| Donald Trump's Halloween Hat Has Everyone Making The Same Joke Posted: 24 Oct 2017 06:00 AM PDT  President Donald Trump is selling a new orange version of his "Make America Great Again" hat ― just in time for Halloween.
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| China formally lifts Xi Jinping's status to most powerful leader in decades Posted: 24 Oct 2017 05:07 AM PDT  The ruling Communist Party has formally lifted Xi Jinping's status to China's most powerful ruler in decades, setting the stage for the authoritarian leader to tighten his grip over the country while pursuing an increasingly muscular foreign policy and military expansion. The move to insert Xi's name and dogma into the party's constitution alongside the party's founders came at the close of a twice-a-decade congress that gathered the country's ruling elite alongside rank-and-file party members. It not only places him in the first rank with past leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, but also effectively makes any act of opposing him tantamount to an attack on the party itself. "The Chinese people and nation have a great and bright future ahead," Xi told party delegates as the meeting came to a close after delegates approved the addition of Xi's ideology of "socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era" to the party charter. "Living in such a great era, we are all the more confident and proud, and also feel the heavy weight of responsibility upon us," he said. The concept Xi has touted is seen as marking a break from the stage of economic reform ushered in by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s and continued under his successors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) raises his hand to vote for the reports with China's former presidents Jiang Zemin (R) and Hu Jintao (L) at the closing of the 19th Communist Party Congress Credit: GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images The placement of Xi's thought among the party's leading guidelines also comes five years into his term - earlier than his predecessors. "In every sense, the Xi Jinping era has begun in earnest," said Zhang Lifan, an independent political commentator in Beijing. "Only Mao's name was enshrined in the party ideology while he was still alive. We're opening something that hasn't been broached before." How Xi Jinping is set to become more powerful than Trump 02:01 For centuries, Chinese emperors were accorded ritual names that signaled either they were successors in a dynastic line or the founder of an entirely new dynasty. What Xi accomplished this week was a modern equivalent of the latter, Zhang said. "He wants to join that pantheon of leaders," he said. Despite being elevated to the status of both a political and theoretical authority in the party, Xi still lacks the broad popular support of the Chinese public that Mao had enjoyed, said Zhang Ming, a political analyst in Beijing who recently retired from a prestigious university. Xi Jinping | The wisdom of Xi "This (elevation) is a result of the party's political system and not of the sincere support of the people's hearts," Zhang Ming said. "If he can achieve that, he would become Mao." Xi has described his concept as central to setting China on the path to becoming a "great modern socialist country" by midcentury. This vision has at its core a ruling party that serves as the vanguard for everything from defending national security to providing moral guidance to ordinary Chinese. Delegates attending the closing of the 19th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Credit: GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images He's set the target dates of 2021 - the 100th anniversary of the party's founding - and the People's Republic's centenary in 2049 - for the establishment of a prosperous, modern society. China has the world's second-largest economy and legions of newly wealthy urban residents, but raising living standards for millions of people continues to be a challenge. Zhang Ming, the retired professor, said the goals Xi laid out were lofty but mostly constituted mere rhetoric. Hostesses jump in the air on Tiananmen square during the closing session of the 19th Communist Party Congress in Beijing Credit: NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images "These goals have nothing to do with the people but are just jargon that people shouldn't take seriously," Zhang said. "It is not important for him to achieve these goals, just as long as his power reaches its peak." The move came at the close of the 89 million-member party's twice-a-decade national congress at Beijing's hulking Great Hall of the People, where nearly 2,300 delegates gathered to elect the party's leading bodies and hear reports. Delegates leave the hall after the closing ceremony of the 19th National Congress Credit: EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG Although the delegates nominally have the power to vote on candidates, all choices are carefully vetted and the outcomes decided by negotiations among the top leaders. The constitution was also amended to include references to the party's "absolute" leadership over the armed forces, which have been modernizing rapidly under Xi, and a commitment to promote Xi's signature foreign policy and infrastructure initiative known as "One Belt, One Road." That initiative seeks to link China to Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond with a sprawling network of roads, railways, ports and other economic projects.
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| Abe aims at N. Korea after storming to 'super-majority' vote win Posted: 24 Oct 2017 02:09 AM PDT  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Monday to work with the US, China and Russia to contain North Korea's nuclear threat with "strong, resolute diplomacy", as he "humbly" accepted his landslide victory in a snap election. Fresh from clinching a two-thirds "super-majority" that enables the nationalist premier to realise his dream of revising Japan's pacifist constitution, Abe vowed to forge a "national consensus" on the divisive issue. Addressing reporters on his election win, Abe said he would "confirm close co-operation" on North Korea with Donald Trump when the US president visits Japan next month and then discuss the issue with the Chinese and Russian leaders.
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| The Stabbed Russian Radio Journalist Tatyana Felgenhauer Is Now in a Coma Posted: 24 Oct 2017 01:21 AM PDT  A well-known journalist for Russia's top independent radio station was stabbed in the throat Monday by an attacker who burst into her studio — the latest in a string of attacks on journalists and opposition activists in Moscow.
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| Trump disputes widow’s account of call, says it was 'respectful conversation' Posted: 24 Oct 2017 12:16 AM PDT  In an interview with "Good Morning America" Monday morning, Myeshia Johnson recounted her condolence call from the president last week, saying Trump struggled to recall her husband's name. The president soon took to Twitter to disagree.
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| Bill O'Reilly Says He's 'Mad At God' For Not Giving Him More Protection Posted: 23 Oct 2017 10:34 PM PDT  Bill O'Reilly says he's made at God over the sexual harassment allegations that drove him off the air at Fox News earlier this year.
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| Southern California Braces For Wildfires As Region Goes On High Alert Posted: 23 Oct 2017 09:26 PM PDT  On the heels of devastating wildfires that killed more than 40 people in Northern California earlier this month, Southern California is now on high alert for fire danger.
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| Kremlin critic journalist stabbed at offices of Moscow news radio station Posted: 23 Oct 2017 07:26 PM PDT  A Russian opposition journalist was in a medically induced coma on Monday after a man claiming a "telepathic" connection broke into a liberal radio station and stabbed her in the neck. The stabbing of Tatiana Felgenhauer follows state television smear pieces against the radio station and a series of attacks that forced another Echo of Moscow host to flee the country. Ms Felgenhauer, the well-known deputy editor of the station and an outspoken Kremlin critic, was in the Echo of Moscow offices when an unknown attacker stabbed her in the neck. He had blinded a guard with pepper spray, before barging into the offices and running down the corridor to where she was, editor Alexei Venediktov told Novaya Gazeta newspaper. Ms Felgenhauer was hospitalised in stable condition, he said. Photographs published by a staff member of Echo of Moscow showed blood splattered across the floor and what appeared to be a switchblade knife. A middle-aged man was being detained by police in the photographs. "The attacker didn't yell anything, everything was calm and silent. He came up, hugged her and inflicted the injury," deputy editor Sergei Buntman told the news outlet Meduza. An ambulance leaves the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station office in Moscow, Russia Credit: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko Russia's investigative committee has opened an attempted murder case, identifying the attacker only as a 48-year-old man with dual Israeli and Russian citizenship. The interior ministry said his motive was "personal hatred". News agency Interfax quoted a law enforcement source as saying that the crime was not connected with Ms Felgenhauer's journalistic activities and that it was likely a case of "hooliganism". Echo of Moscow staff rejected this explanation, however. "A personal conflict between Tanya and the attacker is complete nonsense. Tanya doesn't know him. A thuggish attack on an editorial employee," tweeted correspondent Tonia Samsonova. Echo of Moscow published a video of law enforcement interrogating the attacker, whom it identified as Boris Grits. In it, he claimed Ms Felgenhauer had sexually harassed him through "telepathic contact". A Wordpress blog under the name Boris Grits contained posts in which the author, who also complains about being unable to find work as a programmer in Israel, said he wasn't sure why Ms Felgenhauer was "following" him but suspected it was because he "wrote for Russia". "In a few weeks I'll come to Moscow and, if this doesn't stop, the consequences could be very unpleasant," said a post dated to September. Earlier this month, state television channel Rossiya 24 ran a smear piece on Echo of Moscow that claimed Ms Felgenhauer and other employees had discussed the "strengthening of critical media with foreign money" during a meeting with the France-based organisation Reporters Without Borders and the Germany-based Robert Bosch Foundation. Before that, state television Channel One ran a piece claiming that Echo of Moscow was financed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors in the United States. Gazprom-Media, the arm of the state gas giant Gazprom that owns Echo of Moscow, denied that the radio station had any financial or other ties to the US agency. Echo of Moscow's reporting has irked many officials, and employees have reported death threats. Yulia Latynina, a Kremlin critic who hosted a show on Echo of Moscow, fled Russia in September after a series of attacks - unknown assailants released a noxious gas into her family home, set her car on fire and threw feces on her in the street. She had previously complained of being followed and was given a state security detail. Novaya Gazeta political editor Kirill Martynov wrote on Monday that the Kremlin's inaction was partly responsible for the growing number of attacks on journalists and activists. "Propaganda has done too much to put independent journalism and opposition politicians outside the law, morally sanctioning the hunt for them," he said.
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| North Korea threat is 'critical, imminent,' Japan tells U.S., South Korea Posted: 23 Oct 2017 05:36 PM PDT  The threat from North Korea has grown to a "critical and imminent level" and the United States, Japan and South Korea must address the matter, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told his U.S. and South Korean counterparts in talks on Monday.
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| The Latest: Defense: Man unaware he had gun in pier killing Posted: 23 Oct 2017 04:58 PM PDT  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Latest on murder trial involving San Francisco pier shooting (all times local):
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