HASAKEH, Syria – Babylonia has no regrets about leaving behind her two children and her job as a hairdresser to join a Christian female militia battling against the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Syria.

The fierce-looking 36-year-old in fatigues from the Syriac Christian minority in the northeast believes she is making the future safe for her children.

"I miss Limar and Gabriella and worry that they must be hungry, thirsty and cold. But I try to tell them I'm fighting to protect their future," she told AFP.

Babylonia belongs to a small, recently created battalion of Syriac Christian women in Hasakeh province who are fighting ISIS.

They are following in the footsteps of Syria's other main female force battling the jihadists – the women of the YPJ, the female counterpart to the Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG.

So far the new force is small, with around 50 graduates so far from its training camp in the town of Al-Qahtaniyeh, also known as Kabre Hyore in Syriac, and Tirbespi in Kurdish. 

But the "Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers" – the area between the Tigris and Euphrates waterways historically inhabited by Syriacs – is teeming with women eager to prove their worth against ISIS.

It was actually Babylonia's husband who encouraged her to leave Limar, 9, and 6-year-old Gabriella and join the unit whose first recruits graduated in August.

Himself a fighter, he urged her to take up arms to "fight against the idea that the Syriac woman is good for nothing except housekeeping and make-up", she said.

'Fear quickly went away'

"I'm a practicing Christian and thinking about my children makes me stronger and more determined in my fight against Daesh," added Babylonia, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Syriac Christians belong to the eastern Christian tradition and pray in Aramaic. They include both Orthodox and Catholic branches, and constitute around 15 percent of Syria's 1.2 million Christians.

Before the conflict began in March 2011, Christians from some 11 different sects made up around 5% of the population.

The unit's first major action was alongside the newly created Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters, which recently recaptured the strategic town of Al-Hol.

"I took part in a battle for the first time in the Al-Hol area, but my team wasn't attacked by IS," said 18-year-old Lucia, who gave up her studies to join the militia.

Her sister also joined up, against the wishes of their reluctant mother.

"I fight with a Kalashnikov, but I'm not ready to become an elite sniper yet," the shy teenager said, a wooden crucifix around her neck and a camouflage bandana tied round her head.

Al-Hol, on a key route between territory ISIS controls in Syria and Iraq, was the first major victory for the SDF, which has captured around 200 villages in the region in recent weeks.

It has received air support from the US-led coalition fighting IS, as well as drops of American weapons.

Ormia, 18, found battle terrifying at first.

"I was afraid of the noise of cannons firing, but the fear quickly went away," she said.

"I would love to be on the front line in the fight against the terrorists."

'Not afraid of Daesh' 

The battalion's fighters train in an old mill in a program that includes military, fitness and academic elements.

With its limited combat experience, the unit for now focuses mainly on protecting majority Christian parts of Hasakeh province.

Thabirta Samir, 24, who helps oversee the training, estimates that around 50 fighters have graduated so far.

"I used to work for a Syriac cultural association, but now I take pleasure in working in the military field," she said.

"I'm not afraid of Daesh, and we will be present in the coming battles against the terrorists."

Samir said both local and "foreign forces" helped train the women, without specifying the nationality of the foreigners.

In late November, Kurdish sources said US soldiers had entered the town of Kobane in northern Syria to train Kurdish fighters and plan offensives.

Some women cited what is known as the Sayfo ("Sword") massacres in 1915 of Syriac, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians as reasons for joining the unit.

"We are a community that is oppressed by others," said 18-year-old Ithraa. She joined 4 months ago inspired by the memory of Sayfo, in which Ottoman authorities are said to have killed tens of thousands of Christians in Turkey and Iran.

She said the community hoped to prevent "a new massacre like that committed by the Ottomans... when they tried to erase our Christian and Syriac identity". – Rappler.com

MOSCOW, Russia – Twenty-three psychiatric patients, most of them elderly, died when a fire ripped through their care facility in southern Russia Saturday night (Sunday morning in Manila), in the latest tragedy to hit mental health hospitals in the country.

"The bodies of 23 people have been found during an on-site inspection," the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Sunday, adding that a further 23 people were hospitalized.

Seventy patients and four nurses were in the ward when the fire broke out shortly before midnight (2100 GMT) Saturday at the hospital in the village of Alferovka, located in the southern Voronezh region.

Most of those who perished in the blaze were in their 60s and 70s, although some were in their 40s and 50s, according to a list of patients released by the emergencies ministry.

The state-owned Rossiya 24 rolling news channel said those who died were bedridden patients who had been given tranquillizers.

"They simply did not wake up," a correspondent reported from the scene.

The fire reduced the wooden hospital building to its scorched foundations, with footage showing rescue workers combing through the smoking ruins.

It took more than 440 firefighters and emergency workers around three hours to bring the fire under control.

The Investigative Committee, which reports directly to President Vladimir Putin, said it opened a criminal probe into the deaths on suspicion of negligence.

Experts are looking into what triggered the blaze, investigators said.

The fire was the latest tragedy to hit a psychiatric institution in Russia, where outdated Soviet-era infrastructure is still in widespread use and managers often take a lax approach to fire safety.

Scores of people also die in house fires each year.

A fire at a psychiatric hospital in northwest Russia in September 2013 left 37 people dead, while a blaze in a psychiatric ward near Moscow in April of the same year killed 38.

In 2009, 156 people were killed in a nightclub fire in the city of Perm, some 1,200 kilometers (700 miles) east of Moscow in one of the deadliest accidents in Russia's modern history. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Presidential aspirant Senator Grace Poe pushed for changes in the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, as she welcomed the historic global climate pact signed in Paris. 

Poe said the law needs to be amended to ensure the Philippines will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. She said the country should be weaned out of its dependence on “costly and unsustainable” fossil fuels.

“We must commit to strong actions on the climate for the sake of the underdeveloped sectors of our society, because it truly has a domino effect on other sectors beyond the economy, and taps into health, education and housing,” Poe said in a statement on Sunday, December 13.

With this, she said distribution utilities should be compelled to source a share of their power supply from renewable energy sources.

“We must work together towards climate resilience, responsible practice and a shift to sustainable and renewable sources of energy. After all, it is the poorest sectors who will suffer the brunt of the effects of global warming, so we must protect their welfare,” Poe said.

She noted that the Philippines is among the countries most affected by climate change in the last two decades.

In 2014, only 37% of power generated in the country was sourced from renewable sources while 63% was sourced from non-renewable sources of electricity, based on data from the Department of Energy.

According to the climate agreement, parties will keep the global temperature to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” 

This means developed countries need to rapidly move from fossil fuel energy to renewable sources. But the challenge is larger for the developing nations such as the Philippines, as funding is a major problem. (READ: #COP21: 5 things you must know about the Paris climate deal) 

The developing world needs funds to do so and a key part of the agreement provides US$100 billion per year to 2020, and more than that after 2020.– Rappler.com

BEIJING, China – China commemorated victims of a historic massacre by Japanese troops in the city of Nanjing for the second time on Sunday, December 13, holding a sober official memorial that contrasted with a much grander ceremony last year.

Beijing says 300,000 people were killed during the "Rape of Nanking", a period of mass murder and rape committed after the city fell to soldiers in 1937 following Japan's invasion of China.

Hundreds of soldiers, schoolchildren and survivors gathered in the eastern city to pay their respects on the massacre's 78th anniversary, according to footage broadcast by state-run news channel CCTV, which also aired victims' testimonies.

In February 2014 the National People's Congress made the anniversary an official day of remembrance as tensions with Japan over a maritime territorial dispute and rows over history intensified.

Ten thousand people attended the December ceremony later that year, where President Xi Jinping told the crowd anyone who tried to deny the massacre would "not be allowed by history".

Xi was absent for Sunday's ceremony, which was officiated by mid-ranking party cadre Li Jianguo, vice chairman of the NPC's standing committee, who struck a more conciliatory tone.

"If we condemn the savagery of the (Japanese) invasion, it is not to perpetuate hate... but to create hand-in-hand a peaceful and brighter future," Li said.

Japan and China should "continuously push forward good-neighbourly and friendly cooperation and make a joint contribution to world peace and human progress," he added, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

As a siren rang out across the city at 10am, drivers stopped and sounded their horns during a minute's silence in a show of respect, local media reported.

Japan and communist China established diplomatic relations in 1972. But ties have been strained by a row over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea and the nationalist views of Japanese politicians, including their visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates Japan's war dead including convicted war criminals.

More recently ties have improved, but there are still regular flare-ups.

Japan has lashed out at UNESCO's decision to inscribe documents related to the Nanjing massacre in its Memory of the World register following a request from Beijing.– Rappler.com

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – At least 2 women won municipal council seats in Saudi Arabia's first ever election open to female voters and candidates, officials said Sunday, December 13, in a milestone for the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom.

Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi was elected to a council in the holy city of Mecca, the official SPA news agency reported, citing election commission president Osama al-Bar.

She ran against 7 men and 2 women in Saturday's ballot, he added.

A second woman, Hanouf bint Mufrih bin Ayid al-Hazmi, was elected in the northwestern region of Jawf, SPA said, as fresh results were being released on Sunday afternoon.

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy with some of the world's tightest restrictions on women, including a ban on driving.

It was the last country to allow only men to vote, and polling stations were segregated during the ballot.

Among the 6,440 candidates running for seats on 284 councils figured more than 900 women, who had to overcame a number of obstacles to participate in the landmark poll.

Female candidates could not meet face-to-face with male voters during campaigning, while neither men nor women could publish their pictures.

Women voters said registration was hindered by factors including bureaucratic obstacles and a lack of transportation.

As a result, women accounted for less than 10 percent of registered voters and few female candidates were expected to be elected.

According to election commission data, nearly 1.5 million people aged 18 and over were registered for the polls.

This included about 119,000 women, out of a total native Saudi population of almost 21 million.

At least one part of the country reported a female turnout exceeding 80 percent, according to official data.

In the mountainous Baha region, in the kingdom's southwest, 946 women voted, according to the local election commission cited by SPA.

With 1,146 women registered, that translated into an 82.5 percent turnout.

Baha's overall turnout for men and women combined was 51.5 percent, SPA said, without providing figures for other regions.

Proud, happy

Female candidates expressed pride in running, even if they didn't think they would win, while women voters, some of them tearful, said they were happy at finally being able to do something they had only seen on television or in movies.

Nassima al-Sadah, an activist in the eastern city of Qatif, said it didn't matter whether women voted for their own sex.

"The important thing is that you need to support a good person," and to exercise the right to vote, she said.

Sadah, who herself voted for a man, was disqualified for unknown reasons on the eve of the campaign. She has taken authorities to court over her exclusion.

Sadah said the voting process itself took place relatively smoothly, unlike the registration.

Many female candidates used social media to help their cause, but a handful of others, including women's rights activists, were disqualified from campaigning. 

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia boasts modern infrastructure of highways, skyscrapers and ever-more shopping malls.

But women still require permission from male family members to travel, work or marry.

Ruled by the Al-Saud family of King Salman, Saudi Arabia has no elected legislature and faces intense Western scrutiny of its rights record.

A slow expansion of women's rights began under Salman's predecessor Abdullah who announced four years ago that women would take part in the 2015 municipal elections.

Men have voted since 2005 in elections for municipal councils, a third of whose seats are appointed. – Abdul Hadi Habtor, AFP/Rappler.com

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Sunday, December 13, hailed the UN climate accord reached in Paris but warned the key now lay in its implementation, especially in help for the poor.

"The climate conference has just ended in Paris with an agreement that many describe as historic," the pontiff said at Angelus prayers in St. Peter's Square.

"Implementing it will require unanimous commitment and generous involvement by everyone," the stern-looking pope said.

He pointed in particular at provisions in the agreement to help poor countries badly exposed to climate change.

"I urge the international community, in its entirety, to carefully follow the road ahead, and with an ever-growing sense of solidarity," he said.

Approved by 195 nations after a 13-day negotiating marathon, the so-called Paris Agreement sets the goal of limiting global warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, with a more ambitious target of 1.5 C if possible.

It also enshrines a promise by rich countries to channel at least $100 billion (92 billion euros) annually from 2020 to help climate-vulnerable countries.

Scientists say heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases, mainly emitted by burning coal, oil and gas, are warming Earth's surface and changing the planet's fragile climate system.

Without drastic curbs on these gases, they warn, future generations will be doomed to rising seas and worsening drought, flood and storms.

Poor nations that are least to blame for causing the problem will feel the impact worst.

Ahead of the November 30-December 12 UN conference, the Pope appealed urgently for action, saying it was "now or never" for a deal and the situation was "borderline suicide."

Earlier this year, he publishing a hard-hitting thesis on climate change, titled Laudato Si.

It laid the blame for warming squarely on humanity's shoulders and called for an energy revolution that would mainly be paid for by developed countries. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Albay Governor Joey Salceda suspended work in the southeastern Luzon province except for disaster response as Typhoon Nona (international name Melor) was forecast to make a “direct hit” on Albay. 

Salceda made the announcement on his Facebook page on Sunday evening, December 13, as state weather bureau PAGASA raised signal number 3 over Albay. 

PAGASA said storm surges of up to 3.6 meters are possible in Albay and other areas under signal number 3, with wind of 121 to 170 kilometers per hour expected in 18 hours. 

Salceda ordered the suspension of work for Monday, December 14, in all establishments of both the public and private sectors except for government agencies responding to the typhoon.

The order initially included even banks and commercial centers like malls but Salceda later clarified that these were excluded "so our people could procure their basic necessities for an overnight." He said local officials mistakenly overestimated the risks from the typhoon but he reiterated that the threat remains "abundant." 

“Still, no classes. Still, no work in goverment except for [disaster risk reduction] entities. Still no work in private [companies] except for banks and malls and commercial establishments. Nevertheless, we would be happier if Pagasa is totally wrong given the monstrosity of Nona as a weather hazard,” Salceda said.

Salceda issued the order as chairman of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. 

The governor said he cleared the order with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Office of Civil Defense. 

Besides canceling work, Albay also declared a state of imminent disaster. 

Salceda explained that the declaration was meant to allow the province's towns, cities, and barangays (villages), along with national government agencies to use and allot reserve funds for emergency response for Typhoon Nona. 

He cited the “sudden escalation” of the storm warning signal for Albay from signal number 1 at 11 am of Sunday, to signal number 2 at 5 pm, and signal number 3 on Sunday evening. 

Salceda said Nona was forecast to “virtually cut across the entire swathe of landmass of Albay.” 

Before the declaration, the governor ordered officials to evacuate residents. 

In its 11 pm update on Sunday, PAGASA said Nona intensified as it continues to threaten the eastern part of the Philippines. The eye of Typhoon Nona was located 325 kilometers east of Catarman, Northern Samar.

Seven areas are under signal 3, 8 under signal number 2, and 11 under signal number one. 

Albay is one of the most disaster-prone provinces in the Philippines. Yet under Salceda's leadership, it has won international and local recognition for disaster preparedness and response, and climate change adaptation. – Rappler.com 

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis welcomed a United Nations-backed roadmap to end the Syrian war on Sunday, December 20, and said recent efforts to establish a national unity government in Libya sparked hopes for an end to a political deadlock which has allowed jihadists and people-smugglers to flourish.

"I am moved to turn my thoughts to beloved Syria and express my great appreciation for the agreement just reached by the international community," the pontiff said following the Angelus prayer in Saint Peter's Square.

"I encourage everyone to continue energetically down the path to an end of violence and a negotiated solution for peace," he said, after the UN backed a US and Russian initiative Friday, December 18, to end Syria's brutal civil war by summoning rebels and the regime to the negotiating table.

The Argentine pontiff also sent his thoughts to "Libya, where the recent engagement between parties for a national unity government inspires hope for the future."

An agreement was reached this week among rival Libyan factions in a bid to stem the chaos in that country which international experts fear is creating conditions for the so-called Islamic State to put down roots.

The accord, reached during UN-mediated talks in Morocco, faces an uncertain future however, with some Libyan tribal or regional groups rejecting it in advance. – Rappler.com

NAOROBI, Kenya – Burundi's government said Sunday, December 20, it would not agree to the deployment of African Union (AU) peacekeepers, warning that they would be seen as "an invasion force". 

The announcement came a day after the 54-member bloc said it would send a 5,000-strong forced to halt spiralling violence in the tiny central African country as fears grow it is rapidly sliding towards civil war. 

It gave the government in Bujumbura a four-day deadline to agree to the offer, but warned it would send troops anyway. 

"Burundi is clear on the matter: it is not ready to accept an AU force on its territory," deputy presidential spokesman Jean-Claude Karerwa told Agence France-Presse.

"If AU troops came without the government's approval, it would be an invasion and occupation force, and the Burundi government would reserve the right to act accordingly."

Burundi has so far dismissed proposals for any peacekeeping force on its territory and Karerwa said any such move by the AU would have to be approved by the United Nations Security Council. 

"The Burundi government believes the AU resolution cannot be automatically applied and must first be endorsed by the UN Security Council," he said. 

The standoff comes as international alarm grows over soaring unrest in Burundi where at least 87 people were killed on December 11 in a crackdown by security forces after an attack on three military bases.

Many of the dead were youths who were shot dead by the security forces. 

In a strongly-worded statement issued on Saturday, the AU said the bloc would "take additional measures" to ensure the new force's deployment.

It underlined its determination "to take all appropriate measures against any party or actor... who would impede the implementation of the present decision".

The announcement came two days after the bloc's Peace and Security Council met over the Burundi crisis and agreed it would not allow "another genocide" on African soil.

AU rights investigators last week returned from a fact-finding mission to Burundi expressing "great concern" after witnessing some of the heaviest fighting in the troubled country for months.

The AU team said it had reports of "arbitrary killings and targeted assassinations" as well as arrests, detentions and torture. Their concerns have been widely echoed. – Rappler.com

KATHMANDU, Nepal – Nepali police shot and killed a protester Sunday, December 20, after fresh clashes erupted in the country's southern plains, deepening the crisis over a new constitution, an official said.

Police opened fire when a crowd of about 1,500 demonstrators started throwing stones and bottles at the district police office in the town of Gaur in Rautahat district, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Kathmandu.

"The police fired in self-defence after the protesters became aggressive, and unfortunately one (protester) was killed," district chief Narahari Baral told Agence France-Presse.

Baral said the protest in Gaur had escalated since Saturday, December 19, and a curfew had now been imposed in the area.

More than 50 people have been killed in clashes between police and people protesting against the constitution, which was introduced in September after a deadly earthquake pushed warring political parties to reach an agreement.

Demonstrators from the Madhesi ethnic minority, mainly from the southern plains, have been blockading the main Birgunj border crossing with India, saying the constitution leaves them politically marginalised.

Nepal is heavily dependent on India for fuel and other supplies, but little cargo has crossed the border from India since the protests broke out. 

The disruption has led to severe shortages in landlocked Nepal and prompted the government to accuse New Delhi -- which has criticised the new constitution -- of imposing an "unofficial blockade".

New Delhi has denied the charge and urged Nepal to hold talks with the Madhesis, who share close cultural, linguistic and family links with Indians living across the border.

But several rounds of talks between the government and the protesting parties have failed to yield any solutions. – Rappler.com

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand is on the verge of falling to the Taliban, with 90 soldiers killed in two days of fierce clashes, its deputy governor said Sunday, December 20.

Clashes between insurgents and government forces have intensified in several key districts of Helmand, fuelling concern that the province is on the brink of a security collapse.

In an unusual plea to President Ashraf Ghani via Facebook, deputy governor Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar pleaded for urgent intervention to save the province that British and US forces struggled for years to defend.

"I know that bringing up this issue on social media will make you very angry," Rasoolyar wrote in his Facebook post addressed to Ghani.

"But I cannot be silent any more... as Helmand stands on the brink... Ninety men have been killed in Gereshk and Sangin districts in the last two days."

The post bore grim similarities to the security situation that led to the brief fall of the northern city of Kunduz in September -- the biggest Taliban victory in 14 years of war.

The fall of Helmand would deal another stinging blow to the country's NATO-backed forces as they struggle to rein in the insurgency.

There was no immediate reaction on Rasoolyar's post from Ghani's office. The defence ministry in Kabul strongly denied that Helmand would fall and rejected claims of 90 deaths.

But local officials backed Rasoolyar's assertions, saying the Taliban were making steady gains in districts such as Sangin, which has long been a hornet's nest of insurgent activity.

Afghanistan's spy agency chief resigned earlier this month after a scathing Facebook post that vented frustration over Ghani's diplomatic outreach to Pakistan -- the Taliban's historic backers -- aimed at restarting peace talks with the insurgents.

Rahmatullah Nabil's resignation raised uncomfortable questions about a brewing leadership crisis in Afghanistan as the Taliban insurgency gains new momentum.

This month marks a year since the US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan transitioned into an Afghan-led operation, with allied nations assisting in training local forces.

President Barack Obama in October announced that thousands of US troops would remain in Afghanistan past 2016, backpedalling on previous plans to shrink the force and acknowledging that Afghan forces are not ready to stand alone. – Rappler.com

GENEVA, Switzerland – Representatives of Yemen's warring sides were meeting Sunday, December 20, for a final day of UN-backed peace negotiations, concluding nearly a week of talks with few results and clouded by widespread ceasefire violations on the ground.

UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has announced a press conference in Bern at 1600 GMT Sunday concluding the talks, and is expected to announce a new round, likely starting in mid-January, according to a source close to the rebel delegation.

Negotiators are scrambling to end the spiralling conflict, which has killed more than 5,800 people since March, according to the United Nations.

The sides, who have been meeting since Tuesday, December 15, in a remote part of Bern canton in a bid to keep the media at bay, agreed Saturday, December 19, to create "a neutral military committee" to monitor the collapsing ceasefire and another committee to oversee the delivery of humanitarian aid, sources from both delegations said.

The ceasefire theoretically took effect as the talks began six days ago, but it has repeatedly been violated.

Missiles have been fired from rebel-held areas, even slamming down on the Saudi side of the border with deadly consequences, while government forces have seized several areas back from the rebels.

"The negotiations have basically failed," said a source with the delegation representing both the Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels and renegade troops still loyal to wealthy ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

He told Agence France-Presse that the ceasefire, which was meant to facilitate the delivery of desperately-needed humanitarian aid, was "still-born".

"We have not achieved any results," agreed a source in President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government delegation.

The talks have among other things stumbled on the question of prisoners, with the rebels demanding swaps, while the government wants the Huthis to first liberate a number of its captives, including the president's brother, several sources said.

If nothing else, the talks have managed to get the rival sides to sit down at the same table.

During the last round of talks in Geneva in June, the UN mediator was forced to shuttle between the two delegations, who remained holed up in separate hotels.

Yemen's conflict erupted in September 2014, when the Huthis advanced from their northern strongholds to occupy the capital Sanaa.

It has escalated dramatically since Saudi-led air strikes against the rebels began in March, with more than 5,800 people killed -- about half of them civilians -- and more than 27,000 wounded since then, according to the UN. –  Nina Larson, AFP/Rappler.com

MIAMI, United States – SpaceX on Sunday, December 20, counted down to its first rocket launch since an explosion after liftoff destroyed its unmanned Dragon cargo ship bound for the International Space Station six months ago.

The Falcon 9 rocket is poised to launch at 8:29 pm (0129 GMT Monday) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, announced the California-based company headed by Internet tycoon Elon Musk.

After launch, SpaceX will attempt to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket in an upright position on solid ground for the first time, a milestone it sees as key for making rockets as reusable as commercial airplanes one day.

"If successful, this test would mark the first time in history an orbital rocket has successfully achieved a land landing," SpaceX said in a statement.

Several previous attempts at landing the rocket on a floating ocean platform have failed, but SpaceX says each try has taught them more about how to succeed in the future. 

SpaceX will aim to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 -- which is the long, towering portion of the rocket -- at a former US Air Force rocket and missile testing range that was last used in 1978.

The range is known as Landing Zone 1, and was formerly called Space Launch Complex 13. 

While the landing is important to SpaceX's plans, the primary goal of the mission is to deliver 11 satellites to low-Earth orbit for ORBCOMM, a global communications company.

- Competition heats up -Last month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos -- who also owns the rocket company Blue Origin -- announced he had successfully landed his New Shepard rocket after a suborbital flight.

New Shepard flew to a lower altitude than the Falcon 9, making the landing an easier feat for Bezos's rocket than it would be for Musk's, analysts say.

Both companies are aiming to boost savings and efficiency in modern rocketry by creating a new generation of complex machines that can be re-used after launch.

Presently, rocket components costing many millions of dollars are jettisoned as debris after takeoff.

The Falcon 9 poised for launch Sunday is 30 percent stronger than previous versions, SpaceX said.

The return to flight is an important milestone for SpaceX, following the June 28 accident when the Falcon 9 exploded just over two minutes after launching from Cape Canaveral.

The blast also destroyed its Dragon cargo ship loaded with supplies for the astronauts living in space, and came just eight months after a space station-bound rocket belonging to competitor Orbital blew up over a Virginia launch pad.

Musk said the Falcon 9 blast was due to a faulty strut.

The accident came after a series of successful launches for SpaceX, which was the first commercial outfit to send a cargo craft to space under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

Sunday's launch window lasts just 60 seconds. If for some reason the rocket does not take off as planned, another launch attempt is scheduled for December 21.

SpaceX cautioned residents of central Florida near Cape Canaveral that they may hear a sonic boom when the rocket lands, much like they did when the space shuttle landed years ago.

Sonic booms can resemble the crash of thunder and occur when an aircraft flies overhead faster than the speed of sound. – Kerry Sheridan, AFP/Rappler.com

MOSCOW, Russia – At least 8 people were injured on Sunday, December 20, in a gas explosion that led to the partial collapse of an apartment building in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, Russian authorities said.

Local officials said residents could be trapped under the rubble and that around 100 people have been made homeless, but did not confirm reports that two people may have died.

"According to preliminary data, a gas explosion occurred Dec 20 at around 12 pm in a multi-storey apartment building," the investigative committee said in a statement. 

Eight people, including two children aged five and seven, are in hospital but the committee said the children's lives are not in danger, it said.

A probe into the incident has been launched. 

Regional emergency services said a section of the apartment building had partially collapsed, sparking fears that residents could be trapped. 

"It is possible that some people are trapped under the rubble," Dmitry Ulanov, spokesman for the regional branch of the emergency situations ministry, told Agence France-Presse.

A source in the ministry told Interfax news agency that two people found under the debris did not show signs of life but Ulanov said he could not confirm the report. 

The ministry said emergency workers were still battling to put out the fire sparked by the blast. 

The head of the Volgograd district where the incident occurred, Sergei Tatsy, told state television that 36 apartments had been destroyed, leaving some 100 people homeless.

Residents will be temporarily relocated to local schools, the emergency situations ministry said. – Rappler.com

MADRID, Spain – Spanish firefighters were battling around 100 wildfires in the northwestern Asturias region on Sunday, December 20, where flames fed by strong winds forced the closure of roads and a rail line, officials said.

Over 230 firefighters backed by over 50 soldiers were deployed after the fires broke out on Saturday, December 19, as Spain basks in unusually warm weather for the time of the year.

"The intensity of the blazes has diminished due to the intense work carried out by firefighters and the rain that fell in some areas," a local emergency services statement said.

Wildfires are unusual in December and the authorities are investigating the cause of the blazes.

The flames affected mainly the northwestern part of the region, which boasts old and elegant seaside towns and a wealth of forests and vegetation that has made it popular with tourists.

Several roads and well as a railway linking Asturias to the neighbouring region of Galicia were closed off due to the flames on Saturday but have since reopened, local officials said.

Wind gusts of up to 100 kilometres (60 miles) an hour fanned the flames.

Wildfires have destroyed more than 54,000 hectares (13,300 acres) of agricultural and forest land in Spain this year, exceeding the area burned over the previous two years combined, the agriculture ministry said after major fires broke out in the summer. – Rappler.com

NEW DELHI, India – The youngest convict in an infamous fatal gang-rape on a bus in New Delhi three years ago has been released from a youth correctional facility, Indian police said Sunday. 

"The convict was handed over to an NGO. He is no longer under the jurisdiction of the police," Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told Agence France-Presse.

"He has been given a new identity and his criminal record has been expunged," a police source added.

News of the release was immediately condemned by the parents of the victim, a medical student who died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital nearly two weeks after the attack on December 16, 2012.

"Our fight was all about this convict not being allowed to walk free. If he has come out, what is the point of the hearing at the Supreme Court?" the mother of the victim told reporters.

"We want justice for our daughter."

India media said the 20-year-old convict, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been handed over to a charitable organisation on Sunday but police sources said the move had actually taken place some days ago.

The name of the NGO has not been released over fears that their offices could be attacked.

News of the release came only hours before a hearing on Monday at India's Supreme Court where a women's rights group will file a petition against the release.

The parents and women's rights groups have been opposing the release of the youngest attacker, mainly on the grounds that it was unclear if he had been rehabilitated and was ready to be reintegrated into society.

The attacker was the youngest of a group of men who brutally assaulted the 23-year-old student on a bus, triggering global outrage and protests in India over the country's high levels of violence against women.

He was sent to a correctional home for three years under India's juvenile laws while four others were convicted and given the death penalty in 2014. Their appeals against hanging are pending in the Supreme Court.

The student, who succumbed to her injuries two weeks after the attack, was publicly named by her mother on the third anniversary of her death last week, in an effort to end the stigma facing sex attack victims in India.

Under Indian law, the victim of a sex attack cannot be named even after their death. – Rappler.com

BANGKOK, Thailand – Twelve Malaysian tourists and a Thai were killed Sunday, December 20, in a bus crash in Thailand, a country with some of the world's most dangerous roads, according to information from police and a tour operator.

Investigators said the accident happened soon after midday in Doi Saket district 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the northern city of Chiang Mai.

"There are now 13 dead, 8 females, 5 males," an officer at Doi Saket police station told Agence France-Presse, asking not to be named.

He added that the victims were both "Chinese Malaysian and Thai" but could not give a breakdown as investigations were continuing.

In Malaysia, tour operator Chiu Travel said it had been informed by Thai authorities that 12 Malaysians and a Thai tour guide were killed.

"This is a real shock. We are all very sad," manager Terence Yung told Agence France-Presse by phone from the company's office in the southern state of Johor.

"We have also lost our tour leader. Some of the relatives are here. They are calm and sad. Some are crying. We are doing everything to help them."

Malaysia's foreign ministry put the number of Malaysian dead at 13. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

The ministry in a statement expressed "deepest condolences" to the family and friends of those killed. 

Multiple images posted online by local news outlets showed a horrific scene as rescuers battled to reach those trapped inside the smashed bus, which had come to rest in thick foliage with its roof caved in. 

Some of those still inside had suffered horrific injuries. In one picture 7 pieces of white sheeting had been draped to cover either bodies or body parts.

Deadly road accidents are common in Thailand.

In a 2015 study on global road safety the World Health Organization found Thailand had the world's second most dangerous roads with 36.2 fatalities per 100,000 people.

The WHO said the number of official reported road deaths a year in Thailand for 2012, the latest year figures are available for, was 14,059. 

But they added that their modelling suggested the true figure is actually closer to 24,000 dead a year.

Tourism is a mainstay of Thailand's otherwise fragile economy, accounting for around 10 percent of GDP, and the December to February period is peak season. – Rappler.com

KUALA Lumpur, Malaysia – Malaysia's first Islamic-compliant airline Rayani Air began operations Sunday, December 20, with its maiden flight taking off from the capital to the resort island of Langkawi, local media reported.

In-flight meals served on board its flights are completely halal, with alcohol consumption strictly prohibited.

Muslim flight crew must don the hijab while non-Muslim crew are to be decently dressed, managing director Jaafar Zamhari told reporters.

There will also be prayer recitals before take-off.

"We are the first Malaysian airline to be shariah-compliant based on guidelines by relevant authorities. We are proud of this," Jaffar was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper.

"The shariah-compliant aspects will be refined as time goes by," he added using the Arabic word for Islamic law.

There are already other shariah-friendly carriers operating around the world, and UK-based Firnas Airways is planning to offer similar flights next year, according to a Bloomberg new agency report.

Under the concept of halal -- meaning "permissible" in Arabic -- pork and its by-products, alcohol and animals not slaughtered according to Islamic procedures are all "haram" or forbidden.

Halal standards also apply to products such as cosmetics, which may contain animal-derived ingredients, and the conditions under which they are prepared and stored.

Muslim-majority Malaysia has long practised a moderate form of Islam but conservative attitudes are rising.

A company recently introduced halal bottled mineral water in Malaysia, and Islamic speed dating sessions -- where single women are chaperoned -- have been embraced.

A halal convention in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, which drew thousands of delegates and hundreds of exhibitors, showcased products ranging from food and cosmetics to collagen produced from yaks in Tibet. – Rappler.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Baghdad on Sunday, December 20, welcomed Turkey's move to pull troops out of northern Iraq but said it would keep up efforts at the United Nations to achieve a full withdrawal.

"What has been reported in the media is a step in the right direction," Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was quoted as saying in a statement from his office.

"We will carry on our process with the (UN) Security Council until a full withdrawal is achieved," he added.

Turkey announced on Saturday that it had begun withdrawing troops in a bid to de-escalate a bitter row with Baghdad and following a call from US President Barack Obama.

"Taking into account the sensitivities on the Iraqi side... Turkey will continue the process it has already begun to withdraw its troops stationed" near Mosul, the Turkish foreign ministry said.

Earlier this month, Turkey deployed troops to a base in Nineveh province where it has a long-running training programme for forces battling the Islamic State jihadist group.

Ankara insisted the deployment was routine and necessary to protect the trainers, while Baghdad said it was unauthorised and protested to the Security Council.

In a phone call on Friday, Obama urged his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to continue the pullout and "to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq". – Rappler.com

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Human Rights Watch charged Sunday, December 20, that Syrian government forces and their Russian allies have been making "extensive" use of cluster munitions against rebel groups since late September.

The New York-based rights watchdog said in a report it had documented the use of cluster munitions on 20 occasions since Russian and Syrian forces launched their assault on September 30.

HRW "collected detailed information about attacks in nine locations that have killed at least 35 civilians, including five women and 17 children, and injured dozens", the report said.

All the bombs were either made in Russia or the former Soviet Union, the rights group said.

"Syria's promises on indiscriminate weapons ring hollow when cluster munitions keep hitting civilians in many parts of the country," HRW's Ole Solvang said in the report.

Solvang urged the UN to "get serious about its commitment to protect Syria’s civilians by publicly demanding that all sides stop the use of cluster munitions".

Cluster munitions contain dozens or hundreds of bomblets and are fired in rockets or dropped from the air.

Widely banned, they spread explosives over large areas and are indiscriminate in nature, often continuing to maim and kill long after the initial attack when previously unexploded bomblets detonate.

Russia launched an aerial bombing campaign against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad on September 30.

More than 250,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions more have fled their homes. – Rappler.com