town as well as the civilians who still remain.

On Sunday, Turkish police dispersed media and other observers from two hills overlooking Kobani, a Reuters witness said. There were two air strikes in the early afternoon and dark grey smoke hung in plumes over the city, which has been largely destroyed by the war.

Iraqi Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters are expected to arrive to reinforce the fighters in Kobani, who are mostly members of the Syrian Kurdish YPG armed group, after Turkey last week said it would allow them to pass through its territory.

The chief of staff to the president of Iraqi Kurdistan said on Sunday that the timetable for their departure was still being finalised.

The Observatory said it had confirmed that 302 YPG fighters had so far been killed in the fighting for Kobani so far, as well as 481 Islamic State fighters, 10 fighters from other groups, 21 civilians, and one volunteer bringing ammunition to YPG fighters.

Dara Abdi, a lawyer working for a human rights organization sympathetic to the PYD, said one YPG fighter had been killed and seven wounded in the fight for the border post overnight.

(Additional reporting by Kai Pfaffenbach; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz and Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Islamic State fighters have been trying to capture Kobani for more than a month.

815 people dead since fighting started

Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama agree on very little. But on the subject of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, they're on the same page. In a speech delivered Sunday at the Valdai Club, an annual gathering of Russian experts, Putin blamed the settlement construction for increased tension in the Middle East and beyond.

"The humiliation of the Palestinian people and any other people is a source of danger and instability and must be removed with all means and ways acceptable to all parties," Putin said.

Considering the source, this position is more than a little rich. Throughout Putin's lengthy tenure as the country's de facto leader, Moscow has shown little reluctance in claiming territory it views as sovereign, most recently by annexing the former Ukrainian-held territory of Crimea in March. That incident drew international condemnation and led to economic sanctions, but Israel, curiously, said little. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained its neutrality on the Russia/Ukraine dispute, a position that did not go unnoticed in Washington.

"We were surprised Israel did not join the vast majority of countries that vowed to support Ukraine's territorial integrity in the United Nations," Jen Psaki, the U.S. State Department spokesperson, said at the time.

Russia and Israel have grown closer in other ways. Putin is the first Russian leader to visit the Jewish state, and in 2012 appeared at a ceremony in Netanya, Israel, to honor Jewish soldiers serving in the Red Army during World War Two. Israel has a large Russian diaspora, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, one of Israel's most prominent right-wing advocates, was born and raised in the former Soviet Union.

Russia, however, has not abandoned the Palestinian cause. Moscow consistently supports Palestinian interests in the United Nations, and has retained ties to regimes implacably opposed to Israel. Russia supports Iran's nuclear program, which Israel regards as an existential threat, and has sold arms to both Tehran and to Bashar Assad's embattled regime in Syria. And earlier this year, Moscow invited Khaled Meshaal, a key Hamas official, to Russia to meet with Putin Administration officials. Israel, the United States, and Europe regard Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2005, as a terrorist organization.

Unlike the United States and China, Russia has refrained from direct attempts to mediate the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. But Vladimir Putin's position on the settlements shows that, warm ties aside, he remains unwilling to march in lockstep with Israel—even if it does mean agreeing with Washington.

This article was originally published athttp://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/vladimir-putins-israelpalestine-dance/381943/

Benjamin Fulford - Ottawa Shooting Coup d'état

Is World War 3 closer than some Americans might think? Vladimir Putin, the President ofRussia, gave a public speech this week in which he blamed the U.S. for problems in the Ukraine as well as terrorism in the Middle East. BBC News reports this Saturday, October 25, 2014, that political activist and world chess champion Garry Kasparov recently called Putin a serious “threat,” underscoring him as the key figure interested in drawing a new map towards Ukrainian territory.

In a speech that some listeners called the closest throwback to the Cold War in modern times, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia is not to blame for current global issues, and that it is the US responsible for trying to selfishly “remake the world.” The possibility of a World War 3 may seem far-fetched, but the Russian leader had no hesitation earlier this month to remind people everywhere that theEurasian country has nuclear weapons — and the power to use them effectively.

With Ukraine electing a new parliament this weekend, Vladimir Putin hosted a press conference this Friday afternoon, calling Western territories the problem for urging Ukraine into its current state of war. The political figure went on to say that the US nation is to blame for Russia’s support of separatists following the toppling of Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Yanukovych, in early 2014. Yet some are saying that it is in fact Putin causing strife in the area.

One of these activists, Garry Kasparov, shared in an interview recently with BBC that he views Putin as a “bigger threat than IS (the Islamic State).” The political activist went on to note that the leader’s claim to power necessitates an image of absolute influence and control, adding that he is the one who seems intent on redrawing a new Ukrainian map. Kasparov has been very clear in his views of Putin as a national dictator, intent on maintaining power for the rest of his life.

According to the Epoch Times this afternoon, Vladimir Putin’s speech this weekend was nothing short of a “diatribe” that could be seen as eerily evocative of Cold War times. Is this a sign of World War 3 in the near future? Perhaps not, but it does seem to be a sign of escalating tensions between Russia and the U.S. nation. Putin highlighted the West as a source for strains in the Ukraine and recurrent Islamic terrorist in Eastern regions.

“We did not start this,” Putin stated, citing the U.S. as attempting to “remake the whole world” with only its personal interest in mind.” A Reuters report called the foreign figure’s speech a veritable “40-minute diatribe against the West that was reminiscent of the Cold War and underlined the depth of the rift between Moscow and the West, Putin also denied trying to rebuild the Soviet empire at the expense of Russia’s neighbors.”

Vladimir Putin was also quick to shut down any ongoing claims of Russia attempting to create an “empire” of power. He rejected that the Eurasian country was trying to intrude or trespass upon the rights (and territory) of its neighboring lands.

“Statements that Russia is trying to reinstate some sort of empire, that it is encroaching on the sovereignty of its neighbors, are groundless,” the former KGB spy asserted. “The exceptionalism of the United States, the way they implement their leadership, is it really a benefit? And their worldwide intervention brings peace and stability, progress and peak of democracy? Maybe we should relax and enjoy this splendour? No!” he concluded.

The press release did acknowledge that Putin did not answer all questions entirely. When questioned by one reporter from the UK about Russia maintaining the war like conflict in eastern Ukraine by keeping active Russian troops present there, Putin refused to reply. Fears of an impending World War 3 were also brought about earlier this week when a Russian spy plane was discovered to have entered Baltic Sea territories without permission. NATO was swift to intercept the rogue aircraft, but the foreign ambassador only said that the flight was part of a routine training mission, and did not intend nor actively infiltrate Estonia’s restricted airspace.

“Once identification was successful, the intercept mission was completed and the two Hornets returned to their base,” a NATO report revealed. Apparently, at least one other Russian aircraft was also traced earlier in the week. Vladimir Putin concluded his speech by discussing Kiev and ongoing fights with pro-Russian forces.

“We don’t see a desire from our partners in Kiev... to solve the problem of relations with the south-east of the country through a political process, with talks,” said Putin. “We always see one and the same thing in different manifestations: to suppress by force … Russia is everything to me, that is definitely a fact. I could not imagine myself separated from Russia for a single second.”