Defence`s Feeds

North Korea's test firing of two ballistic missiles Wednesday, which coincided with three other major regional security events, is an attempt by Pyongyang to grab international attention, analysts told RFA.

A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson responds to ballistic missile tests carried out by North Korea.

Pak Jong Chon, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, guided a test firing drill of a railway-borne missile regiment.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has denounced as "inappropriate" the recent comments by South Korean president following his country's ballistic missile test.

Last week, Pyongyang announced it had successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile that was described by the North Korean media as a "strategic weapon of great significance".

The speaker of the British House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, has banned China's ambassador to Britain, Zeguang Zheng, from entering Parliament until Beijing lifts sanctions it imposed six months ago on five Conservative lawmakers and two peers.

Stocks related to China's second-largest property developer Evergrande Group closed lower on Thursday as worries deepened that the company's debt crisis could have spillover effects on the country's financial market and real estate sector.

A hundred twenty-nine Hong Kong civil servants refused to swear allegiance to the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), a majority of whom have left their post, which would help the government run more smoothly and create a more positive political environment for the upcoming elections, experts said.

Hong Kong's national security police have ordered the organizers of a now-banned candlelight vigil for the victims of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen massacre to delete all of their online posts, the group said via its Facebook page on Thursday.

Nine Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were sentenced to several months in jail for taking part in an unauthorized candlelight vigil in observance of the brutal 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on student protesters.

UK Deputy Ambassador Deirdre Brown reiterates demand for Belarus to stop the crackdown against civil society, human rights defenders and independent media.

Residents of Myanmar's northern Shan state have destroyed a fence built by Chinese authorities they say encroaches on their country's territory, prompting observers to warn that if the dispute goes unresolved it could seriously damage relations between communities living along the two nations' shared border.

Russia has successfully completed tests of its new S-500 air defense missile systems and started supplying the advanced antiaircraft equipment to the country's armed forces, according to Russian media.

A Russia-led military alliance plans to hold large army drills in October in Tajikistan, near the border of Taliban-held Afghanistan, where the humanitarian situation has been described by the United Nations as alarming.

Russia needs a strong authoritative parliament so that new State Duma members act in the interests of the country and its people, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

The Kremlin regrets the European Parliament's report on Russia which contains no plans for a dialogue with Moscow, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 16 September, mentioning that the document is only a recommendation.

Moscow has repeatedly voiced concerns regarding what it sees as interference by western nations in its upcoming parliamentary elections.

As a sovereign country, Russia uses the kind of internet regulation that suits it best, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 16 September, commenting on China's internet regulation practices.

As the old joke goes, the Soviet Union was heralded for producing the world's largest microchips and the fastest watches. But Russia alone can lay claim to having a "single voting day" over a span of three days.

Independent Internet monitors say access to Google Docs has been restored after a temporary outage that coincided with the publication by associates of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny of a list of election candidates voters should cast ballots for to topple ruling party incumbents in elections later this week.