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LE BOURGET, France (AP) — From deserts encroaching on African farmland to rising sea levels shrinking islands of the South Pacific, leaders of poor nations most affected by climate change are sharing their stories of global warming with leaders of some of the richest on Tuesday.

The encounters — French President Francois Hollande met African leaders and President Barack Obama was meeting envoys from island nations — highlighted one of the biggest debates among delegates negotiating an international climate agreement: how much rich countries should help poor ones cope adapt to global warming and reduce their emissions.

On Monday, at an unprecedented gathering of world leaders outside Paris, presidents, prime ministers and princes urged the delegates to build a better planet for future generations. Organizers hope to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing collapse of a similar effort in Copenhagen in 2009 to reach a global climate accord.

On Tuesday, the negotiations began in earnest, with the key task of figuring out who will pay for everything the leaders said needs to be done.

“You have now started the fundamental work,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told the negotiators. “I implore you to advance on the substance in a way that allows us to respect the strong mandate given by the diverse heads of state and government yesterday.”

At a meeting with Hollande, African leaders described the Sahara Desert encroaching on farmland, forests disappearing from Congo to Madagascar and rising sea levels swallowing homes in West African river deltas.

Later Tuesday, Obama was meeting envoys from island nations hit hard by rising seas and increasingly violent storms, which scientists attribute to climate change prompted by man-made carbon emissions.

Developing countries say they need financial support and technology to relocate threatened populations and make their own transition to cleaner energy.

On Monday, rich countries announced a new fund to do exactly that, pledging a total of $248 million to it. The Obama administration didn’t specify where its $51 million pledge would come from; Obama has struggled to persuade the Republican-run Congress to fund his climate goals, amid concerns that his energy plan is unattainable.

The talks, which run through Dec. 11, are aimed at a broader, tougher replacement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. That treaty required only rich countries to cut their emissions, while this time the goal is for everyone to pitch in.

One of the proposals involves saving the world’s forests, which absorb carbon dioxide released by burning oil, gas and coal.

Britain’s Prince Charles, indigenous leaders and other dignitaries met Tuesday to call attention to shrinking global forests from South America to Russia and Africa, in part because of illegal logging.

More than 180 countries have pledged to cut or curb their emissions, but scientists say much bigger reductions are needed to limit man-made warming of the Earth to 2 degrees Centigrade (3.8 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times, the internationally agreed-upon goal.

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Greg Keller, Nancy Benac, Karl Ritter and Seth Borenstein in Le Bourget contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican senator in a tough re-election race is attacking his top Democratic rival for supporting more Syrian refugees in the U.S., marking the issue’s first appearance in Senate campaign advertising.

In the ad released Tuesday, GOP Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois harshly criticizes Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth for voicing support for allowing as many as 200,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S. in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

“ISIS disguised as Syrian refugees attack Paris. Next target? The U.S.,” the ad says.

“Mark Kirk opposes more Syrian refugees until it can be done safely. For your family’s safety: Who do you trust?”

The Kirk campaign said about $180,000 is being spent to air the ad on TV, a relatively tiny sum. But his focus on the issue highlights the Republican view that it can be a vulnerability for Democrats, especially those like Duckworth who opposed recent GOP legislation cracking down on the refugee program.

The ad’s claims are exaggerated. The Paris perpetrators were mostly French and Belgian nationals, although there was a Syrian passport found near one of their bodies. Authorities have suggested the attack was an Islamic State plot to sow fear of refugees.

Duckworth, a military veteran, has been outspoken about the need to show compassion to refugees, many of whom are women and young children themselves victimized by the Islamic State.

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BRUSSELS (AP) — Further evidence has emerged that the recovery across the 19-country eurozone economy is helping to reduce unemployment, which according to official figures has fallen to a near four-year low.

Figures released Tuesday by the European Union’s statistics agency show the unemployment rate across the region fell in October to 10.7 percent from 10.8 percent the previous month, after a 13,000 decline in the number out of work to 17.24 million.

The unemployment rate, which has fallen by 0.8 percentage point over the year, is now at its lowest level since January 2012.

The decline is not expected to prevent the European Central Bank from injecting another dose of stimulus into the eurozone economy following its regular policy meeting on Thursday.

The overall rate also masks big disparities across the region.

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The UK’s cyber surveillance agency GCHQ has “taken advantage” of its ability to hack into mobile phones and computers, privacy campaigners have claimed.

By: Matt Burgess,

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Nokia is making a $60,000 (£40,000) camera that can be used to film virtual reality shots, The Verge reports.

The camera, named Ozo, will launch in early 2016 and features multiple cameras across its spherical design that can simultaneously record. Combined with a virtual reality headset — like Oculus Rift or Google’s Cardboard — Ozo can create an immersive experience with a 360° view.

“This is the first product from Nokia Technologies since the phone days, and they just really wanted to outdo themselves,” Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies, told The Verge.

Haidamus argued that the high-end video market — which is dominated by companies such as Phantom — is being “disrupted.” When he joined Nokia, he was “tasked with coming up with a new strategy for Nokia Technologies,” according to The Verge.

Nokia sees potential clients everywhere, from NASA to National Geographic to schools and universities. “We’re going to make Ozo available for rent at rental houses, to make it accessible, and of course we need to start thinking about how can we make it more accessible to prosumers,” said Haidamus.

Nokia, which sold its smartphone business to Microsoft in 2014, has also just completed its $16.6 billion (£10 billion) purchase of Alcatel, a fellow phone maker. Renders of the Nokia C1, a rumoured smartphone, leaked last week. 

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A rudder control system problem that had occurred 23 times in the previous 12 months coupled with the pilots’ response led to last year’s crash of an AirAsia plane that killed all 162 people on board, Indonesian investigators said Tuesday.

The National Transportation Safety Committee said an analysis of Flight 8501’s data recorder showed the rudder control system had sent repeated warnings to the pilots during the Dec. 28 flight between the Indonesian city of Surabaya and Singapore.

Aircraft maintenance records for the Airbus A320 showed that problems with the rudder system had been reported 23 times during the year prior to the crash, with more frequent occurrences in the three months immediately before the accident. Investigators said the problem was caused by a cracked soldering joint on an electronic circuit board.

After the fourth warning during the flight, the pilots attempted to reset the control system while flying the plane manually, which caused it to enter a prolonged stall from which they were unable to recover, and the plane plowed into the Java Sea, the investigators said.

Investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said the plane’s voice recorder indicated possible confusion between the pilot and co-pilot. He said at one point the pilot said “pull down,” but in fact the plane was ascending.

“It seemed that there was a miscommunication between the pilot and co-pilot after the fourth fault,” he said.

Bad weather conditions did not play a role, as initially believed, the investigators said.

The last contact between the pilots and air traffic control indicated they were entering stormy weather. They asked to climb from 32,000 feet (9,753 meters) to 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) to avoid threatening clouds, but were denied permission because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the plane dropped off the radar. No distress signal was issued.

“There is much to be learned here for AirAsia, the manufacturer and the aviation industry,” AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes tweeted. “We will not leave any stone unturned to make sure the industry learns from this tragic incident.”

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PARIS (AP) — President Barack Obama is calling for a reduction in tensions between Turkey and Russia following Turkey’s shoot-down of a Russian warplane.

Obama is meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (REH’-jehp TY’-ihp UR’-doh-wahn) in Paris on the sidelines of global climate talks.

Obama says Turkey is a NATO ally and has a right to defend itself. He says the U.S. is very interested in accelerating its military relationship with Turkey.

Obama is describing the Islamic State group as the common enemy of Russia, Turkey and the U.S. Obama has been working to persuade Russia to focus its airstrikes in Syria against IS, instead of U.S.-backed rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Erdogan says Turkey, too, wants to avoid tensions with Russia. He says Turkey is “determined to keep up the fight” against IS.

Erdogan is also emphasizing the need for a political transition in Syria. He’s pointing to a new diplomatic effort and says he’s hoping for a “sigh of relief.”

Erdogan is suggesting that Russia has been targeting opposition groups including the Turkmen inside Syria. He says areas where there are no Islamic State fighters are being “continuously” bombed.

Obama is also addressing the refugee crisis stemming from Syria’s civil war. Obama is praising Turkey for generously accepting Syrian refugees. He says border security has been strengthened.

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Monsanto Co. plans to make its operations carbon neutral by 2021, in part by working with farmers who use its products to help them reduce carbon emissions, the company’s CEO told The Associated Press.

To be carbon neutral, Monsanto must reduce its net emission of climate-changing carbon to zero. Climate change is one of the most vital issues facing humanity, Monsanto’s Hugh Grant said in an interview ahead of the company’s announcement Tuesday, and an “untold story” is the agricultural industry’s effort to address the issue.

Farmers “have an opportunity and a part to play in mitigation around climate change,” Grant said. “Rather than being the problem, I think there’s a growing realization they can be a big part of the solution.”

Monsanto’s announcement comes as world leaders gather in Paris for two weeks of negotiations to finalize a sweeping global agreement to reduce carbon emissions.

Grant said part of St. Louis-based Monsanto’s effort is basic “good housekeeping,” such as stricter emissions control, conserving energy at offices, using more fuel-efficient vehicles. The company also pledges within its seed production operations to reduce its carbon footprint through breeding, plant biotechnology, conservation tillage and use of cover crops.

A key component of the plan calls for working with the thousands of farmers who use Monsanto seeds and pesticides. The company is developing an incentives program to encourage environmentally friendly production methods — cover crops and conservation tillage chief among them — that allow the soil to absorb and hold as much or more greenhouse gases than are emitted in corn and soybean farming.

In addition, Monsanto plans to share its own best practices data, as well as practices developed from other experts.

David Lobell, deputy director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University, said it is important for any major company to strive for carbon neutrality.

“Even if it doesn’t make much of a dent by itself, it certainly is a positive step,” Lobell said.

Ray Gaesser, who farms 6,000 acres of corn and soybeans near Corning, Iowa, and is chairman of the board for the American Soybean Association, said farmers are anxious to help reduce carbon emission. His own farm has been no-till for 25 years, and he has increased the use of cover crops over the past half-decade.

“In agriculture, we need to do what we can, what we practically can, to protect the environment,” Gaesser said. “I think we all want to do that. It’s just a matter or learning and experiencing how to make it all work.”

Several major companies with ties to agriculture have announced efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Estimates suggest the agricultural industry contributes around 10 percent of U.S. emissions.

In August, General Mills announced a goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emission 28 percent by 2025, a plan that includes partnering with suppliers to foster more sustainable agricultural practices. In 2013, Coca-Cola announced it would buy all of its agricultural ingredients from sustainable sources by 2020.

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