Other News

Hong Kong police use sledgehammers, chainsaws to clear protest barriers, open road

BY JAMES POMFRET AND DONNY KWOK (Reuters) – Hundreds of Hong Kong police used sledgehammers and chainsaws on Tuesday to tear down barricades erected by pro-democracy protesters near government offices and the financial center, reopening a major road for the first time in two weeks. But late in the evening demonstrators retaliated by swarming into a tunnel on a major four-lane thoroughfare, bringing traffic to a halt and chanting for universal suffrage. Riot police tried to push […]

Peace panels to craft transition plan for ARMM to Bangsamoro

MANILA, Philippines (Eagle News Service)  – ​ The peace panels of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are set to craft a clear transition plan for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the Bangsamoro as they continue work on implementing the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement of the Bangsamoro (CAB). This is happening even as Congress continues deliberations on the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). Based on a […]

Facing new oil glut, Saudi tries to avoid 1980s mistakes to halt price slide

(Reuters) – Still haunted by its failed attempt to prevent a steep drop in oil prices by slashing production by almost three quarters in the 1980s, the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is determined not to make the same mistake again. The oil glut of the 1980s, the early days of the modern crude market and a distant memory for most traders, has resurfaced recently in conversations with Saudi officials and veteran analysts who see it […]

U.S. sets up rapid-response Ebola team; Dallas nurse improves

BY TERRY WADE (Reuters) – The United States is establishing a rapid-response team to help hospitals “within hours” whenever there is a case of Ebola, the top doctor leading the fight against the deadly virus said on Tuesday. Prospects for a quick end to the contagion fell as the World Health Organization (WHO) predicted that three impoverished countries in West Africa – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – could produce as many as 10,000 new cases […]

Why abolishing direct local elections undermines Indonesia’s democracy

Authors: Jonathan Chen and Adhi Priamarizki, RSIS (Courtesy East Asia Forum) — A bill that will transfer the election of local leaders in Indonesia from the people to the Regional Legislative Councils is currently being contested. The Indonesian parliament passed the bill to end direct local elections on 26 September. But outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced on 30 September that he is preparing an emergency presidential decree to overturn the decision and restore elections. Direct […]

Ebola patient in Germany died of “severe case of disease,” doctor says

(Reuters) — A U.N. medical official who caught Ebola while working in Liberia and died in a German hospital suffered from a “severe cases of the disease,” a chief physician said in Leipzig on Tuesday (October 14). Bernhard Ruf of the department of infectious and tropical diseases and nephrology at St.Georg clinic said in a video message released by the hospital that “the patient who was hospitalised … and was treated with a severe case of Ebola died yesterday due to a very severe case of the disease […]

North Korea leader Kim re-appears, with walking stick: state media

BY TONY MUNROE AND JACK KIM (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, shown using a cane for support, re-appeared in state media on Tuesday after a lengthy public absence that had fueled speculation over his health and grip on power in the secretive, nuclear-capable country. Several pictures on the front page of the Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed Kim smiling and gesturing on a visit to a housing development, although there was no indication which day the […]

Philippines prepares for repatriation of at least 1,755 Filipinos from Ebola-affected countries

MANILA, Philippines (Eagle News Service) — The Philippine government is preparing for the imminent repatriation of some 1,800 Filipinos from three countries in West Africa struck by the deadly Ebola virus, as the Department of Foreign Affairs mulls the raising of the crisis alert level in the Ebola-affected countries by mid-November.In a press briefing in Malacañang, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. told reporters that the government is establishing a protocol to repatriate […]

Murder complaint to be filed vs US soldier tagged in the killing of Filipino transgender

MANILA, Philippines (Eagle News Service) — Malacanang said the governments of the Philippines and the United States will follow the provisions of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in seeking justice for the murder of a Filipino allegedly by an American serviceman in Olongapo City, as police prepare to file a murder complaint against the suspect Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., said that the Philippine government will follow the detailed process as laid […]

What can we learn from Abenomics?

Author: Adam S. Posen, Peterson Institute of International Economics (Courtesy East Asia Forum) — One of the striking things about the past few decades of Japan’s economic history has been the fact that textbook macroeconomics could have predicted most of it. Back in the late 1990s, this was a controversial point of view. Many people spoke about the ‘specialness’ of the Japanese economy, just as they have about the ‘specialness’ of recent monetary policy. This over-complication seems […]

Families torn apart as dozens of French girls join Islamist cause in Syria

(Reuters) — While Western governments have focused on the thousands of male jihadist volunteers who have left for Syria and Iraq, security officials in Europe are expressing alarm about a smaller but steady stream of female groups heading the same way. France, which is home to Europe’s biggest Muslim community, struggles with the flow of would-be jihadists to Syria and French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve believes almost a thousand French citizens are either already there or trying to go. Among them are dozens of girls […]