What the U.S. election says about North Korea

North Korea has had very little to say about the U.S. presidential election, and that shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The country is pretty isolated and most information about the outside world is off-limits to the vast majority of the population.

So it came as a bolt from the blue when a Japanese journalist said this week some North Koreans who were permitted to interview with him see Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a positive light.

And why? As it turns out, the North Koreans who spoke to Keisuke Fukuda want change, including a new approach to U.S.-North Korea relations.

President Barack Obama has refused to engage North Korea unless denuclearization is on the agenda and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has vowed tough new sanctions. But Trump has suggested a different approach, including a revision of military alliances with Seoul and Tokyo, as well as openness to receiving Kim Jong Un for a visit to the United States.

Is this the candidate North Korea wants in the White House? Maybe. 

This week North Korea showed no interest in slowing down its nuclear weapons and missile development and launched a midrange Musudan missile on Saturday and another projectile on Thursday, both which ended in failure, according to U.S. and South Korean officials.

But if failure is the stepping stone to success, North Korea is up for the next round of provocations.

Pyongyang said Thursday it plans to launch more earth-observation satellites for “peaceful” purposes, a reaction to Seoul’s condemnation of past launches at the United Nations General Assembly.

North Korea also warned the United States and South Korea of a pre-emptive strike “even in the face of minor signs of aggression," and called South Korea’s pending deployment of THAAD a “foolish delusion.”

Interestingly enough, North Korea hasn’t stopped showing interest in meeting with U.S. officials, which appeared to be on the agenda of a top North Korean diplomat spotted in Beijing.

But when nuclear weapons aren’t negotiable it’s hard to see how productive such a meeting could be.

In Jerusalem in the Russian Compound, archaeologists found traces of a Roman siege

© RIA Novosti. Vitaliy Belousov

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TEL AVIV, Oct. 21 -. RIA News Archaeologists have found traces of the siege of Jerusalem ancient Roman legions during excavations on the territory of the Russian Compound in the city center, reported the Israeli Antiquities Authority.

Prey scientists have become fragments of the tower and shells throwing guns - Ballista and slings, which in the year 70 AD enjoyed the troops of Titus, the future emperor of Rome. Legionnaires then took the rebellious city by storm and burned the Temple of Jerusalem - the main shrine of Judaism.

"It is striking evidence of intense bombardment, which has undergone Jerusalem, the Roman army led by Titus on the way to his capture and the destruction of the Second Temple shelling was carried out to suppress the fire from the defenders, enable legionnaires pull up to the walls of rams and break through them." - Says excavation director Rina Avner.

Found tower, according to archaeologists, is the third part of the walls of Jerusalem, which was described by the ancient historian Josephus. Its location, outlines the boundaries of the city during the siege, so far has been the subject of scientific debate.

"To build a third wall started (Jewish) King Agrippa I, but it has suspended construction, so as not to incur the wrath of (Roman) emperor Claudius and dispel all doubts about their loyalty. Construction work two decades later resumed the Jewish rebels, who fortified the town, preparing for the great revolt against Rome, "- reported antiquities Authority.

The find was made in the central neighborhood of Jerusalem, which is known as the Russian Compound. Here in the XIX century, Russia has built hospices, cathedral, hospital, spiritual mission to serve the Orthodox pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. In the middle of the XX century, most of the buildings of the Soviet Union sold to Israel.

Friday folly: the Ministry of Defense has denied the purchase of "Mistral" in Egypt

2016 © AFP / Loic Venance

MOSCOW, October 21 -. RIA Novosti Polish Defense Minister Anthony Macherevich said that Egypt had sold Russian helicopter "Mistral" for the symbolic sum of one dollar.

The Egyptian side is called the word Macherevicha illogical and untrue, and the Russian Ministry of Defense - Friday stupidity, told for the sake of self-praise.

As the "Mistral" went to Egypt

2016 © AFP / Loic Venance

In Egypt, they told how will use the "Mistral"

Initially, two helicopter type "Mistral" France built on the Russian request.However, in August 2015 because of the events in Ukraine, President Francois Hollande has decided to suspend the contract. As a result, Moscow and Paris broke the agreement.

After that, buy ships volunteered to Egypt. Helicopter received the names of Egyptian presidents - "Gamal Abdel Nasser" and "Anwar Sadat".

Buying the dollar

2016 © AFP / Loic Venance

In Egypt, they said they do not sell "Mistral" Russia

The day before, speaking in the Sejm, Macherevich said that Egypt lost to the dollar Russian ships.

Later, answering journalists' questions about where the source of the information Macherevich cited "a very good source," and stressed that "the information is reliable."

At the same time the Polish media noted that appearing in the media about such a transaction posts raise serious doubts. So, the little-known Russian Internet portals link to the Egyptian TV channel SIS TV, but online sales channel of the information is not available. The first such reports on the sale of "Mistral" appeared in the summer of 2015.

Problems with logic

The Egyptian Embassy in Moscow said that the words Macherevicha have nothing to do with reality.

"How is it possible to comment on, if we know that Egypt is negotiating with Russia on weapons procurement for the" Mistral "? How is Egypt, according to you, can sell them for a dollar?" - Expressed surprise Advisor Ayman Moussa Arab country embassies.

Earlier, Cairo expressed a desire to purchase a Russian Ka-52K helicopters to equip ships. Egypt, analysts say, may be purchased for the "Mistral" is not less than 16 Ka-52K and a similar number of Ka-29/31.

Friday folly

© RIA Novosti. Vitaly Ankov

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Egypt appealed to Russia with a request to supply Ka-52K for the "Mistral"

The Russian Defense Ministry, in turn, saying Macherevicha called "Friday's stupidity."

"Exaltation of the Polish minister of defense is no longer a secret even in Poland" - said the agency spokesman Igor Konashenkov.

He stressed that such statements, "as well as many other pearls" Macherevich makes for self-praise.

"But it is a problem of the Polish leadership, not ours," - concluded Konashenkov.

U.S. warship challenges China's claims in South China Sea

By Idrees Ali and Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON

A U.S. navy destroyer sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Friday, drawing a warning from Chinese warships to leave the area.

The U.S. action was the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing's efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters, U.S. officials said.

The Chinese Defense Ministry called the move "illegal" and "provocative," saying that two Chinese warships had warned the U.S. destroyer to leave.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur challenged "excessive maritime claims" near the Paracel Islands, among a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbors, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The latest U.S. patrol, first reported by Reuters, is expected to anger Beijing and could further escalate tensions over the South China Sea. The destroyer sailed within waters claimed by China, close to but not within the 12-nautical-mile territorial limits of the islands, the officials said.

The Pentagon said the Decatur "conducted this transit in a routine, lawful manner without ship escorts and without incident." One official said the ship, which sailed near Triton and Woody Islands, was shadowed by three Chinese vessels and that all interactions were safe.

The White House confirmed the Reuters report.

"This operation demonstrated that coastal states may not unlawfully restrict the navigation rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise under international law," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.

It was the fourth challenge that the United States has made to what it considers overreaching maritime claims by China in the South China Sea in the past year, and the first since May.

China, Washington's main strategic rival in Asia, claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion worth of trade passes each year. The United States has criticized Beijing's build-up of military facilities in the sea and expressed concerns they could be used to restrict free movement.

China has a runway on Woody Island, the site of the largest Chinese presence on the Paracels, and has placed surface-to-air missiles there, according to U.S. officials. Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the Paracels.

In the last three U.S. freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea within the last year, U.S. warships cruised within 12 nautical miles of islands claimed by Beijing. The actions drew angry responses from China, which has accused the United States of stirring up trouble there.

The latest operation comes just after the volatile president of the Philippines announced, during a visit to China, his "separation" from Washington and realignment with Beijing. The Philippines has been a key ally of the United States and a territorial rival of Beijing in the South China Sea. Rodrigo Duterte took office as Philippine president in June.

Duterte's announcement on Thursday was a significant turnaround after a tribunal in The Hague ruled that China did not have historic rights to the South China Sea in a case brought by the previous Philippine administration and strongly backed by the United States.

But in Washington a person close to the matter said the latest naval operation was not timed for Duterte's China visit this week and that planning for the patrol had long been in the works.

U.S. officials have said they will continue such operations despite objections by Beijing.

"The U.S. Navy will continue to conduct routine and lawful operations around the world, including in the South China Sea, in order to protect the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of sea and airspace guaranteed to all. This will not change," Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said during a trip to China in July.

RIVAL CLAIMS

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all have rival claims in the South China Sea, but Beijing's is the largest. It argues it can do what it wants on the islands it claims as they have been Chinese since ancient times.

RELATED COVERAGE

• China protests 'illegal,' 'provocative' U.S. South China Sea patrol

The last U.S. freedom-of-navigation operation in May went within 12 miles of Fiery Cross reef in the Spratly Islands and China scrambled fighter jets in response.

In January, a U.S. destroyer went within 12 miles of Triton Island, and China called the action "irresponsible and extremely dangerous."

U.S. officials have said the operations will continue despite Beijing's protests, but the Obama administration has been criticized in Congress for not conducting them more regularly and robustly.

Greg Poling, a South China Sea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said the administration was likely to face further criticism after opting for relatively uncontroversial challenges to China in all of its freedom-of-navigation operations in the past year.

"They will have essentially performed the same FONOP, meaning an objection to China's demand for prior notification, four times in a year," he said.

"That is not only redundant, but it does nothing to put a spotlight on the other, much more worrying, restrictions China is placing on freedom of navigation."

China has been placing more serious restrictions on movement, he said, around artificial islands China has built on reefs in the Spratly chain, notably Mischief Reef.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Jeff Mason.; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Syrian army and Russian jets halt Aleppo bombardment for second day

Syria's army and Russia's air force halted their bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Friday, a monitoring group said, on the second of four consecutive daytime unilateral ceasefires in the city that have been rejected by insurgents.

Heavy clashes took place in Aleppo during the night, outside the 11-hour periods during which the ceasefire is in place, Zakaria Malahifji, a rebel official with the Fastaqim group which is present in the city, said. He added that the bombardment overnight was lighter than it had been recently.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there had been clashes overnight along frontline neighborhoods of rebel-held east Aleppo: in Jab al-Jalabi in the Old City, in al-Ithaa and in Salah al-Din. There were also clashes in Jamiat al-Zahraa in the government-held west of the city, the Observatory said.

Syria's army and Russia have called on residents and rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo to quit the city and depart for other insurgent-held districts under a promise of safe travel.

The U.N. had hoped that the ceasefires would allow medical evacuations from the city, but said a lack of security guarantees and "facilitation" were preventing aid workers taking advantage of the pause in bombing.

Rebels have said they cannot accept the ceasefire, which they say does nothing to alleviate the situation of those who choose to remain in rebel-held Aleppo, and believe it is part of a government policy to purge cities of political opponents.

"The initiative came at the same time as forced displacement operations are being carried out by the Assad regime in (the Damascus suburbs) of al-Mouadamiya, Qudsiya and al-Hama, and before that in Daraya," a joint statement by rebel groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, and the Syrian National Coalition, an opposition political body, said.

SIEGE

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used siege and bombardment to force rebels from areas they control around Syria's main cities, letting them leave with their families and light weapons and surrendering territory to the government.

Assad has said that local agreements of that kind are preferable to continued fighting.

On Wednesday hundreds of insurgents and their families left the besieged Syrian town of Mouadamiya near Damascus for Idlib province, the largest area under control of the myriad insurgent groups seeking to oust Assad.

In the last two months, while attention has focused on the battle for Aleppo further north, rebels pulled out of Daraya, west of Damascus, and the two suburbs of Qudsiya and al-Hama to the north. It allowed Assad to consolidate control around the capital which his opponents came close to encircling at one stage in the five-year conflict.

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A number of rebels were also evacuated from their last foothold in the city of Homs in September.

For a second day, Syrian state television broadcast footage of green city buses and ambulances waiting to transport people who opt to leave eastern Aleppo after they dropped leaflets there advertising safe corridors through the front lines.

However, very few rebels or civilians appear to have left, sources say.

Pro-government media has accused the rebels of stopping people from leaving, saying they are using civilians as human shields, and say that rebels have been shelling the corridors out of eastern Aleppo to prevent departures.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall and Lisa Barrington; editing by Ralph 

Images indicate European Mars lander destroyed: ESA

Images taken by a NASA Mars orbiter indicate that Europe's missing craft fell to the Red Planet's surface from a height of 2 to 4 kilometers (1.2 to 2.5 miles) and was destroyed on impact, the European Space Agency said on Friday.

The disc-shaped 577-kg (1,272 lb) Schiaparelli probe, part of a broader mission to search for evidence of life on the Red Planet, descended to Mars on Wednesday to test technologies for a rover that scientists hope to send to the surface of the planet in 2020.

But contact to the vehicle was lost around 50 seconds before the expected landing time, leaving it uncertain until the NASA images were received whether Schiaparelli made it to the surface in good working conditions.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Georgina Prodhan)

Czech president accused of scrapping Holocaust survivor medal due to Dalai Lama

By Robert Muller | PRAGUE

Czech President Milos Zeman decided against awarding a state medal to a Holocaust survivor after the man's nephew, a Czech government minister, met exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama against the president's wishes, the minister said on Friday.

The Czech Republic has been engulfed in political furor over the Dalai Lama's meetings this week with Culture Minister Daniel Herman against the wishes of the Chinese government - which sees the Dalai Lama as a separatist - and Zeman, who has strongly pushed for a closer economic relationship with China.

The drive to focus on Chinese investments has met opposition from many corners of the EU member country whose post-communist policy set by the late leader Vaclav Havel strongly promoted human rights. Havel was a friend of the Tibetan monk and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Herman confirmed in a text message to Reuters that the president's office had requested he cancel his meeting with the Tibetan monk or his uncle would not be granted an award.

Herman's uncle George Brady, 88, was supposed to receive the honor for his lifelong campaign for Holocaust remembrance at an annual celebration at Prague Castle, the seat of the president, next Friday on Czech state day.

Brady survived Nazi persecution, including the death camp at Auschwitz, where his sister and parents perished.

"My uncle informed me he had been contacted by the president's office with information that his award was being prepared. Now there is news that this has been postponed for this year," Herman told Reuters.

Asked if he was given an ultimatum not to meet the Dalai Lama in connection with the award, he said: "Yes."

A spokesman for Zeman declined to comment directly on Herman's statement. He said the president had completed the list of nominees "some time ago" and had not subsequently dropped anyone.

The office never releases the names of the recipients of the state medals before the traditional ceremony.

ALSO IN WORLD NEWS

• U.S. warship challenges China's claims in South China Sea
• Islamic State attacks Kirkuk as Iraqi forces push on Mosul

George Brady moved to Canada after the war. In 2000, a suitcase with his sister Hana's name surfaced in a Tokio Holocaust Museum, whose director discovered her relation to George. Hana's suitcase later inspired a book, theater play and a film.

(Editing by Richard Balmforth

At least three dead, others injured in Cameroon train accident

At least three people were killed and others were injured when a packed passenger train traveling between Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, and the port city of Douala derailed and overturned on Friday, witnesses said.

"There are many injured. We are still in the phase of evaluating the situation. We cannot give even a provisional toll," said an official for national rail company Camrail, who asked not to be named.

(Reporting by Anne-Mireille Nzouankeu; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Larry King)