UPDATE! North Korea Gets ALL Vocal! Threatens to Ditch Armistace? Says No Nukes Traded For Food!

North Korea has threatened to scrap the armistice which ended the Korean War in 1953, citing US moves to impose sanctions for its nuclear test and tensions over South Korean-US exercises.

The threat comes amid reports from the United Nations that China and the United States have reached agreement on new measures to punish the North for last month’s nuclear weapons test.

The North’s military said it could launch a “precise” strike anytime, unrestrained by the armistice. It also warned it could mount a strike with atomic weapons to counter any US nuclear threat.

In a statement on official media yesterday, the military called the joint exercise a “most blatant” provocation and slammed a “vicious” scheme by the US and its allies to push for tougher United Nations sanctions

UPDATE! March 18 2013: The North’s foreign ministry, in a statement carried by state TV on Sunday, rejected suggestions that the impoverished state was using its weapons program as a way of bullying neighbours into offering much-needed aid.

“The US is seriously mistaken if it thinks that [North Korea] had access to nukes as a bargaining chip to barter them for what it called economic reward,” the statement said :: Read the full article »»»»

Violence Erupts Amid Massive Syrian Protests

Large-scale violent anti-government protests unfolded across Syria as tens of thousands of demonstrators converged on public squares to protest the al-Assad regime – nationwide rallies dubbed “The Crawl to Freedom Square.”

Once again Syria has seen deadly clashes as tens of thousands filled the streets to demonstrate against the government of president Bashar al-Assad and make their voices heard to Arab League monitors.

The protests coincide with reports of increased violence against demonstrators by President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces, even as an Arab League fact-finding mission works to determine whether the Syrian government is abiding by a peace agreement to end a brutal crackdown on protesters.

Read the full article »»»»

Final Pricing and Options Announced For Tesla’s Model S

Tesla has announced the final pricing and options for its übercool – Whitestar –  Model S sedan, which will hit the US market Mid-2012. Unlike Tesla’s first vehicle – Roadster – the Model S is a practical, yet supremely smooth looking family car, seating five or seven in Jaguar XF style luxury. Model S starts at around half the price of the $110k sporty Roadster. Tesla has reported that more than 6,500 reservations – with a minimum deposit of $US5,000, a total $US11 million in commitment from buyers has been raised - have been taken, and expect that number to sky-rocket. Amusingly, nearly 1000 punters had placed a deposit before the artists ink had dried on the concept renderings back in May 2009, this is clearly a much anticipated auto.

LiLo Breaches Probation

With Lindsay Lohan the news just seems to go round and round and round. Lindsay Lohan appeared in court today -  looking her usual mess -and had her probation revoked,  it’s now likely she will go back to jail.

A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner, today and revoked Lindsay Lohan’s probation, saying the actress has blown off her court-ordered community service and even questioning the starlet’s commitments to her acting career.

CONTINUED: Read the full article »»»»

Revolute! OWS Citibank Protesters Arrested

Police arrested 24 protesters for trespassing at a Citibank branch, a New York Police Department spokesman said.

Citibank has always been a bit of a fumbling behemoth, barely - with bailout assistance from U.S. tax payers - scraping through the global financial crisis in tact, it now face an entirely new wave of trouble. Days after Citibank CEO Vikram Pandit talked about his sympathies with Occupy Wall Street and his willingness to engage with protesters. A Citibank branch in New York has locked the doors of their branch and arrested a group of Citibank account holders who wished to to close their accounts. It’s clear that Citibank are terrified that a few accounts closing will escalate to a run on the bank. “It would only take a small percentage of account holders to prove that Citibank is an economic hologram and like much of the financial sector, is desperately hiding how weak it is. The 99% are waking up and realise they’ve been duped, fleeced,conned and bullied for far too long” said Jeremy Bloom.  ”NOT even in the dark dark days of the 1930s great depression – when there was actual panic – did we see anything this stupid” Here’s how it went down at the Citibank branch at 555 La Guardia Place in New York. The demonstrators - all Citibank customers -  were asked to leave, and when they tried to comply Citibank’s security locked them in and wouldn’t let them leave! 24 were arrested. Clearly nothing is ever this simple!? Read the full article »»»»

Bad Journalism: Daily Mail Style

“This incident never happened. It was created, as a sort of journalistic montage, by the correspondent who distilled the report. Newspapers are neither written nor edited by fools, technical safeguards can be built into even the wildest story, without fear of losing reader impact” Hunter S. Thompson – Hells Angels – 1967.

You would think that in the aftermath of News of the World, journalists - especially in the U.K. - would have at least one eye on the ball. Seems not. U.K. rag Daily Mail spends bucket loads of cash on employing journalists, apparently sending them to exotic posts like Italy. Covering the Amanda Knox Appeal - Knox was found guilty of murder, her latest trial was an appeal to that verdict - one over zealous unnamed journalist filed the following headline, which was then published by the Daily Mails online portal Mail Online. Hold your breath for a rant . . .

Journalism is apparently a calling, wedged someplace between an artistic talent and a desire for notoriety, or what has come to be known as celebrity. More journalists seem to be on the opinion bent – who’s doing all the reporting – chasing a byline in print isn’t the same as bringing news to readers!? . We generalise of course, journalists aren’t a heap different to the general population. A GOOD JOURNALIST requires more than just a specific skill set. Much more important than these apparent skills - grammar, dogged perseverance, courage under fire and a nose for a story - a good journalist REQUIRES INTEGRITY, not general public integrity, but unquestionable integrity. So if your not a good journalist what happens, generally you hide the truth and hook yourself into inappropriate employment. One journalist, who would best be described as possibly the worst mother presently on this planet –  reported for child neglect and abuse, by her childs school –  runs a Child and Parenting Advice website, another covers real estate in a national newspaper as well as running their blogs, despite the fact that she’s only ever lost money in real estate.

So whats the point?

Mainstream media, is the point. In any other profession there’s a set of requirements, skills certainly, but more importantly a requirement to behave with integrity; commit a crime as a lawyer and your not likely to practice law, molest a patient and your name will no longer have Doctor at front of it. Journalists have none of these sanctions, a bad journalist simply becomes the editor for an internet site . . .

A photo journalist once said something profound on the subject of bad journalism “The problem with journalists is they think once they’ve covered a story, they’re an expert in an entire field.”

You would think that in the aftermath of News of the World, journalists – especially in the U.K. – would have at least one eye on the ball. Seems not. U.K. rag Daily Mail spends bucket loads of cash on employing journalists, apparently sending them to exotic posts like Italy. Covering the Amanda Knox Appeal – Knox was found guilty of murder, her latest trial was an appeal to that verdict – one over zealous unnamed journalist filed the following headline, which was then published by the Daily Mails online portal Mail Online.

Clearly the internet makes it possible to broadcast breaking news at a pace unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. Unfortunately, that includes the ability to rapidly transmit reports that never should have been written, much less published. Today’s case in point: the Daily Mail‘s hasty—and largely apocryphal—report that American Amanda Knox had lost her appeal of a murder conviction. Mail Online not only mistook the Italian court’s guilty verdict for slander as guilty of everything, it posted a story under the byline Nick Pisa purporting to detail the return journey of Knox and her ex-boyfriend to separate prisons where they would be put on suicide watch. The story also quotes “delighted” prosecutors who said “justice has been done.” We’ve seen stories posted in error before, particularly when advances written and stored to hop on the news are published when they shouldn’t have been. These invented details are beyond bad journalism and publishing.

The sequence of events that followed is more than amusing . . .

about an hour later . . .

picture: malcom coles