China and Taiwan leaders start historic meeting with handshake
The leaders of China and Taiwan are holding historic talks in Singapore - their first in more than 60 years.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou shook hands at the start of the talks, which are seen as largely symbolic.
China views Taiwan as a breakaway province which will one day be reunited with the mainland.
But many Taiwanese see it as independent and are concerned at China's growing influence.
"Both sides should respect each other's values and way of life," Mr Ma said.
Mr Xi told the Taiwanese leader: "We are one family."
The meeting is taking place in a ballroom at a luxury hotel, on the sidelines of a state visit by Mr Xi to Singapore. The talks will be followed by a news conference and then dinner.
Aung San Suu Kyi looks to Myanmar poll victory at climax of lifelong campaign
NLD is expected to sweep to power this weekend, but she is barred from the presidency – and may not carry the same love she did 25 years ago
When Aung San Suu Kyi was asked to take part in demonstrations against Myanmar’s brutal treatment of activists during a 1988 student uprising, she replied: “It’s not my sort of thing.”
Yet more than a quarter of a century later – most of that time spent alone under house arrest and some on hunger strike – the 70-year-old known as “the Lady” is anticipating a political victory this weekend against the country’s army-backed government.
A luminary of the west, Aung San Suu Kyi waits at her family home on 54 University Avenue in the capital, Yangon, for what is being touted as the country’s first credible election in 50 years.
Many observers say her National League for Democracy (NLD) party will win on Sunday, taking the south-east Asian country further from the grasp of one the world’s most reclusive military regimes. It would be a momentous step for the often-stumbling democracy movement she has led since its foundation.
America's most overweight cities: How Oklahoma is battling obesity
Obesity is a scourge of the Western world, with governments scrambling to defuse a health timebomb. Could a civic revolution in the US Midwest point the way forward?
When Velveth Monterosso arrived in the United States from her home town in Guatemala in 2005, she weighed exactly 10 stone. But after a decade of living in Oklahoma, she was more than five stone heavier and fighting diabetes at the age of 34. This friendly woman, a mother of two children, is a living embodiment of the obesity culture cursing the world's wealthiest country.
"In Guatemala it is rare to see people who are very overweight but it could not be more different here," she told me when we met in Oklahoma City a few weeks ago.
In Guatemala, Mrs Monterosso ate lots of vegetables because meat was expensive. But working from eight in the morning until 11 at night as a cook in an Oklahoma City diner, she skipped breakfast and lunch while snacking all day on burger and pizza.
Why did Syrian rebels parade prisoners in cages?
Syrian rebel groups have published several videos where their members are seen parading prisoners in cages through the streets of Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus. The images are reminiscent of methods used by the Islamic State group.
Videos published on Sunday show dozens of people – both soldiers and civilians, including women – being transported in cages on the back of trucks. The rebels who did this are fighters for Jaysh al-Islam (“Army of Islam”), which is considered the biggest rebel group in the vicinity of the capital. The rebel group claimed to have put up “hundreds of cages” throughout the city in order to dissuade the regime from carrying out aerial strikes on Eastern Ghouta, which has been under siege by government forces for the past three years.
“These methods are bad for the image of our revolution”
TV watchdog raps government, LDP for pressuring NHK over documentary on religious scams
KYODO
An independent panel promoting ethical standards in broadcasting criticized the government and ruling party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday for exercising pressure on NHK over possible fraud in a documentary about scams involving religious organizations.
“The government should not be allowed to intervene in content of individual programs,” the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization (BPO) said in a statement. It also criticized NHK for having excessively dramatized the documentary last year.
It is rare for the BPO, launched by NHK and private broadcasters in 2003 to improve the quality of TV programs, to criticize the government and ruling party.
Ethics in TV programs should be pursued “with self-discipline of broadcasters and their voluntary review through the BPO,” the statement said.
Sulaimania and all that jazz
The proprietor of the first jazz bar in Iraq's Kurdish region is confident about his prospects, despite the ongoing war.
Lara Fatah |
Sulaimania, Iraq - "Give that boy 25,000 dinars [$20]! He helped me bring in the flowers," said the man in the navy blazer and beige chinos. "And dim the lights, lower the music."
Chalak Salar lit up a cigarette and invited his guests to sit down. As Iraq's war grinds on, he has been running the newest hot spot in the northern Kurdish city of Sulaimania. There are daily reports of atrocities committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and as political squabbling continues, investors are packing up and locals are paying thousands of dollars to join the queues in Europe for asylum.
But Salar, the 42-year-old proprietor of the first and only jazz bar in Iraq's Kurdish region, is unfazed.
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