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Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp was cruising towards a crushing victory in community-level elections on Monday, sending the Beijing-backed government a clear message of public support for the demands of a protest movement that has gripped the territory for months. Counting was still under way following record turnout in Sunday’s polls, but partial results indicated that candidates favouring greater democracy were on course to seize a shock majority of the normally establishment-dominated 18 district councils. The stunning result was a humiliating rebuke to Beijing and dashed any lingering hopes of Hong…

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Pope Francis Sunday railed against atomic weapons, the nuclear deterrent and the growing arms trade, as he paid tribute to the victims of the “unspeakable horror” of the Nagasaki bomb.In a highly symbolic visit to the Japanese city devastated by the nuclear attack in August 1945, Francis said nuclear weapons were “not the answer” to a desire for security, peace and stability.”Indeed they seem always to thwart it,” he said.At least 74,000 people died from the atomic bomb unleashed on the city in western Japan — just three days after…

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