Last Update: 29 April
Last week North Korea announced it will cease all nuclear testing and will be shutting down its main testing facility at Mount Mantap. Although some believe the decision came because of easing tensions between the country and the world, others think Mount Mantap may have come down with a bad case of "tired mountain syndrome."
But what exactly is tired mountain syndrome, and how does a mountain "catch" it?
It turns out that repeated nuclear blasts can weaken the rock around underground nuclear test sites, eventually making them unsafe or unusable — which may just have happened with North Korea's preferred testing grounds. [Quotations from Live Science on 27 April 2018]
Editor's Note:
This is how international pressure (combined with geological pressure) can turn a "rogue state" leader into a "nice guy" ! His country might even turn from a "rogue state" into the "paradise of a fallen angel", at least in the eyes of a global community. But be sure that some sinister characters are already busy to define another "rogue state" that could serve as a substitute:
[Press TV, Iranian news service on 27 April 2018]
Quotations from the Iranian article:
[Iran's ambassador to the United Nations] Khoshroo criticized the United States and other members of the [UN security] council for granting Israel a sense of "exceptionalism" that has allowed Tel Aviv to constantly undermine peace in the region without ever having to worry about the consequences.
"The impunity this regime has enjoyed for so long wouldn’t have been possible without the help it receives from the US and certain interest groups," he added.
[Bloomberg News on 29 April 2018]
Quotations from the Bloomberg article:
Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said Iran is even more vulnerable to such pressure than North Korea because it doesn’t yet have nuclear weapons, while its people are less cowed by their leaders and wouldn’t passively accept tighter economic sanctions.
“If it happens in North Korea, it’s proof that this way works and will work with Iran,” Katz said in an interview in New York. “Whether through fixing the nuclear agreement or nixing it, such a policy could even lead to the fall of the regime. Now is the time to be very tough against Iran.”
Related News:
Israel’s army said on Sunday that it had briefly held a Lebanese woman who crossed the border and then repatriated her, a detention Beirut denounced as an abduction.
The Lebanese army said that the woman, Nohad Dali, was taken on Saturday evening from Shebaa, a small disputed area that Israel regards as part of the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967, but which Beirut says is Lebanese territory.
“An Israeli enemy patrol carried out the abduction of Nohad Dali,” a Lebanese army statement said.
The Israeli military said two shepherds had crossed the U.N.-demarcated border with Lebanon and that one of them was taken into custody by its troops.
[Reuters on 29 April 2018]
بين «حزب الله» و«إسرائيل».. حرب وشيكة تلوح في الأفق
Between Hezbollah and Israel - An Imminent War is Looming on the Horizon.
[Masralarabia مسر العربية, Kairo, on 29 April 2018]
Visitor statistics of "blueprint news" during the last week.
Some visitor from Ho-Chi-Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, serves as a reminder of
April 30, 1975, when the capital of South Vietnam fell into the hands of the pro-communist
guerillas, the Vietkong. That day marked the end of the Vietnamese War and, as well, a
most serious defeat for the United States.
US visitor interested in North Korea.