Iran nuclear deal: Kerry to face tough questions in Senate
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US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to face tough questioning when he appears at a Senate committee to sell the nuclear deal agreed with Iran.
The US Congress has two months to review the deal, which is opposed by Republicans, who control both Houses.
Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee are expected to want more detail on the provision of inspections and lifting of sanctions.
Many Republicans say last week's accord conceded too much to Tehran.
Opponents within Congress could reject the agreement, although President Obama could veto their decision.
China may adopt 'two-child policy' this year as demographic timebomb looms
An ageing population and the problems that brings has spurred Beijing to rethink a rule which saw most families being able to have just one child
Thirty-five years after enacting draconian birth control rules blamed for millions of forced abortions and the creation of a demographic “time bomb”, China could be on the verge of introducing a two-child policy.
The new regulation, under which all Chinese couples would be allowed to have two children, could be implemented “as soon as the end of the year if everything goes well,” a government source was quoted as saying by the China Business News.
Liang Zhongtang, a demographer from the Shanghai Academy of Social Science, said the one-child policy “should have been abolished long ago”.
“The core issue is not about one-child or two-children. It’s about reproductive freedom. It’s about basic human rights. In the past, the government failed to grasp the essence of the issue.”
Kenyans ridicule US network CNN on Twitter for 'hotbed of terror' report
Peru to make contact with isolated tribe for first time
Government will talk with Mashco Piro tribe on why they have been emerging from forest
Peru will make contact for the first time with an Amazonian tribe that largely lives isolated in the jungle, part of a bid to ease tensions with nearby villages after a bow-and-arrow attack in May, authorities said.
Government anthropologists will talk with a clan of Mashco Piro indians to understand why they have been emerging from the forest, said deputy culture minister Patricia Balbuena.
In recent years the Mashco Piro have increasingly been spotted seeking machetes and food outside their jungle enclaves in the Manu National Park in southeastern Peru.
Villagers, Christian proselytizers and tourists have all interacted with the tribe, often giving them clothes and food. “The only ones who haven’t been in contact with them are representatives of the state!” said Ms Balbuena.Japan finds China's expansion in East China Sea 'extremely regrettable'
July 23, 2015 - 2:33PMPhilip Wen
China correspondent for Fairfax Media
The Japanese government has released a map and aerial photos detailing Chinese oil and gas exploration platforms it said proved Beijing was accelerating plans to unilaterally exploit an oilfield that straddles disputed waters in the East China Sea.
The move adds to the fresh round of heightened tensions between the two Asian powers and in the region, as China, which has also come under international pressure for its rapid island building in the disputed South China Sea, prepares for a large-scale military parade in September to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.
It also comes as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks to win public opinion over the need to pass legislation to give Japan's military a greater role.Kashmir: Former India spy chief raises storm with memoir accusations
Amarjit Singh Dulat oversaw a successful counterinsurgency in Srinagar. His new memoir claims insurgent leaders were on the take. Critics say the account does what he did as spy chief -- divide the opposition.
SRINAGAR, INDIAN-CONTROLLED KASHMIR — A former Indian spy chief is creating a political firestorm in the Kashmir Valley with charges that key insurgent leaders of the long time resistance movement, as well as pro-freedom sympathizers, have been taking payoffs from Delhi for years.
Amarjit Singh Dulat, sent to Kashmir in 1988 to work at top intelligence positions, details in a new memoir how India used money, favors, dialogue, and other covert strategies to reverse the popular insurgency movement that started the year he arrived and still continues.
The memoir, released in Delhi on Tuesday, recounts Mr. Dulat’s years in the Indian Intelligence Bureau and as chief of the Research and Analysis Wing in Kashmir, known as RAW, and notorious among a majority of Kashmiris.
UN envoy voices deep concern over Syria barrel bombing
Staffan de Mistura says many civilians dead in air strikes on Zabadani causing "unprecedented levels of destruction".
23 Jul 2015 08:37 GMT
The United Nations envoy for Syria has said government forces have dropped a large number of barrel bombs on Zabadani city, "causing unprecedented levels of destruction".
Staffan de Mistura cited local sources on Thursday, saying the air strikes caused many civilian deaths in the city, located about 45km northwest of the capital Damascus, and about 10km from the border with Lebanon.
"[The] Army of Fatah [a Sunni rebel alliance], that controls Zabadani, retaliated by firing rockets and mortar bombs on two Shia villages, Al Foua and Kefraya, near Idlib city in the north," de Mistura said.
"In both cases, civilians are tragically caught in the middle of the fighting."
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