News of the Day (August 3)

UPDATE: The New York Post has a far more extensive story on the Iranian regime's delivery of Saad bin Laden (Osama's son) to Hezbollah's side (see sixth item for the original posted report).

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: The Korea Liberator takes note of many very angry ex-Defense Ministers in South Korea and has the latest Stalinist North Korea news.

Dictators stick together: As the Stalinist regime reaches out to the colonial master to help with offshore oil drilling (China Brief), Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il "sent a get-well note to Cuba's Fidel Castro" (Washington Post, second item).

Enlightened Comment of the Day: Markus Ermisch (Kamloops) makes it an interesting race with his piece on organ harvesting, but by insisting Canada should still trade with the cadres, Ermisch loses out to Judi McLeod (Canada Free Press).

Ignorant Comment of the Day: We had a close race here, too. Jonathon Gatehouse, who takes the Bashar Assad regime's word on Hezbollah at face value (Macleans), and University of Alberta Professor Wenran Jiang, who pines for "cooperation" between the U.S. and Communist China in Latin America (China Brief), were strong contenders for the dubious honor. However, today's winner is David Broder for this whopper in the Washington Post: "Today, virtually no one argues that we should have continued fighting the North Koreans (in the 1950s)." Is that so, Mr. Broder? Perhaps because millions in northern Korea have been silenced or starved to death, they can't be heard, but it doesn't mean they can be ignored.

More on Stalinist North Korea: The Stalinist response to recent flooding (second item) is to reject offers of aid (Washington Times) and keeping people stuck in the flood zone (Daily NK). Young Howard of Open Radio calls on South Korea to stop aiding SNK (Daily NK).

Iranian mullahcracy sends Osama bin Laden's son to Hezbollah's aid: According to Germany's Die Welt, the Communist-backed regime dispatched the Al Qaeda leader's son "to the Syria-Lebanon border" (Washington Times) in response "to the outbreak of war between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah." Meanwhile, the mullahcracy's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, "praised the Lebanese militia Hezbollah . . . stating that the group was on the 'frontline' of the defence of Muslims" (Iran Focus), and Jon Leyne (BBC) visits Hezbollah's "secret office" in Syria.

Cadre announces visit to Taiwan - but doesn't tell the island democracy: Chen Yunlin, director of Communist China's Taiwan Affairs Office, "is to attend a forum on agricultural cooperation organized by a Taiwanese opposition party" (Washington Times, second item), no real surprise give the behavior of Taiwan's opposition. The elected government, however, was kept completely in the dark about the planned October visit.

More on Communist China and the rest of the world: Communist China has become so repressive that it has made fellow cadre-run Vietnam look reformist by comparison (China Brief). Communist China likes to boast about overseas scholars being in their universities' employ; the only trouble is, the regime is lying (Epoch Times). An event for the 12 million ex-Communists who have quit the CCP in disgust is held in Munich (Epoch Times).

Gao Zhisheng speaks about his ordeal: The human rights attorney (sixth, tenth, fifth, lead, third, last, twelfth, eighth, third, second, third, eighth, eleventh, eighth, fourth, fourth, last, fourth, fifth, twelfth, fifth, second, lead, next to last, seventh, last, next to last, lead, second, last, sixth, tenth, eighth, second, eighth, ninth, lead, sixth, eighth, seventh, fifth, fourth, last, fifth, seventh, next to last, fourth, last, twenty-first, twenty-second, seventh, fourth, sixth, fourth, sixth, eleventh, eleventh, fourth, last, sixth, eighth, tenth, thirteenth, eleventh, eighth, tenth, last, next-to-last, next-to-last, twelfth, and seventh items) talks to the Epoch Times about his most recent arrest and beating.

Hong Kong regime ready to pass snooping law: The Communist-appointed city government is pushing a new law that many fear "could allow for spying on members of the political opposition" (BBC); the Donald Tsang regime has shown no interest in hearing the opposition's concerns.

Sulphur dioxide pollution soars: The annual amount of sulphur dioxide pollution in Communist China now stands at almost 26 million tons, "a 27% increase since 2000" (BBC).