The Sunday Times reports that ‘North Korean military engineers are completing an underground runway beneath a mountain that can protect fighter aircraft from attack until they take off at high speed through the mouth of a tunnel.’ The news of the secret underground runway comes shortly after news broke that North Korea had assisted Syria with its nuclear project. (more…)

This is why I believe that conservative women are often great national leaders. There is, of course, M. Thatcher, and now we have, in Europe, Angela Merkel. She is Germany’s Chancellor and not quite willing to give in to pressure from China: shortly after China tried to convince her not to meet with the Dalai Lama for the foreseeable future, she has said that she will most certainly meet with the Tibetan leader again. (more…)

‘Athletes who display Tibetan flags at Olympic venues — including in their own rooms — could be expelled from this summer’s Games in Beijing under anti-propaganda rules,’ the Times (of London) reports. Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) hilariously said that ‘competitors were free to express their political views but faced sanctions if they indulged in propaganda.’ (more…)

The Times (of London) has an exclusive report up: ” Chinese paramilitary police killed eight people and wounded dozens more when they fired on a protest by several hundred Tibetan monks and villagers, The Times has been told.” (more…)

The New York Times reports about a protest that disrupted an Olympic Ceremony last Sunday (when Greek officials handed over the Olympic flame to organizers of the Beijing Summer Games), but it seems to me that this is what they should have expected. China has one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, and the communists have tried to completely destroy Tibetan culture. This is the opportunity for Tibetans to force the world to pay attention to its plight. (more…)

That’s what Tibetans must have thought when they started protesting this March 14th. It seems that during the critical first day of the protests, Chinese riot police were nowhere to be found. They fled the scene “after an initial skirmish,” this even though some Chinese shopkeepers “begged for protection.” (more…)

“Buddhist nuns waved American flags and the Dalai Lama ordered his followers to offer a standing ovation Friday morning as Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, came to Dharamsala, the emotionally charged headquarters of Tibetan exiles, and seized the opportunity to stick a finger in the eye of China,” the NYT reports. (more…)

This is the kind of thing athletes need to do this summer, when they’re in Bejing for the Olympics: “German pole vaulter Anna Battke plans to protest China’s intervention in Tibet at the Beijing Olympics. Although Olympic regulations prohibit political statements, Battke wants athletes to dress up as Tibetan monks and Chinese officials and symbolically shake hands.” (more…)

The German newspaper the Spiegel reports that the Chinese government has learned something from the protests in Tibet in recent days. Giving Tibetans more freedom results in peace? Destroying peoples’ cultures doesn’t make them love you? Nope. None of that. The lesson China has learned is that it has to modernize its army so it can deal with ‘rebellion’ in a more effective manner. (more…)

I’m not sure whether this has ever happened in history - after all, Tibetan Buddhists believe that the Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama before him, who was the reincarnation of the DL before him and so on - but the current Dalai Lama is threatening to resign if “violence by Tibetans in his homeland spirals out of control.” (more…)

Tibet’s true leader, the Dalai Lama, has said that he’s not going to tell his followers inside Tibet to surrender to the Chinese. This even though he fears that their protests may lead to “an imminent blood bath.” He fears this, but he also believes there’s nothing he can do to prevent it from happening. (more…)

Yesterday, the Tibetan people protested against the authoritarian and inhumane rule (read: oppression) put on them by China. Buddhist monks and others protested in Lhasa; the Chinese government decided to oppress the protests quickly and violently. All in all, ten people died. (more…)

It seems that Turkey’s Chief of Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt has caused a minor international controversy. He said, in his opening speech at the second Conference on Global Terrorism and International Cooperation Monday, “that full support must be extended to Pakistan to get the country back on its feet, and warned that a Taliban-type regime may grab power otherwise.” (more…)

Via Rick Moran comes the news that the Chinese government has found an easy, and quick, way to get rid of the population of cats (without a home): they’re simply killing them all. The reason: Bejing has to look clean and orderly for the Olympic Games this summer. (more…)

The New York Times reports that “[t]he leaders of the two major political parties, in an unexpectedly strong show of unity against President Pervez Musharraf, agreed Sunday that they would reinstate judges fired by the president and would seek to strip him of crucial powers.” In other words: his political opponents have declared (political) war on Musharraf. (more…)

Bad news from Pakistan: a suicide bomber has killed the country’s surgeon general. There were two suicide bombings yesterday, eleven people in total were killed. One of the victims was a high ranking military officer, Lt. Gen. Mushtaq Ahmad Baig, who was Pakistan’s surgeon general. (more…)

Stories about North Korea usually focus on its nuclear program.  But Perhaps they should start focusing more on what we will do when the place falls apart. (more…)

Good news from Pakistan (from a stability perspective): “Pakistan’s two main opposition parties announced Thursday that they would work together to form a coalition government. The apparent breakthrough came after the leaders of the two parties, the victors in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections, held make-or-break talks in Islamabad, the capital.” (more…)

Well, one gets the impression that the parties that won the elections in Pakistan this week do indeed represent change. Not the kind of change foreign policy haws were looking forward to though: “The winners of Pakistan’s parliamentary elections said Tuesday that they would take a new approach to fighting Islamic militants by pursuing more dialogue than military confrontation” with them. (more…)

Captain Ed highlights an additional positive outcome from the Pakistani elections — by accepting an unpleasant electoral outcome, Musharraf marginalizes the radical Islamists. There is also a corollary effect in western politics.  By accepting the negative result, Musharraf has definitely refuted the claims of many critics who cast him as a hopelessly corrupt despot. (more…)