Iran’s currency the rial has fallen 20% in value over the last two weeks in trade against the US dollar. The devaluation indicates the Islamic Republic of Iran is increasingly struggling against international sanctions that have limited its ability to obtain foreign currency. The sanctions placed on Iran are intended to reduce its […]
Read MoreThe once dominant portraits of Marx and Lenin that were featured alongside a portrait of Eternal President Kim Il-Sung in Kim Il-sung Square (김일성광장) were removed in October 2012 and have not been replaced. The pictures feature prominently in North Korean military parades and were visible ties to its Soviet-satellite past. North Korea […]
Read MoreSilvan Shalom, Israel’s vice premier, said that if it appeared that the Syrian government was losing control of its chemical weapons stockpile in its struggle against rebels fighting against the government of Bashar al-Assad that Israel would launch military strikes on those bases. Silvan Shalom was commenting on a report that leaked to the […]
Read MoreA Korean-American man was detained by Republic of Korea authorities on charges that he had transferred more than $1 billion to Iran, a staggering sum in one of the world’s largest cases of wire fraud. The Seoul Central Prosecutor’s Office would only identify the 73-year old man by his surname, Chung. Chung is suspected […]
Read MoreThe People’s Republic of China debuted its new jumbo ‘multifunction airfreighter’ the Y-20, in a test flight on Saturday, January 26. The new jumbo aircraft is intended for domestic, international, and cargo flights. The development of the aircraft is part of a general programme to modernize and bolster China’s national defense capabilities. [Global […]
Read MorePyongyang may have alienated its strongest regional ally with its announcement of further nuclear tests, specifically directed at its avowed enemy the United States. An announcement by Glyn Davies, Washington’s special envoy for policy on North Korea, declared that a ‘strong consensus’ was reached with his PRC counterparts. In a meeting Friday, January 25 […]
Read MoreSaudi Arabia’s powerful and omniprevalent Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice recently closed an educational exhibit featuring dinosaurs at a shopping mall in the oil capital of Dammam, prompting a backlash on Twitter that both mocked the ‘Hayaa’ as well as Saudi clerics. Some have pointed to the ‘dinosaurs […]
Read MoreIn a change of tone, official state media outlets in the PRC are criticizing North Korea’s latest round of bellicose posturing, threatening aid cuts if the DPRK proceeds with yet another nuclear test. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s main ally, China, has criticized the regime through official media outlets after North Korea threatened the United […]
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