Written By Unknown on Kamis, 26 Desember 2013 | 19.15
26 December 2013Last updated at 04:54 ET
Celebrations are being held in China to commemorate the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China.
Top leaders including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang visited the Mao mausoleum in Beijing to pay their respects.
Thousands queued through the night near his childhood home in Shaoshan, Hunan, to see a huge fireworks display which is said to have lasted four hours.
Many more made the pilgrimage to the village to mark the anniversary.
Members of the Politburo Standing Committee including Mr Xi and Mr Li all visited Mao's mausoleum on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
However, there was no mention of Mao's birthday on the front page of the party's official paper.
Although in a commentary in later pages, the paper praised him as a "great patriot and hero", it also carried an editorial piece saying the "best commemoration" of Mao would be to keep advancing economic reforms that were launched by his successor.
Correspondents say Chinese politicians have to balance their praise of Mao, to whom they owe their political legitimacy, with an appreciation that some of his policies had disastrous consequences.
Millions died during the Great Leap Forward, when Mao's attempts to collectivise farms coincided with a massive drought.
And many intellectuals, older people and middle class people were purged or killed during Cultural Revolution.
Since the start of the reform period in 1978, leaders have paid respect to Mao's achievements but moved away from most of his policies.
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The BBC's Khaled Ezzelarab says this is the first time civilians have been exclusively targeted
Five people have been injured by a bomb blast close to a bus in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, the health ministry has said.
Earlier reports of a death have been discounted.
The bomb was planted on a pedestrian island and exploded as the public bus passed by in the northern district of Nasr City, a security source said.
It comes a day after the government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.
A security source has told the BBC that explosive experts detonated a second bomb that was planted in an advertising board close to where the first explosion went off in Nasr City.
The Brotherhood, whose candidate Mohammed Morsi won the presidential election in 2012 before being deposed by the military earlier this year, had already been outlawed.
In recent months, Egypt has seen a wave of attacks which the authorities have blamed on Islamist militants.
On Tuesday, 16 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in a car bomb attack on a security building in the northern city of Mansoura, officials say.
The government said the Muslim Brotherhood was behind the attack - a charge the movement denied.
An al-Qaeda-inspired militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Champions of Jerusalem) claimed responsibility.
More than 500,000 households in the north-eastern US and the south-eastern Canada are still without electricity after last weekend's severe ice storm.
Utility crews are working round-the-clock, but warn that some homes could be without power at least until Saturday.
In Toronto, 72,000 people were without electricity on Christmas Day, officials in Canada's Ontario province said.
At least 27 deaths in the region have been linked to the storm.
Most of those were caused by apparent carbon monoxide poisoning as people used gas generators, charcoal stoves and other appliances to heat their homes in freezing temperatures.
"I understand they want to keep warm, but you cannot do this. This is deadly," Toronto Mayor Rob Ford warned earlier this week.
Other fatalities were caused by traffic accidents.
Elsewhere in Canada, tens of thousands of people are still without power in New Brunswick and Quebec, and hundreds in Nova Scotia.
In the US, states from Maine to Michigan have been affected by the adverse weather.
Travel between between Toronto and Montreal, Ottawa and New York had been disrupted.
Environment Canada meteorologist David Phillips warned earlier this week that the ice would remain as temperatures stayed below freezing.
"There's no natural melting going on," he said.
"It's going to be human effort and endeavour that will get rid of the sheath of ice that's covering eastern Canada."
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Edward Snowden: ''Asking is cheaper than spying''
Ex-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has delivered an "alternative" UK Christmas message, urging an end to mass surveillance.
The broadcast was carried on Channel 4 as an alternative to the Queen's traditional Christmas message.
Mr Snowden focused on privacy, saying: "A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all."
The 30-year-old has temporary asylum in Russia after leaking details of US electronic surveillance programmes.
'Mission accomplished'
Mr Snowden opened his two-minute message, recorded in Russia, with a reference to novelist George Orwell, author of 1984, saying the surveillance technology described in his works was "nothing compared to what we have today".
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Accessing internet company data
Tapping fibre optic cables
Eavesdropping on phones
Targeted spying
He said: "A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalysed thought.
"The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it.
"Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying."
Channel 4's alternative Christmas message has in the past featured Iran's then-President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and fictional characters Ali G and Marge Simpson.
Earlier this week, Mr Snowden told the Washington Post: "In terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished. I already won."
Mr Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Russia on 1 August.
He fled the US in late May, taking a huge cache of secret documents with him. He faces espionage charges in the US.
"I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself," he told the Post.
"All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed."
Last week, a federal judge declared the mass collection of telephone data unconstitutional and a presidential advisory panel suggested reforms.
Both the judge and the panel said there was little evidence that any terrorist plot had been thwarted by the programme.
A few days later, in his end-of-year news conference, US President Barack Obama suggested there might be a review of surveillance by the NSA.
In light of "disclosures that have taken place" and public concerns about the programmes, there might be "another way of skinning the cat", he said.
However, he accused Mr Snowden of causing "unnecessary damage" by leaking documents.
President Obama said he would make a "definitive statement" in January about recommendations by the White House panel.
Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a major cabinet reshuffle after three ministerial resignations over a corruption inquiry.
Mr Erdogan named 10 new ministers - almost half of his total roster - after talks with President Abdullah Gul.
One of those who quit, Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, had urged Mr Erdogan to step down himself.
Police are investigating allegations of illicit money transfers to Iran and bribery for construction projects.
Mr Bayraktar, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler quit after their sons were taken into custody.
All three deny any wrongdoing.
In Istanbul, protesters held a street rally against corruption in the government. There were reports of clashes with riot police late on Wednesday evening.
'Power struggle'
Commentators believe the scandal stems from a power struggle between Mr Erdogan's government and an influential US-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who is said to have many followers within Turkey's police and judiciary.
Supporters regard the Hizmet movement inspired by Mr Gulen as the benign, modern face of Islam, but critics question its motives.
Mr Gulen, who has denied any involvement in the investigation, left Turkey in 1999 after being accused by the then government of plotting to establish an Islamic state. He was cleared of that charge but has never returned to Turkey and now lives in Pennsylvania.
The government has dismissed dozens of police officials who were either involved in the investigation or thought to be linked to Mr Gulen.
Journalists have been prevented from entering police buildings, leading to claims that the government is trying to impede the investigation.
'Foreign plot'
Mr Erdogan submitted the new cabinet line-up to President Gul late on Wednesday.
Among those who lost his job was EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis.
He is accused of being involved in the corruption scandal - but has not been detained or formally charged.
Mr Bayraktar earlier urged the prime minister to resign too.
He insisted that "a great proportion" of construction projects that were under investigation were approved by the prime minister himself, adding: "I want to express my belief that the esteemed prime minister should also resign."
But Mr Erdogan has described the police investigation as a "dirty game". He said it was a plot by foreign and Turkish forces to discredit his government ahead of local elections in March.
But in a further blow to Mr Erdogan, MP and former interior minister Idris Naim Sahin said he was resigning from the ruling AK Party.
'Cash in shoe boxes'
The sons of Mr Caglayan and Mr Guler, along with the chief executive officer of the state-run bank Halkbank, are among 24 people who have been arrested on bribery charges.
Mr Bayraktar's son was detained as part of the inquiry but later released from custody.
Media reports say police seized $4.5m (£2.75m; 3.29m euros) in cash that was stashed in shoe boxes in the home of the bank's CEO, while more than $1m in cash was reportedly discovered in the home of Mr Guler's son, Baris.
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The BBC's Jonathan Head says these protesters are a hardcore group determined to use everything they can to stop the election
Thailand should not hold an election in February because the risk of violence against candidates is too high, the electoral commission has said.
The commission called on the government to postpone the 2 February vote.
A police officer was killed earlier in clashes with protesters trying to stop parties registering for the poll.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra called the snap election after weeks of protests that demanded an unelected "people's council" take power.
The demonstrators dismissed the election, and the official opposition has refused to field candidates.
Protesters have further rejected another offer by Ms Yingluck to form a national reform council intended to run alongside her government.
They want Ms Yingluck to step down immediately.
On Thursday, the protesters - some of whom were throwing stones - tried to break into the stadium where the electoral commission was registering candidates.
But police responded with tear gas, dispersing the crowd.
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Sep 2006: Army ousts Thaksin Shinawatra
Dec 2007: Pro-Thaksin party wins election
Aug 2008: Thaksin flees Thailand
Dec 2008: Huge anti-Thaksin protests; court bans ruling party; Abhisit Vejjajiva comes to power
Mar-May 2010: Huge pro-Thaksin protests; dozens killed in army crackdown
Jul 2011: Yingluck Shinawatra elected PM
Nov 2013: Anti-government protests
Dec 2013: Ms Yingluck calls election
Ms Yingluck dissolved parliament and called an election on 9 December, after more than 150,000 demonstrators took to the streets calling for her government to step down.
Last Sunday, she said the election must take place and urged protesters to express their views at the ballot box.
"If we don't hold on to the democratic system, what should we hold on to," she asked.
Her Pheu Thai Party won the last election in 2011 and has a big majority in parliament.
However, protesters say her brother - ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra - remains in charge.
Mr Thaksin is currently in self-imposed exile after he was overthrown in a military army coup in 2006 and convicted of corruption.
The latest crisis was sparked after the government attempted to pass an amnesty law that would have allowed Thaksin to return to Thailand.
He is still hugely popular in rural areas and in the north, and parties linked to him have won convincing majorities in every election they have contested since 2001.
But many city-dwellers bitterly oppose Mr Thaksin and have several times paralysed governments allied to him by launching massive demonstrations.
The leaders of two of South Sudan's neighbours, Kenya and Ethiopia, have arrived in the capital, Juba, in an attempt to halt fighting there.
Thousands of people are feared dead in violence that began 11 days ago and has raised fears of a civil war.
President Salva Kiir was seen going into talks with Ethiopian PM Hailemariam Desalegn and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday.
Mr Kiir is involved in a power struggle with ex-deputy Riek Machar.
The fighting has exposed ethnic divisions in the world's youngest state as the president is an ethnic Dinka, while Mr Machar represents the Nuer tribe.
UN officials believe thousands have been killed since violence erupted on 15 December, when clashes broke out at a meeting of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
President Kiir accused the former vice-president, who had been sacked in July, of plotting a coup. Mr Machar denies trying to seize power.
Clashes have since spread to half of South Sudan's 10 states.
Tens of thousands of people have fled to UN compounds across the oil-rich country. The UN Security Council has decided to boost the existing UN force (Unmiss) of around 7,000 peacekeepers and police to about 14,000.
In a Christmas Day message, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said "South Sudan is not alone".
President Kenyatta, current head of the East African Community, was met by senior government officials as he arrived in Juba shortly before 10:00 (07:00 GMT), Kenyan media reported.
Talks with Mr Kiir and the Ethiopian prime minister were then held behind closed doors, officials said.
The European Union is sending an envoy, Alex Rondos, to Juba to push for a negotiated solution. China said its special envoy to Africa would also travel to Juba "soon".
Both the South Sudanese leader and Mr Machar have said they are willing to discuss an end to the crisis.
But the former vice-president has said his detained political allies must first be freed, while Mr Kiir says there should be no preconditions.
South Sudan's Information Minister, Makuei Lueth, told the Associated Press on Thursday that no contact with Mr Machar had yet been established. "For us, we are not talking with him," he said.
'Sense of confidence'
After the violence broke out, forces loyal to Mr Machar seized the key towns of Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, and Bentiu, the main town in oil-producing Unity state.
But government forces recaptured Bor on Tuesday and are trying to retake Bentiu.
Unmiss spokesman Col Michael Chadwick told BBC News that the area around Bor was currently relatively stable.
Some 15,000 people had fled to the UN compound in Bor but up to 2,000 of them were now moving out as the situation had become safer, he said.
"This is giving us a sense of confidence that we'll be able to establish more Unmiss flights and possibly more humanitarian flights."
South Sudan has struggled to achieve a stable government since becoming independent from Sudan in 2011.
The independence referendum was intended to end a decade-long conflict, led by the SPLM, against the north. But the oil-rich country remains ethnically and politically divided, with many armed groups active.
After a peace deal was signed in 2005, the southern rebel group appointed Mr Machar as vice-president of the South Sudan regional government, a position he retained after independence in 2011 until he was dropped in July.
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Shinzo Abe's visit will make relations with China worse, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
China and South Korea have condemned Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for visiting a shrine that honours war dead including convicted war criminals.
Seoul said it was furious with the "deplorable" act, and Beijing labelled the visit "absolutely unacceptable" and summoned Japan's ambassador.
Japan's neighbours see the Yasukuni shrine as a symbol of the militarism of Japan during and before World War Two.
US officials said the visit would "exacerbate tensions" in the region.
China, Japan and South Korea are embroiled in a number of disputes over territory in the East China Sea.
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Analysis
If the shrine is so offensive to China and South Korea why did Mr Abe go?
Firstly, because he wanted to. Close observers of the Japanese prime minister say he is at heart a nationalist and a historical revisionist. He believes the trials that convicted Japan's wartime leaders were "victors' justice". His own grandfather Nobusuke Kishi served in the war cabinet and was arrested by the Americans on suspicion of being a Class-A war criminal. He was later released without charge. But the stain of association with Japan's war crimes in China never completely went away.
Secondly, Mr Abe's support base comes from the right wing of the Liberal Democratic Party. According to Professor Jeff Kingston of Temple University in Tokyo, Mr Abe is "showing he is a tough guy", that he is not afraid of China. It is something that plays very well to his base.
The disputes have helped to fuel nationalist passions in all three countries.
'Self-reflection'
Mr Abe's Yasukuni visit, the first by a serving prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi went in 2006, was televised live.
"It is not my intention at all to hurt the feelings of the Chinese and Korean people," said Mr Abe, who claimed his visit was an anti-war gesture.
Officials said Mr Abe visited the shrine in a private capacity and was not representing the government.
But shortly after, China summoned Japan's Beijing envoy to lodge a "strong protest".
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Beijing seriously condemned the visit.
"This poses a major political obstacle in the improvement of bilateral relations. Japan must take responsibility for all the consequences that this creates," he said.
China's angry reaction was mirrored by South Korea and Taiwan, whose Foreign Minister David Lin called for Tokyo to engage in self-reflection and avoid hurting the feelings of its neighbours.
In the early part of the 20th Century Japan transformed itself into a militarist state under emperors who were worshipped as gods.
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Yasukuni Shrine
Built in 1869 under the Emperor Meiji
Venerates the souls of 2.5m war dead
Those enshrined include hundreds of convicted war criminals, among them executed war-time leader Hideki Tojo
Shrine organisers stress that many thousands of civilians are honoured
China and South Korea see shrine as glorification of Japanese atrocities
Japan occupied Taiwan, the Korean peninsula and much of China.
During World War Two Japanese imperial forces committed atrocities throughout East and South East Asia, including the use of Korean women as sex slaves and carrying out massacres in China.
Those countries have frequently complained that Japan has not done enough to atone for its crimes and tries to whitewash history.
Class-A war criminals
Yasukuni was established in the mid-19th Century to remember the men, women and children who have died in war
The shrine contains the remains of some of those commemorated, but is mostly a symbolic destination for relatives to pay respects.
It now commemorates some 2.5 million people, many of whom are civilians.
But hundreds of convicted WW2 criminals are also enshrined there.
Fourteen so-called Class A criminals - those who were involved in planning the war - are among those honoured. They include war-time leader General Hideki Tojo, who was executed for war crimes in 1948.
Written By Unknown on Rabu, 25 Desember 2013 | 19.15
25 December 2013Last updated at 05:06 ET
Chinese authorities have uncovered a tunnel from the mainland to Hong Kong, apparently built by smugglers.
The tunnel, with concrete walls and interior lighting, started under a garage near the city of Shenzhen and stretched for 40m (130ft) under a river and into reed-beds in Hong Kong.
The authorities believe gangs intended to use it to import mobile phones and other electrical goods into Hong Kong.
The semi-autonomous zone has different tariffs to the mainland.
The smugglers could make huge profits by avoiding border fees and taxes.
The tunnel was discovered last week in Changling village on the outskirts of Shenzhen.
Local media reported that a resident had complained about drilling noises that she assumed were part of a renovation project.
Officials described the tunnel as a professional job, estimated to have cost almost $500,000 (£300,000) to build.
It is believed the tunnel was about 20m short of its intended destination, a village on the Hong Kong side of the frontier.
The authorities destroyed the tunnel on Tuesday and a man has been arrested.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has pledged millions of dollars in federal aid to two south-eastern states where floods have killed at least 30 people.
After flying over the area, she said helicopters and army trucks would deliver food and medicine to the states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo.
A number of homes, roads and bridges were destroyed and many cities were left without power and drinking water.
The floods, caused by days of rains, are feared to be the worst in 90 years.
On Tuesday, Ms Rousseff was flown by helicopter to gain first-hand information of the damage.
She said she had never seen such flooding before and promised to rebuild the affected areas.
Many of those who died are thought to have been trapped in landslides triggered by the torrential rains and floods.
There are fears that the death toll may rise further.
Some 50,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, local media report.
Espirito Santo Governor Renato Casagrande said the floods were the worst in the past nine decades.
In January 2012, floods and landslides killed at least six people and forced thousands from their homes in Minas Gerais.
