Hong Kong police use tear gas on pro-democracy protesters as top leader urges them to go home
HONG KONG (AP) - Pro-democracy demonstrators defied onslaughts of tear gas and appeals from Hong Kong’s top leader to go home, as the protests over Beijing’s decision to limit political reforms expanded across the city early Monday.
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying reassured the public that rumors the Chinese army might intervene were untrue.
“I hope the public will keep calm. Don’t be misled by the rumors. Police will strive to maintain social order, including ensuring smooth traffic and ensuring the public safety,” said the Beijing-backed Leung, who is deeply unpopular. He added, “When they carry out their duties, they will use their maximum discretion.”
Protesters spent the night on the pavement, some flat on their backs asleep, others milling around as they watched for police. The sit-ins spread from the financial district, near the government headquarters, to other areas of Hong Kong in the strongest challenge yet to Beijing’s decision to limit democratic reforms for the semi-autonomous city.
The scenes of billowing tear gas and riot police outfitted with long-barreled weapons, rare for this affluent Asian financial hub, are highlighting the authorities’ inability to assuage public discontent over Beijing’s rejection last month of open nominations for candidates under proposed guidelines for the first-ever elections for Hong Kong’s leader, promised for 2017.
___
At least 31 people believed dead in eruption at Mount Ontake volcano in central Japan
TOKYO (AP) - Finally reaching the ash-covered summit of a still-erupting volcano in central Japan, rescue workers made a grim discovery Sunday: 31 apparently dead people, some reportedly buried in knee-deep ash.
Four victims were brought down and confirmed dead, one day after Mount Ontake’s big initial eruption, said Takehiko Furukoshi, a Nagano prefecture crisis-management official. The 27 others were listed as having heart and lung failure, the customary way for Japanese authorities to describe a body until police doctors can examine it.
Officials provided no details on how they may have died.
It was the first fatal eruption in modern times at 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake, a popular climbing destination about 210 kilometers (130 miles) west of Tokyo on the main Japanese island of Honshu. A similar eruption occurred in 1979, but no one died.
Rescue helicopters hovered over ash-covered mountain lodges and vast landscapes that looked a ghostly gray, like the surface of the moon, devoid of nearly all color but the bright orange of rescue workers’ jumpsuits.
___
A GOP-run Senate could investigate, block and provoke, but Obama could veto its biggest goals
WASHINGTON (AP) - How much difference will it make if Republicans win the Senate majority on Nov. 4, joining the GOP-run House against a Democratic White House?
Congress’ persistent gridlock is due largely, but not entirely, to the current power split in the two chambers. But even if Republicans add Senate control to their safe House majority, big legislative roadblocks will remain.
President Barack Obama still can veto legislation.
Should Democrats lose six or more Senate seats, ceding the majority, they can use the power of the filibuster to thwart dozens of GOP initiatives. Republicans have employed this tactic from the minority side.
In the House, House Republicans’ deep philosophical divisions will remain. That will further complicate effort by Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to pass bills without help from Democrats, who generally demand significant concessions.
___
In glitzy New York speech, Prime Minister Modi says India won’t look back under his leadership
NEW YORK (AP) - India’s new prime minister, once shunned by Washington, received a raucous reception in a famed New York sports arena Sunday where he appealed for help from Indian-Americans to help develop his country’s economy, vowing that under his leadership, the South Asian nation wouldn’t look back.
A day after addressing a hushed U.N. General Assembly, where headphone-wearing delegates rarely break into a smile, Narendra Modi received a tumultuous welcome from upward of 18,000 people. He struck a chord by announcing plans to simplify the immigration bureaucracy for Indians living abroad, and called on them to “join hands to serve our mother India.”
A dazzling, Bollywood-style show warmed up the crowd before Modi appeared. About 30 U.S. lawmakers attended - ringing the stage as the Indian leader came into the auditorium under a spotlight like a boxing champion. The event had the feel of a political rally, and the audience periodically broke out into chants of “Modi! Modi!”
On Monday, Modi will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House, a meeting that both sides hope can improve strained relations between the world’s two largest democracies.
Being courted by Washington marks a major change since 2005, when the U.S. denied Modi a visa for his alleged complicity in sectarian violence in his home state of Gujarat.
___
For gays in countries which outlaw gay sex, social networking can be a blessing and a curse
For gay men in the dozens of countries that criminalize their sex lives, social networking can be a blessing or a curse.
High-tech dating apps and social media have enabled countless men to expand their circles of friends and lovers in settings that are hostile to any overt trace of homosexuality. Yet the same technology that they gratefully embrace can expose them to the risk of blackmail, arrest and violence.
In one chilling case earlier this year in Pakistan, police arrested a paramedic on suspicion of killing three men he had met via the gay social network Manjam, which is based in London but has many users in Asia and the Middle East. The suspect told police he considered homosexuality to be evil.
More recently, bloggers and activists raised concerns about how the popular dating app Grindr could be used to pinpoint a user’s exact location - even a user living where gay sex is outlawed. After complaints mounted, Grindr announced steps this month to reduce the risks for users in countries with a record of anti-gay violence - including Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Liberia, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
And during the past week, Grindr posted a warning to its users in Egypt that police - as part of an ongoing crackdown on gays - “may be posing as LGBT to entrap you.” The warning urged users to be careful when arranging meetings with strangers.
___
On matters of national security, Attorney General Eric Holder leaving with a mixed record
WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Eric Holder was just months into the job when he announced plans to prosecute the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and other alleged co-conspirators in a New York courtroom, rather than through the Guantanamo Bay military commission process.
It was an audacious idea, but immediately beset by political opposition and public safety concerns. The Obama administration’s eventual decision to walk away from the proposal was a stinging defeat for Holder and a reminder of the complexities of the legal fight against terrorism.
Holder, who announced Thursday that he would step down once a successor is confirmed, took office determined to turn the page from Bush administration policies that authorized harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists. But he will leave with a mixed record of national security decisions that have drawn their own scrutiny and disappointed those who felt he didn’t go far enough to distance the Justice Department from past practices.
The department points to hundreds of terrorism-fighting successes during Holder’s tenure, including prosecutions of plots to explode a bomb in Times Square and on a Detroit-bound airliner.
But also under his watch, the department authorized targeted drone strikes against Americans abroad, subpoenaed journalists’ telephone records in leak investigations and defended in court the government’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ telephone records.
___
Obama: US intelligence agencies underestimated militants in Syria, overestimated Iraqi army
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama acknowledged that U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated the threat from Islamic State militants and overestimated the ability and will of Iraq’s army to fight.
Questioning Obama’s strategy to destroy the group, House Speaker John Boehner said the U.S. may have “no choice” but to send in American troops if the mix of U.S.-led airstrikes and a ground campaign reliant on Iraqi forces, Kurdish fighters and soon-to-be trained Syrian rebels fails to achieve that goal.
Boehner, in an interview broadcast Sunday, did agree with the White House that Obama had the power to order airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, but said he believes Congress should consider a resolution authorizing the use of force for this specific mission.
Boehner, R-Ohio, said he would bring lawmakers back to Washington - they are not set to return until after the Nov. 4 election - if Obama were to seek such a resolution.
Obama described the U.S. intelligence assessments in response to a question during a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that was airing Sunday night. He was asked about how Islamic State fighters had come to control so much territory in Syria and Iraq and whether it was a surprise to him.
___
APNewsBreak: Records show Missouri governor criticized from all sides after Ferguson shooting
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - As protests mounted following the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, so too did the public frustration directed at Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon - seemingly, no matter what action he took.
Public records obtained by The Associated Press show that Nixon received thousands of phone calls and hundreds of emails, letters and faxes from people throughout Missouri and the world in the weeks after the Aug. 9 shooting. Most of the correspondence was critical of the governor - first for not intervening quickly enough as armored police fired tear gas on protesters, then later for appearing to call for the prosecution of the white officer who shot the black 18-year-old while the investigation is ongoing.
The documents display a diversity of public outrage. Some people blamed Nixon for a heavy-handed police response to protesters. Others chided him for not publicly doing enough to support police. Some comments were crude and profane. Others offered advice on how to restore peace in the streets from people emphasizing their expertise.
Nixon said he read none of it - though his staff did - because he was so focused on getting the difficult situation under control.
“There aren’t a lot of ways to deal with shootings of this nature, conduct of this nature, that don’t touch a lot of very emotional, value-laden positions that Missourians hold,” Nixon told the AP.
___
Tourism to Israel drops dramatically as jittery tourists fearful after Gaza war with Hamas
JERUSALEM (AP) - It was supposed to be a record-breaking year for tourist visits to Israel. But all that changed when the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas prompted jittery travelers to cancel trips en masse, leaving empty hotel rooms and barren tourist sites in their wake.
The summertime fighting delivered a serious hit to Israel’s thriving tourism industry, causing losses of hundreds of millions of dollars and sparking concern that aftershocks may continue well after the war.
“Our challenge is how to prevent more cancelations. Despite a month having passed since the war, there is still an image among tourists that it is not safe to travel here,” said Oded Grofman of the Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association.
Israel’s war against Hamas came at the beginning of the peak tourist season, which includes July and August and runs through the Jewish High Holiday season and early winter.
Israel launched the war July 8 in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and to destroy a network of tunnels used to attack Israelis. More than 2,100 Palestinians and 72 people on the Israeli side were killed. Israel and Hamas signed a cease-fire on Aug. 26.
___
McIlroy, McDowell lead the way as Europe wins another Ryder Cup
GLENEAGLES, Scotland (AP) - Europe added another layer of Ryder Cup dominance on Sunday behind Rory McIlroy big start, two big rallies and a rookie who hit the shot of his life to give this performance a finish it deserved.
Jamie Donaldson, unaware he already had done enough to retain the Ryder Cup, hit a 9-iron that settled 2 feet from the cup on the 15th hole. Keegan Bradley walked onto the green, saw Donaldson’s ball next to the hole, removed his cap and conceded the birdie.
And the celebration was on.
The result in the record book was Europe 16½, United States 11½. It’s an old story for the Americans.
Europe won for third straight time, and now has won eight of the last 10.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.