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[EX Q]: Rand Paul wears his political ambition for all to see. Look no further than the tie he sported during a three-day trip to Iowa. It had yellow images of corn, the crop that epitomizes politics in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. "And by coincidence, I have one in the shape of South Carolina," the Kentucky Republican said Wednesday, drawing laughs. He was speaking at a Republican breakfast outside Des Moines at Machine Shed, a Midwest restaurant chain where the waiters wear overalls and drinks are served in Mason jars. As Paul blitzed across the Hawkeye State this week, holding events at Iowa GOP offices and campaigning for local candidates, he hardly played coy to the question of whether he was running for President. After all, his nine-city trip marked his fourth visit to the state since the 2012 election. "I don't know why Iowa keeps popping up on my calendar, but it seems to be pretty frequent," he said Monday, clearly with sarcasm. His itinerary this time included a campaign-style schedule where he continued testing his 2016 message on the road. From reducing the federal deficit to defending civil liberties and reforming the criminal justice system, Paul mostly stayed on his talking points. But the trip was not without controversy. His combative answer to a reporter's question -- combined with video of Paul appearing to avoid an immigration activist — absorbed most of the attention surrounding his visit. Experts say it's unlikely those story lines will derail any progress Paul has made in the state with voters, but his comments could underscore questions some Republicans have about his foreign policy, especially as he seeks to broaden his appeal. Off-message . At his first stop on Monday, which actually took place in Omaha, Nebraska, near the Iowa state line, Paul held a news conference after touring a tech startup venue with Nebraska GOP Senate hopeful Ben Sasse. Asked if he still supported phasing out foreign aid to Israel, Paul fired back at a reporter for "mischaracterizing" his position and staunchly denied that he had ever proposed such legislation. But it's well-documented that he called for ending all foreign aid, including assistance to Israel, and sought support in Congress for his proposal in 2011. In Iowa, Paul stressed that he never introduced legislation that solely "targeted" Israel and argued that he strongly favors sending money to the country. Still, he added, Israel will be better positioned in the long run without foreign assistance. "Every country ultimately would be better off to be independent," he said on Tuesday. Paul is also taking heat for quickly exiting a tense moment when an immigration activist confronted Rep. Steve King at a fundraiser while the two lawmakers ate dinner Monday night. Video of the incident shows Paul, at the behest of his press aide, quickly getting up from the table and getting away from the confrontation. Paul said he was stepping away to do interviews with local media. Whether or not those interviews were hastened because of the activist is unclear. Still, the video quickly spread and it was enough for critics to frame a narrative that Paul bolted from an uncomfortable exchange. The dust-ups in his trip made headlines and ate up much of the coverage of his Iowa visit. David Kochel, Mitt Romney's Iowa strategist in 2008 and 2012, said he doubts caucus voters will judge Paul negatively for leaving after "someone tried to sandbag him." "I think he's fine on that," he said. "As for Israel, that's a little more difficult. You have social conservatives in Iowa who very much feel the need to be in solidarity with Israel -- not just Christian conservatives, but it's also national security conservatives." While Paul has voted in favor of sending more aid to Israel this year and has proposed cutting off aid to the Palestinians, his past statements and views on foreign policy are rooted in his libertarian leanings — a perspective still largely outside of mainstream Republican thought. "He'll probably have work to do on that issue," Kochel continued. "It could be one of those things that might limit his potential." Still, Kochel thinks Paul is the current frontunner in Iowa among prospective candidates. He points to Paul's frequent travel to the state, his efforts to build a wider GOP, and the network of supporters built by his father's presidential campaigns the past two cycles. 'Son of Ron' In the 2012 Iowa caucuses, former Rep. Ron Paul of Texas finished with 21% of the vote, just slightly behind Romney and former Sen. Rick Santorum — who tied for first at 25%. Many of Ron Paul's supporters were previously inactive in politics, citing a lack of candidates who represented their views. "Your father cured my apathy," one man told Rand Paul at an event in Council Bluffs. Building off Ron Paul's 2012 momentum, the so-called liberty faction of Iowa's Republican Party eventually took control of party leadership. Mainstream Republicans, with the support of Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, wrestled back control earlier this year. But Paul knows he needs more than just the libertarian wing of the party. As seen in his trip this week, he's going after the state's social conservatives and business Republicans, too. "Paul is attempting to pivot from being 'Son of Ron,' so to speak," said Dennis Goldford, professor of politics at Drake University in Des Moines. "He's never going to deny that or reject it. But he has the view that Republicans need a broader base or broader range than some other candidates have maintained." Paul spoke at five GOP offices this week and five other events in a tour that took him around the state in a 730-mile loop. At each stop, Paul's main message sought to counter post-2012 perceptions that the Republican Party should change its message. "I say 'hell no.' We have to be more boldly for what we're for," he said at the GOP office in Davenport. It's a mantra he has repeated in his travels across the country this year. But he proposes doing so with some traditional and unorthodox ideas for mainstream Republicans. Part of that includes a push to speak out against domestic surveillance programs and mount a strong defense of the Fourth Amendment. He has also been aggressive in courting voters and even Democrats to help expand the party. To do that, he's urging for reform to the criminal justice system with reduced sentences for nonviolent drug offenders and the restoration of voting rights to nonviolent felons after they get out of jail. In Northwest Iowa, home to many of the state's social conservatives, Paul placed an evangelical spin on his message. "Many of us are Christians, we believe in a second chance in our religion. Anybody here who's not a sinner, raise their hand," he said Monday night at a fundraiser in Okoboji. "We believe in redemption, should the law allow people a second chance." But that's about as deep as Paul waded into social issues during the trip. He didn't talk about abortion, contraception or same-sex marriage until audience members asked him about the issues at one of his final events. Asked whether he supported a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, Paul said he "favors the concept" of traditional marriage but argued the federal government should stay out marriage entirely. "I don't want to register my guns in Washington or my marriage," he said. The previous past two winners of Iowa caucuses, Santorum and Mike Huckabee, both ran on a vocal platform with regard to social issues. Goldford said if Paul doesn't devote more attention to those topics, someone else will step in to fill in the void. "To function in Iowa he's going to have to address the concerns of conservative evangelicals because Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are going to do that," he said. Paul left Iowa before this weekend's annual summit hosted by the Family Leader, a group that's influential with social conservatives in the state. Guest speakers include Cruz, Huckabee, Santorum, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Paul said he couldn't make it due to a scheduling conflict. But he indicated he'd be back. "You have to meet people four, five, six times in Iowa because they expect a real personal touch, and I think it's actually one of the good things about the process," he told reporters, before needlessly adding: "if I decide to do this."
[EX A]: Rand Paul made a high-profile trip to Iowa this week .
Iowa is a magnet for presidential hopefuls .
Paul made headlines for changing his tune on foreign aid .
Experts say the controversy isn't a deal breaker, but he still needs social conservatives .

[EX Q]: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The world's tropical forests are disappearing, and one reason is simple economics: People, companies and governments earn more by logging, mining or farming places such as the Amazon jungle than by conserving them. Global climate change treaty, scheduled for completion in December, is designed to protect tropical forests. Efforts to halt rain forest destruction date back decades, but they so far have failed to tackle the issue on a scale commensurate with the challenge. Now there may be a remedy, and the reason is climate change. Increased awareness of the threat from global warming has prompted unprecedented international focus on how to combat it, as well as new appreciation for the vital role of tropical forests in the climate change equation. On Tuesday, world leaders gather at the United Nations for a special climate change summit, intended to build momentum for a new global climate change treaty being negotiated by almost 200 countries. The new treaty is scheduled to be completed in December in Copenhagen, Denmark. If eventually enacted, the treaty will include a revolutionary but little-known provision intended to protect remaining tropical forests. Known as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in developing countries, or REDD, the provision is based on the knowledge that destroying tropical forests contributes to global warming. Rain forests absorb and store huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Burning or clearing the forests returns that stored CO2 to the atmosphere, where it can trap heat and gradually increase temperatures. Every year, tropical forests equal to an area the size of England are destroyed, contributing about 20 percent of total annual greenhouse gas emissions -- more than all the world's cars, trucks and airplanes combined. The idea of the proposed provision is to make the stored carbon dioxide in the forests a commodity that can be bought and sold on the global market. Polluters in the developing world would be able to offset their emissions by buying credits for stored forest carbon dioxide. The money from those purchases would go to developing world governments, international organizations, local communities and others involved in forest protection programs. For the first time, tropical forests would be worth money for simply existing. That could create an economic incentive to protect tropical forests, which also have biological value as the planet's richest storehouses of land species and spiritual worth as pristine natural landscapes. To longtime defenders of tropical forests, the proposal represents the final stage of a long and halting journey from the fringes of the environmental movement toward the mainstream of international policy. "Done properly, this is our No. 1 hope," said Randall Hayes, who founded the Rainforest Action Network in 1985 with the goal of halting tropical deforestation. "Other strategies have been heroic but insufficient." The system would let nations and industries that are the biggest greenhouse-gas emitters buy carbon credits in tropical forests in South and Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia and other equatorial regions. At the same time, investors could speculate on the price of carbon dioxide through credit trading. Private and public funds could invest in projects that protect forests to generate credits. Final details of the plan remain uncertain, such as how forest carbon credits would be verified and how the money paid for them would be handled and distributed. For developing countries, the idea represents a potential new revenue source. President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana, a leading proponent of the plan, has made trading carbon credits a central element of his Low-Carbon Development Strategy. The strategy "is more about development than about the environment and it will help us to accelerate infrastructural development and fill the budget gap," Jagdeo said in an August 29 speech. The World Bank and partners have set up funds to help developing countries prepare for REDD and finance forest-protection initiatives. However, both funds are not fully capitalized, pending the successful conclusion of negotiations on the new global climate change treaty. "Right now everybody is in a wait-and-see mode," said Benoit Bosquet, the World Bank's lead carbon finance specialist. "Everybody seems interested, but the level of activity is still humble." Conservationists cite the environmental benefits of saving tropical forests, which provide essential resources and services -- such as fresh water, food, flood control and many others -- on which more than a billion people depend. Now, they say, conserving forests also can contribute to sustainable development, benefiting both nature and people. Yet several steps remain before the tropical-forest provision becomes reality on a large scale. First, the U.N.-led negotiations must agree on a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol -- the world's first global climate change agreement, which expires in 2012. The Kyoto treaty created a global carbon market -- but only the carbon storage of newly planted or replanted forests is eligible for credits. REDD also would protect standing forests, to prevent the absorbed carbon dioxide stocks from being released back into the atmosphere. Whether a new treaty will be completed in December is unclear. Negotiators have yet to set consensus targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and major disputes remain between industrialized powers such as the United States and emerging and developing economies including China and Brazil. The draft under negotiation includes REDD, but negotiations continue on how broad the policy would be. Advocates of a limited scope for REDD say areas with no history of deforestation should be excluded because protecting them won't reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In response, conservationists and developing nations warn against leaving out nations and regions -- including Jagdeo's Guyana, parts of Indonesia and Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo and others -- that still have much of their tropical forest intact. They argue that halting deforestation in only some countries would cause the loggers, palm oil developers and other drivers of forest destruction to move to previously untargeted areas. "If REDD mechanisms exclude any significant group of countries, REDD will fail," Jagdeo told U.N. negotiators in December. Critics, including some environmental groups, question how such a vast and complex system can be successfully implemented. A Greenpeace report issued in March said including REDD credits in carbon markets would create a glut and drastically cut the price of carbon, resulting in industrial polluters buying cheap credits for offsets instead of reducing their emissions. The report also warned of reduced investments in renewable energy technologies due to the lack of an incentive from the cheaper carbon credits. Others question whether REDD will be another scheme generated by industrialized nations to exploit resources of the developing world, and in particular, the indigenous forest peoples. Jagdeo, the president of Guyana, has said such critics should recognize the opportunity that a new climate change treaty could present. If it includes sufficiently robust commitments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he argues, that would create a strong demand for carbon credits. The deforestation provision of a climate change treaty could help stem deforestation while providing "badly needed capital flows to some of the poorest countries in the world," he said. Yet even the idea's most ardent supporters recognize that it could take years for a global-scale program to become effective. While local projects exist in rain forest countries such as Madagascar, it would take time and money to expand them. "If there is a deal in Copenhagen and if there is a signaling by industrialized nations that, yes, they will make money available, then you will see developing countries scaling up their readiness," said the World Bank's Bosquet. "They will see that this is now real and it's the time to react."
[EX A]: World leaders gather at the United Nations for special climate change summit .
Treaty based on finding that destroying tropical forests adds to global warming .
With proposed provision, stored carbon dioxide in forests could be bought and sold .
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation provision has critics .

[EX Q]: (CNN) -- North Korea resumed firing near its sea border with South Korea on Thursday, South Korean media said, citing Seoul officials. Artillery shells were fired toward South Korean-controlled Yeonpyeong Island, Yonhap News Agency quoted the officials as saying, adding that the shells fell in waters north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto inter-Korean maritime border. The North fired artillery shells on Wednesday in the same area, saying they were part of an annual training drill. "We have confirmed North Korea's firing of several artillery shells, but they did not cross" the two countries' maritime border, said Park Sung-woo, of Seoul's joint chiefs of staff, according to Yonhap. "We are on high military alert." "Following the firing by North Korea, South Korea responded by shooting vulcan canons into the air, a statement that it would not be intimidated by saber-rattling by the communist neighbor," Yonhap said. There were no reports of casualties. Also Thursday, a South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman said that despite the tension, talks slated for Monday with North Korea would still go forward in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, Yonhap reported. Seventeen South Korean officials are expected to attend those talks, Yonhap cited Chun Hae-sung, the official, as saying.
[EX A]:
NEW: Talks still on for Monday in North Korean border town, South Korean official says .
North says firing of artillery shells is part of an annual training drill .
Inter-Korean talks still set for Monday, Yonhap cites S. Korean official as saying .