United States

NASA reopens door to Chinese

With an explanation but no public apology for the flip-flop, NASA told Chinese astrophysics researchers they could re-book their already canceled flights to California to attend a space telescope conference in November. NASA spokesman Allard Beutel told the BBC that the ban on Chinese scientists announced earlier this month was prompted by new counterespionage legislation restricting foreign nationals access to NASA facilities.

Iraq

Attacks claim at least 19

Iraqi officials have raised the death toll from attacks on police in the western Anbar province on Tuesday to 19. Earlier reports said eight policemen were killed. The first attack took place when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a checkpoint at the entrance of Rutba, killing five policemen. Another suicide bomber drove his car into a nearby bypass, killing four policemen and three civilian truck drivers. Clashes elsewhere in Anbar on Tuesday night killed seven policemen.

Cambodia

Opposition party supporters march

Opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party leader Sam Rainsy led a march of 15,000 of his supporters in Phnom Penh on Wednesday in an effort to seek UN intervention in July's contested election. "The mass protest is to seek the truth for voters related to the irregularities of the July election," Rainsy said at the rally held at Freedom Park in the capital. "The protest is also to call for a reliable mechanism to reform elections in the future."

Australia

Military training sparked megafire

Australian investigators say a military training exercise ignited one of the major wildfires that has ravaged Australia's most populous state in the past week. More than 100 fires have killed one man and destroyed more than 200 homes in New South Wales since Thursday. Rural Fire Service spokeswoman Natalie Sanders said on Wednesday that an investigation found that a massive fire near Lithgow, west of Sydney, had started at a nearby Defense Department training area on Wednesday last week.

South Korea

Seoul decries video on islets

South Korea urged Japan on Wednesday to promptly delete a Youtube video claiming its sovereignty on the Dokdo islets, known as Takeshima in Japan, calling the action anachronistic and provocative. "We strongly protest against the Japanese government trying to damage our dominium over the Dokdo islets as Japan's Foreign Ministry produced a video that makes nonsensical claims on our territorial islets and distributed it on the Internet," Seoul's Foreign Ministry said.

China Daily-AP-Xinhua

(China Daily 10/24/2013 page11)