The National:

OFFICIALS from around the world have agreed upon a set of rules to govern the 2015 Paris climate accord after two weeks of UN talks in Poland.

Diplomats and ministers from almost 200 countries approved the deal on reporting greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide after scientists found they need to drop sharply by 2030 to prevent catastrophic global warming.

“Through this package, you have made a thousand little steps forward together,” said Michal Kurtyka, a Polish official chairing the talks in Katowice.

Kurtyka added: “We will all have to give in order to gain. We will all have to be courageous to look into the future and make yet another step for the sake of humanity.”

The meeting postponed decisions on pledging more ambitious action to fight global warming and on regulating the market for international carbon emissions trading.

The National:

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is facing federal investigations into activities

A MAN who played a leading part in rolling back environmental rules in the United States is to leave the administration.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who is facing federal investigations into his activities, will leave at the end of the year.

President Trump, in tweeting Zinke’s departure, said the former Montana congressman “accomplished much during his tenure” and that a replacement would be announced next week.

The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation.

Zinke, 57, is leaving weeks before Democrats take control of the House, a shift in power that promised to intensify probes into his conduct.When he was recently travelling to survey the damage from California’s wildfires, Zinke echoed President Trump’s claims that lax forest management, not climate change, was to blame in the devastation.

MEANWHILE, a faith healer accused of sexually abusing more than 300 women is now considered to be a fugitive.

Joao Teixeira de Faria – known as “John of God”, failed to comply with a court order to turn himself in. A dozen women have come forward in Brazil to accuse the self-styled spiritual healer of sexually abusing them at his clinic in the central town of Abadiania but has followers worldwide.

Faria’s office strongly denied the allegations.

AND finally, a private tomb thought to be more than 4000 years and built for a senior official from the 5th dynasty of pharaohs has been discovered in Egypt.

Brightly-painted statues were part of the “exceptionally wellpreserved” treasures found in the tomb of a priest called Wahtye who was involved in royal purification during the reign of King Nefer Ir-Ka-Re about 4400 years ago.