Secondary school students joined university and college students capping a week long rally for greater democracy for Hong Kong.
Asia
North Korean TV acknowledges leader Kim Jong Un’s health problems
BY JAMES PEARSON (Reuters) – Young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is suffering from “discomfort”, state media has said in the first official acknowledgement of ill health after a prolonged period out of the public eye. Kim, 31, who is frequently the centrepiece of the isolated country’s propaganda, has not been photographed by state media since appearing at a concert alongside his wife on Sept. 3, fuelling speculation he is suffering from bad health. He […]
Hong Kong school children join student protest demanding democracy
BY DIANA CHAN AND KINLING LO (Reuters) – Hundreds of school children joined university students demanding greater democracy on Friday, capping a week-long campaign that has seen a large cut-out depicting Hong Kong’s leader as the devil paraded through the city and calls for him to resign. About 200 students camped outside the home of chief executive Leung Chun-ying on Thursday night after he ignored a 48-hour ultimatum to meet them to discuss the former […]
At least 14 militants dead in U.S.-led strikes in Syria: monitor
(Reuters) – At least 14 Islamic State fighters were killed in air strikes by U.S.-led forces overnight in northeast Syria, a group monitoring the war said on Thursday. The strikes also killed at least five civilians, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A third night of U.S.-led air strikes late on Wednesday targeted Islamic State-controlled oil refineries in eastern Syria as the United States and its allies tried to […]
Islamist fighters advance in Syria despite U.S. strikes
BY KINDA MAKIEH AND JONNY HOGG (Reuters) – U.S. and coalition planes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria again on Wednesday, but the strikes did not halt the fighters’ advance in a Kurdish area where fleeing refugees told of villages burnt and captives beheaded. U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking at the United Nations, asked the world to join together to fight the militants and vowed to keep up military pressure against them. “The only language […]
Shadowy al Qaeda cell, hit by U.S. in Syria, seen as ‘imminent’ threat
(Reuters) – While the world has focused on a U.S.-led air assault on Islamic State strongholds in Syria, American officials said they also struck a blow there against a little-known cadre of hardened al Qaeda militants that posed a more immediate threat to the West. The strikes early on Tuesday on what Washington called the Khorasan Group, so shadowy that U.S. officials had barely uttered its name in public, were staged to disrupt a plot against […]
Why cultural values cannot be ignored in international relations
Author: Kadira Pethiyagoda, Canberra Courtesy East Asia Forum One hundred years ago began the war that was supposed to end all wars. This inauspicious centenary has allowed the foreign affairs commentariat to indulge in one of the things it is best at — drawing historical analogies. It is true that aspects of the global landscape look similar to a century ago. States push the boundaries of international law and act unilaterally, returning to old-school territoriality. A major […]
Storm kills four in Taiwan
“Mario” brought heavy rains and strong wings to Taiwan, killing 4.
Airstrike in Iraq
The French military conducted airstrikes against the Islamic State militants in Iraq. Two French military jets bomb a depot and a military base used by the ISIS as a fort. More than 20 Islamic militants were said to have been killed in the said airstrike.
About 60,000 Syrian Kurds flee to Turkey from Islamic State advance
(Reuters) – About 60,000 Syrian Kurds fled into Turkey in the space of 24 hours, a deputy prime minister said on Saturday, as Islamic State militants seized dozens of villages close to the border. Turkey opened a stretch of the frontier on Friday after Kurdish civilians fled their homes, fearing an imminent attack on the border town of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobani. A Kurdish commander on the ground said Islamic State had advanced to […]
Airstrike in Syria kills 50
Continuing airstrikes in the province of Homs in Syria kills 50. Reports said that the target of the attack is the suspected meeting of terrorists in the area. A dozen terrorists were killed in the said incident.
Chinese envoy says North Korea’s Kim Jong Un may visit Beijing: Yonhap
SEOUL Tue Sep 16, 2014 11:55pm EDT (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could go to China on his first foreign trip since taking power, China’s ambassador to South Korea said on Wednesday, according to a report from South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. The 31-year-old leader assumed power after his father, Kim Jong Il, died suddenly in 2011. China is North Korea’s closest ally and main benefactor. “I think that a visit from […]
