Six In The Morning

North Korea missile launch 'could come any day'

AP

 

 

WEDNESDAY 10 APRIL 2013

North Korea has completed preparations for a missile test that could come any day, a South Korea's Defence Ministry said, as Pyongyang prepares to mark the April 15 birthday of its founder.

That is historically a time when the reclusive communist state seeks to draw the world's attention with dramatic displays of military power, but in Pyongyang the focus today was less on preparing for war and more on beautifying the city ahead of the nation's biggest holiday.

Soldiers hammered away on building projects, gardeners got planted flowers and trees, and students marched off to school, belying a sense that tensions on the Korean Peninsula have reached their highest point since the Korean War ended nearly 60 years ago.

Cyprus is paradise lost for Russian settlers

Most incomers far from being oligarchs

Michael Jansen

Paradise Lost is the tale of Russians in Cyprus. “Russians” – Russian speakers, not necessarily Russian nationals – brought money, acumen, skills and hard work to Cyprus because the island had a well-ordered business sector, the rule of law, safe banks and a vibrant economy.

The island’s attributes of sun, sea, hospitality and a relaxed lifestyle drew citizens from the old Soviet Union to settle, as their home countries had none of these man-made and natural advantages.

The majority are not oligarchs depositing untaxed or dirty money in Cypriot banks but business folk escaping transitional turbulence in their homelands.

INORITIES

Arab activists face execution on Iran's death row

Minorities in Iran face stepped-up efforts to silence and stamp them out - including mass arrests and executions. An Ahwazi Arab activist seeking appeals for five men on death row shared his personal story with DW.

Of the 21 countries that practice the death penalty, Iran carried out the second-greatest number of executions in 2012 (after China), according to a report released by Amnesty International on Wednesday (10.04.2013). Beyond the 314 official executions in the Islamic Republic, the group cited reports of at least 230 additional secret executions.

One of the deadly offenses is "enmity against God," a vague charge the Iranian state has used in political attacks against government opponents and minorities. About 40 to 50 percent of the Iranian population consists of ethnic or religious minorities, including Azerbaijanis, Kurds and Iranian Arabs, also known as Ahwazi Arabs. The roots of these minorities go back hundreds of years, and in the past they've have been tolerated and granted rights.

Digital Gold Rush: The Bitcoin Boom and Its Many Risks

By Marcel Rosenbach and Hilmar Schmundt

In the midst of the euro crisis, particularly daring investors are putting their faith in the Internet currency bitcoin. A boom in the virtual coins has made some into millionaires. But central bankers are wary of its potential, and the currency is everything but crash-proof.

A somewhat different brand of speculators celebrated an unexpected bonanza last Thursday evening at Room 77, a Berlin bar. Nerds and activists in T-shirts and sneakers got together at the bar in the Kreuzberg neighborhood, which offers live music, "warm beer, cold women," according to the sign outside, and a burger called the "Fidel Castro." They paid their tabs with the source of their newfound prosperity: bitcoins, an alternative currency from the Internet.

"Almost every day, someone comes up to the bar here and pays with bitcoins," says bar owner Jörg Platzer. His bar is where supporters of the cyber currency held their monthly meeting, one day after the value of a bitcoin reached an all-time high of about $150 (€115). "Many can't stop grinning as they pay their tabs, because they remember how little their bitcoins were worth just a year ago," says Platzer.

Gay rights activist arrested in Zambia for 'inciting the public'

10 APR 2013 07:40 - GUARDIAN REPORTER

Activist Paul Kasonkomona has been detained overnight after appearing on TV and demanding the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Zambia.

A human rights activist has been arrested in Zambia minutes after he appeared on live television calling for homosexuality to be decriminalised.

Kasonkomona was being driven from the Muvi TV studio in the capital, Lusaka, when police stopped his car. He was detained overnight at a local station.

On Monday he was charged with "inciting the public to take part in indecent activities", police said, and was due to appear in court imminently.

North Korea - a country never at peace

By Dhruti ShahBBC History

The state of North Korea was born out of the Cold War conflict between communism and capitalism, a history from which it has never been able to escape.

At the end of WWII, Korea was liberated from decades of Japanese occupation and looked set to regain its independence, with the wartime allies - the US, China, Britain and the Soviet Union all supporting that goal.

Soviet and US forces occupied the two ends of the country in what was seen as a transition period ahead of democratic elections. The US remained in the South, while the Soviet Union occupied the North.