Why Hong Kong matters

September 29, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

If democracy survives there, the people of China-proper might want the same thing.

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Hong Kong police fired repeated volleys of tear gas to disperse pro-democracy protests on Sunday and baton-charged the crowd blocking a key road in the government district after official warnings against illegal demonstrations. The city's Admiralty district had descended into chaos as chanting protesters converged on police barricades surrounding colleagues who had earlier launched a "new era" of civil disobedience to pressure Beijing into granting full democracy to Hong Kong.

Thirty-one people were presumed dead on Sunday near the peak of a Japanese volcano that erupted erupted unexpectedly a day earlier while it was packed with hikers out to admire autumn foliage, sending a huge cloud of ash and rock tumbling down its slopes. Police said the 31 people were found in "cardiopulmonary" arrest but declined to confirm their deaths pending a formal examination, as per Japanese custom. An official in the area said rescue efforts had been called off due to rising levels of toxic gas near the peak, as well as approaching nightfall.

Airstrikes likely carried out by the US-led coalition struck an oil refinery in Syria held by the Islamic State group on Sunday, shaking buildings and sending flames shooting into the air near the Turkish border, a witness and activists said. Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate meanwhile warned that Muslims would attack countries taking part in the coalition air raids, which have targeted both the Islamic State extremist group – with which Al Qaeda is at war – as well as hardline militants battling to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Residents of the Phoenix area were greeted Sunday morning by toppled trees and debris-littered streets. Intense storms swept through the Southwest on Saturday, snapping trees and shrouding metropolitan Phoenix in cascading showers while also bringing flooding to parts of Nevada.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is the one figure uniting US religious conservatives frustrated by a leaderless Republican Party that's divided over foreign policy, immigration and social issues. The prospect of another Clinton White House stirred anguish at the Values Voter Summit this weekend where hundreds of conservative activists debated the Republican Party's future and warned that the acknowledged but unannounced 2016 Democratic front-runner would cement what they see as President Barack Obama's attack on religious freedom.

A Twitter account run by an Al Qaeda member said the leader of the Al Qaeda-linked Khorasan group was killed in a US air strike in Syria, SITE monitoring service said on Sunday, following several days of uncertainty over whether he survived the raid. A US official on Sept. 24 said the United States believed Mohsin al-Fadhli, a senior Al Qaeda operative, had been killed in a strike a day earlier, but the Pentagon said several hours later that it was still investigating what had happened to him.

A day after addressing a hushed UN General Assembly, where headphone-wearing delegates rarely break into a smile, India's new prime minister was assured a raucous reception as he addressed a crowd from a rotating stage at Madison Square Garden. Exhibiting unusual glitz for a visiting leader, Narendra Modi took a star turn at the famous New York auditorium as he courted the Indian-American community on his first US visit since sweeping to power in May.

Watch out Harry Potter, you are not the only wizard with an invisibility cloak. Scientists at the University of Rochester have discovered a way to hide large objects from sight using inexpensive and readily available lenses, a technology that seems to have sprung from the pages of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy series.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

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