It seems China may be about to offer a more assertive response to the protests in Hong Kong. Prominent activists have been arrested in recent days and they join the 900 arrested since protests began in June.

Vladimir Putin has watched Russia’s biggest military manoeuvres since Soviet times, involving 160,000 troops and about 5,000 tanks across Siberia and the far eastern region in a massive show of the nation’s resurgent military might.

CATHAL Magee, the Government nominee to become the next chief executive of the HSE in September, is to be paid a salary of €322,000.

RUSSIA and China began unprecedented joint military exercises involving air, sea and land forces yesterday, as commanders from both nations insisted the war games weren’t meant to intimidate other countries.