W O R L D

Street clashes erupt in HK despite imminent talks
Hong Kong, October 19
Violent clashes erupted in Hong Kong early on Sunday for a second night, deepening a sense of impasse between a government with limited options and a pro-democracy movement increasingly willing to confront the police.

A cop advances towards protesters in Mong Kok. AFP

Aziz speaks to UN chief; raises Kashmir issue
Islamabad, October 19
Continuing its attempts to internationalise the Kashmir issue, Pakistan has raised the matter with the UN chief, saying the world body's engagement would add to its credibility in managing crisis situations. Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz spoke to UN chief Ban Ki-moon on phone last night and discussed the situation along the LoC and the International Border with India, the Foreign Office said here today.

Street clashes erupt in HK despite imminent talks

Hong Kong, October 19
Violent clashes erupted in Hong Kong early on Sunday for a second night, deepening a sense of impasse between a government with limited options and a pro-democracy movement increasingly willing to confront the police.

The worst political crisis in Hong Kong since Britain handed the free-wheeling capitalist city back to China in 1997 entered its fourth week with no sign of a resolution despite talks scheduled for two hours on Tuesday between the government and student protest leaders.

Beijing has signalled through Hong Kong's leaders that it is not willing to reverse a decision in August that effectively denies the financial hub the full democracy the protesters are demanding.

"Unless there is some kind of breakthrough in two hours of talks on Tuesday, I'm worried we will see the standoff worsen and get violent," Sonny Lo, a professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, told Reuters.

"We could be entering a new and much more problematic stage. I hope the government has worked out some compromises, because things could get very difficult now."

Hong Kong's 28,000 strong police have been struggling to contain a youth-led movement that has shown little sign of waning after three weeks of standoffs.

Demonstrators in the Mong Kok district launched a fresh assault early on Sunday, putting on helmets and goggles before surging forward to grab a line of metal barricades hemming them into a section of road.

Hundreds of police officers hit out at a wall of umbrellas that protesters raised to fend off police pepper spray.

Protesters screamed and hurled insults and violent scuffles erupted before police surged forward with riot shields, forcing the protesters back.

"Black Police! Black Police!" protesters shouted.

One activist in a white T-shirt and goggles was hit with a flurry of baton blows, leaving him bleeding from a gash in the head. Several protesters were taken away.

Senior policeman at the scene Paul Renouf said 400 to 500 officers were deployed to force the crowds about 20 metres back from their original position near an intersection.

Dozens of people were reportedly injured in the two nights of clashes, including 22 police officers. Four people were arrested early on Sunday, police said.

The clashes came hours after Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying called for the talks on Tuesday. They will be broadcast live. — Reuters

Xi’s leadership under scrutiny at key CPC meet

• Amid continued pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as well as brewing resentment among party ranks over China's anti-graft campaign, the ruling CPC will hold a key meeting here on Monday in which President Xi Jinping's handling of affairs may come up for scrutiny
• Over 370 members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), will attend the three-day meeting in Beijing to discuss firming up rule of law in the country

Demand for free poll

• The protesters have been demanding China's Communist Party rulers live up to constitutional promises to grant full democracy to the former British trading outpost
• Hong Kong is ruled under a "one country, two systems" formula that allows it wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms and specifies universal suffrage as an eventual goal
• But Beijing is wary about copycat demands for reform on the mainland and it ruled on August 31 it would screen candidates who want to run for the city's chief executive in 2017
• Democracy activists say that this rendered the universal suffrage concept meaningless and are demanding free elections

Aziz speaks to UN chief; raises Kashmir issue

Islamabad, October 19
Continuing its attempts to internationalise the Kashmir issue, Pakistan has raised the matter with the UN chief, saying the world body's engagement would add to its credibility in managing crisis situations.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz spoke to UN chief Ban Ki-moon on phone last night and discussed the situation along the LoC and the International Border with India, the Foreign Office said here today.

"The UN's engagement would add to its credibility in managing crisis situations," Aziz told Ban.

The call to Ban was part of Pakistan's attempts to raise the Kashmir issue on international forums.

On October 11, Aziz wrote a letter to Ban on the security situation along the LoC and the International Border and sought the world body's intervention in resolving the issue. However, the UN ignored Pakistan's bid to seek intervention on Kashmir, saying India and Pakistan need to resolve all differences through dialogue.

During his call last night, Aziz underlined the need for early restoration of peace and tranquility on the LoC and the International Border, the statement said.

"Pakistan was fully united and determined to thwart any aggression, and had responded to India's provocations with utmost restraint and responsibility. India should be advised to adopt a mature and reasonable approach," Aziz told Ban. — PTI

We will take Kashmir from India: Bilawal

Karachi: Pakistan People's Party chief Bilawal Bhutto vowed to wrest Kashmir from India. "When I raise Kashmir, the entire Hindustan screams. They know when a Bhutto speaks, they (Indians) have no answer," the 26-year-old Bhutto scion said during his first public rally here on Saturday. "We will take back Kashmir from India," he said amidst thundering applause by thousands of supporters.

Turkey no to arming Syrian Kurds

Istanbul, October 19
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today rejected calls for Turkey to arm the main Kurdish party in Syria, describing the group as a terrorist organisation. Erdogan said the Democratic Union Party (PYD) was the same as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a 30-year insurgency for self-rule in southeastern Turkey.

The armed wing of the PYD, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), has been engaged in heavy fighting in recent weeks with the Islamic State group for control of the northern Syrian town of Kobani.

"There has been talk of arming the PYD to form a front here against the Islamic State. For us, the PYD is the same as the PKK, it's a terrorist organisation," Erdogan said aboard a plane returning from Afghanistan.

"It would be very, very wrong to expect us to openly say 'yes' to our NATO ally America to give this kind of support. To expect something like this from us is impossible," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

French President Francois Hollande last week called on Turkey to open open its border to allow reinforcements to reach Kobane while the PYD itself called on Ankara to allow its territory to be used for transferring weapons.

The US said on Thursday it held direct talks for the first time with the PYD.

Ankara is reluctant to arm Kurds and intervene militarily against the jihadists, fearing the creation of an effective Kurdish fighting force on its border.

Turkey has long linked the PKK to the PYD, although the Syrian group rejects the claims. — AFP

Spain to train Iraqi troops to take on IS

Spain will begin training Iraqi forces later this year to battle Islamic State fighters but has ruled out taking part in ground operations in Syria. We could be starting up by the end of this year because the whole operation is evolving fast, all the time, every day; we have to adjust our abilities and what we are offering, in response to that evolution," Defence Minister Pedro Morenes said.

Bishops scrap welcome to gays

Vatican City, October 19
Catholic bishops have scrapped their landmark welcome to gays, showing deep divisions at the end of a two-week meeting sought by Pope Francis to chart a more merciful approach to ministering to Catholic families.

The bishops yesterday approved a final report covering a host of issues related to Catholic family life, acknowledging there were "positive elements" in civil heterosexual unions outside the church and even in cases when men and women were living together outside marriage.

They also said the church must respect Catholics in their moral evaluation of "methods used to regulate births," a seemingly significant deviation from church teaching barring any form of artificial contraception.

But the bishops failed to reach consensus on a watered-down section on ministering to homosexuals. The new section had stripped away the welcoming tone of acceptance contained in a draft document earlier in the week.

Two other paragraphs concerning the other hot-button issue at the synod of bishops whether divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion also failed to pass.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said the failure of the paragraphs to pass meant that they have to be discussed further to arrive at a consensus at a meeting of bishops next October.

It could be that the 118-62 vote on the gay paragraph was a protest vote of sorts by progressive bishops who refused to back the watered-down wording and wanted to keep the issue alive. The original draft had said gays had gifts to offer the church and that their partnerships, while morally problematic, provided gay couples with "precious" support.

Francis insisted in the name of transparency that the full document including the three paragraphs that failed to pass be published along with the voting tally. The document will serve as the basis for future debate leading up to the October 2015 meeting of bishops which will produce a final report for Francis to help him write a teaching document of his own. — AP