Merkel, world leaders, put brave face on Copenhagen Accord

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had hoped for more than the bare-bones minimum at the Copenhagen climate conference, but has warnedagainst 'bad-mouthing' the outcome.
In an interview with the German daily Bild am Sonntag Chancellor Merkel defended the meager results, after nearly two weeks of haggling, saying it was at least a "first step" toward a new global strategy on climate change and one that "now needed to be built upon."

She quickly admitted, however, that she would have preferred "more steps," but that one should still refrain from "bad mouthing" the outcome.

Merkel noted Germany's special responsibility in the next phase of diplomatic negotiations to combat global warming. The chancellor stressed that her government would work to move the results forward when the next climate conference convenes in Bonn, Germany, in the middle of next year.

Leaders try to put a positive spin on the outcome

Delegates to the summit, which ended Saturday, admitted that only a bare-minimum agreement was reached that fell far short of the original goals.

Although UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also called the deal a "significant first step",

he regretted that "much was left to be done."

Putting a brave, but almost cynical, face on the outcome, US President Barack Obama called the results "an important breakthrough". "For the first time in history, the world's major economies came together to accept their responsibility to act in the face of climate change," Obama said.

Admitting that the negotiations had been "extremely difficult" and "complex", the US president said the Copenhagen Accord paved the way for international action in the coming years.

Even the Chinese, who many blame for blocking the negotiations, defended the outcome, saying the conference ended with "important and positive" results. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the conference was "not the goal, but rather a new beginning

German opposition and environmentalists outraged

Germany's opposition Social Democrat leader, Sigmar Gabriel, called the conference outcome a "mid-sized disaster" and said it was "a disgrace how world leaders were playing with the future of their children and grandchildren." He called on Germany and the European Union to "stick to their promise to reduce CO² emissions by 30 percent" by 2020.

Green party chairwoman, Claudia Roth, called the outcome "a betrayal of the future for all the children on this planet" and urged the EU to convene an extraordinary summit to at least establish binding climate goals for its members.

The head of the German Conservation Society, Olaf Tschimpke, said Copenhagen ended with a "rotten compromise." His counterpart at Germany's BUND conservation group, Hubert Weiger, said the world was left "bitterly disappointed" and the anti-globalization network, attac, called the summit "a farce" and "historic for its failure."

The climate conference ended with the promise to continue negotiating, but without a deadline, after 14 years of preliminary negotiations.


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Chuck Molnar, Senior's Corner, Dec. 19, 2009: Health care reform confusing to seniors

can see why many seniors are concerned about the federal government's health reform program since November happens to be my birth month. This is a period in which Medicare recipients are allowed to change their Medicare Supplemental Health Insurance provider without any qualifying factors.

After meeting with a HICAP representative, talking to my insurance agent and even comparing a much lower cost supplemental insurance policy to the one I presently have, I still have nagging doubts as to what I should do. After all it is a matter of one's health care isn't it?

If you have read anything at all about health care reform it actually should, I think, be titled: "Health Insurance Reform", you know that the effort to improve our health system, and to make certain all Americans are included, has gone on since the time of Teddy Roosevelt's administration.

In spite of out-of-control costs, we still hesitate to go from the known to the unknown. But that didn't stop people like Christopher Columbus and Magellan. Then what am I so afraid of? What are we so afraid of?

I think I'll call my insurance agent. After all, Supplemental Health Insurance Policies are, by law, supposed to provide comparable benefits, aren't they? And we all could use a little extra money, right? And the AARP supports President Obama's health reform efforts.

The next meeting of the Santa Cruz County Seniors' Commission will take place Tuesday, Feb. 16 from 1:30-3:30pm. The

location and topics to be announced later.

Chuck Molnar may be contacted by calling the Santa Cruz County Seniors' Commission office at 454-2355.

US snowstorm: Your stories

Much of the eastern US is in the grip of a winter storm, with a snow emergency being declared in Washington DC.

At least five deaths have been blamed on the weather, as forecasters warn of 35mph (56km/h) winds in what may be the worst snowstorm in a decade.

Here BBC News website readers explain how the adverse weather conditions have been affecting their daily routines.

SANJAY AGARWAL, ASHBURN, VIRGINIA
 
We're in a suburb of Washington DC where the weather has been really bad - we have only made it up to the edge of our own driveway. We had to shovel every few hours or risk the snow accumulating, or icing over tonight.

There is not a soul on the streets, and there is almost a curfew-like situation.

It's still snowing and is extremely windy. We've had warnings not to venture outdoors in case chunks of snow slide off rooftops.

We are some of the fortunate ones who have electricity and heating - I know that many do not have that luxury tonight. Around 28 inches have fallen in our neighbourhood.

I measured it in three places, against the fire hydrant, against the mailbox, and against my four-year-old daughter Annika, just to get the most accurate reading.

All schools are closed anyway now for the holidays, but I work for IBM and we've been told all our offices in the DC area will remain closed on Monday.

JONATHAN HEYWOOD,RESTON,VIRGINIA

I am here on business and have been stuck in my hotel all day.

I'm trying to travel back home to Holland but my flight was cancelled.

I've since been told that I've been re-routed on a flight on Sunday via London and Paris, assuming the European airports are up and running by then.

Earlier, I ventured out with a few colleagues for dinner. We first had to dig out the car from under two feet of snow.

Roads were treacherous and deserted, and virtually all restaurants were closed.

We did find one that had a skeleton staff and a special "Blizzard 2009" menu on.

It is certainly the worst snowfall I have ever seen, except for when I've been skiing in the Alps.

TV stations have wall-to-wall coverage of the weather.

Everyone seems to be heeding the news reports and staying at home until this blows over.

Montazeri, a senior cleric and defender of Iranian opposition, dies at 87

Reporting from Tehran — One of Iran's most senior clerics, a staunch defender of the nation's opposition movement as well as a pillar of the Islamic revolution 31 years ago, passed away overnight, supporters told The Times today.

Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri was 87.

Montazeri's son, Ahmad, told the Iranian Labor News Agency that his father was suffering from an unspecified illness and passed away late Saturday at his home in Qum, the Iranian shrine and seminary city 60 miles south of Tehran.

His death comes as Iranian protesters prepare to take part in emotionally charged and symbolically loaded Muharram ceremonies marking the Seventh Century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad and a highly revered figure within Iran's majority Shiite Muslim faith.

Burial arrangements have yet to be made, but the anticipated ceremonies around his death could further galvanize a protest movement driven as much, if not more, by raw emotion over perceived injustice as rational political calculation.

Already this morning, weeping clerics and seminary students crammed inside and outside Montazeri's home in Qum to extend condolences and grieve, two clerics reached by telephone said. On the restive campus of Tehran University, nearly 50 students had gathered to mourn Montazeri upon learning of his death, a witness said.

"Ayatollah Montazeri will be remembered in the history of Iran as brave, open-minded and willing to say the truth at any time, even when encountering danger," Fazel Maybodi, a midranking reformist cleric and a disciple of Montazeri, said in a telephone interview from Qum.

"He was a faithful source of emulation in Islamic jurisprudence who initiated a huge change in the mentality and attitudes of the senior clergy," he said. "He braved all threats and dangers to honor his commitment as a senior cleric."

Born in 1922 in the Iranian town of Najafabad near the city of Isfahan, Montazeri pursued his religious studies in the seminaries of Qum. The scholar and theologian organized clergy to oppose the monarchical regime of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, spending several years in prison during the 1970s.

After the 1979 revolution, he was the designated successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, until a falling out in the late 1980s over major political differences.

Cast out of Iran's inner circle of power and stripped of his official posts, Montazeri over the last 20 years became outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic, calling for greater democracy and respect for human rights and civil liberties while often kept under surveillance in conditions that resembled house arrest.

Nonetheless, he served as an influential spiritual guide to the reform movement that peaked in the late 1990s during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami.

His stature and relevance further rose in the months following Iran's disputed June presidential elections, when he became a strong advocate for the opposition movement and challenged the Islamic Republic's legitimacy.

"A system which has been acting under the aegis of Islam and has the honor to be Shiite has created distrust toward Islam and religion not only in the world, but also among [our own] people and our young generations," he wrote in a letter posted to a reformist website in September. "[The system] has depicted Islam as unable to implement justice in society.

In November, he warned members of the pro-government Basiji militia that their violence against demonstrators was not religiously sanctioned."It would be a misfortune to go to hell for the sake of the worldly desires of others," he said, according to reformist websites.

The Iranian human rights group founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi awarded Montazeri an annual award earlier this month.

Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency said that Ayatollah Yousef Sanaii, another clerical supporter of the opposition, was by Montazeri's side as he died. Maybodi said he died around midnight, in his sleep.
Mostaghim is a special correspondent.


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