January 16:
Succession in the notoriously opaque regime in North Korea has long been an open question debated by Western observers. No longer. According to the Times of London, the DPRK's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong-il, has named his youngest son, Jong Un, as his successor. The decision, however, gives little indication of how the Stalinist state is likely to be governed following Kim's passing. Not much is known about Pyongyang's heir-apparent, aside from his formative education in Switzerland.
In a move aimed at ending tensions with rival India stemming from the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in which it has been accused of complicity, Pakistan has moved against the terrorist group Lashkar e-Taiba. "The entire top, middle and lower-level leadership has been arrested," Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has told reporters in comments carried by the Wall Street Journal.
January 18:
According to the Japan Times, the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso is contemplating the construction of an early warning satellite for its emerging missile defense system. The plan, outlined in the Japanese Defense Ministry’s new basic space policy, envisions the creation of an early warning satellite capable of infrared tracking of boost-phase ballistic missile threats – such as those potentially emanating from the regime in North Korea. Practical obstacles to the plan remain, however – among them prohibitive costs, which defense officials say "could have an impact on the procurement of other pieces of equipment."
January 20:
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the outlaw warlord who heads Afghanistan’s radical Hezb-e-Islami party, has urged his countrymen to attack U.S. and NATO soldiers in order to show support for the Palestinians, AKI reports. "We ask the Afghan mujahadeen to line up alongside their Palestinian brothers as a way of rallying opposition to the Americans who are allies of Israel,” Hekmatyar has declared in response to Israel’s military offensive against the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip. “This war, which we are helping, is not just a war by Tel Aviv, but rather a new American war against Islam."
January 25:
The Taliban is consolidating its power in the unruly regions of Pakistan via a new medium: the airwaves. According to the International Herald Tribune, Taliban militants have established a broadcasting stronghold in Pakistan’s Swat region, where residents are forced to listen to militant radio broadcasts from firebrand clerics – or suffer the consequences. "They control everything through the radio," one Swat resident tells the paper. "Everyone waits for the broadcast."
The costs for nonparticipation in the Taliban’s media offensive are steep. The IHT reports that the penalties exacted by the Taliban upon those Pakistanis under their control that do not listen to the movement’s broadcasts range from lashings to executions, while banned “un-Islamic” activities laid out in those media messages incur similar punishments.
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