These days in Syria, 'people dare not step a foot outside their homes because they're being shot at. And so they pass food from home to home by ropes through windows,' Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters Friday.

As increasingly extreme and erratic weather driven by the earth's changing climate exacts a heavy toll on Jamaica's population, economy and infrastructure, a consensus has emerged among scientists and policy makers here that adaptation measures must include hazard mitigation.

No one is happy late Friday at the very contentious U.N. climate talks that went into extra time on Saturday. As the lights flicker on a rainy night here, the partial power failure echoes the failure of the multilateral process, according to civil society and some countries.

'I find it extremely painful to see that there are people in Colombia trying once again to deceive' people displaced from their land, just when 'they have hope of being recognised and compensated,' said Swedish diplomat Anders Kompass on a visit to this country to support rural victims of the civil war.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said Friday that he believes that sanctions and diplomacy are the right strategy to deal with Iran's nuclear programme and that the United States 'is doing everything we can to accomplish the stated objective without resorting to military force'.

Despite the high risk, it remains difficult to convince politicians to take immediate action to prevent further climate change and make available the necessary funds to do so. Scientists have warned repeatedly of the effects of climate change - if governments do not act fast, they will cause an irreversible catastrophe.

When the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development dubbed Rio+20 convenes in Brazil next year, Caribbean leaders want to ensure that the concerns of vulnerable low-lying coastal and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) will be heard.

The world's nuclear powers - both declared and undeclared - have come primarily from Asia: China, India, Pakistan and possibly North Korea.

Basic income security and access to social services can improve food production and consumption in the developing world, and these can be boosted by South-South cooperation.

Kairobis Arcia, 25, died from a bullet to her head shot by her husband, Oswaldo Mendoza, 32, who said he was blinded by jealousy in an argument fuelled by alcohol and drugs.