Migrant crisis: Slovenia braces after Hungary border closure
Migrants have begun arriving in Slovenia by bus from Croatia, after Hungary shut its border with Croatia to try to stem the numbers arriving en route to western Europe.
Hungary closed its frontier, reinforced with a razor-wire fence, at midnight local on Friday.
Many of the migrants aim to continue north to Austria and Germany.
Earlier EU leaders failed to agree a plan backed by Hungary to send a force to prevent migrants reaching Greece.
Hungary's closure of its border with Croatia comes just a month after it shut its frontier with Serbia, which was another transit route to western Europe.
Until Friday night, 5,000 to 8,000 people were being allowed across Hungary every day, without registration, bound for Austria.
Are police being trigger happy with tear gas on Calais migrants?
Ahmad C.
Several amateur videos posted online have exposed the extent to which French riot police use tear gas against migrants in Calais. Activists and migrants contacted by FRANCE 24 have slammed the practice, accusing officers of using excessive force.
On October 12 "Calais Migrant Solidarity", a group better known as "No Borders", posted to its website a video showing police officers firing tear gas canisters from a bridge at migrants below. The group says that the clip was filmed on Thursday, October 7.
Activists working with "No Borders", a left-wing group that defends migrants, refuse to speak to any journalists. As a result, the group refused to answer any of our questions about the footage uploaded to their website.
US, South Korea ready to 'engage' denuclearized North Korea
US President Barack Obama has said that the US and South Korea are ready to 'engage' North Korea if it ends its nuclear weapons program. President Park Geung-Hye said Seoul would attempt reconciliation.
At a joint press conference in Washington on Friday, both US President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-Hye urged Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program as the first step in engagement.
"[North Korean President] Kim Jong-un's missile program achieved nothing except to deepen North Korea's isolation," Obama said, adding that Washington's alliance with Seoul was "a lynchpin of peace and security" for the region.
"At the point where Kim Jong-un says we are interested in seeing relations and denuclearization, I think it's fair to say we will be right there at the table," Obama added.
Islamic State is making these Afghans long for the Taliban
Sudarsan Raghavan
Sar Shahi, Afghanistan: When IS fighters seized the Mahmand Valley, they poured pepper into the wounds of their enemies, villagers said. Then, they seared their hands in vats of boiling oil. A group of villagers was blindfolded, tortured and blown apart with explosives buried underneath them.
"They pulled out my brother's teeth before they forced him to sit on the bombs," recalled Malik Namos, a tribal elder who escaped the valley along with thousands of other villagers. "They are more vicious than the Taliban, than any group we have seen."
At war for more than three decades, Afghans are familiar with violence perpetrated by a raft of armies and militias. But even by their jaded standards, the emergence here of IS – the extremist organisation that arose in the Middle East – has ushered in a new age of brutality.
OCTOBER 17, 2015
Film by POW’s daughter explores reconciliation with Japanese
TOKYO As a child, filmmaker Jan Thompson wondered why her father would not talk about his experiences as a World War II veteran. She was angry when she finally learned about his suffering as a prisoner of war of Japan, and then started to speak up for him and his comrades.
It took Thompson, a three-time Emmy-award-winning documentary director, 22 years to craft a film telling their survival stories in the 2013 film “Never the Same,” and just as long for her to find a measure of peace. With that change of heart, she’s now embarking on a new film project that explores reconciliation between descendants of those on both sides of the war.
The project has connected her with Hidetoshi Tojo, the great-grandson of wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo, who was executed as a war criminal and is seen as a symbol of Japan’s militarist past.
China's crackdown on trophy hunting: Is it enough?
China has taken an important step to curb ivory trade that will hopefully save Africa’s elephants.
This week, China, the world’s biggest importer of illegal ivory, imposed a temporary ban on ivory acquired as hunting trophies.
China’s State Forestry Administration (SFA) said it would stop approving imports until Oct. 15, 2016, Reuters reports.
The policy follows a one-year ban in February on imports of African ivory carvings.
Ivories acquired from big game hunting have long been sanctioned in China, but conservationists say, “it stimulates demand for fresh ivory and is used to conceal the illegal trade.”The New York Times reported at the time of the ban, "because the temporary ban prohibits only the import of ivory carvings, it does not affect China’s legal domestic ivory trade, which has prompted an increase in the price of ivory and provides legal camouflage for a booming trade in illicit ivory smuggled into China’s licensed carving factories and stores."
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