Free Republic

The North Korean capital has been placed under lockdown, according to sources with Pyongyang, raising new questions about the stability of Kim Jong-un's regime. Quoting sources within North Korea, the respected New Focus International news web site has reported that a ban on new travel passes to leave or enter Pyongyang was introduced on September 27. And while the North Korean authorities have in the past limited access to the capital, the latest restrictions even apply to permanent residents of Pyongyang, who are by definition the elite of the regime. "This sort of action suggests there has either been an...

Hungary has increasingly courted and won favour with Russia, while rejecting the core values of the European Union. Budapest, Hungary - As the West holds its breath waiting to see if Russia will intervene in Ukraine, there is one country looking to Moscow for inspiration: Hungary. In a speech in late July, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he wanted to turn Hungary into an "illiberal state" and used Russia as a model example. "We want to build a workfare society ... which is willing to bear the odium to declare that it is not liberal in character," said Orban, adding...

Iraq in chaos The situation in Iraq progressed over the weekend from frightening to utter chaos. The apparent good news is that U.S. airstrikes against the monsters of ISIS appear to be making some headway. The harder-to-judge news is the constitutional crisis brewing over the desire of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to assume a third term in office, despite the decision of the newly elected president not to re-appoint him. That goes directly against the Iraq constitution, the adoption of which was one of the main achievements that resulted from the U.S. invasion in 2003. If those in power in...

This was popped up in the headlines, and details are still sketchy, but something potentially big is afoot in Iraq. (And for once, we’re not talking about their being under attack by ISIS.) We were first tipped off on Twitter as well as a quick draw compilation of tweets from inside Iraq provided at Pundit Press. Here are a few, along with Pundit Press’s summary, keeping in mind that this isn’t confirmed yet: Iraq’s parliament just chose a new President who refused to rename Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki to a third term. Maliki declared the move unconstitutional and his...

‘Something’s going down in Baghdad': Reports of possible coup Posted at 6:59 pm on August 10, 2014 by Twitchy Staff Meanwhile... Obama leaving Farm Neck Golf Course after five hours 6:33 PM - 10 Aug 2014

Iraq’s parliament just chose a new President who refused to rename Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki to a third term. Maliki declared the move unconstitutional and his own State of Law Party pulled support from him. Now his forces are seizing government buildings in Iraq, have closed the airport, and are surrounding the Green Zone.

UNCONFIRMED reports suggest troops have sealed off Baghdad’s “Green Zone” in an apparent coup. Controversial Iraqi PM Maliki won a fresh round of elections, but does not hold a clear majority in parliament. He technically remains prime minister until parliament sits and votes. But Mr Maliki has this morning lashed out against his opponents, calling them “ministers for ISIS”. “Today I will file a formal complaint to the federal court against the president,” he said, in a surprise address at midnight Iraq time. Controversial Iraqi PM Maliki won a fresh round of elections, but does not hold a clear majority...

That seems like an awfully strong word, but it is the term that distinguished law professor Glenn Reynolds, no hysteric, uses to describe the Obama administrationÂ’s oft-reported plan to issue executive amnesty to five or six million illegal immigrants in violation of federal law. GlennÂ’s characterization is a fair one. When a tyrant asserts the right to rule by decree in a state that has formerly been subject to the rule of law, he is commonly described as carrying out a coup dÂ’etat. That is just what the Obama administration has done, and reportedly will continue to do. When Obama...

The US has suspended $3.5m (£2.1m) in military aid to Thailand and urged the country's army to restore civilian rule "immediately". Washington also urged tourists to cancel trips and halted non-essential visits by US government officials. The move came as former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra spent her first night in military custody.

Ousted Thai leader Yingluck Shinawatra has appeared at a military facility in Bangkok, a day after the army took power in a coup. Ms Yingluck is one of more than 100 political figures summoned by the army. The army has banned 155 people, including some politicians, from leaving the country. On Thursday the military suspended the constitution, banned gatherings and detained politicians, saying order was needed after months of turmoil.

There can be no repeat of the 1990 attempted coup or anything “remotely close” to it once National Security Minister Gary Griffith is in charge. This minister said so as he dispelled rumours that a coup was set to take place yesterday (Thursday). Griffith said the rumours, which caused widespread panic throughout the country yesterday, stemmed from a prank phone call. He said the identity of the prank caller is being investigated. He called on citizens to me more “mature” and not fall prey to “rumours, propaganda, hearsay and sensationalism”. Griffith was speaking to members of the media following a...

Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - A day after the people of Donetsk apparently voted overwhelmingly to split from Ukraine, an eerie calm reigned on the streets as people wondered what country they had woken up in. Unlike a similar referendum in the peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia in March, there were no wild celebrations, no sense of joy -- just slight confusion about the future and a lingering anger towards the leaders in Kiev. Taxi driver Dmytro Boyko told AFP as he waited to collect his daughter from school that many in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk were "frightened...

The bloody crisis between the pro-Western two thirds of Ukraine and pro-Russian third of the country is about taxes. The recent $17 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan required Ukraine on May 1st to raise taxes and increase natural gas prices by 50%. With about 58% of the Ukraine’s industry in the eastern zone and workers there making about 50% higher wages, the east is paying the majority of the tax increase. Although residential users will not feel pain from the natural gas price increase until fall, eastern heavy industry is feeling the pain immediately. With the corrupt west raising...

Kyiv sacks Luhansk police chief, sends replacement The acting chief of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Serhiy Pashynsky, has said that the Luhansk regional police chief has been sacked and replaced by a new one. "Yesterday, at the behest of the interim president, the head of the Luhansk interior directorate was dismissed and replaced by a new one, who has already traveled to his new workplace with a group of officers," he told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday, without naming the new Luhansk police chief. "Police in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and towns are undergoing a full rotation, all volunteers ready...

A homemade bomb has exploded in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, killing one soldier and wounding another, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said Monday. "When on duty, in the course of daily inspection of reinforcing obstacles, two contract soldiers of the armed forces of Ukraine were injured. According to preliminary information, the cause of injury was the explosion of an unknown improvised explosive device," the statement said. The wounded soldier, a junior sergeant, is in intensive care and military doctors have said he is expected to live, the ministry said, adding that the injured man was transported by helicopter to...

Self-defence forces have managed to repel an attack on a checkpoint in Soledar city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region after unknown assailants landed in a helicopter and attacked in a blitz operation. Over a dozen of gunmen descended from the helicopter and launched an attack on a defense squad guarding a checkpoint near Soledar. As the unknown men attacked, the militia, most of them reportedly unarmed, was forced to retreat. Following the shootout, the attackers have retreated as well, taking one of the defenders hostage, the local self-defense force told RT’s correspondent Paula Slier who is at the scene. There...

If Kiev does not immediately stop military operations against popular protest, Russia will call for an urgent UNSC meeting and in the worst case scenario reserves the right to deploy armed forces to stop bloodshed, UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said. If the violence in the southeast of Ukraine doesn't stop, Russia will call a special session of the UN Security Council, Churkin said in an interview to Rossiya 1 channel. “If we will continue to see what we witnessed today, if the use of force against the protest movement in the east and south-east of Ukraine will continue, we will...

Conservatives have noticed that the Pentagon is firing officers left and right, with many leaving under an embarrassing cloud. The question they ask — and I don't know that anyone has an answer — is whether these firings are the legitimate and appropriate housecleaning that a sclerotic bureaucracy needs or whether they're a purge, with Obama's New Age, gender flexible, fighting optional military getting rid of people in command positions who actually think that the military's job is to wage war in America's defense.All I know is that the latest person being investigated as a predicate to an inevitable firing...

Russia has begun extensive military exercises on its Ukrainian border following the escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine. “The order to use force against civilians has already been given, and if this military machine is not stopped, the amount of casualties will only grow,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said during an official meeting in Moscow. “We are forced to react to the situation.” Shoigu said that the drills involve march and deployment exercises by forces in the southern and western military districts, and separate Air Force maneuvers. DETAILS TO FOLLOW

The situation around the city Sloviansk remains tense. Today Ukrainian army launched an operation to capture the city. Fighting broke out with the militia self-defense. The clashes have killed. According to recent figures, killed five members of the militia. Grouping Ukrainian military reinforced armor. And, as the correspondent of NTV governing combat vehicles for some reason people talk to each other in English. There are reports that the Ukrainian military detained a group of Russian and foreign journalists. In Slovyansk himself, meanwhile, drove six six armored personnel carriers , helicopter loitering in the sky. To complicate the promotion of military...