A dangerous dance: China, Vietnam posture in the South China Sea
May 28, 2014 -- Updated 0814 GMT (1614 HKT)
It takes a long time to get to the middle of nowhere. For a contingent of almost 40 reporters, hours of waiting both on land and then at sea preceded a trip to one of the world's most hotly contested areas of maritime real estate.
The Vietnamese government had been at pains to keep this media trip under wraps, keeping print, online and broadcast journalists from Asia and the United States guessing as to the day and time of departure.
That secrecy may have been for naught: at a pre-departure briefing we are told that while the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not formally informed its Chinese counterpart of the presence of journalists in the area, a Coast Guard official mentions that "chances are" China knows about it.
Google unveils driverless car: two seats, no steering wheel, 25mph
First of 100 test vehicles is unveiled with no steering wheel or pedals, two seats and a top speed of 25mph
Google has demonstrated its own driverless car, a design that does away with all conventional controls including the steering wheel, and says it will build 100 of the vehicles for testing with the eventual aim of "bringing this technology to the world safely".
The company had for several years been testing everyday cars equipped with sensors, navigation equipment and computers to drive themselves but in the meantime it has secretly developed a prototype from scratch that will have no facility for a human to take control, other than an emergency stop button.
An initial 100 testbed versions would retain manual controls, Google said as it unveiled the car on Tuesday. The controls are needed to comply with the law in California which along with Nevada and Florida allows autonomous vehicles but only if a driver can take charge.
Brazil's fight against slave labor
In Brazil, the extreme exploitation of workers has been shifting from rural areas toward the cities. In 2013, for the first time, more people were freed from slave-like conditions in urban centers than the countryside.
Last year 2,063 people were freed from slave-like working conditions in Brazil. Of those, 1,068 had been working in metropolitan areas, according to the latest report from Brazil's Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE), which was released in mid-May. Most of the victims were working in the building industry.
"Earlier most of the reports [of slave labor] came from rural areas," recalls investigator Alexandre Lyra, head of the MTE division that deals with tracking down and eradicating slave labor. "In the past five years there has been an enormous increase in complaints from the large cities."
Over the past year, 849 cases of slave labor were uncovered during inspections of building sites. In agriculture and livestock farming, 618 people were found to be working in slave-like conditions. A further 596 people were freed in other sectors, including the textile industry.
China sentences 55 in Xinjiang mass trial
May 28, 2014 - 5:21PM
Beijing: Local officials in China's western Xinjiang region held a public rally for the mass sentencing of criminals on Tuesday, handing out judgements for 55 people and at least three death sentences for crimes such as "violent terrorism", state media said.
The public sentencing, reminiscent of China's revolutionary era rallies, attracted a crowd of 7000 at a sports stadium in Yining city in the northern prefecture of Yili. Photos showed packed stadium bleachers and trucks parked on the sports field loaded with prisoners in orange vests being guarded by armed police.
The mass trial follows a similar event last week in the region where 39 people were sentenced to jail on terrorism charges.
Nigerian school girls rescue reaches impasse
Nigerian school girls: Officials are split over how to free the nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by the Islamic extremists group Boko Haram, with the military saying use of force endangers the hostages.
Nigeria's military chiefs and the president are apparently split over how to free nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic extremists, with the military saying use of force endangers the hostages and the president reportedly ruling out a prisoner-hostage swap.
The defense chief, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, announced Monday night that the military has located the girls, but offered no details or a way forward. "We can't go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back," he said.
Previous military attempts to free hostages have led to the prisoners being killed by their abductors, including the deaths of two engineers, a Briton and an Italian, in Sokoto in March 2012.
28 May 2014 Last updated at 01:14
Do people experience smell in their dreams?
Many of us would say that we dream in images, occasionally waking up after a crazy, scary, cinematic adventure in our unconscious heads. There may be a soundtrack too, with voices or music. But what about smells?
Few people would say they smell in their dreams, but Francesca Faruolo talks vividly about her own experiences.
Her dreams are often fragrant, she says.
"I have very positive olfactory dreams, especially featuring orange flower, a flower linked to the heart," says Faruolo, director of the Smell Festival which takes place every May in the north Italian city of Bologna.
"Olfactory dreamers do exist," she insists. "They are people who, in their everyday lives are either very sensitive to smells or have a highly trained sense of smell."
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