• The Third Paris Gunman

  RT News reports : Police have identified the third Paris gunman from the attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris as a Frenchman who fought in Syria. The gunman’s father said if he had known about his son’s plans he would have “killed him himself.”

  French police have identified the third attacker at the Bataclan, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Wednesday without giving the name of the assailant.

  The French national Foued Mohamed-Aggad, 23, was one of the three gunmen who carried out the attack on the Bataclan concert-goers in Paris on November 13 killing 90 people and injuring hundreds, French media reported citing police.

  He was born in Strasbourg and was recruited by some Mourad Fares, one of the main jihadist recruiters in France. Fares was arrested in 2014 in Turkey and handed to French authorities.

  Together with his brother Karim and a group of about a dozen men Foued travelled to Syria at the end of 2013, according to police sources.

  Seven of the group returned to France after several months in Syria, including Karim, and were arrested by police to terror-related charges. Foued chose to stay in Syria until the Paris attacks, according to France Info.

  The other two Bataclan attackers Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29, and former Paris bus driver Samy Amimour, 28, were also French nationals who travelled to Syria. The two died after blowing up their suicide belts up after firing at the concert-goers, while the third attacker was shot by police when they stormed the venue.

  Trilateral Syria talks to be held in Geneva on Friday

  Moscow, Washington and the United Nations are to hold negotiations over the settlement of the Syrian crisis in Geneva on Friday, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. “We will be having consultations in the trilateral format – Russia, the United States and the UN,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told RIA Novosti, adding that Russia will be calling for the “intensification of joint efforts.”The meeting will be focused on UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura who is expected to share information on the UN’s progress “in the inter-Syrian”dialogue.

• Australia’s ex-PM Abbott defends comments on Islam

  Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday defended his comments suggesting Western culture is superior to that of Islam, AP reported. Abbott, a staunch Catholic, earlier in the day wrote in a Sydney Daily Telegraph opinion piece of the need to “modernize” Islam, saying it propagates a culture that is inferior to that of the West. Critics associated his comments with those of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “I am more than ready to assert the superiority of a culture that is decent and humane, and welcoming, over a culture that thinks it’s right to kill in the name of God,” Abbott said in a speech in Singapore. He said that more assistance should be rendered by outside powers such as the US and Australia to help local forces fight Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). Abbott was ousted in September by current leader Malcolm Turnbull in a Liberal Party coup after two years in office.

• US doubles aid to $860mn for developing nations to adapt to climate change

  The US announced plans on Wednesday to double grant funding to help developing countries adapt to climate change to around $860 million a year. US Secretary of State John Kerry announced the new financing pledge during a speech at the UN climate conference in Paris. Negotiators from 195 countries are working to reach an agreement by this weekend on curbing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The pledge may help clinch a global climate pact as developing nations are pressing for more financial assistance to offset the impact of climate change, Reuters reported.

• Torrential rains, flooding leave 31 dead, 20,000 families homeless in Kinshasa

  Torrential rains and flooding have left 31 people dead and 20,000 families homeless in less than three weeks in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, AFP reported. Since November 19, city authorities have recorded 31 deaths “due to the collapse of homes” in repeated downpours hitting the city of 10 million people, said Kinshasa’s Interior Minister Emmanuel Akweti. Most of the deaths occurred in the particularly impoverished southern and eastern districts, notably along the banks of the giant Congo river. More heavy rain was forecast from now until the end of December. The city’s main pumping facility has been seriously damaged by the flooding, with water supplies cut in some areas.

• UN says 170,000 flee Yemen war, appeals for $94mn in aid

  Around 170,000 people have fled war-torn Yemen for the Horn of Africa and the Gulf, the UN said Wednesday.“Around 170,000 Yemenis, refugees and third country nationals have fled to Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and some Gulf countries,” the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) said after aid meetings in the Kenyan capital. The UN also said it needed over $94 million to support those fleeing the war in 2016, AFP reported. Most of the refugees have made a perilous crossing across the Gulf of Aden to the Horn of Africa, according to Claire Bourgeois, who heads UN refugee agency operations for those fleeing Yemen. Inside Yemen, an estimated 80 percent of people need aid, including 2.3 million forced from their homes.

• Russia halts work on Turkey’s first nuclear power plant – report

  Russia’s Rosatom has stopped construction work at Turkey’s first planned nuclear power plant, Reuters reported Turkish energy officials as saying on Wednesday. Relations between Moscow and Ankara have soured since the downing of a Russian jet on November 24. The state-owned company Rosatom has not terminated the contract for the building of the $20 billion project, according to the sources. They said, however, that Ankara is assessing other potential candidates for the project. In 2013, Turkey commissioned Rosatom to build four 1,200 megawatt reactors. Moscow has banned some Turkish food imports in retaliation as part of a sanctions package after the jet incident.

  RT News