Is South Korea about to reset its North Korea policy?
Updated 0818 GMT (1618 HKT) May 5, 2017
North Korea casts a long shadow over any South Korean election.
Having a belligerent, nuclear-armed neighbor is one hell of a campaign issue, but even by that measure, 2017 is unusual.
On May 9, South Koreans will choose a replacement for impeached President Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office in March and indicted on charges of bribery and abuse of power last month.
As voters mull their decision, Pyongyang is believed to be prepping a sixth nuclear test, and has conducted multiple missile tests, while US President Donald Trump's unpredictable White House has talked of a potential pre-emptive strike that some fear could lead to a second Korean War.'We don't want you here' - Muslims fearful as France prepares to vote
Marine Le Pen’s presence in the final round has pushed Islam and national identity to the top of the election agendaIn her apartment in a northern suburb of Paris, Hanane Charrihi looked at a photograph of her mother Fatima. “Her death shows that we need tolerance more than ever,” she said. “Tolerance does exist in France, but sometimes it seems those who are against tolerance shout the loudest and get the most airtime.”
Fatima Charrihi, 59, a Muslim grandmother, was the first of 86 people to be killed in a terrorist attack in Nice last summer when a lorry driver ploughed into crowds watching Bastille Day fireworks. She had left her apartment and gone down to the seafront to have an ice-cream with her grandchildren. Wearing a hijab, she was the first person the driver hit in the gruesome attack claimed by Islamic State. A third of those killed in the Nice attack were Muslims. But Fatima Charrihi’s family, some wearing headscarves, were insulted by passersby who called them “terrorists” even as they crouched next to their mother’s body under a sheet at the site of the attack. “We don’t want people like you here any more,” a man outside a cafe told her family soon after the attack.
In constant pursuit of conflicts, an Austrian is arrested for war crimes
He is well known to authorities. He has found himself in many of the world's danger zones. Who is the man who had been posting photos on social media of his "war adventures?"
An Austrian citizen suspected of war crimes in Ukraine's war-torn Donbass region was arrested last weekend by Polish border police. A European arrest warrant was issued a few weeks ago for the suspect, whom Austria wants extradited as soon as possible.
The 25-year old is accused of "having killed soldiers involved in fighting at the Donetsk airport who had already surrendered and/or of having killed civilians," said a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Wiener Neustadt, in the northeastern province of Lower Austria. The suspect was already being investigated for violating the controlled substances act.
Thrill seeker
Officials have not made additional personal information public due to the ongoing investigation. The Austrian daily "Kurier" has reported the suspect in question to be Benjamin F.from a village in the western Austrian state of Vorarlberg. He was a successful student who played violin and wanted to be a ski instructor. He was a member of the local volunteer fire department.
Japanese authorities wage war on tattoos
One tattoo artist in Japan is going head-to-head with the authorities in a landmark trial that could change the tattooing industry in the country. His campaign, ‘Save Tattooing’, is trying to dredge up support for a practice historically associated with organised violent crime – and heavily frowned upon in Japan.
Tattooist Taiki Masuda is taking the authorities to court over a 2015 fine he was handed after the police raided his tattoo parlour. The police exploited the vagueness of a 2001 law that says that only medical professionals can perform tattooing procedures, and used it to clamp down on a dozen tattoo businesses in Osaka, Japan’s second city. Osaka's former mayor Toru Hashimoto (who left office at the end of 2015) took a hardline stance on tattoos. In a controversial move in 2012, he demanded that all city workers disclose their tattoos -- and potentially lose their jobs as a result.
China defends desire to be a 'good neighbor' to North Korea
North Korea published a rare article critical of Chinese media that had called for tougher sanctions against the North's nuclear program.
China said on Thursday it wants to be good neighbors with North Korea, after the isolated country's state news agency published a rare criticism of Chinese state media commentaries calling for tougher sanctions over the North's nuclear program.
The United States has urged China, North Korea's only major ally, to do more to rein in the North's nuclear and missile programs, which have prompted an assertive response from the Trump administration, warning that an "era of strategic patience" is over.
A commentary carried by North Korea's KCNA news agency referred to recent commentaries in China's People's Daily and Global Times newspapers, which it said were "widely known as media speaking for the official stand of the Chinese party and government."
Leopoldo Lopez's family rattled by health rumours
Government issues 'proof of life' video after rumours spread that jailed Leopoldo Lopez had died.
Supporters of jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez have held a vigil outside his prison demanding to see him after rumours about his health rattled the protest-hit country.
Lopez's wife and mother rushed to a military hospital in Caracas and then the hilltop Ramo Verde jail overnight to Thursday, after a journalist tweeted Lopez had been taken to a medical centre without vital signs.
President Nicolas Maduro's leftist government, facing a wave of major opposition protests since last month, later issued a short "proof of life" video in which Lopez said he was fine.
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