Obama and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani to address UN General Assembly; China bans exports of possible weapons components to North Korea; limits on foreign workers in Singapore; Egypt bans Muslim Brotherhood activities; Russia accuses Greenpeace of piracy; and more
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Obama's tenuous foreign policy lifeline
President Obama has clutched at the straw of diplomacy in order to postpone deeply unpopular military intervention in Syria. However the Russian-Syrian so-called diplomatic option for dealing with chemical weapons has a definite whiff of implausibility about it.
Read MoreThe political perils of setting red lines
It's a sure bet President Obama rues the day he failed to quantify the degree to which Syria's Bashar al-Assad would have to use chemical weapons in order to trigger a 'game changer' in the civil war, and therefore cross Obama's 'red line'.
Read MoreWorld News Brief, Tuesday August 28
Syrians hold mass burials in Damascus; Syrian opposition forces claim to have shot down military helicopter; South Korea to compensate relatives of alleged communist sympathisers massacred during Korean War; Singapore's PM calls on citizens to be more tolerant of immigrants; US weapons sales triple, worth $66 billion; Nigeria in talks with Boko Haram
Read MoreWorld News Brief, Thursday May 17
Ratko Mladic on trial at The Hague for war crimes during Bosnian war of 90s; Chen Guangcheng tells US congressional hearing his family is being harassed; Burmese president pledges to stop buying weapons from North Korea; Pakistani president will attend NATO summit; anti-Putin 'Occupy' protesters in Moscow moved on; and more
Read MoreSelling arms to the Saudis: Obama's big sell-out
An emerging unholy alliance between Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US is a key driver behind potentially the biggest arms deal in US history
Read MoreGot the patches. Got the tasers. Get the guns?
Napier’s tragic siege will accelerate the provision of tasers to all frontline police. Whanganui can now ban gang patches in public. But why are tougher firearms controls so hard?
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