2 September 2013 Last updated at 08:23 GMT
Locals demand $100,000 in compensation for use of dump near naval base on Manus Island
The crossing point is subject to closure from either side’s border guards and had previously been shut to buses for six weeks due to fighting on the Syrian side.
Syria minister: US strike on Syria 'would benefit al-Qaeda'
Any US military action against Syria would amount to "support for al-Qaeda and its affiliates," Damascus has said.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad also told the BBC that armed groups backed by America had used chemical weapons - not Syrian troops.
The US earlier said it had evidence that Damascus had used the nerve agent sarin in a deadly attack last week.
President Barack Obama has vowed punitive action but wants Congress to vote on the issue first.
US lawmakers are due to reconvene next week, and White House officials have said they believe they will support the president.
Campaigning to convince people and politicians that military intervention is the right way forward has already begun in America, correspondents say.
PNG landowners threaten to shut off water to asylum seeker centre
Locals demand $100,000 in compensation for use of dump near naval base on Manus Island
Landowners on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island are demanding $100,000 in compensation from the Australian government or they will shut off water to the asylum seeker detention centre.
The local MP and vice-minister for trade, Ron Knight, said landowners were demanding 231,000 kina ($A108,000) in compensation for use of a dump site near Lombrum naval base, where Australia is housing about 500 asylum seekers.
The groups also want 21,000 kina a month for continued use of the dump as well as 60,000 kina a month to cover anchorage and waste management of Australian navy ships.
Hollande comes under pressure to allow French Syria vote
President François Hollande came under pressure yesterday to follow Barack Obama and David Cameron and allow a French parliamentary vote on punitive air strikes on Syria.
The Assemblée Nationale (lower house) will debate the alleged use of poison gas by the Syrian regime on Wednesday but no vote is planned. According to one interpretation of the French constitution, a parliamentary vote on military action is impossible until four months after the President of the Republic decides to act.
President Obama’s decision to delay military strikes and seek Congressional approval has, however, caused a potential domestic crisis for President Hollande. Several senior opposition figures yesterday backed away from or directly criticised the planned French participation in US air raids on Syria. They called on the government to put the intervention to a vote on Wednesday.
INDIA
'India needs more gender-sensitized judges'
An Indian juvenile court delivered the first conviction in the case of a fatal gang rape last year in New Delhi. But legal expert Indira Jaising says changes in the judiciary are needed to make women feel safer in India.
A juvenile court found the defendant guilty of raping and murdering a 23-year-old woman last December. On Saturday, August 31, the court sentenced the young adult, who was 17 at the time of the attack, to three years in a correctional facility, which includes the time he has already spent in custody.
The defendant was one of six people accused of raping and brutalizing the physiotherapy student, and savagely beating her male partner on a moving bus. The woman died from her injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.
Nigeria's ruling party splinters
Seven Nigerian ruling party governors and a former presidential candidate formed a splinter group opposed to President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday.
Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party has been in power since shortly after the end of military rule in 1998, but it is increasingly riven by internal squabbles, centred around Jonathan's alleged intention to run again in 2015.
"We address you today as leaders of the PDP, who are worried by the increasing repression, restrictions of freedom of association, arbitrary suspension of members," read the statement by seven governors and former vice-president Atiku Abubakar.
"We consider it a sacred responsibility to save the PDP from the antics of a few desperadoes who ... are bent on hijacking the party for selfish ends," it added.
For Syrian bus drivers mayhem, danger, and making a living
Bus and taxi drivers continue to take passengers into and out of Syria, braving death and dealing with corrupt soldiers, unpredictable checkpoints, and theft.
As the US considers a strike on Syria and allegations of a chemical weapon attack fly, drivers continue to ferry Syrians around the war-torn country and back and forth across its southern border with Jordan.
For the estimated 1.3 million Syrians living in the safety of Jordan, the trips are perilous, but considered essential. Many return home temporarily to see family members left behind, others to check on property or business assets.
For the drivers, who are mostly Syrian, the job is a financial lifeline in a desolate economy. Syrians who have fled to Jordan aren’t allowed to work officially and jobs are even harder to come by at home.
The crossing point is subject to closure from either side’s border guards and had previously been shut to buses for six weeks due to fighting on the Syrian side.
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