Japan: Protesters Demand US Military Base Shutdown

People from all over Okinawa listen to a speech of Okinawa governor Masahide Ota during a massive rally on 21 October 1995 to protest the alleged rape of a 12-year-old Japanese school girl by three US soldiers in Okinawa.Getty Images

As work started on a controversial US military base, Camp Schwab, in Japan's southern Okinawa Island, protesters staged a rally objecting to the heavy US military presence in the region.

Yellow buoys were placed in the water to mark off-limit zones and workers started work on the first phase of plans to build new runways for military planes amidst raging protests by Okinawans.

"We are extremely angry about this work, which tramples on the feelings of Okinawan people. We will continue our protest until they stop construction," said Hiroshi Ashitomi, a protest organiser.

Japanese woman shout slogans as they hold banners during a rally 21 October 1995 at Meiji park in Tokyo to protest the alleged rape of a 12-year-old Japanese school girl by three US soldiers in Okinawa. About 10,000 people, including union members, demanded withdrawal of the US forces and an amendment of the Security Treaty between USA and Japan. This incident led to island-wide demonstrations and an agreement to close several US bases in Okinawa.Getty Images

The extension of Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa Island, was agreed in 1996 between Tokyo and Washington, however, the plans were never executed due to the rising objections by locals.

Last December, local officials approved the plan in exchange for a Tourism boosting development package from Tokyo, that could significantly boost the local economy.

Re-elected Nago mayor, Susumu Inamine, is "infuriated" at the work that started on Thursday (14 August).

"We strongly protest this outrageous move by the Japanese government and are determined to block any construction of a new base," Inamine said in a statement.

US State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, said United States welcomes the start of the work, which will preserve, "US military capabilities vital to the peace and security of the region."

Japan has reportedly paid 2 million pounds (380 million yen) in the past to compensate locals for accidents caused by the US military personnel that include road traffic accidents, robberies and rapes.

Some 47,000 US service personnel are currently being hosted in Japan in lieu of the US-Japan security alliance.

Ebola Virus: Woman in Scotland Tested for Deadly Virus

Senior Matron Breda Athan demonstrates a protective suit that would be used to treat patients suffering from Ebola at The Royal Free Hospital in London(Reuters)

Health authorities have confirmed they are investigating a "possible" case of the Ebola virus in Scotland.

A woman, who recently arrived from Sierra Leone, is being tested for the deadly disease at an immigration removal centre.

The detainee became ill while being held at Dungavel Detention Centre in South Lanarkshire.

A spokesman for NHS Lanarkshire said: "We are currently investigating a possible case of Viral Haemorrhagic Fever (Ebola).

"This is a precautionary measure and it would appear at this stage to be highly unlikely the patient will test positive for Ebola."

“We are currently investigating a possible case of Viral Haemorrhagic Fever (Ebola). This is a precautionary measure and it would appear at this stage to be highly unlikely the patient will test positive for Ebola.”

- Spokesperson, NHS Lanarkshire

A Home Office spokesman said: "We do not comment on operational matters."

Health officials have said it appears "highly unlikely" the test will turn out to be positive, but are taking necessary precautions.

A man was previously tested for the Ebola virus in Birmingham, but he was given the all clear.

The latest case comes amid growing international concern about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

More than 1,000 people have died and almost 2,000 suspected, probable or confirmed Ebola cases have been recorded there.

Health experts say they are struggling to contain the epidemic, which started in Guinea last March and has since spread to neighbouring Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan recently warned that the spread of the disease across international borders could result in a global catastrophe.

Hospitals in Europe are preparing isolation wards to cope with a possible outbreak. Low-pressure environments have been created to treat possible patients and prevent bacteria and viruses from reproducing.

The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the body fluids of a person who is infected and is highly contagious.

The disease has a long incubation period, enabling it to be spread rapidly by people who do not realise they are infected.

Iraq Crisis: Aramaic Dialect Spoken By Jesus Under Threat as Islamic State Drives Out Christians

Iraqi Christians who fled the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kilometres east of the northern province of Nineveh, take shelter at the Saint-Joseph church in the Kurdish city of Arbil. (Getty)

The ancient dialect generally agreed to have been spoken by Jesus Christ could die out as Iraqi Christians flee their homeland in face of the onslaught from Islamic State (formerly known as Isis) militants.

First spoken more than 3,000 years ago by the nomadic Arameans in what is now Syria, Aramaic went on to become the lingua franca of its time, spoken from India to Egypt.

But with Iraq's Christians now homeless and indigent, as they were driven out of the Nineveh plains of northern Iraq that had been their home for centuries, experts believe the language could be diluted and die out.

"The threat to the Christian Neo-Aramaic-speaking population of northern Iraq is very great," linguist Geoffrey Khan told Foreign Policy.

Khan has conducted a study of the Aramaic-speaking communities, and said that each village had a slightly different dialect.

"If the inhabitants of the villages are uprooted and thrown together in refugee camps or scattered in diaspora communities around the world, the dialects will inevitably die," he said.

Aramaic became the official language of the Assyrian empire, then flourished under the Babylonian empire, and the Persian empire of the sixth century BC.

Across the Middle East, new dialects of Aramaic sprang up.

In ancient Palestine, it gradually replaced spoken Hebrew.

It is the presumed mother tongue of Jesus, who in the Gospel of Matthew says on the cross, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" ("My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?") and is used in both Judaic and Christian sacred texts.

Communities speaking Aramaic survived across the region until World War 1, when Turkish nationalists perpetrated what is now known as the Assyrian genocide, murdering thousands of Aramaic-speaking Christians in eastern Turkey, and forcing them to flee into Iran and Iraq.

In the 1990s, estimates put the number of Aramaic speakers at 500,000, half of which were believed to be living in Iraq.

But with an estimated 200,000 now forced to flee towns including Qaraqosh, Tel Kepe, and Karamlesh, experts believe that the end could be at hand for the ancient tongue.

The unfolding tragedy "is reminiscent of the terrible events in the First World War," Khan added, which "led to the death of scores of Neo-Aramaic dialects of southeastern Turkey."

Pictures of the Week: Best Photos of Past Seven Days

A zonkey – a hybrid born to a zebra mother and a donkey father – stands at the Taigan zoo park outside Simferopol, Crimea. Named Telegraph, he has the head and body of a donkey and the striped legs of a zebra(AFP)

A newborn giant panda cub, one of the triplets born to mother Juxiao, is seen in an incubator at the Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China(Reuters)

This is the fourth set of giant panda triplets born with the help of artificial insemination in China, and the birth is seen as a miracle due to the low reproduction rate of giant pandas(Reuters)

A white lion cub – one of triplets born 13 weeks ago – plays with its father Yabu at the zoo in La Fleche, western France(AFP)

Abass Yusuf holds meat on a stick in his mouth to feed a hyena in Harar, Ethiopia(AFP)

A snowy owl watches visitors at the zoo in Gelsenkirchen, western Germany(AFP)

A competitor wearing a unicorn mask jumps into the Freizeitbad Silvana public swimming pool in Schweinfurt, southern Germany, during the Splashdiving World Championship(AFP)

A competitor performs a huge cannonball in the pool during the Splashdiving World Championship in Schweinfurt, Germany(AFP)

The Spanish team performs their free routine in the synchronised swimming event at the European Swimming Championships in Berlin(AFP)

Edinburgh Festival Fringe entertainers perform on the Royal Mile(Getty)

Students from the Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School create complex patterns as they are suspended over the stadium during rehearsals for the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games opening ceremony(Reuters)

Mo Farah of Britain celebrates winning the men's 10,000 metres final in front of compatriot Andy Vernon and Ali Kaya of Turkey during the European Athletics Championships at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich(Reuters)

Jo Pavey of Britain celebrates after winning the women's 10,000 metres race at the age of 40 during the European Athletics Championships at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich(Reuters)

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo reacts as he poses with the trophy after winning the UEFA Super Cup final against Sevilla at Cardiff City stadium(Reuters)

Dozens of giant Pikachus parade at the Landmark Plaza shopping mall in Yokohama, as part of the "Great Pikachu Outbreak" event(AFP)

A giant flower carpet, made of around 750,000 begonias, is seen on Brussels' Grand Place(Reuters)

A tightrope walker performs between two spheres of the Atomium monument in Brussels(Reuters)

A five-metre-tall and 15 metre-long sea turtle sculpture named 'Alpha Turtle' floats past the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge to promote an undersea art exhibition at the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium(Getty)

A giant beach ball sits on the sand in Blackpool, northern England. The ball was inflated to a height of 16.6 metres, beating the previous world record of 15.8 metres(Reuters)

The supermoon is pictured behind Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro(Reuters)

A Jammu and Kashmir Police jumps through a ring of fire during celebrations of India's 68th Independence Day in Srinagar(Reuters)

Villagers with nets prepare to catch offerings thrown by Hindu worshippers into the crater of Mount Bromo(Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

People run away as waves caused by a tidal bore surge past a barrier on the banks of Qiantang River, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China...(Reuters)

... but some didn't make it to safety after being knocked over by waves(Reuters)

People look at a car submerged in deep floodwaters on Sunrise Highway at Route 111 following heavy rains and flash flooding in Islip, New York(Getty)

Workers stand next to a lorry that fell into a large crater caused by a cave-in on a street in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China(Reuters)

Police and rescue workers help after a passenger train derailed into a ravine near Tiefencastel in a mountainous region of southeastern Switzerland after encountering a mudslide on the tracks(Reuters)

Iranian Revolutionary Guards and security forces stand next to the remains of a plane that crashed near Tehran's Mehrabad airport. A civilian airliner crashed on take-off, killing almost 50 people(AFP)

A protester throws back a smoke bomb at police in Ferguson, Missouri. Police fired several rounds of tear gas to disperse protesters on the fourth night of demonstrations over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, 18, by a police officer(Reuters)

A woman lights a candle at a vigil held in New York to honour Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by a police officer last Saturday in Ferguson, Missouri(Reuters)

Part of a tunnel exposed by the Israeli military is seen on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza(Reuters)

Palestinians walk under the collapsed minaret of a mosque destroyed during the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip(AFP)

A Palestinian man rests inside a makeshift shelter next to the debris of his house, which witnesses said was destroyed in the Israeli offensive, in Khan Younis(Reuters)

Palestinian boys are evacuated from their family's house, following a raid on the house of Zakaria al-Aqra by Israeli troops near the West Bank city of Nablus(Reuters)

Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar, ride in the boot of a car as they make their way towards the Syrian border(Reuters)

A girl from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour(Reuters)

An Iraqi Yazidi child, whose family fled their home a week ago when Islamic State (IS) militants attacked the town of Sinjar, looks on at a makeshift shelter in the Kurdish city of Dohuk(AFP)

A child from the Dani tribe waves at Obia Village in Wamena, Papua, Indonesia(AFP)

An African migrant child smiles in a sports centre after being rescued by a Spanish coast guard vessel in Tarifa(AFP)

A miniature Oscar statuette and a note reading "We will miss you" are placed on Robin Williams' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Academy Award-winning actor and comedian was found dead in his Marin County home after an apparent suicide. He was 63-years-old(AFP)

China Opens Controversial $2bn Railway Line to Tibet Holy Site

Workers examine the new line that runs between the Tibetan capital Lhasa and ShigatseReuters

China has launched a new $2bn (£1.2bn) extension of its railway line into Tibet, according to Chinese state media.

The additional line will run from the Tibetan capital Lhasa to the key Buddhist site of Shigatse.

The disputed territory is controlled by China and is highly sensitive because of its strategic location, bordering India, Nepal and Myanmar.

The railway, which first opened in 2006, has sparked protests amid claims that its construction caused an influx of long-term Han Chinese migrants to Tibet.

Exiled Tibetans and human rights groups have accused Beijing of threatening their culture, which is steeped in Buddhist tradition.

The newly-opened Lhasa-Shigatse extension cost some 13.28bn yuan ($2.2bn) in total and will reduce journey times from the Tibetan capital by as much as two hours, according to Xinhua news agency.

The cost of 50,000 yuan per meter makes it the most expensive railway line ever built in China, the agency added. The first passenger service is set to leave Lhasa on Saturday.

Further Extensions

Reports in Chinese newspapers in July suggested that Beijing was planning to further extend the railway line from Shigatse to the borders of India, Bhutan and Nepal.

The planned extension would take place between 2016 and 2020 to two destinations, one reaching the Nepalese border and one reaching the border with India and Bhutan.

China's communist army occupied Tibet in 1950. Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India in 1959. Tens of thousands of Tibetans also fled to India at the time, forming communities that continue to live in exile.

Erdogan Presides Over Uncertainty as Turkey Awaits His Choice of Prime Minister

Recap Tayyip Erdogan won presidential election with 52% of vote.(Reuters)

Political uncertainty is set to persist in Turkey until parliamentary elections are held in 2105, according to ratings agency Moody's.

Recap Tayyip Erdogan, the country's current Prime Minister, won Turkey's presidential election in early August.

However, the market implications of Erdogan's victory will remain unclear until a new prime minister is chosen, the agency said.

"Until the political landscape reaches some stability, the country's structural reform agenda is likely to suffer, leaving Turkey exposed to potential shifts in international market sentiment," Moody's said in a note.

Meanwhile, Erdogan has said he expects to announce his new prime minister before the end of August.

Senior leaders from the Justice and Development Party are set to meet on August 21, where they are expected to agree on the names of the new party chairman and the next prime minister.

That candidate would then be voted on at a party members' convention the following week, although Erdogan's selection is likely to be final.

Erdogan was chosen as the country's first elected president after receiving more than half the ballots in the first round of voting.

He is expected to seek a unifying party loyalist as prime minister in order to secure the parliamentary majority needed to introduce sweeping political reforms.

Erdogan hopes to bring about constitutional change to revamp the role of the presidency in Turkey, in a move many anticipate as a personal power grab.

Anti-Capitalist Pope Francis Warns South Koreans to Reject 'Inhuman Economic Models'

Pope Francis is greeted by the faithful on his arrival for Mass at Daejeon World Cup stadium in DaejeonReuters

Pope Francis has aimed yet another barb at capitalism warning 45,000 South Koreans who gathered at a mass on his first visit to the country to reject "inhuman economic models which create new forms of poverty".

In the first trip of a pontiff to Asia in 15 years, the Argentinian pope chose strong words to address not only an affluent South Korean society, but also other emerging Asian nations facing difficult social challenges.

The crowd at the World Cup stadium in Daejeon, 100 miles south of Seoul, rose when the Pope entered, waved white handkerchiefs and shouted "Viva Papa" and "Mansei" (Long Live) according to AFP.

In his homily, the 77-year-old pontiff urged South Korean Christians to fight "the spirit of unbridled competition which generates selfishness and strife". He also spoke of the "cancer" of despair and a "culture of death" that affects emerging societies which are superficially wealthy but hide at their core sadness and poverty.

Around 30% of South Koreans are Christians, Catholics being the fastest-growing group, with 5.3 million adherents.

The head of the Catholic Church has sent shockwaves to conservative Christians around the world with his uninhibited criticism of capitalism, with some even labelling him a Marxist. In an interview with La Vanguardia, a Spanish newspaper, Francis made an impassioned condemnation of the causes of the global economic crisis.

"We are discarding an entire generation to maintain an economic system that can't hold up any more, a system that to survive, must make war, as all great empires have done. But as a third world war can't be waged, they make regional wars...they produce and sell weapons, and with this, the balance sheets of the idolatrous economies, the great world economies that sacrifice man at the feet of the idol of money, are resolved..."

In its Erasmus column, the Economist magazine argued that the Pope seemed to be taking "an ultra-radical line: one that consciously or unconsciously follows Vladimir Lenin".

In response, the pontiff said that Communists were closet Christians who "have stolen our [Christians] flag". "Poverty is at the centre of the Gospel," he claimed.

India Independence Day 2014: Colourful Celebrations in Pictures

There were colourful parades around India as the country celebrated its 68th Independence Day. India gained independence from British rule in 1947.

Girls show off their bangles in the colours of the national flag during Independence Day celebrations in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh(Reuters)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, delivering his first Independence Day speech, adressed the countryfrom the ramparts of the 17th-century Red Fort in old Delhi, continuing a tradition begun by independent India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

However, Modi broke with one tradition: he did not speak from behind a bullet-proof screen, the first prime minister to do so in almost 30 years.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivers a speech at the Red Fort in New Delhi to mark the country's 68th Independence Day(Reuters)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspects a guard of honour upon his arrival at the historic Red Fort during Independence Day celebrations in Delhi(Reuters)

Children hold a 200-metre-long national flag during India's Independence Day celebrations in the southern Indian city of Chennai(Reuters)

A Jammu and Kashmir Policeman jumps through a ring of fire during celebrations of India's 68th Independence Day in Srinagar(Reuters)

Artists perform during Independence Day festivities in the recently formed Telangana state(AFP)

An Indian artist dressed as Hanuman the monkey god performs at Golkonda Fort in Hyderabad(AFP)

Boys dance during a ceremony to celebrate India's 68th Independence Day in Amritsar(AFP)

Kashmiri policemen perform a motorbike stunt during India's Independence Day celebrations in Srinagar(Reuters)

A Kashmiri policeman rides through a wall of fluorescent tubes during India's Independence Day celebrations in Srinagar(Reuters)

College students with painted faces pose for a picture in the southern Indian city of Chennai(AFP)

An Indian Border Security Force soldier and a young woman at the Indian-Pakistan Wagah border post(AFP)

A fan appears to become part of the Indian flag as a policeman prepares to take part in a full dress rehearsal for Independence Day celebrations in Kolkata(Reuters)

An Indian Army soldier leaps through a ring of fire on his motorcycle during Independence Day celebrations in the southern Indian city of Bangalore(Reuters)

A member of the National Cadet Corps waves with her hand decorated with henna in Chandigarh(Reuters)

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