Hong Kong protests: Police arrest several protesters after clashes

Hong Kong police and protesters clashed early on Wednesday in some of the most violent scenes since pro-democracy demonstrations began more than a fortnight ago, leading to several arrests.

Hundreds of officers scuffled with protesters guarding newly erected barricades on a main road next to the city's government headquarters, using pepper spray to disperse those who defied orders to leave the area, according to an AFP journalist.

Within an hour police had regained control of the busy thoroughfare, which was occupied by protesters earlier in the day, dismantling hastily erected barricades and making dozens of arrests.

Read more here

WHO warns Ebola cases in West Africa could reach 10,000 a week by Dec 1

The Ebola epidemic is still spreading in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and the number of cases in West Africa will exceed 9,000 this week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday, projecting there may be between 5,000 and 10,000 new cases a week by the beginning of December.

The death toll so far in the outbreak, first reported in Guinea in March, has reached 4,447 from a total of 8,914 cases, WHO assistant director-general Bruce Aylward said.

While there are signs that rates of infection are slowing in some of the worst-hit areas, Aylward said the disease has now reached "more districts, counties and prefectures" than it had a month ago, and said case numbers would continue to rise.

Read more here

US company offers to sell Ebola.com domain name for US$150,000

A Las Vegas company, seeking to capitalise on the world's worst Ebola outbreak on record, is looking to sell the domain name Ebola.com for US$150,000 (S$190,000), a partner with the firm said on Tuesday.

Chris Hood, a junior partner with Blue String Ventures, the firm selling the rights to Ebola.com, said it owns other domain names for deadly diseases, such as Birdflu.com and Chikungunya.com.

But Ebola has grabbed the media spotlight for weeks now, amid growing fears about its spread outside West Africa, and that makes Ebola.com especially hot Internet property.

Read more here

Formula One: Jules Bianchi will keep fighting, says father, but condition remains 'desperate'

Critically injured French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi will not give up his fight for life but the situation remains desperate, his father Philippe said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper in Yokkaichi, Japan, where the 25-year-old Marussia driver is in intensive care, Bianchi senior said it was a miracle his son was still alive after crashing into a recovery tractor in the wet at the Japanese Grand Prix on Oct 5.

Read more here

Australia's Richard Flanagan takes Man Booker prize with novel set in WWII Asia

Australian author Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road To The Deep North, set during the building of the Thailand-Burma "Death Railway" in World War II, won Britain's prestigious 50,000 pound (S$101,446) Man Booker literature prize on Tuesday.

Flanagan's sixth novel beat out what jury chairman Anthony Grayling said was a strong short list of six books that for the first time, under a rule change, included works by two Americans, giving rise to fears beforehand that the British prize might come to be dominated by American writers.

Read more here