Hong Kong protests: Mongkok ground retaken from police

from bbc

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HK protests

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Pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong have retaken streets in the Mongkok district cleared by the authorities just a few hours earlier.

Their victory came after clashes with riot police using batons and pepper spray.

Wielding open umbrellas as their only weapons, an estimated 9,000 demonstrators pushed back police lines.

They managed to retake territory south of a major intersection, stopping traffic in both directions.

The protesters are angry about China's restrictions on who can stand in Hong Kong's next leadership election in 2017.

Earlier, police said they had arrested 26 people for charges including assault during clashes on Friday evening. Fifteen police officers were injured in the clashes, they added.

Several protesters were seen being knocked to the ground during the latest scuffles, AP news agency reported.

Protesters opened their umbrellas as they pushed against police lines

Protesters began rebuilding barricades after they retook some areas of Mong Kok

Many of the protesters are students and young people

Protest group Occupy Central issued a statement (in Chinese) saying that the clearance operations ordered by the government had "triggered a new wave of occupations and worsened relations between police and citizens".

The Mong Kok camp in Kowloon is an offshoot of the original protest site around government offices in Admiralty on Hong Kong Island.

Protesters and police are also congregating at Admiralty, although there are no reports of clashes.

'Talks scheduled'

Earlier on Friday, Alex Chow from the Federation of Students said both his group and the government had agreed to meet next Tuesday, in talks that would be broadcast live on radio, the South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong leader CY Leung said on Thursday that the government was ready for talks, but China would not retract its decision to vet candidates for the 2017 elections.

The last time talks were scheduled they were cancelled by Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, who said it was impossible to have constructive dialogue while the occupation of city streets continued.

Protester numbers have dropped off since the start of the month, when tens of thousands were on the streets. But tensions escalated this week, with violent clashes as police cleared an underpass on Lung Wo Road near the chief executive's offices.

A video showing plainclothes police officers beating an unarmed protester, who is a member of the pro-democracy Civic Party, also sparked outrage.

Police said seven officers had been suspended pending an investigation.

Hong Kong democracy timeline

• 1997: UK gives Hong Kong back to China under a 1984 agreement giving it "a high degree of autonomy" for 50 years
• 2004: China says it must approve any changes to Hong Kong's election laws
• June-July 2014: Pro-democracy activists hold an unofficial referendum on political reform; both sides hold large rallies
• 31 August 2014: China says it will allow direct elections in 2017 but will pre-approve candidates
• 22 September 2014: Student groups launch a week-long boycott of classes
• 28 September 2014: Occupy Central and student protests join forces and take over central Hong Kong
• 2017: Direct elections for chief executive due to take place

Q&A: Hong Kong's democracy controversy

ISIS approaches Baghdad as U.S. airstrikes continue

from cbs







OCTOBER 12, 2014, 10:42 AM|CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer reports from Baghdad on the continued fight against militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Third car bomb in Baghdad on Saturday night kills 15

from reuters

BAGHDAD Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:01pm EDT

(Reuters) - A third lethal car bomb hit a Shi'ite neighborhood in Baghdad on Saturday night, killing 15 people and wounding 44 others, a police officer and a medical official said.

The suicide attacker detonated his car on a busy street in the Shaoula neighborhood, where a parked car had exploded 30 minutes earlier by an ice cream shop. That attack left eight dead and 18 wounded.

A suicide car bomb also went off in the adjoining neighborhood of Kadhimiya, killing 11 and wounding 27.

(Reporting by Ned Parker; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Still no show: North Korea's Kim misses Party birthday

from usatoday




Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY12:42 a.m. EDT October 10, 2014

BEIJING – The wait continues, so the speculation mounts, after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un appeared a no-show Friday for a key political anniversary in Pyongyang.

Kim has not been seen in public since Sept. 3, sparking rumors of a serious illness or even a coup in the highly secretive state whose nuclear ambitions rattle the region.

In Seoul, a South Korean official played down the significance of Kim's absence. "It seems that Kim Jong Un's rule is in normal operation," Lim Byeong-cheol, spokesman for the south's unification ministry, told a press briefing Friday, reported the Yonhap news agency. He cited the North's dispatch of a top-level party-military delegation to the south last week, during which a senior figure conveyed Kim's greetings to South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

Although prolonged absences by North Korean leaders are not uncommon, this marks the longest such disappearance since Kim became Supreme Leader following the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011. The most recent television footage showed Kim, thought to be 30 or 31, limping heavily.

State media, in a rare comment on the ruling dynasty's personal matters, later said Kim was suffering from unspecified "discomfort." Gout seems a contender, given Kim's reported love of rich foods and alcohol, but the Reuters news agency, quoting an unnamed source Friday, said Kim had hurt his leg, required 100 days to recover, and remained in full control.

Kim was injured when he joined generals he had ordered to perform physical drills, the source said. North Korea's state-run television is usually dominated by propaganda footage of Kim providing "on-the-spot guidance" to people at farms, factories, schools and seemingly in every other aspect of North Korean life.

Despite the absence of new material since Sept. 3, Kim remains front and center as the third generation of the ruling family's personality cult, an all-pervasive phenomenon that effectively serves as the state religion. "Dear comrade Kim Jong Un is the symbol of dignity and invincibility of the Workers' Party and the banner of all victories and glory," said an editorial Friday in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, a mouthpiece of the ruling party, Reuters reported.

If healthy, Kim would have been the central figure at events marking Party Foundation Day, Oct. 10. This year, the 69th anniversary, carries less significance and symbolism than the 70th in 2015, but Kim did attend commemorative activities on this date for the past two years, including a midnight ritual at the palace housing the embalmed bodies of his father and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, the regime founder and "Eternal President."

In a sign of global interest in Kim's whereabouts, China's state news agency Xinhua, one of the few foreign media outlets stationed in Pyongyang, dispatched a journalist to stake out the palace late Thursday, but found no police or security guards nearby that would suggest a Kim visit.

Xinhua and other Chinese media would not be permitted to report such speculation about their own Communist Party leaders, but have taken a sometimes critical view of Kim's belligerent behavior, despite Beijing being North Korea's only significant ally.

By late Friday morning local time, North Korean state media had not reported any Kim visit to Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, although it remained possible that reports later Friday could feature Kim's attendance at other anniversary events.

Some analysts cautioned that a coup remained unlikely. "Despite his extended absence, available evidence suggests Kim is still alive and still in power," Korea analyst John G. Grisafi wrote on the NKNews website Friday. "The amount of influence and power held by officials certainly varies and Kim, who is young and inexperienced, is not likely to be calling all the shots himself," he said. "However, North Korea's government is using a dynastic system and having a member of the Kim family -- or the "Paektu bloodline" -- in the top spot is critical to maintaining this system," wrote Grisafi. "Kim may need his advisers and officials, but they need him too."

Second Possible Ebola Case Reported In Texas

from huffpost

The Huffington Post  | By Amanda L. Chan and Anna Almendrala

Posted: 10/08/2014 4:00 pm EDT Updated: 2 minutes ago

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A person who is said to have had contact with Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was taken to the hospital after reporting feeling ill, the city of Frisco, Texas, announced Wednesday.

NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported that the person showing symptoms is an employee of the Dallas County Sheriff's Office, and had been in the apartment Duncan was staying in before he was hospitalized Sept. 28. Duncan passed away Wednesday morning.

WFAA reported that the patient is Sgt. Michael Monnig, and that Monnig went into the apartment unit without wearing protective gear in order to have a quarantine order signed.

CDC Director Tom Frieden said that he could not confirm whether or not the patient has definite symptoms of Ebola or if he had direct contact with Duncan. The state had been monitoring 48 people who may have come into contact with Duncan, but Frieden said that none of them had exhibited any suggestive symptoms.

Read the statement from the City of Frisco below:

(October 8) At 12:32 p.m. today, October 8, Frisco dispatch received a call from Care Now, 301 Main Street, regarding a patient exhibiting signs and symptoms of Ebola. The patient claims to have had contact with the Dallas ‘patient zero’. Frisco firefighter-paramedics are in the process of transporting the patient. They are also in the process of examining clinical staff and other facility patrons. That number other people impacted is unknown. No other information is confirmed, available at this time.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas also confirmed Wednesday that a patient was admitted to the hospital's emergency room over possible exposure to the Ebola virus.

"Right now, there are more questions than answers about this case," the hospital statement said. "Our professional staff of nurses and doctors is prepared to examine the patient, discuss any findings with appropriate agencies and officials. We are on alert with precautions and systems in place. At the same time, we are caring for routine cases which are completely separate in operations."

CBS News reporter J.D. Miles tweeted this photo of employees being escorted out of the Care Now clinic:

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Isil advance: Watch live coverage of the Turkey border with Syria near embattled Kobane

from telegraph.co.uk

Live camera shot from Kucuk Kendirciler, on the Turkey-Syria border near the embattled Syrian town of Kobane

By Telegraph video, AP Direct

2:17PM BST 07 Oct 2014

This livestream will resume on October 8

Watch a live video feed from Turkey's southeastern province of Sanliurfa near the key Syrian border town of Kobane, which Jihadists are on the verge of seizing.

The fall of Kobane to Islamic State would mark a major victory for the jihadists, who are fighting for a long stretch of the border with Turkey for their self-proclaimed "Islamic caliphate".

At least 412 people, more than half of them jihadists, have been killed in and around Kobane since mid-September, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that the strategically important town was "about to fall", saying a ground operation was needed to defeat the militants.

ISIS Recruiting Methods

from time