Ireland's parliament has become the first in the world to vote to divest from fossil fuels, paving the way for a historic ban on government investment in nonrenewable energy.

The Irish parliament, the Dail, voted 90 to 53 to pass the historic Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill on Thursday.

The bill was penned "in light of the urgency to phase out fossil fuel exploration, extraction and combustion in a timely manner to enable delivery of the commitment adopted in the Paris Agreement."

It enables Ireland to divest its sovereign wealth fund, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), worth €8.5 billion, from coal, gas and oil and would see a ban on any further fossil fuels investment going forward.

Syrian army regains control of formerly Al-Qaeda controlled valley vital for the supply of fresh water to Damascus.

The Jihadi interruption of the water supply to Damascus - which has gone on virtually unreported in the Western media for 44 days - is set to end, with the Syrian army finally gaining control of the water springs in Wadi Barada which provide water to Syria's capital.

Al-Masdar's report confirming the capture of the springs contains this sardonic comment about the Al-Qaeda led Jihadis who have surrendered to the Syrian army in Wadi Barada

With the Syrian Army in control of Wadi Barada, the remaining jihadist rebels will be transferred to the Idlib Governorate, where they will be reacquainted with their comrades.

The ironic last words refer to the fierce fighting currently going on between Jihadi groups in Idlib province.

Events since the Syrian army's capture of eastern Aleppo highlight its continuing problems.

Recent negotiations in Astana may create the basis for further political reconciliation, several members of the Syrian opposition told RT, while emphasizing that the constitution is a matter that should be exclusively decided by the people of Syria.

Despite major differences in the political platforms of the Syrian opposition members with whom RT spoke, most agreed that the Astana meeting had not been held in vain. As an example of progress, Hassan Abdul Azim, the General Coordinator of the National Coordination Committee for the Forces of Democratic Change (NCC), a Syrian opposition group comprising over a dozen left-leaning political parties, pointed to an agreement reached with the military wing of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) that became a part of the ceasefire regime.

"The meeting in Astana is an attempt to support this agreement and to secure the ceasefire regime on the whole territory of Syria, excluding ISIS [Islamic State, formerly ISIL] and Al-Nusra Front," Azim told RT, adding that the Astana forum had not replaced the Geneva conference, but rather prepared the ground for it.

Azim said that Russia has become more flexible and begun playing "a more important role" in the peace process. Commenting on the draft constitution put forward by Russia, he stressed that the new Syrian constitution should be solely authored by the Syrian people. "[Russian foreign minister Sergey] Lavrov assured us that the submitted draft was only major ideas up for discussion and asked us to send our draft, while saying Russia would not impose anything on the Syrians," Azim said.

The Russian newspaper Izvestia reported that Ka-52 Alligator advanced combat helicopters and Su-25 Rook attack aircraft have joined in efforts to liberate the Syrian city of Palmyra from Daesh terrorists.

The goal is to significantly strengthen the fire impact on terrorist positions, the newspaper said, referring to an interaction between a Ka-52 and a Su-25 as a combination of intelligence capabilities and high strike power.

"It is designed to compensate for the lack of Syrian artillery strike capabilities, as well as to provide effective support to government forces advancing on Palmyra," Izvestia said.

Earlier the company's board chairman Viktor Zubkov said that 2017 gas supplies to non-CIS countries may be higher than last year's though this depends on a variety of factors.

Gazprom set a new record of daily gas supplies to non-CIS countries of 636.4 mln cubic meters on January 27, the company said on Saturday.

"This week has already become record-setting for Gazprom. This is the fourth day in a row that the company hits all-time highs of daily supplies to non-CIS countries. The new all-time record reached on January 27 topped 636.4 mln cubic meters," the report said.

UN agencies issued a joint statement calling on Washington to continue letting refugees into the US after Donald Trump signed an executive order banning entry to Syrian refugees and suspending visas for visitors from six other Muslim-majority nations.

"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater, and the US resettlement program is one of the most important in the world," said Saturday's joint statement from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The agencies added that the program was "a win-win situation," which saved the lives of refugees, who then "enriched and strengthened their new societies" with "overwhelmingly positive" contributions.

Both organizations "hope that the US will continue its strong leadership role and long tradition of protecting those who are fleeing conflict and persecution."

President Donald Trump's administration has signaled that it may push to lift a U.S. government ban on "enhanced" interrogation techniques such as waterboarding that most experts describe as "torture." A draft executive order made public by The New York Times and other outlets this week also instructs the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to consider opening secret overseas detention centers, or "black sites," that the previous administration outlawed in 2009. The potential moves reopen a question that most scientists considered closed: Does torture work?

Trump has argued that torture forces detainees to divulge information that professional interrogation techniques fail to elicit. He reiterated that belief in an interview with ABC News that aired yesterday. When asked whether he wants to bring back waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, Trump said: "I [want to] do everything within the bounds of what you're allowed to do legally. But do I feel it works? Absolutely I feel it works." Most experts who study interrogation, and some individuals who conducted interrogations and later went public, disagree.

Some 40 Turkish military service personnel, mostly high-ranking ones, who were stationed at the facilities of NATO in Germany have applied for asylum in the European country, German media report.

According to reports by the German public TV chain ARD and the Der Spiegel weekly news magazine on Saturday, citing unnamed sources, the military servicemen had been relived from their duties earlier by Ankara on suspicions of having alleged roles in the mid-July failed military coup back in their home country against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Der Spiegel quoted some unnamed officials from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and the Federal Ministry of the Interior as saying that the case was treated as all others.

The new US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, who has little foreign policy experience, has warned US allies that if they do not support Washington, she will be playing tit-for-tat and "taking names."

"Our goal with the administration is to show value at the UN and the way that we'll show value is to show our strength, show our voice, have the backs of our allies and make sure that our allies have our back as well," Haley said on arriving at UN headquarters in New York to present her credentials to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"For those that don't have our back, we're taking names, we will make points to respond to that accordingly," Haley warned on Friday.

The 45-year old had been serving as South Carolina's Republican governor for 5 years when Trump picked her for the coveted post.

A new campaign against the Russian devil has started in the US and UK media where the Hillary Clinton-for-President forces are strongest. The problem for them this time is that President Vladimir Putin is on the side of the angels. But he is unwilling to stop a power play by the Russian Orthodox Church. Four out of five Russians, and an even higher number of Russian women, would back Putin if he did.

A month ago, Putin came out against parental slapping or beating of children, discreetly referring to the Church's biblical interpretations as obsolete. "We should not slap children and justify it based on some old traditions," Putin said at his national press conference on December 23. "Neither parents, nor neighbours should do this, although this sometimes happens. There is a short distance from slaps to beating. Children fully depend on adults; they are the most dependent members of society. There are many other ways to bring children up without slapping."

The president was responding to a Church-sponsored revision of Article 116 of the Russian Criminal Code. In its present form, inherited from the Soviet code, conviction for violence in the family is a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in prison. The readiness of victims to file charges; of the police and prosecutors to investigate; and of the courts to convict has been lax. "On the other hand," Putin qualified himself, he isn't exactly against the legislative change proposed in the State Duma by the Church. "We should be reasonable too, because actions such as you describe destroy families. Like you, I am against such distorted forms of juvenile justice. Frankly speaking, I believed that my instruction had been fulfilled. The State Duma Speaker [Vyacheslav Volodin] has updated me on this only recently, and he said that the related amendments had been approved. Let us discuss this issue once again. I promise to look at this matter and to analyse the situation. Unceremonious interference in family matters is unacceptable."

Last month Putin not only went beyond Church doctrine on family discipline, battery and violence. He also extended state protection against violence to animals. "We should proceed from the principle of humanism with regard to animals, including stray ones." He went on: "About animal rights - it sounds nice indeed, but [for] dog owners, any pet owners - they [animals] do have rights. As for humanitarian issues such as the humane treatment of animals, these fall into a different regulatory domain, although it should certainly be improved. You know, there have been suggestions about toughening some of the legislation and the general regulatory framework. I would support them, given that everything is within reasonable limits, but regulation is certainly necessary."