Ukraine’s richest man enters dispute in eastern region
By , E-mail the writers
MARIUPOL, Ukraine — He’s a baby-faced billionaire — the son of a coal miner and Ukraine’s richest man. Now, Rinat Akhmetov may also hold the balance of power in the region’s tensest standoff since the Cold War.
Two days after Akhmetov deployed workers from his steel plant to restore order in a region torn by separatist violence, calm appeared to return Friday to the center of this eastern city. A few steps from a recent deadly clash, people lunched on sushi as a song by Katy Perry played. Near the scorched city council building that had been held by pro-Russian militants, a group of Akhmetov’s unarmed steelworkers lounged and smoked cigarettes as they kept watch.
North Korean singer rumoured to have been executed appears on TV
Death of Hyon Song-wol, supposedly the former girlfriend of Kim Jong-un, was reported in Japan and South Korea
A North Korean singer said to be leader Kim Jong-un's former girlfriend and rumoured to have been executed last year has appeared on state television, apparently alive and well.
Pyongyang's state TV showed Hyon Song-wol, the head of a band known as Moranbong, delivering a speech at a national art workers rally in Pyongyang on Friday.
She expressed gratitude for Kim's leadership and pledged to work harder to "stoke up the flame for art and creative work".
Her appearance came after months of speculation about whether she was alive.
Fear and distrust as Mexico brings drug vigilantes in from the cold
‘Autodefensas’ had prospered as an alternative to corrupt local police forces
Tim Smyth
On a sweltering afternoon in Tepalcatepec, Michoacán, a lot of local pride is on show – but not much by way of professionalism. The 120 officers of the town’s brand-newFuerza Rural (Rural Police Force – RPF) are undergoing training on how to climb in and out of pickup trucks. One catches his shin on the trailer door, holding everyone else up. Another forgets that it’s supposed to be two in the front, two in the back and they have to start again.
In the next field over a teenager slaps cows through a corral. The trainees have to disperse briefly while another cow arrives in a pickup truck. Outside the makeshift arsenal – housed in a cattle shed – a teenage officer dozes with his assault rifle in his lap.
Colombia and FARC reach deal to battle drug trade
Colombia's government and FARC rebels have announced an agreement to jointly combat illicit drug trade in the country as part of a six-point peace plan. The deal comes ahead of May 25 elections in the country.
The Colombian government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) concluded an agreement Friday to fight the illicit drug trade in the South American country. The deal is part three of a six-point peace plan negotiated from the Cuban capital Havana.
"What we have agreed upon recognizes that in order to set then bases for a stable and lasting peace in Colombia it is necessary to find a definitive solution to the problem of illicit drugs," a statement from the talks said.
Under the agreement, the FARC, will divorce itself completely from the drug trade, which it had denied involvement with, claiming it only ever taxed producers. Colombian authorities, however, had accused some FARC fronts of being involved in the production and sales of drugs.
Turkey Mine Disaster: Erdogan Loses His Grip
This week's mine explosion in Soma, Turkey has killed almost 300 people and galvanized the country. Now Erdogan's insensitive outbursts, and a video of him calling a man an "Israeli brute," are spurring widespread anger.
This Tuesday's explosion in a coal mine near Soma, Turkey, is the worst industrial disaster in the Turkish history. So far, the bodies of 284 people have been recovered, but no end to the horror is in sight.
China's maritime push rattles a region
May 16, 2014Lindsay Murdoch
South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media
Bangkok: When Chinese tugboats edged a structure as high as a 40-storey building and big as a football field into the South China Sea in early April, Beijing’s neighbours never foresaw that it would soon trigger a chain reaction in one of the world’s most complex and intractable maritime disputes.
China knew, however, that it was a provocative act and sent a convoy of 80 ships - seven of them warships from the Chinese navy - with the new US$1 billion deep sea drilling rig built by the country’s state-run oil industry.
An unknown number of Chinese planes also kept watch overhead as the structure called HD-981 crawled through the disputed waters of the South China Sea, reaching a speck of land claimed by both China and Vietnam around May 1, and there it has remained since, 80 kilometres inside Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
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