U.S. warns Russia on military buildup in Syria
Updated 0106 GMT (0806 HKT) September 10, 2015
America's top diplomat called his Russian counterpart Wednesday to warn that Moscow's military buildup of troops in Syria could escalate the bloody conflict there that has engulfed the region for more than four years.
The U.S. has been watching Russia's movement of military personnel with concern for several days, though the Foreign Ministry only confirmed the buildup Wednesday.
There are "Russian military experts in Syria who are instructing (the Syrians) on the use of the military systems being delivered" to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a close Moscow ally, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
Russia "has long been supplying arms and military equipment to Syria in accordance with bilateral contracts," she said.
Japan floods spark evacuations of thousands from towns
Tens of thousands have been ordered to leave homes after Typhoon Etau sweeps through
Tens of thousands of people were ordered to flee homes across Japan on Thursday as heavy rain pounded the country, sending radiation-tainted waters into the ocean at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
Waist-high floods in some areas left rescuers scrambling to pluck people to safety as a wide area was deluged in the wake of Typhoon Etau.
“This is a scale of downpour that we have not experienced before. Grave danger could be imminent,” forecaster Takuya Deshimaru told an emergency press conference.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued special warnings for Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures, north of Tokyo, urging vigilance against mudslides and flooding.
Hungary conducts military exercises amid refugee crisis
The Hungarian army conducted military exercises ahead of possible deployment to its southern border to "defend" it from refugees crossing in from Serbia. Budapest has been criticized for its response to the crisis.
According to Hungarian Chief of Staff General Tibor Benko, Hungary's army launched a military exercise called "Decisive Action" on Wednesday in order to prepare soldiers for possible deployment to the country's southern border with Serbia.
The exercise comes amid record numbers of migrants and refugees crossing into the central European country in a bid to enter the EU and declare asylum. Many of them are fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and heading for Germany via Austria.
"It is our job to make sure Hungary is defended," the general told the national television channel M1.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said legislation to deploy the army could not be passed before the end of September, although actions to increase the speed of a border fence should be expected.
"Everyone has to get ready to do intensive work in the coming weeks," Orban told a Hungarian newspaper, reported AFP news agency.
Lebanese government agrees on plan to resolve rubbish crisis
Latest update : 2015-09-10
Lebanon’s government agreed a plan to resolve a waste disposal crisis late on Wednesday, ending a dispute that has caused piles of rubbish to fester on Beirut’s streets and triggered a wave of popular protests.
The long-term plan, agreed on during an emergency cabinet meeting gives municipalities a main role in treating local waste with expert help and supervision, and also assigns two landfills in Akkar and in Masnaa area near the border with Syria.
“We see that this plan meets the conditions. Tonight the cabinet agreed on an environmental solution path that is sustainable and safe,” Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayeb, who led the team to draft the plan, told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
It was not immediately clear if the plan requires parliamentary approval or if the Lebanese who took to the streets to protest would accept it.
Confident China moves to challenge U.S. in Beijing's backyard
By Ben Blanchard
It is the near future, and China prepares to strike back after being attacked, loosing off ballistic missiles to take out an aircraft carrier and destroying an airfield as a fighter jet takes off.
The enemy is not named in the animation, released late last month by Chinese internet giant Tencent, but the ship looks a lot like a U.S. Nimitz-class carrier, while the destroyed fighter is clearly a Lockheed Martin Corp F-22.
It may be fantasy, but the clip - viewed more than 60 million times so far - reflects a mood of rising nationalism and confidence among the Chinese public and military.
An assertive China under President Xi Jinping now believes its military has the technology to at the very least make the United States think twice before undertaking any military adventures in what China sees as its backyard.India 'covering up abuses' in Kashmir: report
Kashmiri rights group documents structure of impunity and violence, including killings and enforced disappearances.
Azad Essa |
The Indian government has covered up hundreds of cases of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances in the disputed territory of Kashmir, a new report has alleged.
Khurram Parvez, programme coordinator of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCSS), told Al Jazeera on the release of the report, titled Structures of Violence: The Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir, that the Indian government had allowed systemic violence to take root in the Himalayan region hit by more than two decades of conflict.
Parvez, co-author of the mammoth 800-page report, released on Wednesday, said the International Peoples' Tribunal (IPTK) and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) had documented more than 1080 extrajudicial killings and 172 enforced disappearances as well as cases of sexual violence that go back to the early 1990s. The report took two years to compile.
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