US police shootings: Protests spread with dozens of arrests
Protests continue to spread across US cities against the killing of black men by police, following recent deaths in Minnesota and Louisiana.
Roads were blocked and missiles thrown in Minnesota, while armed New Black Panther Party members confronted police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Dozens of arrests have been made but the rallies were mostly peaceful.
The situation is also tense in Dallas, where five officers were killed by a black man during a protest rally.
Security levels were raised at the police HQ after anonymous threats were received but an all clear was given after a search of a car park for a "suspicious person".
Japanese go to polls for upper house election
Japan's parliamentary election could give Prime Minister Abe enough seats in parliament to amend the constitution. That could open the door to a vote to reestablish its military capability.
Japanese voters are going to the polls Sunday to cast ballots in parliamentary elections that are expected to benefit Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Even though support for Abe is lukewarm, there is considerably less support for the opposition.
When Abe campaigned for office in 2012 he sought to get the world's third largest economy growing again, and to modify the country's constitution, eliminating a clause that renounces war.
Up for grabs in the election are half of the seats in parliament's upper chamber - the House of Councillors.
Voting began at 7:00 a.m. (2200 GMT/UCT Saturday), and results should be known shortly after the polls close at 8:00 p.m.
Japan's economy has suffered from chronic deflation for years. Abe vowed to end it with massive amounts of easy money, and other steps, which came to be known as Abenomics.
Why did North Korea test fire a submarine missile?
North Korea remains committed to missile testing, with an apparent test-launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile taking place near the North Korean town of Sinpo on Saturday.
SEOUL — South Korea said that North Korea on Saturday test-fired what appeared to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile off its eastern coast.
The missile was fired from a location near the North Korean coastal town of Sinpo, where analysts have previously detected efforts by the North to develop submarine-launched ballistic missile systems, said an official from Seoul's Defense Ministry, who didn't want to be named, citing office rules. He couldn't immediately confirm how far the missile traveled and where it landed.
North Korea's acquiring the ability to launch missiles from submarines would be an alarming development for rivals and neighbors because missiles from submerged vessels are harder to detect in advance. While security experts say it's unlikely that North Korea possesses an operational submarine capable of firing missiles, they acknowledge that the North is making progress on such technology.
The Religious Cult Secretly Running Japan
WRITTEN BY
Nippon Kaigi, a small cult with some of the country’s most powerful people, aims to return Japan to pre-WWII imperial “glory.” Sunday’s elections may further its goal.
In the Land of the Rising Sun, a conservative Shinto cult dating back to the 1970s, which includes Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and many of his cabinet among its adherents, finally has been dragged out of the shadows.
The group is called Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference) and is ostensibly run by Tadae Takubo, a former journalist turned political scientist. It only has 38,000 members, but like many an exclusive club, or sect, it wields tremendous political influence.
Broadly speaking, Shinto is a polytheistic and animist religion native to Japan. The state-sponsored Shintoism promulgated here before and during World War II also elevated the Emperor to the status of a God and insisted that the Japanese were a divine race –– the Yamato; with all other races considered inferior.
THE BARRETT BROWN REVIEW OF ARTS AND LETTERS AND PRISON
Barrett BrownPARTLY AS A consequence of my natural rambunctiousness, I’ve spent a total of five months over the past few years of incarceration being held in 23- to 24-hour-a-day Special Housing Unit confinement cells, collectively and informally known as “the hole,” at three different prisons and in stints ranging from six to 60 days; indeed, my first three Intercept columns were composed from the SHU over at Federal Correctional Institution Fort Worth. But as these were given over largely to rambling self-promotion and some rather intemperate attacks on several contemporary novelists, I’ve never gotten around to providing a real sense of what it’s actually like to live in one of these federal dungeons.
Provocative Kuwaiti artist enjoys bright homecoming
Kuwaiti artist Shurooq Amin has returned home four years after a ban on a previous show labelled as "anti-Islamic".
Motez Bishara
Shuwaikh, Kuwait - It took some time, but Shurooq Amin is finally at peace.
The artist, known for her politically charged and visually seductive work, relaxes over coffee at a spacious art gallery in an industrial section of Kuwait, where her show It's a Mad World recently ended after an impactful six-week run.
For the 48-year-old Kuwaiti, there is a sense of relief that four years after the notorious opening-day shutdown of her previous hometown exhibit, things went off without a hitch this time.
"It's been the best time of my life," Amin told Al Jazeera, grinning. "A lot has changed in Kuwait, and a lot has changed for me as an artist, and as a human being."
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