Twitter in Pyongyang: how North Korea got the mobile internet

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/feb/28/twitter-north-korea-mobile-internet

"Hello world from comms center in #Pyongyang."
That Twitter missive, sent Monday from Koryolink's main service centre in downtown Pyongyang using my iPhone, marked a milestone for North Korea: it was believed to be the first tweet sent from a mobile phone using the country's new 3G mobile data service.
Later, as we were driving through Pyongyang, I used my iPhone to snap a photo of a new roadside banner referring to North Korea's controversial 12 February nuclear test while the Associated Press's chief Asia photographer David Guttenfelder uploaded an image to Instagram of a tour guide at a mountain temple, geotagged to Pyongyang.
Pretty ordinary stuff in the world of social media, but revolutionary for North Korea, a country with intricate rules to stage manage the flow of images and information both inside and beyond its borders.
In the past, rules were strict for tourists visiting North Korea. On a bus journey across the demilitarised zone into the border city of Kaesong in 2008, we were told: no mobile phones, no long camera lenses, no shooting photos without permission. The curtains were drawn to prevent us from looking outside as we drove through the countryside, and through the cracks we could see soldiers stationed along the road with red flags. We were warned they'd raise those flags and stop the bus for inspection if they spotted a camera pointed out the window. As we left North Korea, immigration officials went through our cameras, clicking through the photos to make sure we weren't taking home any images that were objectionable.

Horsemeat found in Ikea meatballs in Czech Republic

In reference to:
http://polandball-news.blogspot.de/2013/02/ikea-dragged-into-horse-meat-scandal.html

IKEA dragged into horse meat scandal

The Local on the meaty news

Horse meat has been found in IKEA´s Swedish meatballs, prompting the furniture giant to halt meatball sales in 15 countries across Europe. The test that proved positive for horse meat was made in the Czech Republic, though it is not yet known how much of the meat came from horses. This is the first case in the ongoing European horse meat craze where horse infused meat may have been produced in Sweden. Dafgård, the producer of the meatballs, are performing their own DNA tests on their meat, but has as of yet found nothing suspicious.

UK loses top AAA credit rating for first time since 1978

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21554311

The UK has lost its top AAA credit rating for the first time since 1978 on expectations that growth will "remain sluggish over the next few years".

The ratings agency Moody's became the first to cut the UK from its highest rating, to Aa1.

Moody's said the government's debt reduction programme faced significant "challenges" ahead.

Chancellor George Osborne said the decision was "a stark reminder of the debt problems facing our country".

"Far from weakening our resolve to deliver our economic recovery plan, this decision redoubles it," he added. "We will go on delivering the plan that has cut the deficit by a quarter."

But the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Osborne now risks being dubbed the "downgrade chancellor".

North Korea Threatens South with "Final Destruction"

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/02/19/north-korea-un-threat.html

Nuclear-armed North Korea has used a UN disarmament meeting to warn that South Korea risks "final destruction."

The comments Tuesday by a North Korean diplomat at the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament come a week after Pyongyang conducted a third nuclear test.

"As the saying goes, a new-born puppy knows no fear of a tiger. South Korea's erratic behaviour would only herald its final destruction," North Korean diplomat Jon Yong Ryong told the meeting, Reuters reports.

South Korea called the tests a flagrant violation of UN resolutions and a threat to the entire international community.

U.S. envoy Laura E. Kennedy tweeted later that the North's comments had been "offensive."

Numerous countries including the U.S., Britain and Germany, condemned North Korea's latest test at the meeting and urged North Korea to abide by UN resolutions barring it from testing nuclear weapons or missiles.

Even China, a longtime provider of food, fuel and other support, had warned North Korea not to conduct a third nuclear test.

"The North Korean regime's reckless disregard for the global will is again on display," Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said after the latest nuclear test.

"What makes such actions even more unconscionable is the fact that the North Korean people starve and are denied their basic human dignity while the Pyongyang regime squanders limited resources."