Exclusive: China tried to convince N.Korea to give up nuclear tests -source
By Benjamin Kang Lim | Reuters – 3 hours ago
BEIJING (Reuters) - China told an envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that Pyongyang should stop conducting nuclear and missile tests, but the North showed little sign of heeding the request, said a source with knowledge of the talks held late last month.
Kim dispatched Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of the country's top military body, to explain North Korea's recent actions but he got a lukewarm reception from his Chinese hosts, said the source, who has close ties to Beijing and Pyongyang.
North Korea's 30-year-old leader took power in December 2011 and has carried out two long-range rocket launches and a nuclear weapons test since then. He also embarked on a months-long campaign of threats against South Korea and the United States.
It's Twitter, not the 'Turkish Spring': Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames 'extremists' as protester is shot dead near Syrian border
The Prime Minister rejected comparisons with the Arab Spring wave of protests
Turkey's Prime Minister has blamed “extremists” for inciting tensions as reports unfold of the second death during the country's unrest, in which thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Istanbul and cities across the nation for a fourth day of anti-government demonstrations.
A protester, named as 22-year-old Abdullah Comert, was shot dead late yesterday during an anti-government demonstration in Antakya, a town in the south of the country near the Syrian border, according to the provincial governor's office.
4 June 2013 Last updated at 04:52 GMT
US offers rewards for capture of African militants
The US is offering rewards for the first time for information on Islamist militants in North and West Africa.
The highest reward of up to $7m (£4.6m) is for information leading to the location of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, the state department said.
Smaller rewards are offered for leading figures in Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao).
A reward of up to $5m was on offer for veteran militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
His Signed in Blood Battalion was held responsible for an attack on a gas plant in south-east Algeria in January in which at least 37 hostages, including three US citizens, were killed.
Coca toothpaste? Bolivia tries to drum up demand for 'legal' coca products.
The coca leaf - used to make cocaine - is classified as an illegal drug by international bodies. But the Bolivian government argues using more leaves for products like cookies and energy drinks could help curb trafficking.
The coca leaf is everywhere here. Its pungent smell rises from giant sacks presided over by indigenous women selling at street markets; and in local parks men hold pink plastic bags of it, slowly stuffing their cheeks with the leaf. Consuming coca is legal in Bolivia, and as waiters cheerfully plunk down cups of hot water with coca tea bags floating on top, you'd never guess the ever-present substance is classified as a narcotic drug by the United Nations (UN).
China's forced labor camps: One woman's fight for justice
Beijing (CNN) -- A large white poster dominates Liu Xiuzhi's simple room.
In black Chinese script she has written the story of her decade-long struggle for justice. A story of how a simple legal dispute ended years later with Liu being branded a prostitute and thrown into solitary confinement.
"A day in that place felt like a year," she says. "Ordinary people wouldn't be able to understand."
Liu's story begins, like many legal battles in China, over a property dispute with a powerful neighbor.
U.N. Panel Reports Increasing Brutality by Both Sides in Syria Conflict
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
Published: June 4, 2013
GENEVA — Reporting “new levels of brutality” in Syria’s more than two-year-old conflict, United Nations investigators said on Tuesday they believed chemical weapons and thermobaric bombs were used in recent weeks and urged the international community to cut off supplies of weapons that could only result in more civilian casualties.
The Commission of Inquiry investigating the hostilities in Syria said it “documents for the first time the systematic imposition of sieges, the use of chemical agents and forcible displacement” in a report presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council. “War crimes, crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations continue apace,” it added, reporting 17 incidents that could be called massacres between mid-January and mid-May.
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