SIx In The Morning Monday December 1

1 December 2014 Last updated at 07:52

Hong Kong protesters clash with police at government HQ

Hong Kong police have clashed with pro-democracy activists trying to surround government offices, in some of the worst unrest in two months of protests.

Protesters fought police armed with pepper spray, batons and water hoses on roads around the camp in Admiralty.

Police say 40 people have been arrested and a number of officers were injured.

The protesters want the people of Hong Kong to be allowed to choose their leaders in the 2017 elections without interference from Beijing.

The Chinese government has said it will allow universal suffrage, but will screen candidates for the chief executive post in advance.

Last week police and court bailiffs removed one of the major protest camps in the Mong Kok commercial district.

Iraqi army revealed to have 50,000 'ghost soldiers' on its roll

Ghost employees are a well-known form of corruption in Iraq

LEWIS SMITH 

 

 

Monday 01 December 2014

An investigation has revealed the existence of 50,000 ‘ghost soldiers’ in the Iraqi army, the country’s Prime Minister has said.

Ghost employees are a well-known form of corruption in Iraq but Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has for the first time put a firm figure on the extent to which it pervades the military.

Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s newly installed Prime Minister, revealed the figure after an official head-count of the army was carried out during the payment process. The total is equivalent to four divisions.

His spokesman Rafid Jaboori said: "The prime minister revealed the existence of 50,000 fictitious names.

Air pollution costing Europe billions

Air pollution is not only unhealthy but also expensive. Hans Bruyninckx of the European Environment Agency tells DW why. His agency's recent report shows staggering annual costs as a result of relatively few companies.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has recently published a report on industrial facilities and what they cost the European Union.

Over a period of five years they took a closer look at 14,000 facilities in Europe - either industrial production plants or power stations - and measured their damages to the environment and health due to air pollution and greenhouse gases. The major finding: One percent of these plants - which means about 150 facilities - cause 50 percent of the overall damage.

DW spoke with the EEA's executive director to talk damage control.

Family of Thai princess stripped of royal name

December 1, 2014 - 3:48PM

Thomas Fuller

Bangkok: In a rare public display of palace intrigue in Thailand, relatives of a prominent member of the royal family have been charged with numerous counts of corruption and stripped of their royally bestowed name.

The implications of the still-unfolding palace purge are not yet fully clear but come at a time of extreme sensitivity surrounding the monarchy, a potent symbol of national unity in a country that has been deeply divided politically for the past decade. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 86, is ailing, and the current scandal adds to a widespread sense of anxiety about succession.

The family members targeted in the purge are related to Princess Srirasmi, the wife of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and the mother of Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, the presumed heir to the throne after his father.

Korea

Dec 1, '14

UN report may turn North Korea
By Robert E McCoy 

Over the last several years, a clear pattern has emerged of how Northeast Asian powers and the United States have dealt with North Korea. It is in the form of a dance that I call the Totalitarian Tango and which consists of eight discrete steps. 

Step 1: North Korea wants or needs something, most often food or petroleum products. 
Step 2: North Korea generates tension or perpetrates an incident to get attention. 
Step 3: The United States and others initially ignore the activity



and attribute it to North Korea merely "behaving irrationally". 
Step 4: North Korea escalates the stakes through more extreme rhetoric or violent acts. 
Step 5: Regional powers and the US. finally pay attention and engage with North Korea. 
Step 6: North Korea agrees to stop its nuclear and missile programs in exchange for what it needs or wants. 
Step 7: Once the aid is received, North Korea soon fails to honor its part of the bargain.
Step 8: When other needs or wants arise, North Korea does a "Number Two" - pun fully intended.

As China Gets Aggressive, Japan Rearms -- and America Gets Ready to Help

By Rich Smith | More Articles 
November 30, 2014

China has an aircraft carrier -- and it's making Japan nervous.

As you've probably heard by now, Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe announced a plan for massive rearmament of the island nation earlier this year. Through the end of the decade, Japan intends to invest more than $240 billion building up its Self-Defense Forces.

Already, Japan has started buying Boeing's (NYSE: BA  ) new superfast subhunter, the P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft. And this week, Japan confirmed what had previously only been speculated -- that it will be buying billions of dollars worth of additional military hardware from the U.S.

According to a statement from Japan's Ministry of Defense, Japan will also be buying:

• At least 17 MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, manufactured by a Boeing-Textron (NYSE:TXT  ) joint venture.

Islamists come out on top in new effort to unify Syrian rebel groups

BY MOUSAB ALHAMADEE

McClatchy Foreign Staff

GAZIANTEP, TURKEY — Seventy-two Syrian rebel groups on Saturday announced a new coalition to battle the government of President Bashar Assad. But hopes that moderate rebels would dominate the meeting were dashed when extremists gained more of the 17 executive positions than had been expected.

Col. Muhammad Hallak, who represented a moderate faction attending the three-day organizational meeting, accused Islamists, especially Ahrar al Sham, which is known to work closely with al Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, of capturing more positions than its influence in the rebellion deserved.

A review of the names by McClatchy indicated that moderates hold only six or seven of the 17 executive positions.