The European Union Times |
- North Korea’s Kim Jong-un Fed His Uncle to Starving Dogs – Reports
- Romanian Ambassador mocks British lawmakers and newspapers
- Passengers aboard stranded ship in Antarctica rescued
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Posted: 03 Jan 2014 02:32 PM PST
 Reports out of North Korea state the country’s dictator, Kim Jong-un, fed his disgraced uncle to starving dogs. Jang Song-taek was supposedly stripped naked, along with his aides, put in a cage, and then 120 starving dogs were set on them. In December, we learned that Jang, who was said to be included in Jong-un’s inner circle of advisors, was executed, or so we were told by North Korea’s KCNA English-language news agency. “Despicable human scum Jang, who was worse than a dog, perpetrated thrice-cursed acts of treachery in betrayal of such profound trust and warmest paternal love shown by the party and the leader for him,” the website reports. A man worse than a dog, fed to dogs? The story is implausible and the source untrustworthy, as Adam Taylor at Business Insider notes, but the prospect of a communist dictator dealing with an enemy in such a brutal fashion is hardly surprising. Consider what happened in “Democratic Kampuchea,” formerly Cambodia, when Pol Pot and the communist Khmer Rouge took over. In a four year period in the late 1970s between two and three million Cambodians were executed, starved, died of disease, or were worked to death in forced labor camps. This genocide was a direct result of Pol Pot’s “one step” communism more radical than anything Mao came up. Mao, however, remains the preeminent mass murderer of the 20th Century. He killed nearly 80 million Chinese, far more than Hitler and Stalin combined. Stalin, however, was no slouch – his death toll exceeded seven million. Uncle Joe starved millions of Ukrainians to death and sent millions more to their deaths in gulags. Untold numbers died as a result of numerous political purges. Kim Jong-un’s grand daddy, Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s autocratic leader, had 1.6 million of his fellow North Koreans liquidated in purges. Millions wasted away in his concentration camps. Kim served as inspiration for other murderous dictators, including Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko, who slaughtered a few hundred thousand Africans. Communist rulers like Stalin and Mao feed on purges and political execution. The Marxist Leo Trotsky was killed with an ice axe by an undercover NKVD agent in Mexico under direct orders from Stalin. During Mao’s so-called Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, students were encouraged to murder their teachers. Mao’s philosophy would later inspire Jerry Rubin, the co-founder of the Youth International Party, who called for middle class kids in America to murder their parents. Communist dictators know few limits when it comes to eliminating their enemies. Islam Karimov, an official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who later became the party’s First Secretary in Uzbekistan, liked to boil dissidents to death. Considering the brutal history of communism and other autocratic forms of government, it is entirely possible Kim Jong-un fed his uncle to the dogs. For many Americans, the idea seems outrageously cruel and bizarre, but in North Korea, China under Mao, and the Soviet Union under Stalin, such psychopathic behavior is business as usual. Source           |
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Posted: 03 Jan 2014 02:18 PM PST
 Romania’s Ambassador to the UK Ion JingaJinga said the MPs and reporters waiting for the arrival of Romanian immigrants at the London Luton Airport on January 1 “discovered that only two Romanians” already with job offers came to the UK on that day. “It seems that a new version of Waiting for Godot is being reinvented by part of the British media and by some politicians who are desperately waiting for the arrival of millions of Romanians after 1 January 2014,” Jinga said. On January 1, transitional controls were lifted, allowing Bulgarian and Romanian citizens to work across the European Union. The transitional controls were imposed on the two by some EU states when they joined the bloc in 2007. The ambassador added that “the overwhelming majority of the passengers were Romanians returning to jobs after having enjoyed Christmas with their families at home, or Britons coming home after skiing in the Carpathians.” Tory MP Mark Reckless and Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz were among those who went to the airport to greet the Romanians. This is while the group MigrationWatch said on January 1 that 50,000 Bulgarians and Romanians would arrive in Britain every year over the next five years. Jinga also slammed what he called an “insulting media campaign against Romanians” launched by sections of the British media, formed by “misguided and biased opinions.” “Most Romanians who came to the UK did so for work, not for benefits. We also plead in favour of honest, hard-working people, who pay taxes and contribute to society.” Source      |
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Posted: 03 Jan 2014 02:03 PM PST
 All the passengers of the Russian ship Akademik Shokalsky, stuck in the Antarctic since Christmas Eve, have been rescued after a Chinese helicopter delivered them to an Australian icebreaker. A total of 52 scientists and tourists have been transported to the Aurora Australis vessel, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which has supervised the rescue operation. It was initially thought the Shokalsky passengers would be first transferred by helicopter to the Chinese icebreaker Snow Dragon, and then taken to the Australian icebreaker. The change of plans occurred due to sea ice conditions which jeopardized the whole rescue operation, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said earlier Thursday. “Current sea ice conditions prevent the barge from Aurora Australis from reaching the Chinese vessel Xue Long (Snow Dragon) and a rescue may not be possible today,” the agency’s statement read, Reuters reported. The rescue operation eventually consisted of several return helicopter flights. Five of them carried passengers, as the helicopter could only take 12 people at a time. Onboard the Aurora, the Shokalsky passengers will arrive by mid-January to the Australian island state of Tasmania. Twenty-two members of the Shokalsky’s crew are to stay on the ship, which is not believed to be in danger and will wait for more favorable weather conditions to continue its voyage. The rescue operation now under way was preceded by three icebreakers’ failed attempts to make their way to the stranded Akademik Shokalsky. The Chinese Snow Dragon, the French L’Astrolabe, sent from the nearby Antarctic base, Dumont D’Urville, and the Australian Aurora Australis, all failed to crack through the thick layer of ice surrounding the Shokalsky. Chris Turney, an Australian professor leading the expedition, said the ice around the trapped ship was 3 meters thick. Snow showers, strong winds and poor visibility were among other factors which prevented the other vessels from reaching the Shokalsky. The Russian ship left New Zealand on Nov. 28 with 74 people on board for a privately-funded research expedition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of an Antarctic journey led by Australian explorer Douglas Mawson. The ship was originally scheduled to return to New Zealand on Jan. 4. The Shokalsky crew’s plan to visit inaccessible Antarctic huts eventually resulted in it being trapped in the thick ice on Christmas Eve. Source     |
