Japan goes to the polls in snap election
A typhoon has been drenching parts of Japan as the country heads to the polls after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called a snap election in the face of the rising threat from North Korea.
Mr Abe called the election amid rebounding approval ratings after a record low over the summer and with the opposition largely in disarray.
He is predicted to win a majority, after the opposition fell apart.
A challenge from Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike appears to be fizzling out.
Speaking to the BBC, one observer described voting for Mr Abe's Liberal Democratic Party as TINA, or "there is no alternative".
Mr Abe is hoping his party will win a two-thirds majority, allowing him to make constitutional changes. In particular, he wants to change Japan's self-defence force into a national army for the first time since World War II.
Russia accused of supplying Taliban as power shifts create strange bedfellows
An Afghan army commander is the latest to allege that Moscow is providing arms to the Islamist group that grew out of the 1980s anti-Soviet resistance
Afghan officials have called on Moscow to stop supporting the Taliban, as the militant group steps up attacks across the country, allegedly with the help of Russian weapons.
The plea is a sign of frustration with foreign powers, which are muscling in to fill the space left behind by the US troop drawdown and often hedging their bets on the conflict by supporting several factions – including the Taliban.
After weeks of intense battles in the western Farah province – in which Taliban fighters nearly overran the provincial capital for the third time in a year – the commander of the Afghan army’s 207th Corps, has become the latest official to point the finger at Russia
More than 100 suspected paedophiles arrested in huge 'dark web' crackdown in Brazil
Those detained are said to include retired police officers and civil servants as well as youth football club bosses
Police in Brazil have arrested 108 people in one of the biggest ever crackdowns targeting paedophiles in South America.
Suspects – said to include retired police officers, civil servants and people in charge of youth football clubs - were arrested across 24 different states and in the capital, Brasilia.
Torquato Jardim, the justice minister, said those detained are suspected of being part of a ring that shared pornographic images of children online.
Substantial RiskNATO Grapples with Serious Organizational Shortcomings
In a secret report, NATO warns that it may not be prepared to confront a hypothetical Russian attack. Senior military officers would like to see a return to the command structures used by the alliance during the Cold War.
The 2nd Cavalry Regiment is one of the oldest units in the U.S. Army. As early as 1846, soldiers from the unit fought against Mexico and in the American Indian Wars two decades later, elements of the unit stumbled into an ambush and were scalped. In 1905, the cavalry members put down a rebellion on the Philippines before going on to take part in two world wars. More recently, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment made several tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But on July 18, 2017, the 1st Squadron of the proud regiment came up against an opponent that it couldn't handle. At the Romanian-Bulgarian border, the unit's convoy found itself stopped by a simple border crossing. "We sat in our Strykers for an hour and a half in the sun just waiting for guys to manually stamp some paperwork," Colonel Patrick Ellis, the unit's commander, told the American website Defense One.
Why is Mogadishu still a frequent target for attacks?
by Hamza Mohamed
Last week, the deadliest bomb blast to hit the Somali city of Mogadishu killed more than 350 people and injured around 400 others.
Questions are now been asked as to why, more than 10 years after African Union peacekeepers set foot in the capital and six years after the al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabab was pushed out, attacks still plague the coastal city.
The Somali government blamed the October 14 blast on al-Shabab.
HOW LONG CAN THE COURTS KEEP DONALD TRUMP’S MUSLIM BAN AT BAY?
Sarah Aziza
ON TUESDAY NIGHT, two U.S. judges on opposite sides of the country issued last-minute injunctions against President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban, which was set to take effect the following morning. The rulings came in response to lawsuits filed by the International Refugee Assistance Project and the state of Hawaii, both of which challenged the legality of Trump’s executive order banning entrants from eight countries — including six predominantly Muslim nations. In Hawaii, District Judge Derrick Watson ruled that the latest executive order “plainly discriminates based on nationality” in an unlawful way. In Maryland, District Judge Theodore Chuang echoed Watson, citing Trump’s tweets and his (now-deleted) campaign pledge, which was titled “Statement on Preventing Muslim Immigration.” Chuang called the current order an “inextricable re-animation of the twice-enjoined Muslim ban.”
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