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North Korean delegation arrives in the South to inspect Olympic art performance venues


RT
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 05:01 UTC
North Korean delegation South Korea Olympics
© Shin Joon-hee via Yonhap / Reuters
Hyon Song Wol, head of North Korea's Samjiyon Orchestra, arrives at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, January 21, 2017.
A N. Korean delegation has travelled to the South to inspect Olympic venues. Pyongyang had earlier indicated the visit would be canceled, raising alarm over the fate of the budding rapprochement in the run-up to the Games.

Accompanying the inspection team is young female artist Hyon Song-wol, who now heads the North's Samjiyon Orchestra. She's known for her part in the Moranbong Band, an all-female music group whose members are allegedly selected by Kim Jong-un personally. The superstar is rumored to be an ex-girlfriend of the supreme leader himself. She now leads her country's efforts to make the so-called 'Peace Olympics' a reality.

Comment: Previously:

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Pistol

All attackers killed after 12-hour siege on Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul


RT
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 15:26 UTC
Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul
© Reuters
Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul
All the attackers on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul have been killed and hostages released, the Afghan government said, announcing the end of a long siege. However, gunshots were still being heard even after the siege ended.

Afghan forces regained control over the Intercontinental Hotel in Afghanistan and killed four attackers on Sunday morning, according to the Interior Ministry's statement. One foreign citizen was among five people killed in the attack. At least six others were wounded, including four servicemen.

The whole operation reportedly lasted some 17 hours and the death toll could be higher than the government puts it, amounting to 18 people according to TOLOnews citing sources.
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Magnify

Marvel Comics axes every LGBTQ group-nominated comic book title, poor sales

Ian Miles Cheong
The Daily Caller
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 12:56 UTC
comic book SJW character
© Marvel Entertainment
Comic book readers are apparently not fans of progressive politics - a fact no more evident in Marvel's decision to cancel every single one of its comics that has been nominated by the LGBTQ advocacy group, GLAAD.

In December, the publisher announced its decision to cancel many of its comics, citing poor sales. LGBTQ, feminist, and social justice-themed comics involving stories that revolved around Black Lives Matter, illegal immigration, and LGBTQ issues were among those to end up on the chopping block.

At a New York Comic Con panel in October, Marvel executives faced tough questions from retailers who complained about the company's social justice push, with poor-selling products that took up valuable inventory space on store shelves.

Comment: It seems companies like Marvel and DC are finding out that these kind of niche markets are not going to get widespread appeal. Despite the loud chorus of social justice warriors in the public sphere, most people, especially comic book readers, are just not interested in being awkwardly preached at, and will vote with their dollar appropriately.

See also:

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Stop

Court rejects school's desperate effort to dismiss free speech lawsuit

Tyler Cochran
Campus Reform
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:06 UTC
stern judge
Pierce College will have to defend the constitutionality of its policies restricting speech to just 0.003 percent of campus after a judge rejected its motion to dismiss a student's lawsuit.

With help from attorneys at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), student Kevin Shaw sued the school in March after administrators refused to let him distribute copies of the Constitution outside of the school's "free speech zone," which encompasses just 616 square feet of the 426-acre campus.

Shaw was also told he must fill out a permit application to use the free speech zone, and that he would have to leave campus if he refused to comply, which the school's defense attorneys have sought to justify by arguing that the campus is a "non-public forum"

According to the court order, the motion was dismissed in part because "given the traditional purpose of the open, outdoor areas of universities, such as the 'Mall' on Pierce's campus, the Court finds that these areas are traditional public fora, regardless of Pierce's regulations naming them non-public fora."

Comment: Funny how the school claims to be "promoting the free exchange of ideas", yet their actions show that they'd rather constrain the free exchange of ideas - to a tiny spot in some unknown corner. Hopefully Shaw wins his case against the school. See also:

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Pistol

Afghanistan: Gunmen attack Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul - All 3 attackers killed - UPDATE


RT
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 19:01 UTC
View of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul
© Reuters
View of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul Afghanistan, Jan. 25, 2016
The Intercontinental Hotel in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul is under attack according Reuters, citing an interior ministry spokesman.

The group of "three or four men," who appeared to include suicide bombers, attacked the hotel Saturday and exchanged gunfire with security forces, according to ministry spokesman, Najib Danish.

The attackers have taken several hostages in the hotel, according to local news agency Tolo News who cited Kabul police.

The gunmen entered through the hotel kitchen, before moving to rooms 104 and 105, according to local journalist Bilal Sarwary, who cited an Afghan special forces commander.

Comment: Update (Jan. 21): All three attackers on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul have been killed and their hostages released, the Afghan government has said, announcing the end of a long siege. However, gunshots are reportedly still being heard.
Afghan forces regained control of the hotel and killed the three attackers on Sunday morning following a 12-hour siege, local media reported citing the Interior Ministry. One foreign citizen was reportedly among five killed in the attack. At least six others were wounded according to TOLOnews, while Pajhwok says that 10 people were injured.



Despite officials announcing the end of the siege, there were contradicting reports from local media citing witnesses and reporters on the ground, saying that the attack was not over and gunshots were still being heard. Later a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry clarified that the clear-up operation is ongoing.


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Bad Guys

Jewish Israeli settlers break into Palestinian school in Bethlehem


Middle East Monitor
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 08:46 UTC
Israeli settlers

Israeli settlers
A group of Jewish Israelis settlers attacked a Palestinian school in the Al-Zawahra neighbourhood of Bethlehem area village Ta'mor on Wednesday, Felesteen.ps reported.

Member of the Palestinian Authority anti-settlement committee in Bethlehem Hassan Brejea said that the settlers broke the door of the school and damaged some of its facilities.
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Pocket Knife

Police commander blames lack of genital mutilation convictions on 'nuances'

Jack Montgomery
Breitbart
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 00:01 UTC
female genital mutilation
© Getty Images
The police commander tasked with tackling female genital mutilation has excused the lack of convictions for the crime by saying it has "many nuances".

Ivan Balchatchet, the National Police Chiefs' Council's lead on 'honour' violence, female genital mutilation, and forced marriage, was responding to a letter from Jonathan Nicholas, a writer who served as a frontline police officer for 30 years, asking why there has yet to be a single conviction for FGM despite tens of thousands of recorded cases since it was criminalised in 1985.

"Thank you for your letters received dated 10th October 2017 and 12th January 2018 [sic]," wrote Balhatchet.

Comment: Seems like a pretty uncomplicated crime, actually. If someone insists on this horrific and barbaric crime, they're arrested and charged. Not seeing a whole lot of nuance. See also:

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Jet5

Weapons of mass migration: 77% of Belgians 'no longer feel at home'

Virginia Hale
Breitbart
Thu, 18 Jan 2018 12:00 UTC
Majority Belgians no longer feel at home
© LAURIE DIEFFEMBACQ/AFP/Getty Images
The massive rise in the proportion of Muslim migrants in the country has resulted in two-thirds of Belgians feeling their nation is being "increasingly invaded", according to a new study.

This sentiment was especially marked among respondents to the detailed survey aged 65 and over, 84 per cent of whom likened the influx of migrants and refugees to an invasion.

Overall, two-thirds of the 4,734 people polled believe there are "too many immigrants in Belgium", while 77 per cent agreed with the statement, "Today we no longer feel at home as we did before [mass migration]".
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Bizarro Earth

SWAT team kill 72yo Grandma during cannabis raid on her son

Matt Agorist
Freethought Project
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 12:00 UTC
72yo Grandma Shot Dead as SWAT Raided Her Home To Arrest Her Son For Marijuana
Michael Anthony Livingston, 50, was suspected of selling a plant that is legal in some form in well over half the country. Becuase the other half of the country still violently and callously kidnaps, cages, and kills people for this plant, however, Livingston is in jail and his mother is now dead.

Geraldine Townsend, 72, was shot and killed this week as a Bartlesville SWAT team executed a search warrant to bust Livingston for the alleged sale of marijuana.

When the heavily armed and likely militarized men kicked in the door to their home, Townsend, likely not knowing who her home invaders were, picked up a pellet gun and fired off two pellets. A Bartlesville officer then shot and killed her.
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Green Light

N.Korea WILL send team as promised to prep for Olympics in South


RT
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 14:20 UTC
Demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas
© Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
South Korean soldiers work on a barricade on the Grand Unification Bridge which leads to the truce village Panmunjom, south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, January 19, 2018.
Pyongyang has promised to send a delegation to South Korea on Sunday to prepare for a trip by an art troupe during the Winter Olympics. North Korea had raised eyebrows when it abruptly cancelled the entire visit late on Friday.

Pyongyang said it would send its seven-member team to check the venues for its proposed art performances in Seoul and Gangnueng, on the east coast of South Korea, some 260 kilometers east of the capital, Seoul's Unification Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, as cited by Yonhap news agency.

According to the ministry, Pyongyang's team would use a western land route and stay for two days.

The South Korean government has agreed to the visit on Sunday, Reuters reported the ministry saying.
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