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PWTorch editor Wade Keller presents a special Thursday Flagship edition of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast featuring a WrestleMania 36 Preview with ex-WWE Creative Team member and professional stand-up comedian Matt McCarthy.

(Search “wade keller” to subscribe in podcast app or CLICK HERE to subscribe in Apple Podcasts.)

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North Korea’s vice foreign minister and five ministerial directors have been sent to one of the regime’s most notorious labour camps, apparently after submitting a proposal on ways to break the diplomatic impasse with the United States that was condemned by Kim Jong-un for “breaching doctrine”.

Han Song-ryol, a veteran negotiator in talks between Pyongyang and Washington, was sacked last year, an official of South Korea’s Unification Ministry told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

The ministry confirmed Mr Han’s fate in the latter part of last year and has removed him from its latest list of officials in the North Korean government.

The newspaper quoted another official as saying that Mr Han was sent to the Komdok mine, in South Hamgyong Province, to undergo “re-education”.

That punishment is likely to include long hours labouring in the mine, with little food or medical care should it be required. The North Korean government also has a policy of punishing anyone found guilty of failing the nation by sentencing their immediate family to prison terms that include hard labour.

Kim Jong-un | A history of executions – family, allies and rivals

“It seems that a proposal for US-North Korea talks he submitted to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was criticised for breaching doctrine”, the ministry official said.

Pyongyang and Washington are locked in talks about a second summit between Mr Kim and US President Donald Trump that is scheduled to take place in February.

Diplomats have held talks in Sweden in an attempt to narrow the two sides’ differences, although it remains unclear whether either side is willing to compromise.

North Korea is demanding the lifting of international sanctions in return for a phased elimination of its nuclear weapons and the capability to produce more warheads. The US has so far been insisting on the complete, verifiable and irreversible destruction of the North’s nuclear capabilities, although there have been hints from Mr Trump that he might be willing to reduce some of his demands.

Mr Han’s fall from grace may have been the result of suggesting that North Korea give ground to the US.

A defector who previously served in the North Korean government told the newspaper that, “Being sent to the Komdok mine is the harshest of re-education sentences and means that he just escaped being sent to a concentration camp”.

It has also been suggested that Mr Han’s long links with the US – he served as deputy chief of the North’s mission to the UN for four years from 2002 and was appointed director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s US affairs division in 2015 – caused him to come under suspicion of being an agent for the US.

NJPW has revealed the full lineups for November’s Lion’s Break Project 1 shows.

The shows will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on November 10 and 11 as part of CharaExpo USA 2018. Both events will have four-match cards. As was previously announced, Hirooki Goto vs. Jeff Cobb is set for the first day and Kenny Omega vs. David Finlay will take place on the second day.

Three young lions from NJPW’s dojo in California will be featured. Clark Connors and Alex Coughlin, who faced each other in a dark match at Fighting Spirit Unleashed in Long Beach last month, will be appearing. Karl Fredericks will also wrestle at Lion’s Break Project 1.

Here are the full cards:

Saturday, November 10 —
Hirooki Goto vs. Jeff Cobb
Jushin Thunder Liger & David Finlay vs. ACH & Clark Connors
Rocky Romero vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
Karl Fredericks vs. Alex Coughlin
Sunday, November 11 —
Kenny Omega vs. David Finlay
Hirooki Goto & Rocky Romero vs. Jeff Cobb & Ryusuke Taguchi
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Clark Connors
ACH vs. Karl Fredericks

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PWTorch editor Wade Keller presents a special Thursday Flagship edition of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast featuring a WrestleMania 36 Preview with ex-WWE Creative Team member and professional stand-up comedian Matt McCarthy.

(Search “wade keller” to subscribe in podcast app or CLICK HERE to subscribe in Apple Podcasts.)

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This year’s Oscar ceremony will go ahead without an official host for only the second time in its history, an ABC television executive said on Tuesday.

Speaking just three weeks before the highest honors in the movie industry are handed out, ABC entertainment president Karey Burke said the February 24 event would forgo a host and "just have presenters host the Oscars."

ABC, a unit of Walt Disney Co televises the Oscars ceremony annually and is closely involved in planning the telecast.

Comedian Kevin Hart in December stepped down from hosting the Oscars after past homophobic tweets resurfaced. No replacement was announced but there had been no official statements on how the ceremony would proceed.

The Oscars ceremony has gone without a host only once before in its 91-year history, in 1989.

Burke said the decision was taken after what she called "the messiness" over the Hart withdrawal and an attempt to revive his chances.

"After that, it was pretty clear that we were going to stay the course and just have presenters host the Oscars. We all got on board with that idea pretty quickly," Burke told reporters at the Television Critics Association meeting in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena.

She said the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars, had promised ABC last year to keep the telecast to three hours – about 30 minutes shorter than in recent years.

"So the producers, I think, decided wisely to not have a host and to go back to having the presenters and the movies being the stars," Burke said.

The Oscars host traditionally opens the ceremony with a comedic monologue focusing on celebrities, the state of the movie industry as well as cultural and political issues.

Burke said she would hear details from the show producers later this week but said there were plans for "a pretty exciting opening" to the telecast.

She added that speculation over the shape of the ceremony was an encouraging sign that the Oscars were still relevant. Audiences have dropped in recent years with the 2018 show attracting just 26.5 million viewers, the smallest number ever.

"I have found that the lack of clarity around the Oscars has kept the Oscars in the conversation and that the mystery has been really compelling. People really care," she said.

Mexican drama "Roma" and British historical comedy "The Favourite" lead the Oscars nominations with 10 nods apiece.

Burke noted that three of the other best picture nominees – Disney’s "Black Panther," Warner Bros "A Star is Born" and 21st Century Fox musical "Bohemian Rhapsody" – had each taken in more than $200 million at the North American box office alone.

"I think we are going to see a big turnout for this because these are big popular movies that have been nominated," she said. 

After advertising that Vince McMahon would be shaking things up, a segment where the McMahon family addressed Raw’s real-life and storyline issues opened tonight’s episode.

Vince came out to start the show, then introduced Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, and Shane McMahon. While few specifics were offered during the segment, they vowed that Raw would be changing for the better.

Stephanie said they haven’t been doing a very good job for the fans lately and haven’t been listening to their audience. She mentioned that they’ve let middle managers air their petty grievances and have been suffocating their “superstars.” She said that’s all going to change starting tonight.

Triple H said the days of absentee management is over — as of now, Vince, Stephanie, Triple H, and Shane are “taking back Monday Night Raw.” Shane said that goes for SmackDown as well.

Stephanie noted that they’re going to empower their wrestlers and fans, and Triple H said they’re going to give the fans what they want. He said they’re going to give the audience something new and fresh, promising that the fans will see new wrestlers and matchups in the coming weeks and months. Triple H said the fans are now the authority.

Later in the show, it was announced that Lars Sullivan, Lacey Evans, EC3, Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight), and Nikki Cross will be coming up to the main roster.

The opening segment led to the McMahon family stacking the deck against Baron Corbin in a match where he could have become the permanent on-screen general manager of Raw. Corbin vs. Kurt Angle became Angle, Apollo Crews, Bobby Roode & Chad Gable defeating Corbin in a no disqualification match with Heath Slater as the referee.

Three alleged former members of the Syrian secret police are being held in Germany and France in what are believed to be the first Western arrests of Assad regime officials on suspicion of torture, it emerged on Wednesday.

Two of the men are being held in Germany on suspicion of crimes against humanity, German prosecutors said in a statement.

A 42-year-old man named only as Eyad A under German privacy laws, is accused of being an accessory to the killing of two people and the torture and physical abuse of at least 2,000.

His 56-year-old former commanding officer, named only as Anwar R, is accused of general involvement in torture and physical abuse as a high-ranking officer in the Assad regime’s secret police.

A third unnamed man who served under Anwar R is being held in France as part of a coordinated operation, German prosecutors said.

The arrests follow months of concerted efforts by activists to bring about prosecutions over crimes committed in Syria’s civil war in the German courts, which claim worldwide jurisidiction over war crimes and crimes of humanity.

The two men held in Germany both claimed asylum there after fleeing Syria, and Anwar R appears to have made little effort to hide his past, according to German media reports.

Prosecutors allege he was a senior officer in the General Intelligence Directorate, the Assad regime’s main domestic security service, where he served as head of the regional investigation department for Damascus.

Prisoners held by the department “underwent brutal and intense torture during interrogation”, prosecutors said.

Eyad A is alleged to have served in a special unit tasked with identifying deserters, and anti-regime protestors. In the summer of 2011 he spent a month at a checkpoint in the outskirts of Damascus where around 100 people a day were arrested, taken to Anwar R’s prison and tortured.

He also took part in raids on homes and apartments, and the rounding up of fleeing demonstrators after the violent break-up of a protest in 2011.

In autumn 2011, following the violent break-up of a demonstration, he took part in the arrest of fleeing protestors.

Both men fled to Germany in 2012, and Anwar appears to have believed his decision to abandon the Assad regime would be enough to protect him, according to Spiegel magazine.

Six Syrian torture survivors were interviewed by German prosecutors as part of their investigations, according to the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, a Berlin NGO that campaigns for justice for victims of torture and other grave crimes.