Storm Harvey: Trump seeks $7.8bn for flood recovery
US President Donald Trump has asked Congress for $7.8bn (£6bn) as an initial payment to help with recovery efforts following flooding in Texas and Louisiana.
Officials say there will be further requests for funds when the full impact of Hurricane Harvey becomes known.
Some residents have been allowed to return to their homes but flood waters are still rising in other areas.
Mr Trump is to visit Texas for a second time on Saturday.
The hurricane made landfall in the state a week ago, causing devastating floods.
It has been blamed for the deaths of at least 47 people and about 43,000 are currently housed in shelters.
In a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney warned that failure to raise the US debt ceiling could hinder recovery efforts.
'Cockroaches' and 'old hags': hounding of the North Korean diaspora in Japan
Japan has 600,000 Korean residents, many descended from forced wartime labourers. While 150,000 claim loyalty to Pyongyang, all face hostility because of the regime’s behaviour
As a Korean resident of Japan, Lee Sinhae knows only too well how quickly, and cruelly, political tensions find expression in personal abuse.
The freelance writer has acquired an unwanted public profile after winning a court case last year against the extremist group Zaitokukai for defamation. Its former leader, Makoto Sakurai, had called Lee a “Korean old hag” online and during street demonstrations. “Zaitokukai members even told me to get out of Japan and go back to Korea, even though I was born here,” said Lee.
Now, after North Korea dramatically raised tensions across the region with tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles and Tuesday’s missile launch over the Japanese island of Hokkaido, tens of thousands of Korean residents of Japan with family connections to the North fear becoming the innocent victims of growing Japanese hostility towards Pyongyang.
Indian government files legal papers to try to stop marital rape being outlawed
'The fact that other countries, mostly Western, have criminalised marital rape does not necessarily mean India should also follow them blindly'
India's government has rejected calls to outlaw marital rape after saying it could "destabilise the institution of marriage" and put husbands at risk of "harrassment".
A plea from campaigners and victims is currently being heard by the Dehli High Court. Judge's asked for the government's stance on the issue.
There is currently no crime in the country's law about rape taking place within marriage and the section of the Indian Penal Code that outlaws rape includes an exception stating that "sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.”
German players snub fans after 'terrible' chants during Czech Republic match
Germany may have beaten the Czech Republic in Prague on Friday, but the behavior of some of their fans left plenty to be desired. The German players declined to applaud their supporters after several unsavory incidents.
Germany fans were heard chanting and shouting throughout the minute's silence and whistling through the national anthems ahead of their World Cup qualifier against the Czechs. Germany eventually won the game 2-1.
Marcus Bark, a journalist for German network ARD tweeted after the game that Julian Brandt had said: "If chants with a National Socialist background are sung, then there is no reason to support that and go to the stands."
Defender Mats Hummels was equally forthright after the game: "That was so wrong that there was never even a question of going to the stands."
How Turkey's controversial dam project will put a 12,000-year-old Kurdish village underwater
On the banks of the river Tigris, in southeastern Turkey, sits Hasankeyf, a small village that is 12,000 years old. However, very soon, that history will come to an end. The Turkish government built a dam 60km downstream and soon Hasankeyf will be underwater. After years of fighting for their village, residents capitulated. They say they feel hopeless and humiliated, especially after the government starting using dynamite to destroy nearby cliffs over the past few weeks.
In 2018, 80 percent of the village is set to be flooded with water from the Tigris after a giant dam is brought into operation. The overflow of water will flood an estimated 313 km2 of land over the next 60 years.
The Ilisu dam is a flagship project for the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It’s meant to jump-start economic development in the impoverished southeastern part of the country. Authorities say that the dam will create 10,000 jobs, provide water to irrigate the fields in the region and develop tourism, though they haven't given any more specifics.
In 2018, 80 percent of the village is set to be flooded with water from the Tigris after a giant dam is brought into operation. The overflow of water will flood an estimated 313 km2 of land over the next 60 years.
The Ilisu dam is a flagship project for the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It’s meant to jump-start economic development in the impoverished southeastern part of the country. Authorities say that the dam will create 10,000 jobs, provide water to irrigate the fields in the region and develop tourism, though they haven't given any more specifics.
Myanmar crisis a 'human catastrophe' that betrays Suu Kyi's Nobel prize
Lindsay Murdoch
Hundreds killed, including children. Villages burnt to the ground. Tens of thousands of desperate people fleeing, carrying their children, amid credible reports of a massacre.
The United Nations Secretary-General warns a "humanitarian catastrophe" may be unfolding by the day in Rakhine State, Myanmar.
This is not happening under the watch of a mad dictator.
This is Myanmar, a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) whose de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was in 1991 awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her "non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights", one of her many international awards.
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