Free Republic

Persian-language thriller running on Iran’s state television accused of blurring lines between fiction, realityA popular television series, purportedly based on real-life stories, has stirred controversy in Iran after the country’s top diplomat slammed it as a “complete lie.” The rebuke came after an episode aired last week was reportedly censored following the intervention of a senior government official, according to local media reports. Gando, named after a rare species of crocodiles found in the country’s southeast, features Iranian intelligence sleuths and foreign spies as main protagonists in different episodes – stories that the makers claim are based on true incidents....

MAURITANIAN PASSENGER PLANE HIJACKED TO WESTERN SAHARA - MAURITANIAN POLICE

China puts Korean spat on the mapBy David Scofield The controversy over whether the ancient, ethnically Korean kingdom of Koguryo was historically Korean or historically part of China simmers, and it divides historians, politicians and patriots on both sides in Northeast Asia. The kingdom stretched well into present-day Manchuria in the north and encompassed most of what is North Korea in the south. And, to roil the waters, some academics suggest that China's recent cartographic interest in the Koguryo region has a precedent in Beijing's relatively late public claim that Taiwan is and always has been an inalienable part...