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North Korea grants rare citizenship to American businessman

“The US boss of a joint venture run by North Korea and the Unification Church of South Korea said Tuesday he has been granted rare honorary citizenship by Pyongyang, in a bid to encourage new investment by him. Park Sang-Kwon, CEO of Pyeonghwa Motors told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that he received the citizenship in Pyongyang last month. ‘This means that North Korea has acknowledged the trust they had put in me. They were also encouraging me to start new projects in the North, more freely and aggressively,’ Park was quoted as saying.” Continue reading →

Rich Taiwanese give up U.S. passports over FATCA

“A number of Taiwan residents with dual nationalities have chosen to renounce their American citizenship to avoid taxes under FATCA, formally known as Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, according to local media reports. Ruling Kuomintang Legislator Lai Shyh-bao was quoted as saying that scores of owners of small- and medium-sized enterprises and management executives have begun proceedings to relinquish their U.S. citizenship.” Continue reading →

French military seeks ‘total reconquest of Mali’

“French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday the end goal of France’s military action in Mali was to retake control of the whole country from Islamist militants who have seized the north. ‘The goal is the total reconquest of Mali. We will not leave any pockets’ of resistance, Le Drian said on France 5 television. Le Drian also said Malian forces had not yet been able to retake the town of Diabaly, seized nearly a week ago by Islamists and then heavily bombed by French planes.” Continue reading →

Glenn Greenwald: MLK’s vehement condemnations of US militarism are more relevant than ever

“Obama’s policies are a manifestation of exactly the militaristic mindset which King so eloquently denounced. Obama has always been fond of invoking King’s phrase ‘fierce urgency of now’, yet ironically, that is lifted from this anti-war speech, one that stands as a stinging repudiation of the continuous killing and violence Obama has spent the last four years unleashing on many countries around the world (Max Blumenthal suggested that Obama’s second inaugural speech be entitled ‘I have a drone’).” Continue reading →

Gun Rights Helped Blacks During Civil Rights Movement

“It’s unfortunate that 68% of American blacks support stronger gun control regulation. Gun rights were extremely beneficial to the African-American community throughout the Civil Rights Movement, which we celebrate today. In fact, if it weren’t for gun rights, more civil rights leaders would likely have been killed.” Continue reading →

Torture of prisoners persists in Afghanistan: UN

“The UN issued a follow-up to a report on torture a year ago, as Kabul seeks full control over prisons and prisoners from NATO’s International Security Assistance Force despite the misgivings of the US-led ISAF. Other forms of torture included hanging suspects by the wrists from chains for long periods and threatening them with sexual violence, the UN mission in Afghanistan said in its 139-page analysis released late Sunday. Many of those tortured to extract confessions were children under the age of 18, it said.” Continue reading →

Chinese ‘re-education’ labor camps set for abolition

“It is another signal that the widely criticised system — where people can be sentenced to up to four years’ ‘re-education’ by a police panel, without an open trial — is coming to an end. The comments come after the Communist Party’s new leader Xi Jinping said the party recognised as a ‘pressing problem’ that it was ‘out of touch with the people’. About 60,000 people are detained in the camps, officials say, most of whom serve from six months to a year. Opponents say the camps are used to silence government critics and would-be petitioners who seek to bring their complaints against officials to higher authorities.” Continue reading →

Obama turns ‘austerity inauguration’ into a dash for corporate cash

“What a lot has changed in four years. As Obama prepares to revel in his second inauguration, on Monday, there is no ceiling on what an individual can give, corporations and lobby groups are very welcome and the presidential inaugural committee has been going on a fundraising binge as though there was no tomorrow. On surface appearance, the inauguration is a sober and scaled-down affair compared with 2009. But don’t be fooled by the outward semblance of austerity. In fact, says the government transparency watchdog, the Sunlight Foundation, this year’s inauguration has been turned into an orgy of cash generation.” Continue reading →