Syria conflict: Powers backing rivals meet in Vienna
The first talks bringing together all foreign powers backing rival sides in Syria's civil war are due to open.
The meeting in Vienna will seek to close the gap between the US and its allies, who support the rebels, and the key foreign allies of the Syrian government, Russia and Iran.
It is the first time Iran has been involved in the diplomacy.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged participants to show flexibility" and "global leadership".
The four-year-old war in Syria, which began with an uprising against Mr Assad, has left 250,000 people dead and forced half the country's population - or 11 million people - from their homes.
Russia and Iran have recently stepped up their military involvement in the conflict, backing forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab nations have long insisted that he cannot play a long-term role in Syria's future.
Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away?
George MonbiotI’ve often wondered how the media would respond when eco-apocalypsestruck. I pictured the news programmes producing brief, sensational reports, while failing to explain why it was happening or how it might be stopped. Then they would ask their financial correspondents how the disaster affected share prices, before turning to the sport. As you can probably tell, I don’t have an ocean of faith in the industry for which I work. What I did not expect was that they would ignore it.
A great tract of Earth is on fire. It looks as you might imagine hell to be. The air has turned ochre: visibility in some cities has been reduced to 30 metres. Children are being prepared for evacuation in warships; already some have choked to death. Species are going up in smoke at an untold rate. It is almost certainly the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st century – so far.
And the media? It’s talking about the dress the Duchess of Cambridge wore to the James Bond premiere, Donald Trump’s idiocy du jour and who got eliminated from the Halloween episode of Dancing with the Stars. The great debate of the week, dominating the news across much of the world? Sausages: are they really so bad for your health?
China warns 'provocative' US incursions in South China Sea could 'spark war'
Statement was prompted by the US decision to a send a destroyer 12 miles off a series of artifical islands owned by China
China has warned the United States that incursions by its warships in the South China Sea could lead to an incident that “sparks war”.
It follows the US Navy’s decision to send the destroyer USS Lassen within 12 miles of the Subi Reef, an artificial archipelago built by China approximately midway between Vietnam and the Philippines.
Tension has been slowly building in the Sea, which China maintains is within its territory.
Admiral Wu Shengli, China’s naval commander, issued the warning to his American counterpart Admiral John Richardson on Thursday, during a video conference attempting to defuse a possible situation.
Erdogan the gambler spins election wheel again in 'traumatised' Turkey
Paul McGeough
Chief foreign correspondent
Suat Kiniklioglu has done it all – once a suspect; then a player; and these days, again a bit of a suspect.
As Turkey girded for a portentous election this weekend, Kiniklioglu wondered about his standing in a fracturing country of 80 million people.
"I don't fit the normal type and identity … I don't know what's wrong with me," he told Fairfax Media.
As an officer in the Turkish Air Force, early in his career he was part of a military culture that would happily step in to "correct" or remove the government of the day; and as an MP in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), he flew on the prime ministerial jet, with then PM and now Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan taking his thoughtful advice.
But once again, Kiniklioglu is in the firing line – in his role as a commentator at the anti-government Today's Zaman newspaper.
U.S. man fighting ISIS: It's not 'Call of Duty'
Updated 0546 GMT (1346 HKT) October 30, 2015
A former U.S. soldier battling ISIS alongside Kurdish fighters in Syria has warned others tempted to join him that life on the front line is no computer game.
"You meet a lot of people who think this is going to be the gaming experience -- [like] Call of Duty," he told CNN at his remote camp near the Tigris River in northern Syria.
"They think because they understand how to pull the trigger on a console they know how to do it in real life."
Randy Roberts is one of dozens of westerners who have come to Syria and Iraq to join the YPG, and help them take on ISIS.
They are a mixed bunch of men and women, from Europe and North America; among them a Canadian medic from Alberta, a young Swedish woman and a burly middle-aged man from Spain's Basque country.
UN investigator urges Myanmar to allow Muslims to vote
The special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar said the Nov. 8 legislative elections won't be free and fair unless they are inclusive.
UNITED NATIONS — A United Nations investigator accused Myanmar of discrimination and urged the government to take immediate action to allow minorities and migrants to vote in November elections.
Yanghee Lee, the special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also urged the country's Election Commission to establish an independent process to review the disqualification of candidates, many of them Muslims – including two current members of parliament.
Ms. Lee told said Thursday that the Nov. 8 legislative elections will be "an important milestone" in the country's democratic transition. But she said the elections won't be free and fair unless they are inclusive.
"The credibility of the elections will be judged by the environment in which they are conducted and the extent to which all sectors of Myanmar society have been allowed to freely participate in the political process," Lee said.
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