Beijing official heckled amid Hong Kong election anger

When negotiations began between Great Britain and China on returning the British held territory to Chinese control one of the conditions set was that Hong Kong  would retain its legal system which included freedom of the press and the right to vote for their elected representatives the lone exception  being the colonies administrator who would be chosen by the Politburo Bureau in Beijing until 2017 at which time that person would be elected by the eligible voters of Hong Kong.  

On Saturday the Chinese Communist government reneged on that provision  and announced that Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party would continue its policy of picking Hong Kong's administrator without impute from the people of the territory.  

The disruption took place as Li Fei, deputy secretary general of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, prepared to address Hong Kong officials.
Agencies reported that as Mr Li approached the lectern, several lawmakers and demonstrators stood up with placards and a banner, chanting: "The central government broke its promise, shameless."
They were eventually escorted out by security guards. Local television reportedly showed police using pepper spray on other protesters who had amassed outside the hall.
Mr Li then continued with his speech, saying any leader who wished "Hong Kong will become an independent political entity or will change the country's socialist system will not have a political future".

 Hong Kong (CNN)

China's powerful National People's Congress Standing Committee voted Sunday to change the way Hong Kong picks its chief executive, ruling that only candidates approved by a nominating committee will be allowed to run.

A top Chinese official made clear the candidates all must "love the country and love Hong Kong."

The city's current leader insists it's a step in the right direction.

"The majority of Hong Kong citizens, namely, the 5 million qualified voters of the selection of chief executive in 2017, will be able to cast their votes to select the chief executive," said Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.

But that's not how Hong Kong's pro-democracy Occupy Central movement sees it. The group has vocally pushed for elections in which any candidate can run for chief executive. For weeks, protesters have taken to the streets.

In Japan: Squeeze Boobs Fight Aids

A rather unusual charity even was held over the weekend in Tokyo.  I's purpose to raise money to fight Aids.  What makes the event unusual is this: By donating ¥1.000 about $10 you could squeeze the breasts of Japanese AV stars.  The event raised ¥5 million which is about $50,000.

A group of Japanese porn actresses raised 5 million yen at the weekend by having their breasts squeezed by fans at a “Boob Aid” charity event for AIDS prevention.

The nine adult movie stars, sporting yellow campaign T-shirts rolled up to reveal their breasts, flashed a big smile as punters approached them at an event that opened Saturday.

Fans sprayed their hands with disinfectant before touching—quite discreetly in many cases.
A man was seen pressing his palms together in the style of a Buddhist prayer before and after he softly touched the breasts of each of the nine.

Women were occasionally spotted in the mostly male crowd, prompting one of the girls to say in rapture: “Wow, I’m happy. I want her to touch my breasts!”

The event was part of a 24-hour “Stop! AIDS” campaign event in Tokyo, which was also televised live on a Japanese adult cable channel.

Here's a link to a video about the event

Late Night Music From Japan

Solo Mums

What drives single mothers in South Korea to abandon their babies?

Park Da Hoon was 25 when she became pregnant and her boyfriend left her. She hid her pregnancy from her colleagues and parents, and gave birth in a hospital alone. Park says her family would have made her abort the baby. Abortion is illegal in South Korea unless under exceptional circumstances, but an estimated 300,000 cases take place every year.

Soon after childbirth, Park left her baby at a church in Seoul.More than 500 other desperate mothers have done so since 2009, after the pastor, Lee Jong Rak, set up a baby drop box in response to news of many abandoned newborns. He offers the mothers counselling and gives their babies temporary refuge.

Seen as irresponsible and unreliable, single mothers like Park suffer social discrimination. She even lost her job for "not fitting in with company values".

Six In The Morning Sunday August 31

US jets target IS positions in Iraq

Warplanes attack fighters in besieged northern town of Amerli and airdrop humanitarian aid to civilians trapped there. Last updated: 31 Aug 2014 06:34

The US military has attacked Islamic State positions in the besieged northern Iraqi town of Amerli and airdropped humanitarian aid to civilians trapped there, the Pentagon has said.

US aircraft delivered over a hundred bundles of emergency supplies and more aid was dropped from British, French and Australian planes, officials said on Saturday.

Iraqi army and Kurdish forces closed in on Islamic State fighters on Saturday in a push to break the Sunni fighters' siege of Amerli, which has been surrounded by the fighters for more than two months.

US jets and drones have also attacked the Islamic State group's positions near Iraq's Mosul Dam.

Weary? In need of some sun? Relax and unwind with a trip to... Iraqi Kurdistan

In spite of Islamic State, a Wigan travel agency reports a surge in demand for its trips to the region

KATE YOUDE

 

 

Sunday 31 August 2014

A holiday in an area under threat from Islamic State militants is probably not most people's idea of a relaxing break. Yet a UK tour company is reporting a "massive increase" in bookings for trips to Iraq.

Wigan-based Lupine Travel has had demand for its tours to Iraqi Kurdistan treble following the recent escalation of the threat to the region by IS, and has taken about 100 bookings in a few weeks.

The agency's owner, Dylan Harris, has filled the forthcoming tour in October and two trips in May and October next year, each taking 30 people. As there are a further 40 people on a waiting list, he is thinking of running two additional tours in December and February.

Don't meddle in Hong Kong, China warns foreign countries

China says foreign powers need to back away from getting involved in Hong Kong's political affairs. It comes ahead of a Beijing ruling on the governance of the semi-autonomous city.

China warned on Saturday that some people in Hong Kong were colluding with outside forces concerning the governance of the financial hub.

"Not only are they undermining Hong Kong's stability and development, but they're also attempting to turn Hong Kong into a bridgehead for subverting and infiltrating the Chinese mainland," said an article in the Communist Party's flagship newspaper, People's Daily.

"This absolutely cannot be permitted," it said, citing a unidentified Foreign Ministry official.

The article said Hong Kong's affairs were an internal matter for China, given its status as a special Chinese administrative region. It did not name any individuals or groups, but the US and Britain have previously voiced their wishes for genuine democratic reform in Hong Kong.

31 August 2014 Last updated at 09:16

China rules out open Hong Kong chief executive poll

Chinese authorities have ruled out open nominations for elections to choose Hong Kong's leader.

Authorities said two to three candidates will be nominated by a "broadly representative" committee.

The decision is expected to limit the selection of candidates to pro-Beijing figures.

The pro-democracy Occupy Central movement says it will launch a sit-in in the city's central business district in protest.

The election for Hong Kong's chief executive is due in 2017 and will be the first time the holder of the post is directly chosen by voters.

The Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress said in its decision that while the election would represent "historic progress", "the sovereignty, security and development interests of the country are at stake," and therefore "there is a need to proceed in a prudent and steady manner".

African, Somali troops recapture town from al Shabaab

Working toward the insurgent stronghold of Barawe, African peacekeeping troops and Somali forces have regained several towns this year, capturing Bulamareer on Saturday.

By Abdi Sheik, Reuters

MOGADISHU — African peacekeeping troops and Somali forces recaptured a southern town from Islamist al Shabaab rebels on Saturday, bringing them a step closer to the insurgent stronghold of Barawe, commanders said.

The assault was part of the second phase of an offensive launched earlier this year to drive the rebels out of towns which they have continued to hold since losing control of the capital Mogadishu in 2011.

Al Shabaab ruled most of the southern region of Somalia from 2006 until 2011 when African troops marched into the capital. African and Somali forces have regained several towns this year, but rebels still hold other centers and tracts of countryside.

Africa

It was already the worst Ebola outbreak in history. Now it’s moving into Africa’s cities.

By Todd C. Frankel

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The dreaded Ebola virus came to the children’s hospital in the form of a 4-year-old boy.

His diagnosis became clear three days after he was admitted. The Ola During hospital — the nation’s only pediatric center — was forced to close its steel gates. Fear swelled. The boy died. The 30 doctors and nurses who had contact with him were placed in quarantine, forced to nervously wait out the 21 days it can take for the virus to emerge. And remaining staff so far have refused to return to work. They, along with millions of others, are facing the worst Ebola outbreak in history. Already, the hardest-hit West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have reported more than 3,000 cases, including the infections of 240 health-care workers.

Ebola is now spreading from the remote provinces and into the teeming cities such as Freetown, where 1.2 million people jostle for space. Previous outbreaks had been limited to remote vil­lages, where containment was aided by geography.

Why I took off my headscarf... only to put it back on again

By Shaimaa KhalilBBC News

A woman's headscarf is a garment which is heavy in symbolism in Muslim countries and, having finally decided to shed mine, I will have to don it again after being appointed as Pakistan correspondent.

My family's old photo albums from the 1950s and 60s speak volumes about Egypt's social and political change - not just because of the men, lots of my relatives in army uniform, but because of the women.

There they are in short-sleeved dresses, impeccably cinched at the waist. The dresses of some of the younger ones actually stopped well above the knee. And the hair!

The beautiful and complicated hairdos that my aunties and their friends pulled off just to go shopping or to their universities looked like something out of a vintage glamour magazine.

Late Night Music From Japan

Lil Kim's Banker: Takes The Money And Runs

This here's a story about Yun Tae Hyong and Kim Hae won
Two young lovers with nothin' better to do
Than sit around Pyongyang, get high, and watch the tube
And here is what happened when they decided to cut loose

They headed down to, ooh, old Kim-Jong un's castle
That's where they ran into a great big hassle
Yun Tae Hying hit Kim while robbing his castle
  Kim Hae won took the money and run

Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run

 Lil Kim is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He ain't gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin' off of the people's taxes

Kim Hae won, whoa, whoa, she slipped away
Yun Tae Hyong  caught up to her the very next day
They got the money, hey
You know they got away
They headed down south and they're still running today

 Take The Money and Run Music and Lyrics by Steve Miller

A banker who managed the money of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has taken $5million (£3 million) and defected to Russia, a South Korean newspaper has reported.

Yun Tae Hyong, a senior official for the secretive nation’s Korea Daesong Bank, disappeared last week in Nakhodka, in Russia's far east, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported.

He was reportedly now seeking asylum in a third country, according to an unidentified source.

North Korea has since asked Russian authorities for cooperation in efforts to capture Yun, according to the newspaper.

Six In The Morning Saturday August 30

Sister of 'Lady al Qaeda': 'We want no violence in Aafia's name'

By Sophia Saifi and Hilary Whiteman, CNN

The sister of a Pakistani prisoner described as the "poster girl" for Islamic jihad has urged ISIS hostage-takers to let their captives go.

Speaking exclusively to CNN from her home in Karachi, Pakistan, the sister of Dr. Aaifa Siddiqui said the jailed neuroscientist's family wanted "no violence in Aafia's name."

"I'm Aafia's sister. We're Aafia's family. And we speak on her behalf as well. We want no violence in Aafia's name. Our whole struggle has been one that is dignified that is peaceful that is legal," Fowzia Siddiqui said.

A jury in New York convicted Aafia Siddiqui on seven charges, including attempted murder and armed assault on U.S. officers, in 2010. No one was wounded in the incident. She is serving her 86-year sentence at a facility in Texas.

Workers fear for future of shipbuilding if Scotland votes ‘yes’ to independence

Most of Glasgow’s shipyard workers believe build orders would go elsewhere

Mark Hennessy

A stream of young apprentices, fresh-faced and smiling, leave the Scotstoun dockyard in Glasgow, some of the 50 that have been taken on by the yard’s owners, BAE Systems, this year.

“They are the future,” says Duncan McPhie, the Unite convenor in Scotstoun, one of only two left in a city that once built ships for the world. Three thousand shipbuilders are left in the Scottish city, now entirely dependent upon Royal Navy orders, which could be threatened if Scotland votes Yes.

Three patrol ships, worth nearly £350 million, are to be built by Govan Shipbuilders, but they could be the last ships built there if BAE decides, as is likely, to draw all work into the Scotstoun yard across the Clyde. Both could wither if the British government pulls plans to place a £7 billion order for Type 26 frigates in Scotland. For now, most of the workers believe it would do so.

Several miners rescued in Nicaragua

Rescuers in Nicaragua have reportedly brought to safety several of the some two dozen freelance miners trapped in a gold and silver mine. The whereabouts of up to five miners remains unknown.

First Lady Rosario Murilo, the government's official spokeswoman, said on Friday that 20 of the at least two dozen miners trapped in the El Comal mine in the northeastern town of Bonanza had been rescued.

"We give thanks to God our Lord and the Virgin Mary for having saved from death 20 artisanal miners," she said.

She said five workers were still missing.

Earlier, Interior Vice Minister Carlos Najjar had said 11 of the miners had been rescued.

Najjar told state television that the miners were a little dehydrated, but in good health.

China tells journalists to learn 'Marxist news values'

August 30, 2014 - 5:53PM

China ordered its journalists on Saturday to learn "Marxist news values" and uphold the principles of news as prescribed by the ruling Communist Party, the latest step in President Xi Jinping's crackdown on the media.

The guidelines by the All China Journalists' Association, published by state news agency Xinhua, are aimed at both traditional and online media and are another sign of Xi's politically conservative agenda.

The association said journalists "must learn to master Marxist news values".

"Let us hold high the banner of socialist core values," the report said, using the party's term for orthodox beliefs.

Lesotho's military seizes control of police headquarters

30 AUG 2014 09:47 AFP

Armed forces have seized control of the country's police headquarters and jammed radio stations and phones, says a government minister.

Lesotho’s military seized control of the country’s police headquarters and jammed radio stations and phones in the early hours on Saturday, a government minister and member of the ruling coalition told Agence France-Presse.

“The armed forces, the special forces of Lesotho, have taken the headquarters of the police,” sports minister and leader of the Basotho National Party Thesele Maseribane said, describing a possible coup attempt in the small nation located in eastern South Africa. “At four o’clock this morning [0200GMT] they were driving around the residence of the prime minister and my residence,” he said. “There have been some gunfighting since four [am] up until seven or eight.

“They’ve jammed phones, they have jammed everything,” he added. Maseribane said he fled hours earlier after being warned. “The commander said he was looking for me, the prime minister and the deputy minster to take us to the king. In our country that means a coup,” he added. 

No supermarkets, so 130 community gardens help to feed a city

A gardening effort in Camden, N.J., brings fresh food to New Jersey’s biggest food desert.

By Lynda McCullough, Food Tank

Although Mike Devlin was trained as a lawyer, his love for gardening led him down an unexpected career path. Devlin lives and works in Camden City, New Jersey, an impoverished city with a lack of fresh food and safe recreation.

As a new resident and ward leader three decades ago, he became involved in community gardening, leading him to realize the important role urban gardens could play in addressing the city's problems. With help from the William Penn Foundation, the community garden program expanded, and several years later, Devlin went on to start the Camden City Garden Club and the Camden Children’s Garden.

ISIS targets the minds of young children

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh looks at how ISIS tries to spread their ideas through the generations by cramming them into the minds of young children.
The video below shows children being trained by ISIS for jihad. It includes an interview with a 13 year old boy who escaped from the traing camp and fled to Turkey.

Random Japan

More than meets the eye, sushi in disguise! Check out these transforming sushi toys!

KK Miller

Your mother probably scolded you for playing with your food at the dinner table, but here’s one of the few times you’ll be able to get away with it! Introducing transforming sushi toys from Takara Tomy. Now, instead of playing with a floppy piece of asparagus (how’s that supposed to stand up to the forces of evil anyway?), you can play with these pieces of super robot fighting sushi. Just don’t try to take a bite out of them!


Takara Tomy is well known for making the Transformer toys a reality. This time they are taking their transforming skills and applying them to everyone’s favorite Japanese food: sushi! There were images and first run prototypes of these bad boys (or good boys as it may be) back in June, but now we are getting a good look at the Schallyders and are pretty excited with the results!

stats

• 10 million Number of PlayStation 4 gaming consoles that have been sold around the world since Sony released the device in November
• 37.6 Percent of people living in rural areas who say their villages will be “ruined” if current demographic trends continue, according to a Cabinet Office survey
• 9,962 Number of “incidents or accidents” involving U.S. military personnel in Japan between 2003 and 2013, according to the defense ministry and the Okinawa prefectural government

BOYS IN BLUE

• Authorities in Soka, Saitama Prefecture, suspended a police officer for taking upskirt videos of women on escalators and at the koban where he worked.

• Another cop in Fujisawa was arrested for allegedly using his smartphone to film a woman taking a bath in her first-floor apartment.
• Meanwhile, four employees of the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau were busted for shooting nude videos of female coworkers and selling them via the LINE smartphone app.
• The new president of NHK says he’s keen to have the public broadcaster “collect subscription fees from Internet users.”

A Musician Taking Drugs
Shocking! Just Shocking!


The Great Toilet Paper Panic Of 2014
Buy Buy Buy


Hello Kitty Is Not A Cat
It's Godzilla

Gifu mover gives forgotten temples new life in new places

Chunichi Shimbun

Due to the decline in Buddhist worshippers and the population in general, the number of empty or abandoned temples has been growing in recent years.

Seeing this as an opportunity for a new business model, Goto Shrines-and-temples Construction Co., based in Ginan, Gifu Prefecture, is offering to move old shrines and rebuild them in new locations.

Not only is this cheaper than building a new temple from scratch, but it also might become a new recycling trend as temples built before the war were made with high-quality materials that are often difficult to acquire these days.

Late Night Music From Japan

Show Trials Return To China

Show trials were once part and parcel to communist regimes in the first half of the 20 century they were  used as a means of intimidation and education for the public at large.  As these governments acquired more sophisticated means of dispensing propaganda show trials faded from the scene.

Massoud Hayoun writing for Al Jazeera English  makes  a compelling argument  suggesting that the Chinese government  under the rule of  Xi Jinping has revived the show trial in an effort stem corruption in all sectors of society.  

Not since the 1950s and 60s – when denouncements of so-called counterrevolutionaries were a common sight in China’s stadiums and squares – has the People’s Republic seen anything like its recent slew of showy public trials, legal experts say. The trials are broadcast on TV and the Internet, even as calls have come from Beijing’s top prosecutor to reform the nation’s judicial system and stem “wrongful convictions.”
During his nearly two years in office so far, Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched campaigns to root out corruption in the public and private sectors and to quell violent unrest among predominantly Muslim ethnic Uighurs in the strategically important far-western region of Xinjiang. Many of the public trials have stemmed from these efforts.

Show trials weren't just a means by which one disposed political opponents they were meant to humiliate those on trial into confessing  their crimes to the public who then denounce them for their transgressions against the state.

“The Chinese government has increasingly invoked extralegal mechanisms taken out of the 1950s and 60s, including televised public confessions by social media celebrities, foreign corporate investigators and Uighurs, rather than trials, to send messages to society at large,” said Charles Minzner, a Chinese law expert and professor at New York City’s Fordham University.
Minzner said that the recent rash of public trials is a departure from the 1990s and early 2000s, when Beijing emphasized rule of law and depended on court proceedings – although they were not transparent or independent from the Communist Party – to address perceived political foes such as corruption, dissidents and alleged separatists. 

  

Six In The Morning Friday August 29

Three million refugees have fled Syria, says UN

UNHCR points to 'increasingly horrifying conditions' inside the country that have forced nearly 50% of Syrians to flee their homes

• Agence France-Presse in Geneva
• theguardian.com, Friday 29 August 2014 08.04 BST

More than three million Syrians have fled the civil war ravaging their country to become refugees – a million of them in the past year alone, the UN said on Friday.

"Syria's intensifying refugee crisis will today [Friday] surpass a record three million people," the UN's refugee agency said in a statement, adding that the number did not include hundreds of thousands of others who fled without registering as refugees.

Less than a year ago, the number of registered Syrian refugees stood at two million, UNHCR said, pointing to reports of "increasingly horrifying conditions inside the country" to explain the surge.

It described "cities where populations are surrounded, people are going hungry and civilians are being targeted or indiscriminately killed".

Captain of doomed South Korea ferry says lack of checks was customary: Yonhap

SEOUL Fri Aug 29, 2014 3:45am EDT

(Reuters) - The captain of a ferry that capsized in April in South Korea's worst maritime accident in decades told a court on Friday he was just following established practice in not making safety checks before the vessel set off, Yonhap news agency reported.

Lee Joon-seok, 68, appeared at times disoriented and unable to properly understand questions when he took the stand for the first time in the court in the southwestern city of Gwangju that is trying him and three crew members for homicide, it said.

The overloaded ferry Sewol capsized and sank on a routine voyage that killed about 300 people, causing an outpouring of grief as well as outrage at President Park Geun-hye's government for what was seen by many as a botched rescue operation.

' Soccer moms' to sue Fifa over concussion risk to children playing football

Lawsuit aims to see a limit introduced on the number of times young players are allowed to head the ball

IAN JOHNSTON

 

 

Friday 29 August 2014

A group of American families is suing football's governing body Fifa for putting children who head the ball at risk of concussion, according to a report.

The lawsuit, filed in California, accuses the sport's administrators of acting “carelessly and negligently”.

It is not seeking financial compensation, but wants to see a limit on the number of times young players are allowed to head the ball among a number of other rules designed to protect children, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Ben Pepper, a personal injury lawyer at Bolt Burdon Kemp, said the case might prompt people in the UK to consider legal action.

Japan lodges record defence budget request in response to strengthening China

August 29, 2014 - 5:13PM

Tokyo: Japan's Defence Ministry has made its biggest post-war budget request as Tokyo bolsters its military amid worries over China's expanding naval reach.

The ministry wants 5.05 trillion yen ($52.7 billion) for the year, with the focus on boosting protection of a string of southern islands that stretches from Kyushu to waters near Taiwan.

The request on Friday, if approved, would mark the third straight annual defence budget increase and a 3.5 per cent rise on the budget for the present fiscal year to March 2015.

SA soldiers died in CAR while generals dithered

29 AUG 2014 00:00 PAULI VAN WYK

While South African soldiers were fighting for their lives in the CAR last year, a different battle was going on back at defence headquarters.

Internal South African National Defence Force (SANDF) documents paint a dramatic picture of desperate efforts by operations staff to source a cargo aircraft to transport support equipment, including armoured vehicles, to Bangui in the Central African Republic.

• Read Bangui bunglers score R209m in contracts

The first shots were fired on Friday March 22 at about 4pm, and the operational planners decided on Saturday evening that an Antonov AN-124 aircraft was required. This was to transport eight Mamba vehicles, one diesel bowser and supporting equipment to the mission area that had “become a war zone overnight”.

On Sunday morning the rebels brokered a ceasefire. By then, 13 South African soldiers were dead and 27 injured.

In a written account seen by ama­Bhungane, the director of joint operation support, identified as Lieutenant Colonel WJ Damon, describes how they had tried to contact the companies that were registered as approved SANDF suppliers.

For a war correspondent's mother, James Foley killing hits close to home

As a parent who often spent nights hovering on the edge of sleep, my heart aches not only for Jim – murdered by Islamic State militants – and other captive journalists, but for their families.

By Missy Neale, Contributor

DAYTON, OREGON — The news of James Foley’s beheading in Syria hit me hard. So too did yesterday's plea by Shirley Sotloff for the militant jihadist group Islamic State to release her son. As a mother of a journalist who covers wars, my heart aches not only for Jim, and other captive journalists, but for their families.

In January of 2004, I got an e-mail from my son, Tom, in Baghdad. A 21-year-old junior in college, he'd decided to spend the winter break of his study abroad in Cairo as a freelance journalist in Iraq. As a new freelancer who had chosen to jump right into conflict reporting, he, like a number of others at the time, had gone into the country with no institutional commitments. Nobody to report to. Nobody to ask anything. Nobody to miss him. And no one to look for him if he went missing.

Late Night Music From Japan

Retweeting Tweets From North Korea Could Land You Jail

Two years ago photographer from South Korea was arrested for re-tweeting tweets from North Korea's official account.  He was charged under South Korea's draconian National Security law which makes it a crime to praise the North.

Unfortunately for South Korean prosecutors the Supreme Court didn't agree to their assertion he was a threat to national security.

South Korea's top court has acquitted a man accused of sympathising with North Korea by retweeting posts by its government, arguing that his action poses little threat to national security.
Park Jeong-Geun, a 26-year-old photographer, was arrested and charged in 2012 of violating the National Security Law by retweeting posts by the North's official Twitter account.

Under the notorious anti-communist law, South Koreans are banned from activities deemed to be praising or sympathising with the North, which is still technically at war with the South.

A district court handed Park a suspended jail term but an appellate court later found him innocent.
The supreme court of Korea upheld the acquittal, after prosecutors appealed the ruling, saying his actions "did not pose tangible threats to national security."

 

Six In The Morning Thursday August 28

28 August 2014 Last updated at 08:28

Ukraine crisis: 'Thousands of Russians' fighting in east

A pro-Russian rebel leader in eastern Ukraine has said 3-4,000 Russian citizens are fighting in their ranks.

Alexander Zakharchenko said many of the Russians were former servicepeople or current personnel on leave.

He was speaking as the rebels threatened to take the key port of Mariupol, after opening a new front in the south-east.

Reports say they have captured the town of Novoazovsk and are advancing on the port.

Ukraine says Russian forces have crossed the border and are supporting the rebel attack, but Moscow has repeatedly denied arming or covertly supporting the rebels.

GSK to begin testing its Ebola vaccine on humans

Clinical safety trials could begin next week after US health watchdog the FDA gives green light, say reports

• Julia Kollewe
• theguardian.com, Thursday 28 August 2014 08.56 BST

GlaxoSmithKline's experimental Ebola vaccine could be tested on patients in clinical safety trials in the US as soon as next week, as the death toll from the deadly virus continues to rise in west Africa.

Britain's largest drug-maker is developing the vaccine with the Vaccine Research Centre of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US. Phase-I trials have received the green light from the US health watchdog, the Food and Drug Administration, Bloomberg reported. This is the first test in humans to assess safety and efficacy – whether the drug works in a similar way to how it does in animals.

The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,400 people.

Michael Kurilla, director of the Office of Biodefence, Research Resources and Translational Research, told Bloomberg that health authorities are debating whether to give the vaccine to people in west Africa at risk of catching the virus, for which there is no cure. 

Thuringia goes beyond Bratwurst to create high employment

The new division Germany faces is no longer east-west, but urban-rural

Derek Scally

To understand Germany, you need to understand the sausage. And to understand the sausage, you have to go to Thuringia, Thüringen in German. This central state is the home of the Bratwurst, the roast sausage beloved of Germans and now familiar to Irish shoppers at Aldi and Lidl.

The oldest Bratwurst recipe, dating from a Thuringian convent in 1404, was rediscovered here in 2002. Two years later the EU designated the sausage a protected food product in the EU, meaning anything calling itself a “Thüringer Bratwurst” has to be produced here. Some 40,000 tonnes are produced annually.

Sitting in his kitchen in Erfurt, Thuringia’s pretty capital city, Bratwurst master Andreas Bräuer says the state became synonymous with sausages because of the proliferation of wild oregano.

The fight for Iraq's Baiji refinery

Iraq's largest refinery has been contested for weeks. "Islamic State" fighters are going after police officers and soldiers near the Baiji facility. Residents who have fled describe the situation in the embattled city.

Ahmed looks completely defeated. He's sitting in worn-out track suit on the floor of an apartment in Kirkuk that doesn't belong to him and is just serving as a temporary home. His wife and three children are scattered among relatives in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"We've lost everything," the 35-year-old Iraqi said. "They bombed our house in Baiji, and nothing is left of it." The family managed to escape only with their lives.

Many other residents of the oil-rich city, however, were killed as part of the "Islamic State" fighters' advance. Ahmed said it initially seemed as if the "IS" wanted to do no harm to Baiji locals. After the terror militia's siege on Tikrit on June 12, the jihadists headed to Baiji, located 45 kilometers (28 miles) away, and warmly greeted residents.

Hong Kong activists prepare for mass action as Beijing election curbs loom

August 28, 2014 - 5:08PM

Philip Wen

China correspondent for Fairfax Media

Beijing: Hong Kong pro-democracy activists say they will escalate plans to blockade the city's central business district in opposition to an imminent move from Beijing to limit elections for its leader in 2017.

Chinese lawmakers meeting in Beijing this week have agreed on a draft resolution which will cap the number of chief executive candidates to two or three, with each requiring at least 50 per cent support of a 1200-strong nomination committee, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post and RTHK radio reported.

If, as expected, the resolution is announced after a plenary session in Beijing on Sunday, Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai said the pro-democracy group will start its planned protest activities and elevate into a "full-scale, wave after wave" campaign, beginning with a demonstration outside the offices of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Sunday night.

Social workers channel Indiana Jones to deliver welfare checks to Brazil's Amazon

Many Brazilians are still in dire need of state assistance, and teams of social workers – equipped with chainsaws, but no maps – are traveling to remote corners to find the poorest of the poor.

By Stephen Kurczy, Correspondent

NOVO AIRÃO AND RIO PRETO DA EVA, BRAZIL — The orange boat racing up the Amazon River tributary is loaded with the essentials for fighting poverty in the jungle: a chainsaw and a dozen social workers. 

The river has swollen some 60 feet with the rainy season, and the captain looks out for logs and branches that might rip into the hull. He's also looking for signs of human life in this dense jungle, one of the poorest regions in Brazil's vast territory. 

The boat turns down an inlet nearly invisible through the dense green overgrowth, and the team spots an elderly man casting a fishing net. It’s apparent he’s blind as he feels his way to shore, his right thumb missing from a past piranha attack.