Japan and the United States are revising their mutual defense guidelines for the first time in nearly two decades to respond to China's military expansion and increase Japan's role in regional defense.
	An interim report released today says the US and Japan are pursuing a wider partnership that requires "enhanced capabilities and greater shared responsibilities."
	The revision, the first since 1997, comes at a time of heightened Japan-China tensions over islands claimed by both countries in the East China Sea, as well as continuing concern about North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons development.
	"What we need to address today is quite different from what we were aiming for in 1997," Koji Kano, a Defense Ministry official in the Japan-US cooperation division, told reporters earlier this week. "The point is how Japan and the US can respond better in the current environment."
	The revised guidelines will factor in policy changes under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that enable Japan to ..

Japan, US revising defense plans with eye on China

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The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation reported today that bodies of Ebola victims have been left in the country's streets because of a strike by burial teams, who complain they have not been paid.
	Health Ministry spokesman Sidie Yahya Tunis said the situation is "very embarrassing," insisting money was available to pay the teams. He promised to provide more information later today.
	The World Health Organization says Ebola is believed to have killed more than 600 people in Sierra Leone, where there have been more than 2,100 confirmed cases.
	In Spain, officials said a nurse and a nursing assistant have been placed under observation for Ebola in a Madrid hospital where a colleague became infected after working with two Spanish missionary priests who contracted the disease in West Africa and later died at the center.
	It was not known whether the two also treated the two priests or the infected colleague.
	The infected nursing assistant is the first person known to catch the ...

Sierra Leone: strike leaves Ebola dead in streets

At least 331 deaths have been reported in eastern Ukraine since last month's cease-fire deal between Russian-backed separatists and government troops, the United Nations said today.
	Hostilities are persisting in the main rebel-held city of Donetsk, as well as around the towns of Debaltseve and Schastye.
	Donetsk airport, the focus of much of the fighting, has no immediate tactical significance for separatist forces devoid of any air power.
	However, the government's hold on the facility gives it a strategic position to attack rebel positions in the city.
	At least 3,660 people have been killed over six months of fighting, according to UN estimates. The UN says some deaths reported since the September 5 truce agreement may include individuals killed before that date.
	Donetsk city hall reported today that three civilian died overnight from shelling. There appeared to be no sign of unrest in the city throughout the morning.
	UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein ..

UN says hundreds killed during Ukraine cease-fire

London police are reporting a rising number of child abuse cases linked to witchcraft and ritual beliefs.
	Police said today 27 cases have been reported this year.
	The figure represents an increase over the 24 reported in all of 2013 and 19 the year before.
	This includes the case of a child being swung around and smacked in the head as part of an exorcism and other youths being dunked in water to rid them of evil spirits.
	The Metropolitan Police have launched a training film to educate personnel about the signs of ritualistic child abuse.
	Detective Superintendent Terry Sharpe called it "a hidden crime," which happens when a family or caregivers genuinely believe a child has been taken over by evil spirits.

UK police report rising abuse linked to witchcraft

Americans Eric Betzig and William Moerner and German scientist Stefan Hell won the Nobel Prize in chemistry today for developing new methods that let microscopes see finer details than they could before.
	The three scientists were cited for "the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy," which the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said had bypassed the maximum resolution of traditional optical microscopes.
	"Their ground-breaking work has brought optical microscopy into the nanodimension," the academy said.
	Betzig, 54, works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ashburn, Virginia.
	Hell, 51, is director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany.
	Moerner, 61, is a professor at Stanford University in California.
	For a long time optical microscopes were limited by among other things the wavelength of light. So scientists believed they could never yield a resolution better than 0.2 micrometers.
	But helped by fluorescent molecules, ...

3 win Nobel for giving microscope sharper vision

Americans Eric Betzig and William Moerner and German scientist Stefan Hell have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for "the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy."
	The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says the work of the three scientists "has brought optical microscopy into the nanodimension.

2 Americans, 1 German win Chemistry Nobel

Iranian dissidents say that Tehran is still researching nuclear arms at facilities it relocated to escape detention.
	The Mujahedin-e Khalk, or MEK, cites Iranian government sources it did not identify. It said today that Iran's Organisation of Defensive Information and Research, or SPND, moved its most sensitive weapons research to a new Tehran location "in recent months."
	It says Mohsem Fakhrizadeh, whom it described as a Revolutionary Guard brigadier general, leads the SPND.
	Some, but not all, of the MEK's previous information has been confirmed by Western governments and the UN nuclear agency probing Tehran's atomic activities.
	In announcing sanctions on SPND in August, the US government described it as "primarily responsible for research in the field of nuclear weapons."
	Iran denies working or seeking such arms.

Iran dissidents: Tehran continues nuke arms work

Officials in Baghdad say that militants with the Islamic State group have downed an Iraqi military helicopter near the refinery town of Beiji, killing the two pilots on board.
	A military aviation official says the militants used a shoulder-fired missile to take down the Bell 407 helicopter north of Beiji today. The town is home to Iraq's largest oil refinery and is located about about 200 kilometers north of Baghdad.
	A Defense Ministry official confirmed the attack. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
	This is the second Iraqi military helicopter shot down over Beiji by Islamic State militants in one week.
	Militants shot down an Mi-35 helicopter near Beiji on Friday, also killing the pilot and co-pilot in that attack.

Islamic State group downs another Iraqi helicopter

An Afghan official says a suicide car bomber has killed at least five people in an attack that targeted a former district police chief in southern Helmand province.
	Omar Zwak, spokesman for Helmand's provincial governor, says the bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle today near the house of the former police chief in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.
	Five people were killed in the explosion. Zwak says the former police chief and 18 others were wounded in the attack.
	No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but the Taliban frequently use roadside bombs and suicide attacks against Afghan security forces and government officials in the country.

Taliban suicide attack kills 5 in Afghanistan

The wife of a Chinese poet says he and seven other people were detained ahead of a poetry reading planned in Beijing supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
	Wang Li said today that her husband Wang Zang was detained in Beijing on the night of Oct 1. He had posted on Twitter the previous day a picture of himself with a message supporting the protesters. Lawyer Sui Muqing said his client was detained for "provoking trouble."
	Wang Zang had been scheduled to speak at an Oct 2 poetry reading billed to support Hong Kong protesters. Wang Li said other detainees include Chinese journalist Miao Zhang and artist Zhu Yanguang.
	Police officials said they couldn't comment on the reported detentions.

Poet, 7 others detained ahead of Hong Kong event

Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Israeli police on Jerusalem's Temple Mount today, leaving three policemen lightly injured, a police spokeswoman said.
	The clashes erupted after several dozen masked Palestinians began throwing rocks, fire crackers and other pyrotechnical devices at police when the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the "Noble Sanctuary," opened for prayers on Wednesday morning, said the spokeswoman, Luba Samri.
	There was no immediate information on whether anyone was hurt among the Palestinian protesters.
	Police chased the demonstrators toward the Al-Aqsa mosque, where they barricaded themselves inside and continued hurling objects in the direction of the police, said Samri. She said that at least one Molotov cocktail was thrown at the police, but that it failed to ignite.
	The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, and is a frequent flashpoint for demonstrations.
	An Israeli Tourism Ministry decision earlier this week to ...

Israel police, Palestinians, clash on Temple Mount

An explosion has rocked the French Cultural Center in Gaza City, causing some damage but no casualties.
	Gaza police say they are investigating the blast, which occurred yesterday night.
	Officials at the center say no one was in the building at the time of the explosion and that most of the damage was in the facility's restaurant.
	The French Cultural Center in Gaza conducts French language courses and transfers visa applications for France from local residents to the French Consulate in Jerusalem for processing.
	Gaza was hit hard in a 50-day war this summer between Israel and Hamas. The deadly conflict also destroyed or damaged more than 60,000 homes and more than 5,000 businesses, according to joint assessments by the Palestinian government and the United Nations.

Explosion rocks French Cultural Center in Gaza

Iran's president says Tehran and world powers agree on the principles of a final deal on the Iranian nuclear program but that differences remain on the "details" that still need to be negotiated.
	Hassan Rouhani says Iran and the six-nation group the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany have come a long way in sorting out major issues but that they still differ over issues such as "quantity."
	Rouhani did not elaborate. He spoke with lawmakers on Tuesday night, according to the Iranian state television.
	The two sides face a Nov 24 deadline to reach a comprehensive deal. The nuclear talks reportedly remain stuck over the size and output of Iran uranium enrichment program, a possible pathway to nuclear arms.

Iran president: Differences remain on nuclear deal

A Vietnamese tanker carrying gas oil has lost contact with its operator and may have been hijacked by pirates after leaving Singapore port almost a week ago, officials said today.
	If confirmed, it would be the 12th such case of piracy since April in Southeast Asia, where tankers have been hijacked, cargo stolen and later released, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
	In Vietnam, Nguyen Vu Diep of the Hai Phong Sea Products Shipbuilding company said they lost contact with the Sunrise 689 and its 18 crew members several hours after it left Singapore en route to Vietnam on Oct 2.
	The tanker, which was carrying 5,225 tons of diesel, was last detected about 213 kilometers off Singapore and was due to arrive at Cua Viet port in Quang Tri province early today , he said.
	"There are almost no possibilities of technical failure or bad weather," he told The Associated Press. "It's likely that the tanker was hijacked."
	Col. Ngo Ngoc Thu, deputy commander of Vietnam's coast guard, .

Vietnam tanker missing, likely hijacked by pirates

The last military president in Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship has received another prison sentence, this time for the kidnapping and torture of 32 factory workers.
	A court in Buenos Aires sentenced Reynaldo Bignone to 23 years in prison for the human rights violations. The workers were forcibly disappeared by the military during the regime's so-called Dirty War against leftist dissidents and other opponents.
	The 86-year-old Bignone is already serving combined life sentences for more than two dozen cases involving crimes against humanity.
	The Buenos Aires court also sentenced former Gen. Santiago Omar to life in prison for his role in dozens of illegal raids, kidnappings, torture and the killing of three people. Human rights groups say about 30,000 people died or disappeared in Argentina's brutal dictatorship.

Another sentence for Argentina ex-dictator

Turkish news agencies say at least 14 people have died and scores were injured in clashes between Turkish police and Kurdish protesters.
	The violence yesterday centered in predominantly Kurdish eastern Turkey, but there were clashes across Turkey and Europe as demonstrators demanded more action against the Islamic State group's advance on a town on the Syrian-Turkish border.
	Turkey's private Dogan news agency reported 8 dead in the eastern city of Diyarbakir and the others in cities in the east as police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse protesters who burned cars and damaged businesses. Curfews were imposed in five Turkish provinces.
	There were also clashes in western cities, including Ankara and Istanbul.
	In Brussels about 50 protesters smashed a door and pushed past police to enter the European Parliament.

14 dead, as Kurds clash with Turkish police

The US Supreme Court appears likely to side with a prison inmate who says his Muslim beliefs require him to grow a half-inch (12 millimeters) beard.
	The justices today took up their first religious liberty case since the Hobby Lobby case bitterly divided them in June over whether family-owned corporations could mount religious objections to paying for women's contraceptives under the health care overhaul.
	There was no such division evident in the courtroom today as several justices were openly skeptical of arguments made by a lawyer for the state of Arkansas in defense of a policy that allows moustaches for all inmates and a few days' growth for prisoners with skin conditions, but no beards.
	The Obama administration, religious groups and atheists alike are supporting 39-year-old Gregory Holt, who is serving a life sentence.

High court likely to allow Muslim inmate's beard

Iraqi police officials say a car bomb in a busy commercial neighborhood in southwest Baghdad has killed at least 13 people.
	Officials say the bombing happened in the al-Mashtal neighborhood. At least 31 people, many of them police officers, were wounded in the blast. Most of those killed were civilians.
	Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

Iraqi police officials: Baghdad car bomb kills 13

A defrocked priest in Puerto Rico accused of lewd acts involving a 13-year-old boy has accepted a plea deal as his trial was set to begin.
	Edwin Mercado Viera pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and now faces between three to eight years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 21.
	The 53-year-old was a popular figure in the Diocese of Arecibo before he was accused of fondling the genitals of a 13-year-old altar boy in 2007.
	Prosecutors were preparing to select the jury when Mercado entered his plea yesterday. He was one of six defrocked priests from the Arecibo parish.
	Authorities in the US territory are investigating at least 17 other priests and eight dioceses facing similar allegations.

Defrocked priest in Puerto Rico pleads guilty

Six people including a former minister and a lawmaker have been sentenced to prison for money laundering, insider trading and organised crime related to the illegal transfer of $85 million from an oil company.
	The Appeals Court today sentenced former telecommunications minister Sorin Pantis to two years and eight months and Sorin Rosca Stanescu, a Liberal Party Senator, to two years and four months for being members of an organised crime group.
	Pantis, currently serving a prison sentence for fraud, was also convicted of manipulating the stock markets. The four others were handed prison sentences for organised crime and insider trading.
	The court ruled the individuals were involved in a plot to siphon off money owed to the state from oil company Rompetrol between 1999 and 2001.

Romania: 6 sentenced to prison for money laundering, crime

Russian President Vladimir Putin is celebrating his 62nd birthday in the wilderness of Siberia as supporters from across Russia create tributes in his honour.
	Putin celebrated his birthday today in the Siberian forest some "300-400 kilometres from the nearest populated area," his press secretary told Russian news media.
	Putin has often brandished his tough-guy image with widely publicised wilderness romps during which he hunts, fishes or rides horses -- often while shirtless.
	In Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, thousands carried a 600-metre-long Russian flag through the streets. Others dressed in the red, white and blue of the Russian tricolor walked through the streets as an enormous human flag, many of them holding portraits of the Russian leader over their heads.
	Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's president, wrote on his official Instagram account that there were 100,000 participants.
	Russian news websites published photographs from a one-day exhibition in Moscow titled "The 12 ...

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