Third Turkish journalist arrested amid fears of Ankara censorship: reports

Local media has reported that a third Turkish reporter has been arrested, amid concern Ankara is cracking down on free speech. Yesterday, protesters took to the streets following the arrest of two other journalists.

Deutsche Welle, 28 Nov 2015

Ertugrul Ozkok, a reporter for the Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet, was arrested following an allegedly slanderous article criticizing the country's president, local media and German news agency DPA reported.

Ozkok (pictured) had written a critical column in September that was presumed to have been directed at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, even though it didn't actually use the politician's name. He faces up to five years and four months in prison.

The news follows growing concern that Erdogan's government is cracking down on free speech in Turkey. Just two days ago, two other journalists working for a different publication were also arrested.

Public backlash

Following the earlier arrests, hundreds of protesters demonstrated in front of the Istanbul office of the Cumhuriyet newspaper in solidarity with the journalists.

The publication's editor in chief, Can Dundar, and its Ankara representative, Erdem Gul, were sent to prison on Thursday, following the publication of photos reportedly showing Turkish trucks delivering arms to Syrian militants.

President Erdogan filed a criminal complaint against the journalists after information was leaked suggesting that the trucks were indeed delivering arms or ammunition to Turkmen fighters in Syria. Prosecutors subsequently launched a criminal probe into the two.

Their arrest also prompted a response from the US Embassy in Turkey.

Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner: We are troubled by pre-trial arrest of editors of Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet. https://t.co/FF9I9X8bpY

— Department of State (@StateDept) November 27, 2015

Protesters on Saturday said Erdogan's government was trying to "silence" free speech, as well as cover up a government scandal.

blc/rc (dpa, AP, AFP)

#UPDATE Putin accuses Turkey of shooting down Russian warplane to protect IS oil trade https://t.co/bgM3u3WPXM pic.twitter.com/ZFGOe7aWeY

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 30, 2015

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North, South Korea agree to high-level talks next month

Yahoo – AFP, Park Chan-Kyong, 26 Nov 2015

South Korean chief delegate Kim Ki-Woong (right) shakes hands with his

 North Korean counterpart Hwang Chol during their meeting at the truce village of 

Panmunjom, on November 26, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Seoul (AFP) - The two Koreas agreed Thursday to hold a rare high-level dialogue next month, in line with an accord struck in August aimed at easing cross-border tensions.

A Unification Ministry official in Seoul said the two sides would meet at the deputy minister level on December 11 in the Kaesong joint industrial zone, just inside North Korea.

Agreement on the dialogue was reached at working-level talks held Thursday in the border truce village of Panmunjom, which ran late into the night.

South Korea wants regular reunions for

 families separated by the 1950-53 Korean

War (AFP Photo/KPPA)

Unification Ministry Spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee told reporters that the North Koreans had initially demanded a set agenda for the Kaesong meeting, but later agreed to Seoul's proposal for a "comprehensive discussion of pending issues related to improving ties".

Although any talks between the two Koreas are generally welcomed as a step in the right direction, precedent suggests it is still too early to hope for any significant breakthrough in December.

Protocol challenges

A similar effort back in June 2013 saw both sides agree to hold what would have been the first high-level dialogue for six years -- only for Pyongyang to cancel a day before the talks were scheduled to begin.

In the end, it was a matter of protocol -- the North felt insulted by the South's nomination of a vice minister as its chief delegate -- that smothered the initiative before it had even drawn breath.

Jeong said Seoul had pushed for the Kaesong meeting to prioritise the issue of regular reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, which cemented the division of the Korean peninsula.

North Korea, however, wanted the initial focus to be on a resumption of visits by South Korean tour groups to its scenic Mount Kumgang resort.

The tours, a source of badly needed hard currency for the cash-strapped North, were suspended by the South in 2008 after a female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean guard.

Thursday's meeting in Panmunjom marked the first inter-governmental interaction since August when the two sides sat down to defuse a crisis that had pushed them to the brink of an armed conflict.

Building on August accord

That meeting ended with a joint agreement that included the commitment to resume high-level talks.

Under the terms of the August accord, Seoul switched off loudspeakers blasting propaganda messages across the border after the North expressed regret over mine blasts that maimed two South Korean soldiers.

The South interpreted the regret as an "apology" and admission of responsibility, but the North's powerful National Defence Commission later stressed that it was meant only as an expression of sympathy.

The move to resume high-level contact comes amid diplomatic shifts in the northeast Asia region that have left North Korea looking more isolated than ever, with Seoul moving closer to Pyongyang's main diplomatic and economic ally China, and improving previously strained relations with Tokyo.

Earlier this month, the leaders of South Korea, China and Japan held their first summit for more than three years in Seoul.

Although the focus was on trade and other economic issues, the three declared their "firm opposition" to the development of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea is already under a raft of UN sanctions imposed after its three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye recently reiterated her willingness to hold face-to-face talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un -- but only if Pyongyang showed some commitment to abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.

The two Koreas have held two summits in the past, one in 2000 and the second in 2007.

The United Nations is also understood to be in discussions with North Korea over a visit by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon -- possibly before the end of the year.

Ban had been scheduled to visit in May this year, but Pyongyang withdrew the invitation at the last minute after he criticised a recent North Korean missile test.

US general: MSF hospital strike in Kunduz caused by 'human error'

A US airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan that killed at least 30 people in October was caused primarily by human error, the military reports. Disciplinary action has reportedly been taken.

Deutsche Welle, 25 Nov 2015

The official US investigation into the deadly October 3 strike on a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (known for its French abbreviation, MSF) in the Afghan city of Kunduz concluded it was an "avoidable accident," a top US military commander said. US Army General John Campbell called the incident a "tragic mistake," putting it down primarily to human error.

"The medical facility was misidentified as a target by US personnel who believed they were striking a different building several hundred meters away, where there were reports of combatants," Campbell said.

The MSF hospital in Kunduz has been
closed since the attack, despite
renewed US offers to help in rebuilding

"US forces would never intentionally strike a hospital or other protected facilities," Campbell, the commander of international and US forces in Afghanistan, told reporters at NATO headquarters in Kabul. Campbell said that the individuals most closely associated with the incident had been suspended from their duty positions.

Campbell did not give any names or specify how many people had been suspended, but said that the affected individuals would be subject to investigation under military justice or administrative discipline systems. Brigadier General Wilson Shoffner said at the same press conference that some military personnel involved in the airstrike had violated standard US rules of engagement, saying that the US military was committed to ensuring full accountability while protecting the identities of those involved.

Almost 30 minutes of bombardment

The 3,000-page investigative file stated that US forces had originally intended to attack a nearby Taliban-controlled compound 450 yards (410 meters) away. The report said that the AC-130 gunship's crew had relied on location information relayed to them by US and Afghan special forces rather than using aircraft instruments.

Investigators found no evidence that the crew or the US Special Forces commander on the ground, who had authorized the strike, knew at the time of the assault that the targeted compound was a hospital. The gunship had fired 211 shells at the compound over a 29-minute period before commanders realized the mistake and ordered a halt.

At least 31 people, including 12 MSF staff
were killed during the air assault, which
 continued for 29 minutes before being
called off

The prolonged attack was condemned by MSF as a war crime. According to the US report, it killed at least 31 civilians , including 12 MSF staff, and injured 28 others. US President Barack Obama had already apologized for the bombing of the hospital and taken full responsibility , but MSF still called for an international humanitarian commission to investigate the attack. NATO and the Afghan army said they were also conducting their own investigations into the incident. General Campbell meanwhile has offered assistance to MSF to rebuild the hospital in Kunduz, which has since been abandoned and closed. He did not rule out further investigations into the incident.

"The personnel who requested the strike and those who executed it from the air did not undertake appropriate measures to verify that the facility was a legitimate military target," Campbell said during the press conference. He added that, in light of the review, changes to the protocols of engagement had been implemented.

Internal MSF investigation

MSF meanwhile has conducted its own investigation into the incident, with preliminary findings being leaked to the Associated Press news agency. Focusing on casualties, the MSF report reportedly found that several doctors and nurses had been killed immediately by the airstrikes, while patients who could not move burned to death in the ensuing fire. It added that people fleeing the main building were hit by gunfire that appeared to track their movements, while one patient trying to escape in a wheelchair was killed by shrapnel.

The MSF account of events added that hospital staff members had made 18 attempts to contact US and Afghan authorities before the bombardment stopped.

The event marked on of the worst incidents of civilian casualties in the 14-year history of the US war effort in Afghanistan.

ss/msh (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Analysts slam US account of MSF hospital strike https://t.co/V4ZjWXLIvV pic.twitter.com/qP6CmbHRvF

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 30, 2015

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Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, October 19, 2015)

Matthew Ward - October 19, 2015

Matthew Ward

With loving greetings from all souls at this station, this is Matthew. Earth is orbiting in astral planes wherein vibrations are impacting your society at a quickening pace. As linear time is “crunching up,” everything in your world is being pushed more swiftly toward remedy, resolution or final moment, and third density karmic experiences are moving faster toward completion.

This acceleration is causing the Illuminati to take irrationally desperate measures to cling to their remnants of control in New York City and Washington, DC. Often fingers have pointed at the United States for self-serving interference in other countries’ affairs, and with justification—all significant federal actions from Day One have been the work of individuals in the Illuminati’s Rockefeller faction within that nation’s government and military forces, all without the knowledge of the citizenry, who mistakenly thought their voices and votes counted.

Let us tell you what evolved civilizations have long observed about your world. People ruled by other corrupt governments knew they were captives of their political systems; however, only recently and only some United States citizens are realizing that they’ve been duped into believing they lived in “the land of the free” and what they’ve been told generation after generation: We must fight our enemies who want to destroy our freedoms and democratic way of life.

Thus, as your world reels from aerial strikes on Doctors without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, a tragedy stemming from Illuminati madness, the blame falls on the United States via the wrongful assumption that the country’s Commander-in-Chief authorized the unconscionable attack. The fact is, behind the scenes President Obama and others in positions of influence—primarily individuals in the US and in China; Israelis who know Netanyahu’s dark intentions to foment WWIII; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; and Pope Francis—have been collaborating to uproot all of the far-reaching tentacles of the Illuminati’s Rockefeller and Rothschild factions.

That attack on the hospital; explosions at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey; clashes between Israelis and Palestinians; the situation in Syria; and shootings in the United States have caused some to view deadly violence and other prevalent conditions globally as “unsolvable problems.” Dear ones, none of the issues of your concern, which also include effects of climate change, lack of clean water, deforestation, near extinction of some animals, diminishing bee population, widespread surveillance, unjust legal and justice systems, enforced vaccinations, massive impoverishment and rampant pollution as well as war mentality, bigotry, greed and ignorance of truths is unsolvable!

Everything happening in your world is due to Earth’s ascension into increasingly lighter energy planes wherein negatively-based activity is more quickly and emphatically running out its energetic course. However, in some circles this is deemed evidence that “end times” are at hand. We know this isn’t your belief, but we think you will enjoy knowing what God told my mother about that concept several years ago:

“Those souls who are intent upon having an Armageddon, so they shall! But for you who aren’t intent upon having that sort of ‘future,” you WON’T! You can stay within the light and rise into higher and higher dimensions of closeness, understanding, awareness. There are no strict rules that are so complex or rigorous that you and anyone else aren’t capable of adhering to them. All that is required is to live within the light! Or in simplest terms: BE KIND.”

And, with thanks to the light—the same energy as love and the most powerful force in the cosmos—your world is overflowing with kindness and godly works as more and more people are “seeing the light.” Joyously greet this unfolding of consciousness connecting with soul-level knowledge—this, not bodies rising into the skies, is personal ascension—the shedding of all of third density’s negative characteristics and harmful behavior to self and others.

As for other aforementioned issues of concern, first we say, do not be fearful about anything! We cannot say too often that the energy of fear refuels those with dark tendencies and the universal law of attraction is in constant operation!

Now then, to address those issues. Harsh effects of climate change will ease as Earth gets closer to attaining her once-moderate climate worldwide; if necessary, residents of sea-level island areas will be relocated in plenty of time to avert danger. Ongoing assistance of your universal family includes neutralizing or ameliorating harmful effects of toxic elements in vaccines and all sources of pollution; and, added to your own technologies that are emerging from Illuminati suppression, your family will introduce advanced technologies that can remedy environmental damage so quickly that you will be astounded. Bees will return and eventually wildlife will rebound to sustainable numbers except for the few species in arctic climes that will not adapt to those areas’ rising temperatures. Peaceful, trustworthy behavior in your society will end the need for surveillance; all unfair or injurious national laws, justice systems, regulations, and cultural traditions will end incrementally; and, as your world’s resources are fairly allocated, poverty will be eliminated.

It is Gaia’s desire and intention that her planetary body be restored to its original health and beauty and Earth’s humankind flourish in abundance and live in harmony with each other and all of Nature. And so it shall be! Planetary ascension—the world transformation process that you went to Earth to assist in—is assured! Personal ascension is a choice that each person makes, and part of attaining spiritual and conscious enlightenment is knowing the soul you are. Most heartily we have welcomed all of your relevant questions and now shall answer those for which there was no space in previous messages.

“How do I ‘go within’ to ask a question and how will I know if the answer is from soul level or my conscious thought?” In solitude and comfort, visualize yourself in the midst of golden white light, think or say aloud what you want to know, then quiet your mind and simply BE. You may want to see if meditative music is relaxing or a distraction, and it could be helpful to ask first a question that can be answered “yes” or “no.” The answer may come immediately or take a few moments, and when it does, it may be a word, phrase or sentence, which may be audible or appear as a printed sign or move in tickertape fashion; or one or more mental images; or a sensation that clearly indicates “yes” or “no.”

If what you see, hear or strongly sense is similar to what you had been thinking, or hoping for, prior to “going within,” it doesn’t mean that the answer is your own thought; it could be confirmation that your conscious thought and soul knowledge expressed as intuition are closely connected. And, please don’t be disheartened if nothing happens at first try, or even a few times—like every other worthwhile endeavor, practice leads to improvement.

“Was it the person Jesus or his soul who knew how to walk on water and turn a few fish and bread loaves into enough food for the multitudes or were those stories made up to substantiate the claim that he is ‘the only son of God’?” Jesus and his soul were one and the same being, just as every other soul-self is. He knew that everyone has the innate capacity to manifest whatever the person desires and can visualize; that’s why his teachings included that whatever he could do, everyone else could, too. He did walk slightly above water on an occasion when there was a need to do so, and one time there was a need to turn a small amount of food into enough for a hungry crowd. I noted both in my journal.

A conversation with my mother soon after we started communicating in 1994, when I was still living in Nirvana, answers a number of queries about the soul’s origin and its relationship with the cumulative soul, and I’ve asked her to copy those parts.

The soul is the very essence of life as it first sprang from Creator. It is an indestructible living entity of light energy that may have a physical body, etheric body or astral body, or it may exist in free spirit only. Our souls, manifested by God through His co-creating powers with Creator, are expressions of the love and light of God and contain in microcosm every essence of God. In any of its forms, the soul is an inviolate independent being at the same time it exists inseparably with God and Creator and all other souls.

The soul is the power behind everything that exists on Earth. It is the life force of all its parts that it creates for ever-greater experiencing. At every level of evolvement, each soul part is an independent self with intelligence, characteristics, choices, goals and all the other life elements that make each person a unique being.

Each individual lifetime of a soul is its personage. The sum of a soul's personages is the cumulative soul, and all knowledge gained by each personage is available to all. Thus, as each one melds into the cumulative soul, bringing the wisdom of that lifetime’s experiences, every individual personage evolves just as the cumulative soul does. I believe the simplest explanation of the cumulative soul is this: It is the composite of all its parts starting with the very first division of itself into an independent lifetime for diversity in experiencing.

Where do cumulative souls reside?

There is no specific place of residence because a cumulative soul is not an individual entity, but rather the indivisible sum of all its personages wherever they are living, and it grows as each one adds its lifetime experiences to the ever-changing composite. Actually, a better description of a cumulative soul than I first gave you is that it is a force field that derives its entire essence from all its aspects wherever they are throughout the universe.

Do you personally know the other personages in your cumulative soul or do you only have access to their knowledge?

I know those who are in this realm and some of us have become friends. Some are spending a lifetime on Earth, and I know very well who they are! Some have moved so far toward the light that our energy densities are incompatible, so a meeting isn’t possible, and others have regressed far from the light into lower densities, and I’m surely not interested in going there! Some have chosen lifetimes out of this galaxy, where I don’t travel often, so I’m barely acquainted with them.

Each has its own soul growth to accomplish, Mother. Wherever the other personages are experiencing for their individual growth, we’re always within the familial bonding of our cumulative soul. But it isn’t necessary that we meet or share lifetime interests or know all the details of each other’s lives. What we do share is the essential knowledge of our collective awareness, otherwise all the individual souls’ learning would be wasted.

The cumulative soul can advance from its station toward the light only by the advancement of its personages. Therefore, each one not only has the benefit of the cumulative soul’s composite knowledge, but it is continuously given encouragement at soul level to master its chosen lessons so the cumulative soul can evolve. However, that is not self-serving—with that soul’s advancement, all of its personages also have the opportunity to evolve. But, depending upon the free will choices of each, the personage can either grow toward the light or regress so far as to become trapped in base energy.

If a personage becomes trapped, how does that affect its cumulative soul's energy?

The lifetime energy registration that consigns a personage to the base energy placement does not affect its cumulative soul because that personage's unique energy stream made its own way entirely by its free will choices. The cumulative soul may encourage its personages, but it can't ever interfere with their free will. However, out of love for all its personages, the cumulative soul may request divine grace to assist any that become trapped in base energy.

Are the individual souls always aware of everything their cumulative soul knows?

Let me compare this with your memory, Mother. Nothing you have learned or experienced is ever lost in your memory system, but you can't remember everything at the same time–it would be overwhelming! Furthermore, many of your experiences were so trivial that they were irrelevant to subsequent happenings and never returned to your conscious mind, yet all are in your memory bank. It's the same with the personages of the cumulative soul as they experience their respective lifetimes.

That makes sense. Matthew, with all these parts of your cumulative soul, I just want to be absolutely sure that you are ONLY my Matthew and nobody else!

Oh, Mother, absolutely I am Matthew and no one else! Every personage is its own soul and no one else! The cumulative soul is the synthesis of all its independently functioning soul-selves.

But it sounds as if every soul that divides itself becomes a cumulative soul, so you could do the same and become one, too.

Mother, I realize that in my eagerness to answer your questions, sometimes my efforts result in confusion rather than clarification. The terms I've given you for the various aspects of soul expression—cumulative soul, personages, soul fragments or sparks and such—are meant only to show the soul's long journey striving through multiple lifetimes to return to its beginning in the perfect love and light of Creator.

In this realm we don't need differentiation of terms, as the soul's energy registration in the universe is evidence of its evolutionary station. Since each soul is its own inviolate self regardless of its station or the number of its progeny, we think of each simply as "soul." And that is how we speak of each one to you unless we are trying to explain the soul growth stages through its independently functioning aspects, or the inextricable and eternal connection of each soul with God and all other souls in the universe.

Thank you, Mother, and yes, I see that once again must leave remaining questions about the soul for the next message. We hope that our answers thus far have been convincing: You are limitlessly powerful, unconditionally loved divine beings in the eternal Oneness of All.

LOVE and PEACE

Suzanne Ward

Website: The Matthew Books
Email: suzy@matthewbooks.com

Execution of disabled Pakistani man delayed for fourth time

Yahoo – AFP, Waqar Hussain, 24 Nov 2015

Pakistani activists commemorate International Day Against the Death Penalty

during a rally in Islamabad, on October 10, 2015 (AFP Photo/Aamir Qureshi)

A disabled Pakistani murder convict was given a fourth stay of execution late Tuesday just hours before he was due to be hanged, as rights activists slammed Islamabad for a executions spree on track to see 300 deaths in under a year.

Abdul Basit, a paraplegic who was convicted of murder in 2009, was scheduled to be hung early Wednesday. His execution has already been harrowingly postponed several times after rights groups raised concerns about how a wheelchair-bound man would mount the scaffold.

Pakistani prisoner and convicted murdered

 Abdul Basit lies on a hospital bed in

Faisalabad,  on September 22, 2015

(AFP Photo)

The presidency issued a statement late Tuesday saying the execution had been delayed for two months while President Mamnoon Hussain ordered an inquiry into Basit's medical condition.

The statement said the president had vowed that "human rights will be upheld".

"We are very happy to hear the TV news that (the) president of Pakistan has stayed the execution," Basit's mother Nusrat Parveen told AFP in response to the last minute delay.

"We also got confirmation from a jail staff," she said, adding that the family hoped the stay would be extended beyond two months.

Earlier, Basit's sister Asma Mazhar had issued a plea to the president to spare her brother.

She told AFP she had gone with her mother to see him on Tuesday for what they had believed was the last time, and found him "helpless and quiet".

She said he told them that authorities had come to measure his body and that it was an "awful moment".

Pakistan has executed 299 people since the death penalty was controversially reinstated following a Taliban mass killing at a school in Peshawar last December, according to Amnesty International.

"Pakistan will imminently have executed 300 people since it lifted a moratorium on executions, shamefully sealing its place among the world's worst executioners," it said in a statement.

Forty-five people were executed in October alone, Amnesty said, making it the deadliest month since the moratorium was lifted.

No official figures are available. The rights group Reprieve told AFP Tuesday that by its tally the number of executions has just passed 300, while other local activists said the figure was below 260.

Pakistan ended a six-year moratorium on the death penalty last year after Taliban

 militants gunned down more than 150 people at a school in Peshawar (AFP

Photo/Aamir Qureshi)

"Pakistan's ongoing zeal for executions is an affront to human rights and the global trend against the death penalty," David Griffiths, Amnesty's South Asia research director, said in a statement.

"Even if the authorities stay the execution of Abdul Basit, a man with paraplegia, Pakistan is still executing people at a rate of almost one a day."

Rights fears

Pakistan ended a six-year moratorium on the death penalty last year as part of a terror crackdown after Taliban militants gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at an army-run school in the restive northwest.

The massacre shocked and outraged a country already scarred by nearly a decade of extremist attacks.

Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism, but in March they were extended to all capital offences.

Supporters argue that executions are the only effective way to deal with the scourge of militancy in the country.

Pakistani police stand above photographs of students killed during a 2014

 Taliban attack on a school during a ceremony in Peshawar, on November 16,

2015 (AFP Photo/A Majeed)

But critics say the legal system is unjust, with rampant police torture and poor representation for victims during unfair trials, while the majority of those who are hanged are not convicted of terror charges.

There is no evidence the "relentless" executions have done anything to counter extremism in the country, Griffiths said in the Amnesty statement.

Recent research by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies also suggests that death is no deterrent for militants who are "committed to dying for their cause".

The Amnesty figures suggest Pakistan is on track to become one of the world's top executioners in 2015.

In 2014 607 people were put to death in 22 countries, according to Amnesty, though that figure does not include China, where the number of executions is believed to be in the hundreds but is considered by authorities to be a state secret.

Related Article:

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Asean Establishes Landmark Economic and Security Bloc

Jakarta Globe, Trinna Leong, November 22, 2015

Asean leaders joined China's Premier Li Keqiang at the summit in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

Kuala Lumpur. Southeast Asian nations on Sunday established a formal community that attempts to create freer movement of trade and capital in an area of 625 million people with a combined economic output of $2.6 trillion.

The community declaration was signed by leaders of the 10- member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Kuala Lumpur, this year's host of the group's annual summit.

Twelve years in the making, the Asean community is a landmark in the 48-year history of a group founded at the height of the Cold War as an anti-communist bulwark.

The Asean Community includes a political, security and socio-cultural dimension in a region with governments ranging from communist in Vietnam and quasi-military in Myanmar to the kingdom of Brunei and the boisterous democracy of the Philippines.

But it is the economic community that offers the most concrete opportunities for integration in a region whose combined gross domestic product (GDP) would make it the world's seventh-largest economy.

In practice, Asean has already virtually eliminated tariff barriers among the 10 countries, said Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the summit host, at the signing ceremony. "We now have to ensure that we create a truly single market and production base, with freer movement of goods and services."

At the closing news conference, however, he said Asean had no specific deadline for achieving zero tariffs, but would aim for "meaningful deliverables that can be done every year when we meet at the Asean summit."

The combined GDP of the Asean economies is expected to grow from $2.6 trillion to $4.7 trillion by 2020, Najib said, and could become the world's fourth-largest economy as a bloc as early as 2030.

The countries aim to harmonize economic strategies, recognize each other's professional qualifications and consult more closely on macroeconomic and financial policies.

They have also agreed to enhance the connectivity of their transportation infrastructure and communications, better facilitate electronic transactions, integrate industries to promote regional sourcing, and enhance private-sector involvement in the economy.

Eight groups of professionals will be able to work more easily throughout the region: engineers, architects, nurses, doctors, dentists, accountants, surveyors and tourism professionals.

Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Reuters

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"Message for South America" - Nov 16, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New


"The End of History" -  Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

" ... South America and the New Energy

South America is starting to consider the same thing. My partner was just there and I allowed him to see the energy of the potential future in that land.

I would like to paint history for you regarding South America. There was a time when every single country had a dictator. Less than 15 years ago, they had failing economies and currencies that were worthless. Trouble and strife and killings were the norm. Marauding drug lords openly killed in the streets and corruption was everywhere. Even the politicians created fear and many disappeared overnight, never to be seen again. Today it isn't that way. Today, there is an ongoing stability as one country after another brings a new, positive, stable energy to their cultures. So, without a concentrated effort by any kind of multi-national leadership or direction, how could this have changed in only 15 years?

Within the entire continent, there's only one dictator left. What's happening? If you think that's amazing, there is a move afoot that you're not going to hear about yet. But they're discussing it right now, so let me tell you what they're thinking. "What would happen if we took these countries and eliminated the borders?" Sound familiar? They're talking about it. In back rooms where nobody is reporting it, they're saying, "What about a plan of eventually having one currency from the top of Columbia to the bottom of Chile? And we would be strong and we would be unified." And dear ones, I'm here to tell you, that it's going to work, and it might not take 50 years. Soon the one dictator will be gone, and the unification can begin.

There's a shift happening on this planet ...."

North, South Korea to hold rare talks next week

Yahoo – AFP, Giles Hewitt, 20 Nov 2015

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un attends a photo session with military

education officers in November 2015 (AFP Photo/Toshifumi Kitamura)

Seoul (AFP) - North and South Korea agreed Friday to hold rare talks next week, aimed at setting up a high-level dialogue that might provide the foundation for a sustainable improvement in cross-border ties.

The talks, to be held on November 26 in the border truce village of Panmunjom, will be the first inter-governmental interaction since officials met there in August to defuse a crisis that had pushed both sides to the brink of an armed conflict.

That meeting ended with a joint agreement that included a commitment to resume a high-level dialogue, although no precise timeline was given.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said talks proposals sent to Pyongyang in September and October had failed to garner a response.

Then on Thursday, the North's official KCNA news agency said the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which handles relations with the South, had sent Seoul a notice proposing the November 26 meeting.

South Korean soldiers look at the North side while US 

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter visits the truce

 village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone dividing

 the two Koreas on November 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Thomas Watkins)

"We have accepted," a Unification Ministry official said.

Under the terms of the August agreement, Seoul switched off loudspeakers blasting propaganda messages across the border after the North expressed regret over recent mine blasts that maimed two South Korean soldiers.

The South interpreted the regret as an "apology" but the North's powerful National Defence Commission has since stressed that it was meant only as an expression of sympathy.

Diplomatic shifts

Next week's talks come amid diplomatic shifts in the Northeast Asia region that have left North Korea looking more isolated than ever, with Seoul moving closer to Pyongyang's main diplomatic and economic ally China, and improving strained relations with Tokyo.

Earlier this month, the leaders of South Korea, China and Japan held their first summit for more than three years in Seoul.

The United Nations is understood to be in discussions with North Korea over a

 visit by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon -- possibly before the end of the year

(AFP Photo/Ozan Kose)

Although the focus was on trade and other economic issues, the three declared their "firm opposition" to the development of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea is already under a raft of UN sanctions imposed after its three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

It has also come under increasing pressure on the human rights front, following a report published last year by a UN commission that concluded North Korea was committing human rights violations "without parallel in the contemporary world".

A UN General Assembly committee on Thursday condemned those "gross" violations in North Korea, in a resolution adopted by a record majority.

The resolution, which will go to the full General Assembly for a vote next month, encourages the Security Council to consider referring Pyongyang to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Such a move would likely be blocked by China, which has veto power in the council.

Summit hopes

Last week, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye had reiterated her willingness to hold face-to-face talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un -- but only if Pyongyang showed some commitment to abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.

Last week, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye

 had reiterated her willingness to hold face-to-face 

talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un -- but 
only if Pyongyang showed some commitment to
abandoning its nuclear weapons programme (AFP
Photo/Edgar Su)

"There is no reason not to hold an inter-Korean summit if a breakthrough comes in solving the North Korean nuclear issue," Park said.

"But it will be possible only when the North comes forward for a proactive and sincere dialogue," she added.

The two Koreas have held two summits in the past, one in 2000 and the second in 2007.

The United Nations is also understood to be in discussions with North Korea over a visit by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon -- possibly before the end of the year.

Ban had been scheduled to visit in May this year, but Pyongyang withdrew the invitation at the last minute after he criticised a recent North Korean missile test.