3 December 2013 Last updated at 08:56 GMT
Ukraine's leader calls for calm as opposition bids to topple government
December 3, 2013
North Korea powerbroker 'dismissed'
A powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been removed from his post, South Korean media reports say.
Citing intelligence sources, they say Chang Song-thaek lost his position as vice-chairman of the North's top military body.
Two close aides were also executed for corruption, according to the reports.
If confirmed, Mr Chang's removal would be the most significant upheaval in North Korea's leadership since Mr Kim succeeded his father, analysts say.
Kim Jong-un took over after Kim Jong-il died in 2011.
Ukraine's leader calls for calm as opposition bids to topple government
Russian leader calls protests a “pogrom” to oust Ukrainian president
Daniel McLaughlin
Ukraine’s leaders have refused to back down in a confrontation with hundreds of thousands of people who have taken to the streets to protest against the collapse of a landmark deal with the European Union and violent conduct by riot police.
President Viktor Yanukovich said last night security forces had “crossed the line” in their brutal treatment of protesters in Kiev’s Independence Square on Saturday, but he also denounced opposition leaders for occupying Kiev’s city hall and his prime minister accused them of planning to seize parliament amid rallies he claimed were spiralling dangerously out of control.
Russia also weighed into the mounting crisis, with President Vladimir Putindenouncing the protests as “more like a pogrom than a revolution” and suggesting they were fuelled less by public anger over the failed EU deal than the desire of the opposition to oust Mr Yanukovich.
Japan's new defense approach
In an attempt to curb China's hegemonic ambitions, Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe is set on strengthening his country's security ties with the United States. But the new approach is poisoning the political climate at home.
This week all eyes in East Asia are set on Joe Biden. On Tuesday, December 2, the US vice president is set to meet with Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe in Tokyo to discuss about how to deal with China's newly declared air defense zone, before traveling to Beijing and Seoul for similar talks. Each of Biden's statements in the Japanese capital will be closely monitored, as Japan fears its sole security partner - the United States - might deviate from its own hard line.
The State Department recently unnerved Tokyo when it advised US commercial airlines to notify Chinese authorities of flight plans when traveling through the new air defense zone. The zone covers an area which includes the disputed islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.
Thai protests: media call in the drones
December 3, 2013
Lindsay Murdoch
South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media
Bangkok: Thailand’s media has been increasingly using small, unmanned drones that are giving them spectacular video and photographic panoramas of running battles on the streets of Bangkok.
The drones that take off vertically and are powered aloft by helicopter-type rotor blades are providing an accurate picture of the number of protesters, a hotly contested issue in street rallies with anti-government protesters exaggerating numbers and the government playing them down.
They are providing a bird’s eye view for journalists who have been targets of attacks on the ground as the mood towards them has become more aggressive as the protests have dragged on. Bullets apparently fired by a sniper hit the vehicle of an al-Jazeera television crew on Monday.
Nigeria crisis: Boko Haram attack Maiduguri airbase
Boko Haram insurgents have attacked a military airbase in north-eastern Nigeria, destroying two helicopters, the authorities say.
Eyewitnesses say hundreds of militants attacked several areas of the city of Maiduguri, starting early on Monday.
A 24-hour curfew has been imposed in Maiduguri. Its civilian airport was also briefly closed.
A BBC correspondent says the large-scale, co-ordinated attack is a big setback for the Nigerian military.
Thousands of people have been killed since 2009, when Boko Haram launched its campaign to install Islamic law.
Jewish activists set sights on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, raising alarm in Muslim world
By , E-mail the writer
JERUSALEM — A small but growing movement by Jewish activists demanding the right to pray at the site of their destroyed temple, in the heart of this disputed capital’s Old City, is creating a potentially explosive clash with the Muslim world, which considers the spot holy and bans Jews from public worship there.
Each week, hundreds of Jews ascend the creaky wooden ramp built above the Western Wall and enter what is often called the most contested real estate on Earth. Many then embark upon a game of hide-and-seek with their police escorts — whispering forbidden prayers while pretending to talk into cellphones, and getting in quick but banned bows by dropping coins and then bending to pick them up.
Their proposals, long dismissed as extremist, are now being debated in the Israeli parliament and embraced by an expansionist wing in the ruling coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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