World News Thread & Breaking News!!

[bd popeye]

My condolences to the families of the victims of this disaster. Full story in the link.

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By Bobby Ranoco

TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) - One of the strongest typhoons ever to make landfall churned through the Philippine archipelago in a straight line from east to west and devastated central provinces, killing at least 100 people in a surge of flood water, officials said on Saturday.

The death toll from Typhoon Haiyan is expected to rise sharply as rescue workers reach areas cut off by the fast-moving storm, whose circumference eclipsed the whole country and which late on Saturday was heading for Vietnam.

Roads in the coastal city of Tacloban in the central Leyte province, one of the worst-hit areas, were either under water or blocked by fallen trees and power lines and debris from homes blown away by Haiyan.

Bodies covered in plastic were lying on the streets.

"The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami," said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, head of the U.N. Disaster Assessment Coordination Team sent to Tacloban.

"This is destruction on a massive scale. There are cars thrown like tumbleweed and the streets are strewn with debris."

The category 5 "super typhoon" weakened to a category 4 on Saturday, though forecasters said it could strengthen again over the South China Sea en route to Vietnam.

Authorities in 15 provinces in Vietnam have started to call back boats and prepare for possible landslides. Nearly 300,000 people were moved to safer areas in two provinces alone - Da Nang and Quang Nam - according to the government's website.

The Philippines has yet to restore communications with officials in Tacloban, a city of about 220,000, but a government official estimated at least 100 were killed and more than 100 wounded.

The national disaster agency has yet to confirm the toll but broken power poles, trees, bent tin roofs and splintered houses littered the streets of the city about 580 km (360 miles) southeast of Manila. The airport was destroyed as raging seawaters swept through the city.

"Almost all houses were destroyed, many are totally damaged. Only a few are left standing," said Major Rey Balido, a spokesman for the national disaster agency.

Local television network ABS-CBN showed images of looting in one of the city's biggest malls, with residents carting away everything from appliances to suitcases and grocery items.

About a million people took shelter in 37 provinces after President Benigno Aquino appealed to those in the typhoon's path to leave vulnerable areas.

"For casualties, we think it will be substantially more," Aquino told reporters.

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These last five photos shows what is left at the airport in in the coastal city of Tacloban in the central Leyte province.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

Iran nuclear talks end without breakthrough: France

By Stephanie Nebehay and Lesley Wroughton

GENEVA Sat Nov 9, 2013 8:28pm EST


(Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday that nuclear talks between Iran and global powers had finished without an agreement but that they would continue at a later date.

"From the start, France wanted an agreement to the important question of Iran's nuclear program. The Geneva meeting allowed us to advance, but we were not able to conclude because there are still some questions to be addressed," Fabius told reporters early on the fourth day of ministerial talks in the Swiss city.

European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will announce that senior political officials, followed by ministers, would meet again to try to clinch a deal, he said.

Ministers from Iran and the major powers held a series of meetings late on Saturday in a final push to hammer out the outline of a deal that would freeze parts of Iran's atomic program in exchange for sanctions relief.

"Efforts to secure an agreement are continuing with great intensity," a Western diplomat close to the talks said on Saturday before the talks ended.

The latest round of negotiations began on Thursday and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry unexpectedly arrived on Friday to help narrow remaining differences between Iran and the six nations.

Fabius, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and their counterparts from Russia and Germany, Sergei Lavrov and Guido Westerwelle, also attended, along with Chinese vice foreign minister Li Baodong, demonstrating the six-nation group's commitment to reaching the kind of agreement with Iran that has eluded the West for a decade.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that if there was no agreement this weekend, "the process will continue in one week or 10 days".

Fabius told France Inter radio on Saturday that Paris could not accept a "fool's game".

His pointed remarks hinted at a rift within the Western camp. A Western diplomat close to the negotiations said the French were trying to upstage the other powers.

"The Americans, the EU and the Iranians have been working intensively together for months on this proposal, and this is nothing more than an attempt by Fabius to insert himself into relevance late in the negotiations," the diplomat told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In a further sign that the cordiality that had reigned in the talks so far was dissipating, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Mehr news agency that his counterparts from the six powers "need constant coordination and consultation in order to determine (their) stances".

The main sticking points in the talks include calls for a shutdown of an Iranian reactor that could eventually help to produce weapons-grade nuclear fuel, the fate of Iran's stockpile of higher-enriched uranium, and the nature and sequencing of relief from economic sanctions sought by Tehran.

The powers remain concerned that Iran is continuing to amass enriched uranium not for future nuclear power stations, as Tehran says, but as potential fuel for nuclear warheads.

They are searching for a preliminary agreement that would restrain Iran's nuclear program and make it more transparent for U.N. anti-proliferation inspectors. In exchange, Tehran would obtain phased, initially limited, relief from the sanctions throttling the economy of the giant OPEC state.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau, Fredrik Dahl and Yeganeh Tobati; Writing by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Paul Simao)

and so the game continues

 

[Equation]

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It seems like every year a Latin American always wins these beauty pageant contest. I can't blame the judges, they are beautiful.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

Not just Latin America particularly Venezuela. The nation holds its self to a whole different standard in terms of beauty queens.

 

[broadsword]

Cambodia has it. Hate to see the two countries scrapping.


Preah Vihear temple: Disputed land Cambodian, court rules


A Cambodian Buddhist monk walking at the Preah Vihear temple, some 543 kilometers north of Phnom Penh, along the border with Thailand, This file photo taken on November 7, 2008 The 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple is a World

Cambodia should have sovereignty over disputed land around the Preah Vihear temple on the border with Thailand, the UN's highest court has ruled.

The International Court of Justice in the Hague said Thailand must withdraw any soldiers from the area.

The long-standing rift has previously led to clashes between the two nations, who both lay claim to the land.

A 1962 verdict by the court declared the temple to be Cambodian, but did not rule on the area around it.

Cambodia sought a clarification of the ruling two years ago, after fighting erupted.

Delivering the judgement, Peter Tomka, president of the International Court of Justice, said the court had decided "that Cambodia had sovereignty over the whole territory of the promontory of Preah Vihear".

"In consequence, Thailand was under an obligation to withdraw from that territory the Thai military or police forces or other guards or keepers that were stationed there," he said.
Fears of violence

Both sides agreed to withdraw troops from the disputed area in December 2011.

On Saturday, the chief of Cambodia's military forces on the Thailand border called an emergency meeting after Thai aircraft were seen flying low around disputed land near the temple.

However, Cambodian regional commander General Srey Deuk told the BBC he expected no problems with the Thai military after Monday's verdict.

He said no troop reinforcements had been brought up to the temple.

But fears remain about possible violence in border villages, stirred up by nationalist groups.

One Thai nationalist group, the Thai Patriotic Network, has said it will reject any judgement from the ICJ, according to The Nation newspaper. The group has already petitioned the court to throw out the case.

The territory has been a point of contention for over a century.
Map

The decision to award the temple to Cambodia in 1962 rankled Thailand, but the issue lay largely moribund due to Cambodia's civil war, which only ended in the 1990s.

It came to the forefront again when Cambodia applied for Unesco World Heritage status in 2008, which it won - angering Thai nationalists. Both sides began a build up of troops in the area.

The ICJ ruling is an interpretation of the 1962 judgement and cannot be appealed.

 

[airsuperiority]

Oh, when it comes to Xinjiang and Tibet, the hypocrisy in the western media is unreal at times, especially when you contrast that to American wars and domestic policies.

Its best to just tune out the blatant BS and not get too worked up by all the double standards and theatrics. The more the western media tries to spin stories, the more obvious how full of it they are to everyone.

Something I realized about their bias is that it came from stereotypes and being uninformed about China. The stereotype had been that China is an iron-fist regime that suppresses its own people, therefore it doesn't matter whichever group that pops up; it will always be suppressed group vs CCP. As long as it's a subgroup popping up and they're fighting against the regime, they will be seen as suppressed and defined as a group fighting for their rights. My thoughts are, perhaps if a CNN or NYT journalists were permitted into investigative projects looking into certain of these radical groups, it's perhaps possible they will change their perspectives. It's unnecessarily an attack or hate against Chinese people; rather the word Chinese had become the label "Chinese Communist"; in other words, it's been politicized. Perhaps "Hua" people is a better politically neutral term to define ethnic Chinese, as it encompasses ethnic Chinese or the Han people in general. This may also explain why Taiwanese or HK prefer to distinguish away from the title "Chinese", as it now carries a political notion. However again we shan't forget that there are many bigots who just group everyone into one and systematically accuse everyone. Those ones don't deserve our attention.

Again I'm going to expect a bunch of pro-China to come out and attempt to take apart my post because they refuse to accept what I've said. The only thing I can say is that my political views had shifted from pro-China(in defence of our people) to critical, to going back to a more balanced side of seeing both.

 

[Equation]

Something I realized about their bias is that it came from stereotypes and being uninformed about China. The stereotype had been that China is an iron-fist regime that suppresses its own people, therefore it doesn't matter whichever group that pops up; it will always be suppressed group vs CCP. As long as it's a subgroup popping up and they're fighting against the regime, they will be seen as suppressed and defined as a group fighting for their rights. My thoughts are, perhaps if a CNN or NYT journalists were permitted into investigative projects looking into certain of these radical groups, it's perhaps possible they will change their perspectives. It's unnecessarily an attack or hate against Chinese people; rather the word Chinese had become the label "Chinese Communist"; in other words, it's been politicized. Perhaps "Hua" people is a better politically neutral term to define ethnic Chinese, as it encompasses ethnic Chinese or the Han people in general. This may also explain why Taiwanese or HK prefer to distinguish away from the title "Chinese", as it now carries a political notion. However again we shan't forget that there are many bigots who just group everyone into one and systematically accuse everyone. Those ones don't deserve our attention.

Again I'm going to expect a bunch of pro-China to come out and attempt to take apart my post because they refuse to accept what I've said. The only thing I can say is that my political views had shifted from pro-China(in defence of our people) to critical, to going back to a more balanced side of seeing both.

What's so special about these CNN or NYT journalists that needs to be "permitted into such investigative projects" that they already has and hold a bias view towards China anyway? Somehow somewhere during their so called righteous reporting and free press they forgot about the NSA snooping and spying around the world. So, did anyone of them or even Chinese reporters had access to the NSA network system to see how they work?

 

[airsuperiority]

What's so special about these CNN or NYT journalists that needs to be "permitted into such investigative projects" that they already has and hold a bias view towards China anyway? Somehow somewhere during their so called righteous reporting and free press they forgot about the NSA snooping and spying around the world. So, did anyone of them or even Chinese reporters had access to the NSA network system to see how they work?

I'm not too sure what you're trying to say here. I'm just saying that perhaps letting people be exposed to truths can sometimes be eye-opening for them, although there will always people who will continue to choose to remain thinking how they are originally.

 

[AssassinsMace]

CNN has been humiliated for its never learning a thing reporting where Jon Stewart can alone destroy the network's reputation. The NYTimes has had to fire several reporters for lying in their reporting and both cases had nothing to do with China. So there was no such thing as misreporting because they were denied access.

 

[airsuperiority]

CNN has been humiliated for its never learning a thing reporting where Jon Stewart can alone destroy the network's reputation. The NYTimes has had to fire several reporters for lying in their reporting and both cases had nothing to do with China. So there was no such thing as misreporting because they were denied access.

The only reason I brought up the name CNN was cuz it's quite representative of a mainstream biased Western media, while NYT was seen by "some" to have better rep and professionalism, although again for any of us serious analysts, these sources are only as useful as someone telling you "something happened in China" today, then the rest is for ourselves to find the truth. Fact is, there's no real neutral mainstream Western media, and none would ever be pro-China. Pro-China isn't something we will find in mainstream Western media sources because simply for sociological sake, both mainland China's culture and political atmosphere is too different from the West. Japan may have it a bit better for pacifistic mainstream culture(excluding their government), while Korea, Taiwan, HK are much less paid attention to by the Western press. Even for them, it's less about political and mostly cultural that gets covered, such as food, culture, icons, tourism, Psy+ Gangnam, Jacky Chan, Jay Chou, Taipei 101, etc..