What Happens If North Korea Conducts Another Nuclear Weapons Test?

That's a question that should not have to be answered, yet given the unpredictability of North Korea the government of Kim-Jong un maybe willing to cross that line in an effort to preserve the Kim's family hold on power.  China North Korea's only remaining allie would be placed  in a rather untenable position continued support or withdrawal support and allow the government to collapse something that China is unwilling to accept as it would mean thousands of refugees crossing into China a circumstance the Chinese consider unacceptable.  But, here we are facing an outcome that benefits no one in North East Asia.


 

North Korea's Next Nuclear Test Could Serve as a Regional Tipping Point

South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned this week that if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, it could prompt the volatile country's neighbors to seek their own nuclear defense. "North Korea would effectively be crossing the Rubicon," she told the Wall Street Journal. 

North Korea's last nuclear test, which took place in 2013, prompted increased Western sanctions against the country and escalating tensions between Pyongyang and its rivals. At the height of the tensions, North Korea temporarily shuttered an industrial complex that it operates jointly with South Korea, harming its own economy in the process, and offered repeated invectives against Seoul and Washington. Now, however, Western officials fear that the next round of tests could prove more threatening to the North's neighbors. 

Back in March, North Korea threatened to carry out a "new form" of nuclear testing. The country's foreign ministry didn't offer more specifics, but some in the west suspect this means they will test out small nuclear devices that could be carried by intercontinental ballistic missiles. According to the WSJ, some experts fear that another test — the nation's fourth ever — would enable North Korea to successfully develop such weapons. Most experts believe they have working nuclear weapons, but still lack the capacity to deliver them via rocket.

Remember since 1994 the United States along with Russia, Japan, and South Korea have attempted to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program yet each time an agreement has been reached the North has reniged and returned to nuclear weapons development.

The Last Drops

Will health workers in Pakistan overcome political and religious tensions to vaccinate children against polio?

The horrors of polio have left a legacy of suffering across the world.

When a breakthrough vaccine was discovered in the 1960s, polio was eliminated in the developed world. Other countries followed as vaccination campaigns were stepped up until only three countries remained, just a few hundred cases of polio in each. Until recently, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been the remaining endemic countries. There are now new reports of an outbreak in Syria.

Polio is highly infectious and like all diseases has no respect for national borders, so the world remains at risk until the very last case of polio is gone.

Pakistan is one of the last countries never to have ended polio despite concerted vaccination efforts from local, national and international organisations.

If the CIA hadn't used a polio vaccination program as a ruse to find Osama Bin Laden then maybe there wouldn't be so much suspicion among the people of Pakistan as to the reason for the programmes reason for being.

Six In The Morning Saturday May 31

31 May 2014 Last updated at 03:53

Chuck Hagel: Beijing 'destabilising' South China Sea

The US defence secretary has accused China of "destabilising" the South China Sea, saying its action threatened the region's long-term progress.

Chuck Hagel said the US would "not look the other way" when nations ignored international rules.

Mr Hagel was speaking at a three-day summit - the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore - that involves the US and South-East Asian countries.

He also urged Thailand's coup leaders to restore democratic rule soon.

The forum comes amid growing tensions between China, Vietnam and the Philippines, with Japan-China ties also strained over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

The summit gives senior delegates from the region a chance to meet face-to-face to try to resolve tensions.

California dreaming becomes reality for 7,000 Chinese tourists

During their visit, the group took 86 flights and stayed in 26 hotels

Clifford Coonan

A 7,000-strong Chinese tour group stopped off at venues in southern California, including Los Angeles and San Diego, before ending their visit with a celebration at Anaheim Convention Center, where they raised the red flag and sang the Chinese national anthem.

During their visit, the biggest Chinese tour group to ever visit the US took 86 flights, stayed in 26 hotels and, according to Union Pay, spent €7,350 each during the visit.

“We are making history. It is a California dream come true,” said Xu Guowei, vice-chairman of Perfect China, the direct-marketing company that organised the tour as a reward for its employees.

Chinese tourists, increasingly common visitors to destination cities around the world, are sought-after clients after years of economic growth have spawned a middle class with impressive spending power.

No hijab: an Iranian journalist offers women a stealthy freedom on Facebook

The Facebook page "My Stealthy Freedom" is another sign of social media's power. Journalist Masih Alinejad posted a photo of herself at the beginning of May - and virtually started a mass movement.

Masih Alinejad is behind the wheel of her car, driving through an Iranian city. And she's not wearing a hijab, the veil women have to wear in Iran. More than 375,000 people have liked Alinejad's Facebook page "Azadiye jawaschaki" (Stealthy Freedom) and more than 100 Iranian women have sent in photos that show them in public without the hijab.

It's their protest against the mandatory veiling, and they want the entire world to see it.

"The page is a place for Iranian women to show the world how they really are," Masih Alinejad told DW.

The women, whose names are not revealed, share their moment of stealthy freedom in short texts.

25 years on, artist remembers 'first gunshots of Tiananmen'

Philip Wen

China correspondent for Fairfax Media

Beijing: They became known as the first gunshots of the Tiananmen Square protests, a defiant and rebellious work of art that would turn the life of a young Chinese art graduate upside down and see her take refuge in Sydney’s Kings Cross.

It was February 1989, and Xiao Lu was 26 when she created a work called Dialogue, consisting of three phone booths; two occupied by men with their backs turned and one empty, with the handset dangling off the hook.  

Just hours after China’s first national avant-garde exhibition opened its doors, Xiao completed her work by firing two live bullets into the installation. Military vehicles and riot police arrived swiftly to seal off the museum, effectively ending China’s official avant-garde movement.

Orwell's '1984' suddenly fashionable on Bangkok streets

Instead of raucous street protests, demonstrators in Thailand silently read '1984' and other dystopian novels, taking a dig at the junta that seized power last week.

By Flora Bagenal, Correspondent

BANGKOK, THAILAND

There are no whistles, no loud speakers, and no placards held up high in this quiet act of subversion. Pimsiri Petchnamrob stands silently in a mass of sharply dressed Bangkok commuters, her hands clutched around a copy of George Orwell's 1984.

Next to her a small group of young men and women, their faces sombre and their heads bowed low, also read books about fictional and real totalitarian worlds in silence.

This was the second such protest in two days inThailand against the country’s military coup. In a city accustomed to roller-coaster politics and sometimes violent demonstrations, the defiant book club was barely noticed. 

North Korea's Next Nuclear Test Could Serve as a Regional Tipping Point

 

By Danielle Wiener-Bronner19 hours ago

South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned this week that if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, it could prompt the volatile country's neighbors to seek their own nuclear defense. "North Korea would effectively be crossing the Rubicon," she told the Wall Street Journal. 

North Korea's last nuclear test, which took place in 2013, prompted increased Western sanctions against the country and escalating tensions between Pyongyang and its rivals. At the height of the tensions, North Korea temporarily shuttered an industrial complex that it operates jointly with South Korea, harming its own economy in the process, and offered repeated invectives against Seoul and Washington. Now, however, Western officials fear that the next round of tests could prove more threatening to the North's neighbors. 

Random Japan

Love sushi? Now you can date it, with this romance simulator available in English!

Casey Baseel 

Since most sushi is served raw, the flavor can vary wildly depending on the freshness of the fish and even the season in which you eat it. Granted, most of what’s available in Japan is reasonably tasty, but when all the factors line up just right, the mix of surprise, joy, and satisfaction that come from popping a really good piece of sushi into your mouth can be a borderline emotional experience, almost like falling in love.

If you’re a sushi-loving lady looking to take your relationship with the dish to an even deeper level, there’s now a dating simulator that lets you romance handsome anthropomorphized pieces of sushi.


The game, titled Hei! Renai Iccho!, which translates as Here You Go! One Order of Romance, was released for smartphones on May 28. Players take the role of a young woman who’s the only child of a sushi chef. When her father suddenly accepts a temporary overseas job offer, she’s left to run the family restaurant by herself, since, like all proper anime/video game characters, her mother isn’t in the picture.

stats

• 12Number of mountain climbers who died during the final four days of Golden Week, according to newspaper reports
• 26Number of Japanese college students who have died in binge-drinking incidents since 2004, according to another newspaper report
• 66.9Percent of Japanese people who say they’re worried about going broke during their retirement, according to a news organization survey
• 
  

RIDING THE RAILS

• JR Hokkaido unveiled the design of its next-generation shinkansen, which will be able to zip passengers from Tokyo to Hakodate in just over 4 hours. The train will debut in 2016.
• Railway enthusiasts in Taiwan are giddy about the restoration of a Japanese-made Class C57 steam locomotive that had been out of commission since 1979.
• Researchers in Tokushima say tidal forces in the Naruto Strait are so powerful that they generate as much energy as four nuclear reactors.
• Bottom Story of the Week: “Lawyer Aims to Make Constitution ‘Hip’ Through Small Study Sessions” (viaMainichi Japan)

Police, Gun, Keys, Grab
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? 


The Doctor Is In
And, He's Yellow?


Dangerous
Flying

Interview with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy

 On North Korea

Mainichi: The Japanese government recently announced North Korea's plans to reopen an inquiry into its abductions of Japanese citizens. Ambassador, you have met the families of victims of abduction in the past. What is your take on the announcement and what do you expect for North Korea on this issue?

Kennedy: The United States supports Japan's efforts to resolve the abductions issue, and we look forward to continuing our close work. When I met with the Yokota family, I was moved by their courageous and heartbreaking struggle to bring their daughter home, and I know the president was deeply affected as well. Japan has kept the United States informed on its discussions and we look forward to continuing close communication in the future.

China Decides That Stupid Is Best

In February of 2012 the racist, ultra nationalist and complete asshole former governor of Tokyo  Shintaro Ishihara decided to solicit private funds for the the purchase of three of the Senkaku islands  held by a private party from Saitama.  All in an effort to force the government at that time to make a definitive statement over the ownership of a group of uninhabited islands.  Tokyo decided to nationalise the islands believing that it would head off a political confrontation with China.

Just the opposite happened when anti Japanese riots broke out in China egged on by the government.
All in an effort to force Japan to recognize  China's claim of the Senkaku islands.  Of course the Japanese has never backed down from its position of ownership and now China accuses Japan of being the aggressor.

 
    

China accuses Japan of dangerous flying in air zone

 

Beijing hit back Thursday at Tokyo’s claims of “dangerous” flying near disputed islands, accusing Japanese fighter jets of coming recklessly close to a Chinese aircraft last year.

Two Japanese F-15 fighter planes came within 10 meters of a Chinese Y-8 transport aircraft over the East China Sea on November 23, defense ministry spokesman Geng Fusheng said, according to a transcript on the ministry’s website.

“We conducted an effective response to dangerous Japanese close surveillance, and have conclusive evidence (of the incident),” he said.

Beijing raised tensions in November when it declared an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) covering the East China Sea, overlapping a similar Japanese zone and covering islands bitterly disputed between the two nations.

Chris Hayes of MSNBC Discovers The Abuse of Workers For The 2022 World Cup

One has to admire the myopathy of Americas news outlets concerning the abuse of workers hired to construct the various stadiums and other facilities for the 2022 World Cup to be held in Qatar in 2022.

European news outlets have chronicled the abuses of these laborers since last year chief among them the Guardian.  Yet, just two days ago Chris Hayes  a presenter on the American cable news outlet MSNBC broadcasts a segment on these abuses as though they have just come light.  Mr. Hayes offers up Jeremy Schaap of ESPN and his report for that sports network as the definitive reporting on the treatment of labors in Qatar.    

Mr. Hayes just because an American sports channel broadcasts a report on these abuses doesn't make them the sole arbiter on this issue.

The general secretary of FIFA discusses Brazil's readiness for the World Cup and the criticisms facing Russia and Qatar.

FIFA is not the United Nations; FIFA is about sport, it's about football .... We are not there to discuss with political authorities what they should do and what they should not do. We can discuss with them, and again be the platform for them to meet, to exchange and to make sure they are using football as a tool for change. And that's what we're doing .... But we cannot tell a country what should be their foreign policy. That's not our role.
Jerome Valcke, FIFA general secretary.

Qatar under growing pressure over workers' deaths as FIFA is urged to act 

Victims' groups and UN urge football governing body to halt death toll before 2022 World Cup

As the executive committee of Fifa convened in Zurich for two days of talks including a session on Qatar's preparations for the biggest sporting event ever to be held in the Middle East, the Uefa president, Michel Platini, said he was "much more concerned" with allegations over the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf state than with discussions over whether to move the tournament to winter.

Ramesh Badal, a lawyer in Kathmandu who represents Nepalese workers victimised in Qatar, including those who have lost hands and legs in construction accidents, demanded that Fifa place a deadline on Qatar by which it must prevent deaths and labour abuses. He said if it fails, the right to host the World Cup should be withdrawn.

"If Fifa applies pressure on Qatar now, then they will definitely change," he said. "This is now in the hands of Fifa."

Mr. Valcke is correct FIFA isn't the United Nations but it certainly has a responsibility to ensure that the rights of the workers constructing the stadiums in the countries chosen to host the World Cup are not subject to abuse and death. 

Let's face it FIFA while the governing body of world football is also a business in serach of a profit and like any corporation their only interest is the bottom line.

 Abuse and exploitation of migrant workers preparing emirate for 2022

The Nepalese workers in Qatar who don't make it home alive 
Analysis: Qatar 2022 puts Fifa's reputation on the line

Dozens of Nepalese migrant labourers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and thousands more are enduring appalling labour abuses, a Guardian investigation has found, raising serious questions about Qatar's preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.
This summer, Nepalese workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar, many of them young men who had sudden heart attacks. The investigation found evidence to suggest that thousands of Nepalese, who make up the single largest group of labourers in Qatar, face exploitation and abuses that amount to modern-day slavery, as defined by the International Labour Organisation, during a building binge paving the way for 2022.
According to documents obtained from the Nepalese embassy in Doha, at least 44 workers died between 4 June and 8 August. More than half died of heart attacks, heart failure or workplace accidents.
The investigation also reveals:
• Evidence of forced labour on a huge World Cup infrastructure project.
• Some Nepalese men have alleged that they have not been paid for months and have had their salaries retained to stop them running away.
• Some workers on other sites say employers routinely confiscate passports and refuse to issue ID cards, in effect reducing them to the status of illegal aliens.
• Some labourers say they have been denied access to free drinking water in the desert heat.
• About 30 Nepalese sought refuge at their embassy in Doha to escape the brutal conditions of their employment.

Six In The Morning Friday May 30

30 May 2014 Last updated at 07:17

India gang rapes: Outrage over police 'discrimination'

By Divya AryaBBC Hindi, Badaun

There is outrage over police inaction in a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where two teenage girls were gang raped and hanged from a tree.

The father of one victim said he was ridiculed by policemen when he sought help in finding his missing daughter.

He said when the policemen found out he was from a lower caste, they "refused to look for my girl".

At least three men, including one policeman, have been arrested in connection with the incident.

The victims' families have complained that police had refused to help find the missing girls, aged 14 and 16.

Are Mexico's federal troops doomed to fail in fighting drug violence?

Some say Mexico needs to learn from its experience in Michoacán by recognizing it has no reliable partners among state and local forces, who are often in cahoots with drug gangs.

By Patrick Corcoran, InSight Crime

The recent wave of killings that has made the state ofTamaulipas one of Mexico's main drug war battlefields has prompted plans to send in federal troops to try and bring the region's underworld to heel. But can such a deployment ever loosen the grip of organized crime?

A recent spike in violence has brought Tamaulipas back to the forefront of Mexico's security debate after months of calm. Reports of gunfights in Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa, two lucrative border crossings that the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas have long fought over, have again grown common. Over the course of the month, the state registered 75 murders according to the National Public Security System (the SNSP, for its initials in Spanish), the highest total since 2012. One gunfight alone in Reynosa left 17 people dead in late April.

Fears of new unrest as Myanmar ponders monk-backed interfaith marriage ban

By Tim Hume, CNN

May 30, 2014 -- Updated 0230 GMT (1030 HKT)

Myanmar's government has begun unveiling drafts of proposed laws that critics say are motivated by religious hatred, and could take discrimination against the country's marginalized Muslim minority to new heights.

The four bills are based on a petition presented by a group of nationalist Buddhist monks to President Thein Sein in July last year, calling for curbs on interfaith marriage and religious conversions, among other measures. According to the monks, it's a matter of protecting race and religion and encouraging peace.

Tensions between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have been high since deadly violence erupted between the groups in 2012, as the country emerged from decades of authoritarian military rule. A faction of Buddhist nationalists has been criticized, accused of drumming up hostility.

Jonathan orders full-scale military attacks on terrorists

• Written by Mohammed Abubakar, Abuja

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan Thursday directed full military operations in the north-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe to get rid of Boko Haram insurgents. 

   But the Minister of Youth Development, Mr. Boni Haruna, disclosed that the President had declared amnesty for members of the terror group. 

  The president instructed the security agencies to ensure that they should use “any means necessary” within the ambit of the law to stop the impunity in the country.

   The order was contained in a Democracy Day broadcast by the President to the nation in Abuja Thursday.

Special Report: Option B - The blueprint for Thailand's coup

 

By By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Aubrey Belford7 hours ago

On Dec. 27 last year, Thailand’s powerful army chief stood before a crowded news conference and stunned the beleaguered government of Yingluck Shinawatra by saying he would not rule out military intervention to resolve a deteriorating political crisis. General Prayuth Chan-Ocha said "the door was neither open nor closed" when he was asked whether a coup would happen. "Anything can happen."

It was a marked shift from the strong coup denials the armed forces had routinely made up until then. Prayuth was not just speaking off the cuff in front of reporters. A document drawn up by the army’s chief of staff and dated Dec. 27 – the same day the general faced the media - runs through various scenarios of how the crisis could unfold and how the military should respond.

30 May 2014 Last updated at 00:55

Gypsy beat in France's conservative south

By Tessa DunlopThe Camargue, France


The right may have gained in the European elections in France but conservatives and Gypsies can happily co-exist in the conservative deep south, Tessa Dunlop finds.

When Roland Chassain ambles nonchalantly up the stairs half an hour late I am surprised by the diminutive crumpled figure who greets me.

After all, if you believe what you read on the internet, this man, the Mayor of Saintes-Maries-De-La-Mer, is the nemesis of his town's most famous festival - the gypsy pilgrimage in honour of Sara la Kali or Black Sara, the enigmatic saint of Europe's travelling community.

Gitanes, Tigani, Roma, Gypsies - call them what you will, this is one day a year when, in the remote marshlands of the Camargue, they shed their minority status and become the majority.

North Korea Promises To Lie To Japan

North Korea to probe decades-old Japanese abductions

The last several times North Korea promised to "investigate" the abductions of Japanese citizens to that country Japan in return got the body of person that wasn't whom North Korea claimed it was. Following that incident they got a whole lot of hot air and no investigation.   I'm sure this time around the lies and misdirection will be much better.

North Korea has said it will reopen an investigation into the fate of Japanese nationals it abducted decades ago, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has said.

Mr Abe announced the move after days of talks between officials in Sweden.

Japan says North Korea abducted several of its citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies - including learning the Japanese language and behaviour.

Tokyo said would relax some sanctions against Pyongyang once the probe had been reopened.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that Japan would also consider providing humanitarian aid to North Korea, depending on how the investigation progresses.

Continue reading the main story

North Korea Japan abductions

• 1970s-1980s: North Korea admits kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens to train its spies in Japanese language and customs
• 2002: Five Japanese nationals return to Japan. Pyongyang says eight others are dead
• 2008: North Korea promises to re-open a probe - but does not fulfil its pledge
• 2012: New Japanese PM Shinzo Abe says that resolving the abductions issue is a key policy priority

Six In The Morning Thursday May 29

29 May 2014 Last updated at 08:32

Malaysia missing MH370 plane: 'Ping area' ruled out

The area where acoustic signals thought linked to the missing Malaysian plane were detected can now be ruled out as the final resting place of flight MH370, Australian officials say.

The Bluefin-21 submersible robot had finished its search of the area and found nothing, they said.

Efforts would now focus on reviewing search data, surveying the sea floor and bringing in specialist equipment.

Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Using satellite data, officials have concluded that the airliner, which had 239 people on board, ended its journey in the Indian Ocean, north-west of the Australian city of Perth.

Police officers accused as low-caste teenage girls are 'gang-raped and hung from a tree' in India

One constable reportedly took part in the attack and the other is accused of refusing to listen to the relatives of the two girls

ANDREW BUNCOMBE   

DELHI

 

Thursday 29 May 2014

Police are searching for a group of men accused of gang-raping and murdering two low-caste teenage girls and leaving their bodies in a tree. Reports say police officers may themselves have been involved in the attack.

Officers in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh say the two cousins were attacked, killed and their bodies discarded early on Wednesday morning. Relatives of the two girls – aged 14 and 15 - complained that police refused to register the case and that two constables may have had a role.

In the aftermath of the assault, the relatives of the two girls refused to allow police to collect the bodies from where they were left in a mango tree, by means of protest. Eventually, officers recovered the corpses and they were sent for post-mortem examination.

Snowden's Lawyer: 'Mutually Agreed Solution with US Would Be Most Sensible'

Interview Conducted by Hubert Gude and Jörg Schindler

Is it still possible that whistleblower Edward Snowden will testify in Berlin? His German attorney Wolfgang Kaleck, 53, says it is. In an interview with SPIEGEL, he also discusses negotiations over Snowden's possible return to the US.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Kaleck, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, described Edward Snowden as a lawbreaker during recent discussions with United States government representatives in Washington. Did that surprise you?

Kaleck: It did not surprise me, but I do find it shocking. Edward Snowden is a whistleblower, someone who followed his conscience and went public with a scandal that is global in nature: the threat intelligence services represent to all Internet freedom. The issue should be approached with more seriousness.

European cities' sewer water exposes use of cocaine, cannabis, meth and ecstasy

By Ben Brumfield, CNN

 Imagine you could let your city urinate in a cup and submit the sample to a laboratory for drug testing. Would it pass?

Researchers in Europe did something similar with 42 major cities, and many of them failed.

Lab tests on sewage water to detect chemicals excreted after drug use turned up high levels of cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, meth and other amphetamines.

The scientists' results, published this week in the journal Addiction, read like a top 10 list of European party capitals.

Abe to offer Japan as China counterweight, at Asian defence forum

 

By Hiroshi Hiyama2 hours ago

 Shinzo Abe will use a speech at an Asian defence forum this weekend to offer Japan as a counterweight to the growing might of China in a region increasingly riven by territorial disputes.

The Japanese prime minister will tell the so-called Shangri-La Dialogue that Tokyo and its partner the United States stand ready to jointly bolster security cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported.

He will stop short of singling out China, the paper added, but there will be little doubt about where he thinks the blame lies for the various escalating disputes in the South China Sea, and Japan's own battle with Beijing over East China Sea islands.

Activist Somaly Mam Resigns from Anti-Sex Slavery Foundation

BY GIL AEGERTER

Cambodian activist Somaly Mam resigned Wednesday from the eponymous foundation she helped start to fight global sex trafficking after an investigation of her personal history, the organization said.

“We have accepted Somaly’s resignation effective immediately,” said a statement from Gina Reiss-Wilchins, executive director of the Somaly Mam Foundation.

“While we are extremely saddened by this news, we remain grateful to Somaly’s work over the past two decades and for helping to build a foundation that has served thousands of women and girls, and has raised critical awareness of the nearly 21 million individuals who are currently enslaved today.”