Anti-Apec protests take place in Manila
Large protests are taking place on the streets on the Philippine capital, Manila, where leaders are attending the Apec regional trade summit.
Hundreds of people from indigenous, student and labour groups clashed with police, who deployed water cannon.
The summit has been overshadowed by territorial disputes over China’s activities in the South China Sea.
Leaders have also called for greater global anti-terror co-operation following the Paris attacks.
A draft copy of a declaration due to be released later today says leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit “strongly condemn” all acts of terror and stress the “urgent need for increased international co-operation and solidarity in the fight against terrorism”.
A problem shared: Nigerian women turn to Instagram for advice on life
A cheating husband or a complicated love life are standard fare for agony aunts across the world.
But in religiously conservative northern Nigeria, which has a Muslim majority, asking for advice in public has traditionally been frowned upon, with problems kept hushed up within the family.
Ziya’atulhaqq Usman Tahir hopes to change this. Using her Instagram feed,Fatibolady, she invites women to anonymously share their concerns, allowing her account to become a platform for sharing advice.
In the last year, Tahir says she has received an overwhelming response and regularly receives thousands of likes and comments on each post.
This innovative approach to solving “marital chaos” is a departure from the ways in which some women in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north tackle the problems of daily life.
Locals up in arms after police raid suburban mosque
Team Observers
Police entered the mosque La Fratérnité just after midnight, searching the premises for about an hour and a half.
Sofiènne Karroumi, a vice-mayor of Aubervilliers and a member of AMA (“Association des Musulmans d’Aubervilliers”, or Muslims of Aubervilliers organisation), which runs the mosque, was one of the first people to enter the premises following the police search. He posted photos on his Facebook page, accompanied by this comment: “I am outraged to see the state of the mosque after the search that took place tonight. I don’t understand why this sacred place was so relentlessy ransacked. Muslims have nothing to do with what happened Friday night and are just as shocked as the rest of France”.
US and Cuba agree on saving sharks, coral reefs, and other marine life
A first-ever US-Cuba marine protection agreement aims to protect rare species of fish and coral. A harbinger of other ‘common good’ projects for the two nations?
Washington and Havana made a promise to mend ties over a year ago. It’s now starting to bear fruit in a pact to protect the marine environment.
A month ago, the United States and Cuba took steps to initiate an environmental partnership to protect the endangered shark population in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first tangible step after President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro shook hands and opened the door to a new era in US-Cuba relations.
But already, the shark project has been expanded to a much more inclusive and ambitious project to protect underpopulated and rare species of fish and coral in the area. US and Cuban officials officially signed a memorandum on Wednesday.
Report: Global temperature hike already halfway to ‘two degree warming’ limit
Updated 0723 GMT (1523 HKT) November 19, 2015
Looks like Earth is already halfway to the danger zone.
Less than two weeks before a crucial global climate summit in Paris kicks off, NOAA, NASA and other global temperature monitors released data showing that the planet is halfway to two degrees of warming, the much publicized limit of “controllable” climate change.
Global data from NOAA released Thursday shows that the average temperature across the entire planet for the month of October was a record shattering 0.98 degrees Celsius (1.76 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than average for the month of October — making it the highest average temperature reached compared to normal in Earth’s historical record.
Tibet’s Secret Temple: Wellcome Collection’s new exhibition showcases the glories of Lhasa’s Lukhang Palace
As a young boy, marooned in the crumbling splendour of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, one of the Dalai Lama’s great pleasures was his telescope. His bedroom was on the seventh and top floor of the palace, and as soon as his lessons were over, as he wrote in his autobiography, “I would rush out on the roof” to see what could be seen. The palace roof had “a magnificent view” and he would turn his lens in all directions, inspecting the nearby medical school, the Jokhang temple, and the state prison in the village of Shol, where the prisoners exercising in the yard “threw themselves down in prostration” when they caught sight of Tibet’s most revered monk gazing down on them.
But there was another tantalising sight, closer to hand than the prison but equally inaccessible to the young boy: the Lukhang Palace, a three-storey polygonal structure, designed in the form of a mandala, a symbolic representation of the cosmos, which rose from a small lake directly behind the Potala.