The awful idea of a Bloomberg presidential bid isn’t going away:
Mr Bloomberg told the FT that he would need to start putting his name on ballots across the US at the beginning of March. “I’m listening to what candidates are saying and what the primary voters appear to be doing,” he said.
South Korea have claimed that North Korea are preparing to conduct another underground nuclear test, in a bid to escalate tensions with the UN and international community. Seoul’s intelligence agency warned that Pyongyang is preparing its fifth nuclear test, just one day after it fired a long-range ballistic missile. Enews.pk reports: In its previous nuclear test, on 6 January, North Korea detonated what it says was a hydrogen bomb, but international experts have rejected that suggestion.
China is facing international condemnation after new allegations emerged that authorities have routinely harvested the organs of political prisoners whilst they are still alive. Newsweek say that well-respected journalists from all over the globe have confirmed that thousands of people have had their organs illegally forcibly removed, without anesthetic, by Chinese authorities whilst in prison. Theantimedia.org reports: Many of the victims belong to a banned religious group called Falun Gong, a forbidden, though peaceful Chinese religion created in 1992.
Hacktivist group Anonymous have urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Saudi Arabia from participating in the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. Anonymous released a video by their Operation Nimr branch, urging a ban on the Gulf Kingdom following the execution of 47 people last year. Sputniknews.com reports: The call to ban Saudi Arabia from this year’s summer Olympic Games comes in protest to the execution of 47 people, including Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and several Arab Spring activists in early January.
If there’s anything we’ve learned over the past twelve months it’s that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is prepared to employ all manner of nefarious tactics in order to preserve his grip on power in Ankara.