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Last year, the boat racing was cancelled due to low level of water and drought. But this year’s water level at Chaktomuk River, in front of the Royal Palace, the site for boat racing, is forecast to be around 6.20 metres during the Water Festival Days – making it most convenient for the traditional celebration.

Broadcasted live by the National Television of Kampuchea (TVK) and the Radio National of Kampuchea (RNK), the annual event will take place under the royal presidency of His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia.

By So Sophavy

Paris Climate Agreement: Hard Work Starts Now

The Paris Climate Agreement will bring together countries to combat rising global temperatures. Credit: Cam McGrath/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 4 2016 (IPS) - The Paris Climate Change Agreement Enters into force on Friday 4 November, just days before the UN’s 22nd climate change conference begins in Marrakech, Morocco.

“It’s a historic milestone for the whole world, especially for international cooperation, it’s unprecedented, however the hard work starts (now),” Yeb Sano, former chief climate change negotiator of the Philippines told IPS.

The swift entry into force of the agreement, which was reached in December 2015, means that the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Marrakech will now be able to focus on implementation, President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson told IPS.

“The early ratification has been tremendously satisfying. It allows us to go to Marrakech with Marrakech seen as an action Conference of the Parties (COP),” said Thomson.

By international agreement standards – the Paris deal has come into force unusually quickly.

With rising global temperatures continuously breaking records, a diverse group of countries raced to join the agreement to ensure that implementation of the agreement could begin as soon as possible.

However, one reason why countries were able to join so quickly is because the agreement is not legally binding.

As Sano points out, the agreement “(falls) short on holding those are supposed to be accountable for the climate crisis.”

“The phrase fossil fuel does not appear even once in this document and the word commitment does not even appear in the Paris agreement.”

The early entry into force – while historic – also creates “an awkward situation,” says Sano. Marrakech organisers will now have to decide if those who have not yet fully joined the agreement – about half of the 193 signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – will be able to participate fully in ongoing talks.

This could potentially affect some of the poorest countries, which have not yet been able to join, Clare Shakya, Director of the International Institute for Environment and Development’s Climate Change Group told IPS.

“For SIDS nothing could be more important - tropical storms, the rising sea levels - is existential stuff for us.” Peter Thomson - President UN General Assembly

“It’s important that … the poorest countries are not left out of the room,” she said.

Many developing countries however led the push for the early into force arguing that developing countries – including small island developing states (SIDS) – are already being negatively impacted by climate change.

“It’s great news that Paris has entered into force so quickly and that it has at its heart equity and ambition,” said Shakya.

“The ambition that the least developed countries wanted was this 1.5 degree target and that’s the aspiration of the agreement, so there’s huge optimism.”

“The delivery (now) has to meet those same principles of equity and ambition and that’s where in Marrakech we’re really going to start to see how that is evidenced.”

The 1.5 degree target is considered essential for small island developing states (SIDS), like Fiji, where Thomson is from.

“1.5 is where things start changing and we’re almost there,” he said.

“For SIDS nothing could be more important – tropical storms, the rising sea levels – it is existential stuff for us.”

Many of the priorities for developing countries in Marrakech will centre around the important question of financing.

The good news, says Thomson, is that the swift entry into force of the agreement means that financing can now begin to flow.

“It’s not more talk, it’s freeing the finance up,” he said.

However a key question for developing countries remains: will they be left to fend for themselves as droughts, floods and other extreme weather events push their already fragile development backwards?

This question continues to trouble Sano. At the 2013 UN climate talks in Warsaw, Poland, Sano made international headlines with his emotional plea for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan which had recently devastated his home country of the Philippines.

Sano, who is now Executive Director of Greenpeace South-East Asia, says that a key point of interest in Marrakech will be the continuation of discussions around the Loss and Damage mechanism.

Although developing countries had wanted this mechanism to be reviewed in 2015 in Paris richer countries wanted it pushed back to 2016 because they saw it as too controversial.

Another way that developing countries can potentially be assisted to adapt to increasingly severe weather events is through the USD 100 billion in climate financing that developed countries have promised to provide by 2020.

Shakya says that while various reports suggest that the financing is on track to reach this goal, these reports do not provide details for the least developed countries on “instruments and indeed on the targets.”

In particular, Shakya emphasised that much more financing needs to flow to least developed countries, particularly for adaptation, financing which is more likely to come from grants provided through the aid programs of developed countries.

“The finance that reaches poor people and allows poor people to decide how they’re going to use it has huge returns in terms of the resilience in those communities,” she said.

However much of the $100 billion dollars in financing will instead consist of loans to middle income countries for mitigation activities such as the construction of wind farms.

This means that poor countries like Haiti, will be left with little additional assistance to cope with increasingly extreme weather events such as Hurricane Matthew, which was made more severe by climate change.

Iraqi special forces capture two Mosul neighborhoods

Iraqi special forces have begun fighting against the Islamic State in Mosul's eastern districts, with at least two neighborhoods being taken under Iraqi government control. In this image, an Iraqi soldier walks around a convoy as smoke rises in the background from burning oil fields damaged during fighting between Iraqi forces and the Islamic State fighters in the Qayara town near Mosul on Tuesday. Photo by Murat Bay/UPI

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MOSUL, Iraq, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Iraqi special forces seized control of two of Mosul's eastern neighborhoods soon after government troops set foot in the city after more than two years of Islamic State control, military officials said.

Iraq's Elite Counter-Terrorism Service has planned to go from house to house to search for any remaining IS militants in the Gogjali and Samaha districts. Some of the residents from those neighborhoods fled Friday to the Kurdish-controlled Khazir refugee camp.

The special forces are less than 1,000 feet from fortified Islamic State positions in Mosul. Clearing Samaha will "ensure security" for the larger district of Gogjali, army officials said.

"We have been carrying out searches today in the connecting roads between Gogjali and surrounding areas, we also question the locals about them which our forces need," Iraqi Maj. Gen. Maadan al-Saadi told Rudaw.

Saadi told CNN that forces are working to clear the al-Karama, al-Zahra, al-Qudes and al-Tahrir neighborhoods from the Islamic State, also identified as Daesh, ISIS and ISIL.

Iraqi forces are specifically concerned about booby-trapped houses and land mines. On Tuesday, at least 15 Shiite militants fighting against the Islamic State were killed by such traps after entering villages near the town of Tal Afar.

There were an estimated 5,000 IS militants in Mosul prior to the start of Iraq's offensive to recapture the city on Oct. 17.

Thousands of Muslims protest in Jakarta accusing governor of blasphemy

Indonesian protesters pull a barbwire barricade during a protest against what they're calling a blasphemous remark made by Jakarta Gov. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as "Ahok," outside the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday. Thousands of protesters staged a rally demanding the Jakarta's governor to be prosecuted for blasphemy, while some called for the governor to be killed. Photo by Mast Irham/EPA

JAKARTA, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Up to 200,000 people protested in Jakarta accusing the city's ethnic and religious minority governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who is Chinese and Christian, of committing blasphemy against Muslims, police said.

The protest was largely peaceful despite huge crowds, BBC News reported. There have not been reports of any violence, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Many hard-line Muslims want the governor, known as Ahok, to be imprisoned for allegedly insulting the Koran. They feel the governor insulted Islam by criticizing a political opponent's use of a verse in the Koran, suggesting voters were being deceived in an edited video transcript.

Some Islamic groups have urged voters not to re-elect Ahok, citing a verse in the Koran that can be interpreted as banning Muslims from living under non-Muslim leadership. Ahok is planning to run for a second term as governor in early 2017.

Signs seen among the crowd include "Arrest and try Ahok and his cronies dead or alive;" "kill Ahok;" and "kill Ahok for insulting Islam." At least 18,000 police and military personnel were deployed for the Friday protest, police officials said, according to CNN. Officials estimated up to 200,000 Muslims were involved in the demonstration.

Ahok apologized for the offense his comment caused, adding that he was not criticizing the Koran but criticizing those who used it against him. Authorities have launched a blasphemy investigation into Ahok's comments.

About 100 armed military guards were deployed to guard the governor's residence. About 1 percent of Indonesia's population of 250 million is Chinese. Over 200 million of Indonesians are Muslim.

Afghan Girl' to be deported back to Afghanistan from Pakistan

A poster in Rome inspired by the National Geographic photo of Sharbat Gula, "the Afghan Girl." Gula was arrested in Peshawar, Pakistan, in October for allegedly carrying a forged identification card. She will likely be deported to Afghanistan on Monday, an Afghan official said Friday. Photo by Emmanuelle/Wikimedia

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Sharbat Gula, the subject of the "Afghan Girl" National Geographic cover, will be deported from Pakistan to Afghanistan, an Afghan official said.

"With utmost delight, I announce that Sharbat Gula is now free from the legal troubles she endured over the past couple of weeks," Omar Zakhilwal, Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan, said in a statement Facebook on Friday. "She soon will also be free from an uncertain life of a refugee as she will be on her way back to her own country as soon as next Monday where she still is a beloved image and a national icon."

Gula was arrested in Peshawar, Pakistan, in late October during an identity-card fraud investigation. In February of 2015, she'd been accused of using fake information to get a Pakistani Computerized National Identity Card. The case was referred to Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, which ultimately arrested Gula.

Gula pleaded guilty to living in Pakistan with fake identity documents and was sentenced to 15 days in prison. She will be released and deported from where she's lived for decades prior to the completion of the sentence, however. She will also pay a $1,100 fine.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will meet with Gula once she arrives, Zakhilwal added.

In 1984, Steve McCurry photographed Gula. She was 12 years old at the time and living in a refugee camp near Peshawar after she and her relatives fled Afghanistan after a Soviet airstrike killed her parents during the 1979-1989 Soviet-Afghan War. In 2002, McCurry tracked down Gula in Pakistan and managed to take another photograph of her.

Two U.S. military trainers killed in shooting incident at Jordanian base

An Air Force Honor Guard bugler plays Taps at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on June 8. Two U.S. military trainers died Friday in a shooting incident when their vehicle failed to stop at the gate at King Faisal Air Base in Jordan. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI

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AMMAN, Jordan, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Two U.S. military trainers died in a shooting incident Friday near Jordan's capital of Amman at the entrance of the King Faisal Air Base, Jordanian officials said.

Another U.S. trainer was injured and was receiving medical treatment, reports Petra, a Jordanian state news agency, citing a military source. The Jordanian Embassy in Washington, D.C., confirmed the shooting.

"We have reports of a security incident involving American personnel and we are in contact with Jordanian officials who are giving us all the support," the U.S. Embassy in Jordan said in a statement, according to BBC News.

A vehicle carrying the trainers failed to stop at the gate of the military base, a Jordanian military source told CBS News, who added that the incident appears to be accidental.

"There was an exchange of fire at the entrance to the base after an attempt by the trainers' vehicle to enter the gate without heeding orders of the guards to stop," Jordan's military said in a statement.

Officials launched an investigation into the incident.

Jordan is a close ally to the United States -- also one of the few Arab nations to have joined the United States' international coalition to fight the Islamic State. The United States, as it does with many allies throughout the world including in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, provides training to Jordanian security agencies.

In November 2015, two U.S. contractors and one South African were shot to death in a police training center cafeteria in Muwaqqar, Jordan. The victims died when a lone shooter, a Jordanian police officer, opened fire at the center, south of Amman.