“President Obama, on the first leg of a Mideast trip, said Wednesday that he is confident the United States and Saudi Arabia can ‘make progress on a whole host of issues of mutual interest.’ Shortly after his arrival Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, Obama and King Abdullah went to the Saudi ruler’s farm for a welcoming reception. The two leaders met privately afterward. Obama said he was ’struck by his wisdom and his graciousness. Obviously the United States and Saudi Arabia have a long history of friendship. We have a strategic relationship.’”
I wanted to personally thank Kim Jong-il for giving me so much to blog about!
North Korea launched another rocket!! What a surprise..
U.S. satellite imagery has spotted “vehicle activity” at a North Korean ballistic missile site, two Defense Department officials said Friday. North Korea test-fired a short-range missile Friday off the country’s east coast, a South Korean military source said. It would be the sixth such missile test since the country conducted a nuclear test Monday.
North Korea is no longer bound by a 1953 truce with South Korea. North Korea threatened military action Wednesday after South Korea joined a U.S.-led effort to limit the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, the official Korean Central News Agency said. South Korea said Monday that it was joining the 6-year-old Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) because of “the grave threat WMD and missile proliferation is posing to global peace,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young. The effort is aimed at halting shipments of weapons technology, a rare source of hard currency for North Korea, but Moon said the south would continue to uphold a shipping agreement with the North. Pyongyang also announced it was no longer bound by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.
North Korea fired two short-range missiles from its east coast Tuesday — a day after conducting a nuclear test — South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing a South Korean official. The firings came a day after the reclusive communist state conducted a nuclear test and fired another short-range missile. U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Tuesday the international community would not be intimidated by North Korea’s “provocative and destabilizing” missile tests.
“If they want to continue to test and provoke the international community, they’re going to find that they will pay a price, because the international community is very clear — this is not acceptable, it won’t be tolerated, and they won’t be intimidated,” Rice told CNN’s “American Morning.”
The deafening roar of drums and horns rose as thousands of people took to the streets in Sri Lanka Friday for a victory parade marking the end of the decades-long civil war. Enthusiastic revelers danced in the street, carried yellow and red flags and some even carried hand-crafted puppets depicting the dead body of the leader of the rebel Tamil Tigers. President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed and local media released footage of the fallen leader’s body.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney defended the Bush administration’s national security record Thursday and argued that President Obama is weakening the country’s ability to combat al Qaeda and other extremists.Cheney argued that the Bush administration “didn’t invent” the authority exercised in the war against al Qaeda and others. He said it was clearly granted by the Constitution and legislation passed by Congress after the September 11 attacks.He said the use of controversial “enhanced interrogation techniques” was a success that saved thousands of lives.
The Hubble Space Telescope was released into orbit Tuesday. Space shuttle Atlantis crew member Megan McArthur used the shuttle’s robotic arm to release the telescope at 8:57 a.m. ET. The Hubble has been in orbit for 19 years. It can capture images that telescopes on Earth cannot, partly because it does not have to gaze through the planet’s murky atmosphere.
Watch a pretty cool slideshow here.
Ethiopian forces returned to Somalia on Tuesday, seizing control of a Somali border town, a local journalist tells CNN. Ethiopia last invaded Somalia in 2006, with the support of Somalia’s weak transitional government, and ousted the Islamic Courts Union, which had taken control of the country.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, a 54-year-old drug cartel leader whose nickname means “Shorty,” is the most wanted man in Mexico. He’s also one of the most wanted men in the United States. Guzman, who leads the Sinaloa cartel, is a key player in the bloody turf battles being fought along the border.
