THE MILITARY COUP OF THAILAND EXPOUNDS MORALITY–WANTING THE RETURN OF THE COUNTRY WHERE THE PEOPLE RESPECT THE LAW EXCLUDING CORRUPT POLITICIANS, POLICE, MAFIA, AND THOSE AUTHORITIES IN POWER SUBJUGATING ITS CITIZENS

Since staging a coup on May 22, the military has led a crackdown on crime as part of what army commander Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha describes as a morality cleansing. Before democracy can be restored, he says, corruption and lawlessness have to stop.

Prayuth has repeatedly talked about returning the Buddhist country to a place of moral standing where people respect the law — including the politicians, police and other authorities who readily take payments to ignore crime.

Kicking out corrupt politicians was part of Prayuth's justification for overthrowing an elected government and suspending a range of democratic freedoms.

“Foreign tourists should not have a perception that they can come to Thailand to commit illegal activities as often portrayed in the movies,” he said in one of his weekly televised speeches. “I am ashamed. Do you not feel the same when this is portrayed in foreign films?”

“We have to change this perception.”

Whether or not the crackdown has lasting effects, it has shined a light on Thailand's underworld and highlighted just how far-reaching lawlessness here really is.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/drugs-thugs-and-ladies-of-the-night-junta-unhappy-about-the-way-thailand-is-portrayed/story-e6frfqb9-1226963824988

SOUTH KOREA HAS 75% OF ITS POPULATION USING SOCIAL MEDIA FROM KAKAOTALK, FACEBOOK, TO TWITTER–MORE INFORMATION TRANSFERRED THAN NEWSPAPER OR BROADCASTING

KakaoTalk, Facebook and Twitter have become essential tools for communication in the daily lives of Koreans, empowering some who used to be outside the consensus-building process and weakening the hold of others.
But they are also an occasionally destructive rumor mill and give malcontents the chance to vent their frustrations under the cloak of anonymity or at least from a distance.
Some 37 million Koreans or more than 75 percent of the population exchange more than six billion text messages a day via KakaoTalk. And 8.3 million Koreans use Facebook on a daily basis.

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/06/28/2014062800386.html

THE PUTIN RUSSIA THROWS ITS HAND IN THE IRAQ RING WITH SUKHOI SU-25 WARPLANES TO AID BAGHDAG BATTLE ISIS OVER TIKRIT

Government planes pounded Tikrit with air strikes as fighting broke out across the city, witnesses said, as thousands of troops advanced in the most ambitious operation Iraqi forces have carried out since insurgents led by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS or ISIL) overran swathes of five provinces weeks earlier.

The predominantly Sunni city, former dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown and a hotbed of antipathy toward Iraq’s Shiite-led government, is one of two major urban centers that fell to insurgents earlier this month during their lightning offensive across the country’s north and west.

Iraqi forces began their assault on Tikrit on Saturday with a multi-pronged attack spearheaded by ground troops backed by tanks and helicopters.

The insurgents appeared to have repelled the military’s initial push, however, and had retained control of most the city on Sunday, a provincial official said by telephone, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media.

He said that the fighting was concentrated in the northern neighborhood of Qadissiyah. He also reported clashes northwest of the city around an air base that previously served as a US military facility known as Camp Speicher.

Muhanad Saif al-Din, who lives in the city center, said he could see smoke rising from Qadissiyah, which borders the University of Tikrit, where troops brought by helicopter established a bridgehead two days ago. He said many of the militants in Tikrit had deployed to the city’s outskirts, apparently to blunt the military attack.

Military spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi told reporters Sunday that the military was in full control of the university and had raised the Iraqi flag over the campus.

“The battle has several stages. The security forces have cleared most of the areas of the first stage and we have achieved results,” al-Moussawi said. “It is a matter of time before we declare the total clearing (of Tikrit).”

Jawad al-Bolani, a security official in the provincial operation command, said the US was sharing intelligence with Iraq and has played an “essential” role in the Tikrit offensive.

“The Americans are with us and they are an important part in the success we are achieving in and around Tikrit,” al-Bolani told The Associated Press.

Washington has sent 180 of the 300 American military advisers President Barack Obama has promised to help Iraqi forces. The US is also flying manned and unmanned aircraft on reconnaissance missions over Iraq.

First batch of Russian warplanes delivered

The Tikrit offensive comes as Iraq took delivery of the first batch of Sukhoi warplanes from Russia, with the newly-purchased Su-25 aircraft expected to be pressed into service as soon as possible, bolstering Iraq's air power.

Su-25s are designed for ground attack, meaning they will be useful for Iraqi forces trying to root out ISIS-led militants from a string of towns and cities they have seized.

http://www.france24.com/en/20140629-battle-tikrit-continues-iraq-receives-russian-jets-isis/

KOREA’S GAESONG INDUSTRIAL PARK–THE LEVERAGE THAT KEEPS THE POSSIBILITY OF REUNIFICATION POSSIBLE STAY OPEN SINCE INTRODUCED IN 2004–AS PRIVATE KOREAN BUSINESS RISK LOSS AMID POLITICAL AND MILITARY CONFRONTATION

……The industrial park was born out of inter-Korean wishes to create a win-win model that would promote not only economic cooperation, but also bilateral reconciliation. Although politics has, at times, posed hurdles to these goals, the park has helped enhance ― or at least maintain ― cross-border exchanges, a crucial element of the inter-Korean trust-building.
“The park has helped the two Koreas restore their connections for cooperation, which had been cut due to the national division,” said Huh Moon-young, a senior fellow at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification. “The complex also encouraged a gradual change in the North and helped the two build trust.”
For the cash-strapped Pyongyang, the industrial complex was a reliable source of foreign currency, particularly at a time when the international community imposes tough sanctions against it for its nuclear and missile development. The North currently rakes in some $87 million for the annual salaries of its workers.

……For the pilot operations of the inter-Korean complex in 2004, there were only 15 South Korean firms with several thousand North Korean workers. Now, 125 firms are operating there with around 52,000 North Korean workers producing textiles, shoes, clothes, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods.
In line with the increase in the number of factories and personnel, the production amount had surged to $469.5 million, a 31-fold increase from $14.91 million in 2005, although the production sharply declined last year due to the temporary shutdown.
The total amount of the production over the last decade amounts to more than $2.3 billion.
Physical conditions for South Korean entrepreneurs have also improved much. A decade ago, employers had difficulty doing business there due to an unstable supply of electricity, water and even food.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140629000294