A Russian island north of Japan has become a testing ground for Moscow's efforts to reconcile its prized fossil fuel industry with the need to do something about climate change.

More than two-thirds of Sakhalin Island is forested. With the Kremlin's blessing, authorities there have set an ambitious goal of making the island — Russia's largest — carbon neutral by 2025.

arge rifts remain as United Nations climate talks tick down to a Friday deadline. A lot of the divide comes down to money, which nations have it and which do not. So it's time for the diplomatic cavalry to ride in.

The two-week climate conference in Glasgow first saw heads of government talking about how curbing global warming is a fight for survival. The leaders focused on big pictures, not the intricate wording crucial to negotiations. Then, for about a week, the technocratic negotiations focused on those key details, getting some things done but not resolving the really sticky situations.

Four astronauts returned to Earth on Monday, riding home with SpaceX to end a 200-day space station mission that began last spring.

Their capsule streaked through the late night sky like a dazzling meteor before parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. Recovery boats quickly moved in with spotlights.

From the front porch of their cinderblock home, Garry and Amanda James gaze over Dubai's soaring skyscrapers and massive malls.

It's a skyline that in their young days had seemed impossibly far off. Outside Amanda's childhood home in the same spot three decades ago were just miles of empty desert.

Pope Francis condemned an assassination attempt against Iraq's prime minister as a "vile act of terrorism" and said Tuesday he is praying for peace in the country.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, sent a telegram to Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi expressing Francis' solidarity and prayers to al-Kadhimi's family and those injured in the Monday drone attack on the prime minister's residence.

Egypt and Israel have said they agreed on an increase in Egyptian border forces in a restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, where Egypt has battled Islamic militants for years.

The Egyptian military said a joint military committee with Israel agreed to amend a security deal between the two countries, allowing Cairo to increase the number and capabilities of border guards in the town of Rafah.

Polish riot police and coils of razor wire faced off Tuesday against migrants, including families with young children, who were camped just across the border in Belarus, amid a tense standoff on the European Union's eastern border.

Polish authorities reported that the situation on the border was calm overnight and earlier Tuesday, but authorities said they were bracing for any possibility. Poland's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that a large group of Belarusian forces was moving toward the migrant camp.

Five European countries have expressed "serious concern" at Israel's designation of six Palestinian civil society organizations as terrorist groups after a Security Council meeting and said they will be seeking more information from Israeli authorities on the reasons for their listing.

The 15-member council took no action after the closed consultations. But a statement from Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway and Albania, which will join the council in January, said the listings "have far-reaching consequences for the organizations in political, legal and financial terms."

Cypriot police have formally charged an Azeri man on suspicion that he planned to carry out the contract killings of Israelis living in Cyprus, a law enforcement official said on Tuesday.

The official said that the 38-year-old suspect will go on trial next month on eight charges including conspiracy to commit murder, belonging to a criminal enterprise and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. The suspect also faces a terrorism-related charge.

Parts from Syrian anti-aircraft missiles fell Monday night in the northeastern Lebanese village of Sahlat al-Maa near the Syrian border, lightly wounding a woman and damaging several homes, the National News Agency said.

Syria's military said the anti-aircraft missiles were used to shoot down missiles fired by Israeli warplanes while flying over neighboring Lebanon.