Top stories from DAWNS Digest
Disaster in the Philippines
As international aid rushes to the typhoon-ravaged Philippines, groups say rescue and relief efforts are being slowed by roadblocks caused by massive amounts of debris. (VOA http://bit.ly/1blcGEj)
In the central Philippines authorities are struggling to reach many of the some 600,000 people displaced by Super Typhoon Haiyan. (VOA http://bit.ly/1hAVxPJ)
A senior UN humanitarian official said that nearly 10 million people in the Philippines have been affected by the massive typhoon. (VOA http://bit.ly/1blcRPL)
Micro-mapping is under the spotlight three days after Typhoon Haiyan barrelled into the central Philippines. (IRIN http://bit.ly/1hAVSli)
The Philippine delegate at UN climate talks began a fast on Monday in protest at a lack of action on global warming that he blamed for fuelling a super typhoon that has ravaged his country. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1hAYEqR)
The US is sending an aircraft carrier to the Philippines to help speed up relief efforts after a typhoon killed an estimated 10,000 people in one city alone. (VOA http://bit.ly/HRBmx4)
M23 Peace Deal Suspended Because DRC Government Refuses to Sign
The DRC government is bizarrely refusing to sign a hard won peace deal with rebels. “But although delegations from both M23 and the Congolese government were in Entebbe for the planned signing ceremony Monday, Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo says the Congolese government delegation refused to enter the room. ‘The DRC delegation did not enter the conference room, saying they wanted to read the final text which was given to them. They have taken more than four and a half hours trying to go through the document, so we can not know what their area of disappointment is. If they are in agreement they will let us know when they are in agreement and when they are ready to sign,” said Opondo.’” (VOA http://bit.ly/1aBg4K5)
Climate Change Conference Kicks Off in Warsaw
Expectations are low. “The two-week conference, being held through next Friday at the National Stadium in the Polish capital, brings together the 195 Parties to the UNFCCC, the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Over the course of the next two weeks, delegates will attempt to hammer out a universal UN-backed treaty on climate change by 2015 which would enter force by 2020. In her speech, [Top int’l climate change negotiator] Figueres highlighted the key areas in which the Conference of the Parties (COP-19) can make progress. ‘We must clarify finance that enables the entire world to move towards low-carbon development,’ she said. ‘We must launch the construction of a mechanism that helps vulnerable populations to respond to the unanticipated effects of climate change.’” (UN http://bit.ly/1aBfSut)