North Korea - Light and Shadow

Important Update added on February 12, 2016:



朝鲜宣布成功发射卫星

North Korea Proclaims the Successful Launch of a Satellite.

朝鲜中央通讯社7日报道，朝鲜当天上午利用运载火箭成功发射最新研制的对地观测卫星“光明星4号”，并将卫星顺利送入轨道。外交部发言人称，外交部副部长刘振民昨天紧急约见朝鲜驻华大使池在龙，就朝鲜利用弹道导弹技术发射卫星提出交涉。

朝鲜宣布成功发射

根据朝鲜国家宇宙开发局发布的公报，朝鲜当地时间7日上午9时（北京时间8时30分）在平安北道铁山郡西海卫星发射场发射“光明星4号”卫星。大约10分钟后，卫星顺利进入轨道，轨道斜角为 97.4度，近地点494.6公里，远地点500公里，每94分24秒绕地球一周。韩联社援引韩国国防部消息人士的话报道，朝鲜发射了一枚“远程火箭”，一级火箭推进器于首尔时间9时32分分离，炸成270多块碎片坠入朝鲜半岛西部海域，9时36分从韩方雷达上消失。

Summary of the Chinese text:

On February 7, the North Korean Central News Agency reported the successful launch of its newly built Earth observation satellite "Bright Star No.4" in the morning of that day.

According to a spokesman of [N Korea's] foreign ministry, the vice-minister of foreign affairs should have had an urgent meeting with [N Korea's] ambassador to China the day before. Therefore [it seems that] N Korea might be using its ballistic missile technology to advance negotiations.

.....
The satellite was launched on February 7 at 09:00 in the morning (i.e. 08:30 Beijing time) from N Korea's satellite launch pad in the north-western part of the country. Ten minutes later, the satellite was put on its trajectory with an orbit inclination of 97.4 degrees. Its distance from Earth being 494.6-500 km (perigee-apogee), the satellite needs 94 minutes 24 seconds for orbiting the Earth.

According to a spokesman of the South Korean ministry of defense, the North should have launched a "long-range missile" which decomposed into more than 270 debris parts landing in the western sea area of the Korean peninsula. At 09:36 [the missile or parts of it] disappeared from South Korean radar.

[Source: SINA 新闻中心 on February 8, 2016]




Location of North Korea's satellite launch pad.

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朝媒谈卫星图朝鲜一片添黑:灯光不能反应社会本质

North Korean media discussing a satellite image
that is showing N Korea as an area of darkness:
Lighting should not reflect society's qualities.

[Source: Chinanews 中国新闻网 on February 3, 2015]

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Breaking News on February 11, 2016:

North Korean chief of general staff reportedly executed.

According to Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, North Korea’s Chief of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) General Staff Ri Yong Gil was reportedly executed sometime earlier this month. He should have been in office since 2013 until his disappearance after January 10, 2016.

However, it should not be taken for granted that General Ri has really been executed. There were other North Korean officials before him who reappeared in public after rumours of their execution.

Under the assumption that Ri was executed, the purge might have taken place due to his expression of dissatisfaction over the increasing Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) control over the KPA and prioritizing the party over the military.

Recently, Kim Jong Un held an “enlarged joint meeting” on February 2-3, just three days before North Korea’s recent rocket launch. During the meeting, Kim pointed out his intent to bring about changes to the KPA.

“The KPA must head only in the direction where the supreme leader points,” Kim said during the speech. “The whole of the party and our military must put up a struggle to exterminate the practices of seeking privileges, misuse of authority, abuse of power and bureaucratism.”

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Basketball champion and former NBA star Dennis Rodman said
he and other former National Basketball Association players are
planning a match in North Korea that will be a "birthday present"
for one of their most unlikely fans: Kim Jong Un. [6 January 2014]

罗德曼揭金正恩奢华私生活:拥私人岛屿和游艇

Rodman reveals Kim Jong Un's luxurious private life:
Possession of private islands and a pleasure boat.
[Source: XinHua 新华 on 24 December 2013]



Kim Jong Un's private yacht is worth some £4.5 million.
[Text: Daily Telegraph - Picture: N Korean news agency]

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Year of the Monkey 2016

A Happy Chinese New Year
Welcome Year of the Monkey

Overloaded tricycle spotted moving through the
downtown streets in Shanghai. [People's Daily]

North Korea - Alarming News

Rumours of North Korea planning to launch another rocket and which should be carrying a satellite have aroused suspicion by its neighbours. Here are the news of the day:



韩国：朝鲜将在8至25号之间发射火箭

South Korea: The North will undertake its 25th Rocket Launch on [February] 8.

[Source: Phenix news center 凤凰 on February 6, 2015]




严阵以待！日本神盾舰集结应对朝鲜火箭

Ready for Battle! Japanese Aegis ships [i.e. warships
equipped with an Aegis combat system] are massing
as a reaction to the North Korean rocket [launch].

近日，日本媒体报道了日本海上自卫队主力宙斯盾驱逐舰集结的画面，对于朝鲜计划发射火箭严加戒备。

In the past few days, Japanese media reported that Japan sent its naval defense unit's main force, the Aegis destroyers, to build up a some [combat] scenario, being alarmed by a tightening situation when North Korea is planning to launch another rocket.

[Original Source: Global Network 环球网, quoted by Chinanews on February 6, 2016]

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Visitors interested in North Korea's proceedings:

ISIL Threatening the West

ناطق بالفرنسية في فيديو إعدام جديد لداعش

French speaker in a video about another execution by ISIL.

نشر تنظيم داعش السبت على الإنترنت شريط فيديو جديدا لعملية إعدام 5 عراقيين قتلهم بالرصاص 5 من عناصره يتقدمهم داعشي ناطق بالفرنسية توعد الغربيين بهجمات "تنسيهم" هجمات نيويورك وباريس.ـ

On Saturday [Jan.31] and in a new video placed on the internet, ISIL organization proclaimed the execution of five Iraqis shot at near distance by five of their members [while] some francophone speaker threatened Westeners with attacks ["less forgettable"] than the attacks of New York and Paris.

The execution took place in Nineveh governorate the capital of which is Mosul, now an ISIL stronghold in northern Iraq.

[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on January 31, 2016]

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A similar execution of 25 soldiers belonging to the army of Syrian president Assad was reported by Al-Arabiya in July 2015. The execution should have taken place on May 21, 2015, in front of an ancient Greco-Roman style ruin in the historic parts of Palmyra township which now belongs to Homs governorate, Syria.



Al-Arabiya video from July 4, 2015

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Related News on Terrorism:



الداخلية السعودية: مليون ريال لمن يدلى بمعلومات عن إرهابى

The Saudi ministry of the interior: Millions of Riyal
for those who give information about terrorism.

ورصدت وزارة الداخلية السعودية مبلغ 7 ملايين ريال مكافآة لمن يساهم فى إحباط عملية إرهابية، كما رصدت مبلغ 5 ملايين ريال أخرى لمن يكشف عن خلية إرهابية، ومليون ريال لمن ينقل معلومات عن إرهابى.ـ

The Saudi ministry of the interior provides a sum of seven million Riyal as a recompensation for those who help to foil a terrorist operation. Another sum of five million Riyal is being provided for those who reveal a terrorist cell, and one million Riyal for those who communicate information about terrorism.

3.75 Saudi Riyal SAR = 1 U.S.$ (January 2016)

[Source: Youm7 اليوم السابع, Egyptian news center, on January 31, 2016]

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Closing In on North Korea

After an alleged H-bomb test, the international community is now closing in on North Korea. Even Russia and China are willing to find a way to inhibit North Korea threatening the world with its nuclear arsenal.

Here some quotations from two related articles that appeared on January 14, 2016, on the website of a Philippine daily. Both articles are hinting at the formation of a rare alliance between the U.S., South Korea and Japan on one side as well as China and Russia on the other side.

North Korea’s U.N. mission circulated a report from the country’s news agency saying the Jan. 6 test wasn’t to “threaten” or “provoke” anyone but was indispensable to build a nuclear force “to cope with the U.S. ever-more undisguised hostile policy” toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [DPRK], the country’s official name.

It said North Korean scientists and technicians “are in high spirit to detonate H-bombs … capable of wiping out the whole territory of the U.S. all at once as it persistently moves to stifle the DPRK.”

Former Los Alamos National Laboratory director Siegfried Hecker, one of the world’s top experts on North Korea’s nuclear program, said last week he did not believe it tested “a real hydrogen bomb,” and that “North Korea is still a long way off from being able to strike the U.S. mainland.”

But Hecker, who has visited the North seven times since 2004, said in an interview with Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, that the most worrisome result of the test is that North Korea “will have achieved greater sophistication in their bomb design.” He added that “at this point, what makes their nuclear arsenal more dangerous is not so much explosive power of the bomb, but its size, weight and the ability to deliver it with missiles.”

There was no immediate response to a request for comment from the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

The Security Council last approved sanctions against North Korea three weeks after its third nuclear test on Feb. 12, 2013. That resolution was largely negotiated by the United States and China, North Korea’s traditional ally.

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye called Wednesday [i.e. January 13, 2016] for Chinese help to launch what she calls the “strongest” international sanctions on North Korea over the nuclear test.

The council diplomat said the United States, which is leading the current negotiations, is consulting closely with China but also with other council members, including Japan. The diplomat said a new resolution isn’t expected immediately, likely not in less than three weeks.

[Source: INQUIRER.net, news center related to the Philippine daily INQUIRER on January 14, 2016]

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Opinion from China:



朝鲜任性，韩国舆论怨不得中国

North Korea being headstrong, South Korea's public opinion cannot blame China.

[Source: Global Times 环球时报 on January 15. The above photo
is showing the president of South Korea while delivering a speech.]

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Washington, United States—President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin joined Wednesday [January 13, 2016] in calling for a tough global response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test, even as they remained at odds over Ukraine and Syrian President Bashar Assad.

In a wide-ranging phone call, Obama and Putin appeared to speak past one another about the situation in eastern Ukraine, according to each country’s description of the call. The White House said Obama had called for Russia to fulfill its obligations under a cease-fire deal; the Kremlin said Putin has emphasized the need for Ukraine to meet its commitments under that same deal.

On North Korea’s claim to have tested a hydrogen bomb, at least, the leaders seemed in agreement. The Kremlin said they’d agreed that if proven true, the claim would require “a tough international reaction,” while the White House said they’ve discussed the need for “a strong and united international response.” The U.S. has cast doubt on the North’s claim that its test involved a hydrogen bomb but has said whatever was tested constituted a provocative act.

Despite steep disagreements on Ukraine, Syria and other issues, Obama and Putin have continued to engage on areas where their views at least partially overlap.

The two leaders last met in person in November on the sidelines of a summit.

[Source: INQUIRER.net, news center related to the Philippine daily INQUIRER on January 14, 2016]

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Recent visitors from Russia are interested in North Korean items:





North Korea acting on the danger of chemical warfare .....



U.S. closing in on North Korea .....

China's 2nd Aircraft Carrier

Update added on January 12 / 17, 2016:




Photo: J-15 fighter ready for take-off on China's aircraft carrier "Liaoning".


简氏:中国第二艘航母仍搭载歼15 不会同时造多艘航母

"Jane's Defence Weekly" [简氏防务周刊]:
China's 2nd mothership still in construction will carry J-15 fighters.
It is unlikely that many motherships are being built at the same time.

An article in the British weekly publication "Jane's Defence" is quoting the spokesman of China's ministry of defence and who launched the information of a second aircraft carrier for Shenyang J-15 fighters being built in addition to the already well-known carrier "Liaoning" on December 31, 2015.

[Source: People's Network 人民网 on January 9, 2016]


A brandnew video on military development in East Asia and which was launched on January 6, 2016, by IFENG 凤凰, a Chinese news center publishing in the West, delivered the following information:



陆自造航母上级——可望今年下水

Land built mothership reaches next level.
This year's launch being already in sight.

日：上海在建第三膄航母 仍难挑战美国

Japan: Third mothership already in construction in Shanghai.
[However,] it remains difficult to challenge the U.S. to battle.

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Further news on China's maritime activity:



On January 12, 2016, the Guangdong detachment of China Coast Guard introduced another surveillance ship bearing the identity number 44104. The newly released 1660 tons vessel has an overall length of 91.7 m its width being 12.3 m. It is therefore bigger than any up to now deployed coast guard vessel. The ship can operate at a maximum wind speed of 46 m/s (i.e. force 11 wind on the Beaufort scale), its radius of operation being 3000 nautical miles for a self-supporting period of 40 days. The new vessel can carry one 9c-type helicopter and is equipped with state-of-the-art satellite based electronic device.

[Source: People's Network on January 12, 2015]

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North Korea's Alleged H-Bomb Test

Important source added on January 9, 2015.



KCNA - Korean Central News Agency (Pyongyang, North Korea)

Today early in the morning, North Korea carried out a nuclear test that should have been the first test of a hydrogen bomb. However, Western sources still doubt it was a successful test as the announced kind of weapon should have produced a much higher effect than was detected by sophisticated seismic observation in the U.S.A..

On the same day, China's news agency XinHua compared seismic data collected in China and the U.S.A.:

另据朝中社６日报道，朝鲜最高领导人金正恩代表朝鲜劳动党于去年１２月１５日下达进行氢弹试验命令，并于今年１月３日签署最终命令。

On [January] 6 and according to a separate report from the Korean Central News Agency (朝鲜中央通讯社), North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un, on December 15 and on behalf of the North Korean Workers' Party, made known to have given the order for the test of a hydrogen bomb, and he signed the final order on January 3 [2016].

６日上午１０时左右，新华社记者正在平壤市区采访，未感到震感。首都平壤街头一切正常。

On [January] 6 at about 10:00 am, a correspondent of XinHua agency, while gathering news in Pyongyang, did not feel a [seismic shock]. In the capital Pyongyang all streets [remained untouched].

中国地震台网中心网站发布信息，格林尼治时间６日１时３０分（北京时间６日９时３０分），朝鲜发生４．９级地震，震中位于北纬４１．３度、东经１２９．１度，震源深度为０．０公里。 另据美国地质勘探局地震信息网报道，格林尼治时间６日１时３０分（北京时间６日９时３０分），朝鲜发生５．１级地震，震中位于北纬４１．３０８５度、东经１２９．０３３７度，震源深度１０．０公里。

The center for China's network of seismic stations issued information that on [January] 6 at 01:30 GMT (i.e. 09:30 Beijing local time) North Korea experienced a 4.9 degree [seismic shock], its center located at 41.3 degrees north latitude and 129.1 degrees east longitude, the [seismic] focus lying at a depth of 0.0 km.

Separately, the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Information Network reported a [seismic shock] of 5.1 degrees on [January] 6 at 01:30 GMT (09:30 Beijing Time), the seismic center being located at 41.3085 degrees north latitude and 129.0337 degrees east longitude, the focus at a depth of 10.0 km.

朝鲜此前宣布分别于２００６年、２００９年、２０１３年成功进行了３次地下核试验。

North Korea earlier declared having separately carried out three subterranean nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

[Source: People's Network on January 6, 2016]




朝鲜试爆氢弹疑造假 当量不及原子弹

The North Korean H-bomb explosion is probably a fake.
[Strength of explosion] is not reaching an atomic bomb.

[Source: Military site of Ifeng news center on January 6, 2016]

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朝鲜宣布拥有氢弹背后意图曝光 中国迅速亮明立场

North Korea declares to possess a H-bomb
and ulterior motives are exposed to the sun.
China rapidly makes clear its position.

金正恩为何选择在此时提起氢弹？

Why did Kim Jong Un decide to raise
the item of a H-bomb just at this time ?

Last December (2015), a semi-official Chinese news source already discussed the capability of Kim Jong Un's North Korea to build a H-bomb:

据朝中社10日报道，近日，朝鲜领导人金正恩突然宣布朝鲜目前已经掌握了氢弹技术。 此番言论并未如以前金氏在朝核问题上的表态那般在国际社会引起轩然大波，只有中国 外交部第一时间作出反应，表示坚持半岛无核化立场。

According to a report from the [North] Korean Central News Agency on [December] 10 [2015], North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un unexpectedly declared that North Korea at present already controls the H-bomb technology. This remark is not [the same] like a previously stated standpoint of Kim in the frame of the North Korean nuclear subject and which caused a mighty uproar of the international community. [However] only China's ministry of foreign affairs showed a first time reaction and made clear [it would] insist on [its] position of inhibiting nuclear proliferation on the Korean peninsula. .....

朝鲜真的已经能够造出氢弹了吗？

Is North Korea really capable of building a H-bomb ?

=> Result of the Chinese article's evaluation:

在此前提下，制造以小型原子弹作为引信的氢弹难度非常之大。

From the earlier mentioned [facts] follows that difficulties [will be] unusually high to use a small-sized atomic bomb as the detonator of a H-bomb.

[Source: China.com / CRI online (China Radio International) 国际在线 on December 14, 2015]

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The war of nerves continues .....

Merry X-Mas and Happy New Year

Internet access from my remote South-Egyptian
holiday resort has been registered in Cairo.

Chinese-North Korean Relations

According to latest news from different sources, there should be a cooling-off in Chinese-North Korean relations.

Today's article from SINA news center 新浪新闻中心 is referring to a publication made by South and North Korean peace activists, saying that a large community of overseas Chinese residents living in Pyongyang and other urban areas in North Korea have been arrested for spying.



朝鲜抓百名华侨恐或是谣言 朝方：不可能发生

That North Korea grabbed and terrorized a hundred overseas Chinese
might be a rumour. North Korea says: "That's impossible to happen."

The SINA article is quoting some North Korean news official and who rejected any rumours that such kind of incident ever happened in the frame of an interview he granted to the Chinese daily Global News 环球时报.

As to different opinions, here an excerpt from what the South Korean based activist group originally published on that item:

On the 14th of December, our Daily NK reporter spoke with a source in South Pyongan Province, who informed us that the State Security Department has been investigating Hwagyo [ Editor: Korean name for overseas Chinese (华侨) ] across North Korea, making arrests as part of an ‘emergency investigation’. Approximately 100 arrests have been made as part of this operation, and the detainees are currently being interrogated by the State Security Department.

..........

The targets of the operation are all well-off members of the Hwagyo who have sent their children to universities in China. All of the overseas Chinese residents currently living in North Korea are citizens of the PRC and of Han ethnicity. As long as they register with their local State Security Department, they are able to travel to China whenever they wish. Until now, Chinese residents of North Korea have managed to amass small fortunes by stocking up on Chinese goods in China and then returning over the border to North Korea to sell them in the markets at a tidy profit.

They communicate freely with their children through the mail and by telephone, which has made them the target of investigation. The North Korean authorities have been keeping a close eye on these communications through wiretapping and intercepting mail, leading to accusations of spying or acting as an accomplice to a spy and subsequent arrests.

Although details of the exact charges leveled in the arrests have still not been revealed, many of those arrested were carrying out ‘special missions’ for the State Security Department, a status that allowed them to travel back and forth from China easily. Our source surmised that the probability that they were arrested on charges of either being double agents or spying for the Chinese Ministry of State Security is high.

"Rumors abound that the arrests are an attempt by the local authorities to strike back at China as the latter appears to be politically drifting away from North Korea and closer to South Korea. This would explain the need to keep an eye on the Chinese ambassador in Pyongyang," the source pointed out.

“Some Party cadres have even speculated that this move will spell the beginning of the end for Sino-North Korean relations."

He added, “The recent revelation that the North Korean authorities have been spying on and following the Chinese ambassador to Pyongyang was regarded with great displeasure by the Chinese government.” Moreover, following the arrests of the overseas Chinese residents, the state has, for the time being, stopped issuing travel permits to China for any of the Hwagyo residing within the North’s borders and there are problems procuring market goods from China as well.




Another sign for a cooling-off in Sino-North Korean relations seems to be the unexpected calling home of a North Korean dancing group of army girls after China's president Xi JinPing allegedly refused to attend the now cancelled performance. [The Telegraph, U.K. on December 14, 2015]




12月16日，第二届世界互联网大会在浙江省乌镇开幕。
国家主席习近平出席开幕式并发表主旨演讲。

On December 16, the Second World Internet Conference started in Wuzhen,
Zhejiang province. Chairman Xi JinPing attended the opening ceremony and
delivered the keynote speech. [People's Network]

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Russian visitors from the Moscow area who came today and yesterday
(i.e. December 15/16) and who are interested in North Korean subjects.

ISIL Behind California Assault

Last Update included on December 9, 2015.

In the evening of December 4, Al-Jazeera reported that ISIL assumed resposibility for the shooting in San Bernardino, California / U.S.A.. The Islamic State confirmed that three of its operatives took part in the assault.

According to U.S. sources the California shooting took place as follows:
An already identified couple, Tahfeen Malik (29) and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook (28), started Wednesday, 2nd December, at about 11 a.m., interrupting a festive staff holiday party at the Inland Regional Center, which serves developmentally disabled people. They killed 14, injured at least 20 others and left a bomb behind, police said. Then they went home to nearby Redlands and left again, toting 1,400 rounds of assault-rifle ammunition before dying in a shootout with officers.




مصادر أمريكية: هجوم سان برناندينو مستلهم من تنظيم الدولة دون ارتباط مباشر به حتى الان

U.S. sources: The assault of San Bernardino [inspired]
by the Islamic State without direct connection until now.

[First news from Al-Jazeera TV الجزيرة. Confirmation of ISIL involvement followed only minutes later on December 4, 2015, at 20:00 CET.]




تقارير: المرأة الشريكة في هجوم كاليفورنيا بايعت داعش

A report [is saying] the female accomplice in
the Californian attack should have named ISIL.

مسؤولون أمريكيون، يقولون إن "تشفين مالك"، بايعت البغدادي في تدوينة عبر موقع فيسبوك، من خلال حساب تستخدم فيه اسماً مختلفاً.ـ

U.S. officials are saying that "Tashfeen Malik" named [ISIL leader] Al-Baghdadi [at the inscription to her Facebook site]. In the frame of that account she used different names.

[Source: Erem News إرم, Abu Dhabi, on 4th December 2015]


فيسبوك يحذف حسابا للمشتبه بها تشفين مالك بعد حادث كاليفورنيا

After the California incident, Facbook closes a suspicious account for "Tashfeen Malik".

[Source: Reuters in Arabic on 4th December 2015]



Tashfeen Malik

Up to now, it is not quite clear whether the above mentioned Facebook account can be related to the real Tashfeen Malik and who staged the San Bernardino shooting together with her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook. An evaluation of the proceedings by U.S. authorities has already been published by [ The New York Times ] on December 5, 2015.

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Update for December 7, 2015:



#أوباما: #داعش يريد جرّنا إلى حرب برية

Obama: ISIL wants to drag us into a ground battle.

أعلن الرئيس الأميركي، باراك أوباما، أن هجوم كاليفورنيا كان عملاً إرهابياً، متعهداً بتدمير تنظيم "داعش".ولفت أوباما إلى أن الجيش الأميركي سيواصل تعقب مخططي الإرهاب في أي دولة.ـ

U.S. President Barak Obama declared the Californian attack was a terrorist act promoted by subversion of ISIL organization. And Obama called to attention that U.S. forces will continue to persecute terrorist plannings in any country whatsoever.

[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on December 7, 2015]

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Latest News on further ISIL Operations:

معلومات جديدة عن عملية اغتيال سفاح داعش

New information regarding a bloody assassination operation [staged by] ISIL.

تكشفت معلومات جديدة بشأن عملية اغتيال سفاح "داعش" في الرقة السورية الشهر الماضي، حيث أفيد عن تنفيذ فريق من القوات الخاصة البريطانية العملية.ـ

New information appeared regarding a bloody assassination operation of ISIL in Raqqa, Syria, last month, and reporting the execution of a British special forces operation team.

[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on December 6, 2015]




Foued Mohamed-Aggad, 3rd man
in the assault on Bataclan theatre,
Paris / France, is believed to have
traveled to Syria in 2013 in order
to undergo military training there.
[BBC World News December 9]

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Visitor from Iraqi Kurdistan

Islamic Lawyer: No Excommunication of ISIL

Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb (left), the Sheikh of Al-Azhar


شيخ الأزهر مجدداً: لا أستطيع تكفير "داعش"ـ

Sheikh of Al-Azhar renews that it is imposssible to excommunicate ISIL.

رفض الدكتور أحمد الطيب شيخ الأزهر تكفير تنظيم "داعش" مجدداً. وقال خلال لقائه، مساء الثلاثاء، بطلاب جامعة القاهرة إنه "لكي تكفر شخصاً يجب أن يخرج من الإيمان وينكر الإيمان بالملائكة وكتب الله من التوراة والإنجيل والقرآن، ويقولون: لا يخرجكم من الإيمان إلا إنكار ما أدخلت به".ـ

Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, once again refused to excommunicate ISIL organization. During a meeting with students from Cairo university held on Tuesday evening, he said that " for the accusation of a person of infidelity it is necessary that [such person] gives up faith and refuses to belief in angels and the writings of Allah in the Torah, the Gospel and the Quran and these are saying: Don't give up faith if [that means] denial of what was introduced [to you]. "

[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on December 2nd 2015]

The Arabic text is referring to Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the actual Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque who is presiding, as well, the religious office of Al-Azhar University in the Islamic quarters of Cairo and which has always been associated with Al-Azhar Mosque. The academic office of Al-Azhar University, however, is being presided by a secular president as Al-Azhar makes part of Egypt's educational system since 1961.

The post of Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, or Sheikh of al-Azhar, has always been filled by a member of the ulema, the religious scholars, of Egypt. The position of Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque is among the most prominent roles in Sunni Islam, the most prominent official religious role in Egypt, and is considered by some Muslims to be the highest authority in Islamic jurisprudence.

China's Yuan Now Globally Leading Currency

人民币加入SDR 在SDR货币篮子中的权重为10.92%

The Renminbi [or: Yuan] is entering the SDR, making up for
10.92% of the SDR currency basket's weight [of influence].

The Chinese article also mentions the weight of other globally leading currencies included in the SDR basket: U.S. $ (41.73%), Euro (30.93%), Japanese Yen (8.33%) and English Pound (8.09%). The addition of China's currency to the SDR basket is to take effect on 1st October 2016.

[Source: People's Network 人民网 on 1st December 2015]


The following text is a quotation from U.S. broadcaster CNBC as published on their website under the title IMF agrees to include China's RMB in benchmark SDR currency basket :



On Monday, November 30, the International Monetary Fund IMF agreed to add the Chinese yuan to its reserve currency basket.

The decision — which marks another step in China's global economic emergence — came after the IMF evaluated the Asian nation's standing as an exporter and the yuan's role as a "freely usable" currency. In a statement, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde noted the yuan's inclusion is a "clear representation of the reforms" taking place in China.

Lagarde and the United States had supported its inclusion in the basket, known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR). It will join the euro, yen, pound and dollar in the reserves basket. The yuan will have about an 11 percent weighting in the SDR. The addition of the yuan, or renminbi, will take effect next October.




[Illustration for a Chinese language article of DW on 1st December 2015]

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Editor's Remarks:
A visitor to "blueprint news", coming from the Jurong community of Singapore, reminds me of my own visit to Jurong Bird Aviary and nearby Bukit Timah Natural Reserve. The experience of that "giant bird cage" with lots of colourful birds moving freely and fearlessly around me stayed in my memory as well as the experience of Bukit Timah Hill where I met with a foggy rainforest from where the mysterious sounds of birds and monkeys emerged. It must be added that this was a time when the Jurong area had still preserved its rural character and when even the centre of Singapore was marked by an old Chinatown, full of unexpected corners, where the demolition hammer had only just begun to make room for future skyscapers and office buildings. I still remember the "mortuaries" in a busy street of that Chinatown, each occupied by a few dying persons, lying in their shop-like caves open to the street, thus participating at the daily lives of their neighbours until the last moment of their existence. I even encountered some funeral party where they were sumptuously feasting and burning hell money in order to impress the divine authorities and such ensure a comfortable place in Heaven and VIP treatment for the deceased. Coming from a Western society that usually rejects any thought of death and after-live, this became a rather impressive experience for me. By the way, it was just "mooncake festival" at the time of my visit, and I had to learn that such cakes are not intended for immediate eating (not even by hungry tourists !) but are dedicated to somebody as a present, the person's esteem rising with the number of mooncakes he can collect.



Traditional Chinese "Hell Banknote" from the "Underworld Bank"
with a nominal value of 10.000 Dollars.



Modern "Hell Banknote" from the "Underworld People's Bank of China"
[中国冥民银行] with a nominal value of 500.000 Yuan / Renminbi.