Entry # 9 - 24th February, 2014

Title: What it Takes to Fly a Spy plane U-2 to the edge of Space
Date: 24th February, 2014
By: Richard Hollingham


This vehicle have already been in service for over 60 years now, its amazing how they are still in service. Remarkably, almost 60 years after its first flight and in today's era of high-definition satellite images, the U-2 is still in service - though it was recently announced that the fleet might be retired in the 2015 fiscal year. These special aircrafts can only be flied by top shelf pilots the best of the best in the air force. Russians cannot shoot them down as the altitude of this plane exceeds their air defense missile systems. This plane is used for strategic reconnaissance. For example, flying along a sensitive border looking into a country of interest, we can take images and we can record signals intelligence that tells us what's going on inside the country, such as North Korea.

All in all i think that this aircraft have been very useful in the cold-war and even now, as we can know what is going on in countries like North Korea and Afghanistan. I also think that this is actually more dangerous as there is always a chance that you can get shot down by anti aircraft fire and anti air missile systems, but although these missions are dangerous i think that they really cannot be replaced as although our satellites are extremely accurate, there are certain places where a satellite cannot detect, where as these planes can just get in and get out and get the information that was needed.

Entry # 8 - 23rd February, 2014

Title: South Korea - US military Drills Begin
Date: 23 February, 2014
By: BBC


 The annual drills between South Korea and the US have begun. South Korea and the US describe these annual drills as defensive in nature, but the North Korean government has described it as "exercise of war". last year this exercise led to a tension between and two Korean Nations, with the North Korean government threatening to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strikes and attack South Korean and US targets. The Pyongyang government have been opposing these drills and even threatens to cancel the reunion for citizens for the two nations. The North Korean government is famous for them to use family reunions as a bargaining tool against the US and the South.
 
  Well actually i support and don't support both sides as its actually quite provoking for two countries to be doing military drills right next to your country, but i think that a country should not use inhuman ways to achieve their goals in this case using the reunions of families members of the two countries as bargain, i think that its absolutely unacceptable. If i was the North Korean government i would be pissed too. If i can organize these drills i wouldn't organize them in a way that's going to make the other nations uncomfortable. All in all i am both pro and con in this matter.

Entry # 7 - 18th February, 2014

Title: Ukraine: Deadly Clashes around Parliament in Kiev
Date: 18th February, 2014
By: BBC

The mood have been calm in Kiev, but protest camps remains on the street and the opposition insisted the immediate resignation from the government or else the government that it risked inflaming tensions if it failed to act. In the worst violence the past week, police used rubber bullets and stun grenades as thousands apon thousands of protestors marched the parliament building. EU said that she is extremely worried about the situation in Ukraine and urged the government and the politicians to address the root cause. Some protestors throw smoke bombs and cobblestones towards the police where the police retaliate by using stun grenade, flashbang and rubber bullets. The protestors marched to the parliament in order to force the government to address constitution reform.

Well i think that this issue is addressed quite well by the Ukrainian police as the protestors casualties are at the minimal thinking of what really happened there as you can see in other countries for example in Egypt their protests cost lives up to 100 to 1000 whereas in this area of the world the police forces are more civilized and got better ways to "repel" these protestors. But all in all these kind of incident is actually very bad for the country as it ruins the trust between the governors of the country and the people governed by them. Also when ever there's casualties no matter if they are police or protestors its bad, no one should die because they are just expressing their anger or the fact that they wanted change. All in all i don't support either side of this conflict and hope that they resolve it quickly before it gets worse.

Entry # 6 - 10th February, 2014

Title: Illegal hunting on the rise in Afghanistan
Date: 11 February, 2014
By: Navin Singh Khadka




  Afghanistan have listed that nearly 150 wild animals and birds are at risk as illegal hunting is starting to grow in this country. The country claimed that the animals have been illegal hunted by locals and by foreign nations in the middle east. Environmentalists have suggested that the problems might not be from the citizens but of politicians using illegal hunting to secure the backing of influential individuals from the gulf for the election campaigns in Afghanistan. In these recent years the country stated that they have lost some wild birds and animals species because of illegal hunting. Some Afghan officials said that illegal hunting has pushed animals like the black bear, cheetah, lynix, ibex, siberian and other rare species to a point where those animals are going to get extinct if this kind of behavior continues.

  Well firstly i think that illegal hunting is an important subject now, as you can see in Africa the number of elephant have decreased as more people are hunting illegally, making profits out of doing these illegal things. Also this brings a lot of negative effects to the environments, if one species become extinct then its like a chain other animals are going to start dying as everything in nature is in a chain, where if one kind of animal got extinct, then all the others are going to follow soon. Back to the topic i think that the government in Afghanistan they should set up patrols or to set up strict laws saying that whoever is illegally hunting should be sentenced to life in prison, and that's the only way that this situation is going to stop.
   

Entry #5 - 5th February, 2014

Title: Koreas agree to family reunions in February
Date: 5th February, 2014
By: BBC


  South Koreans and their relatives in the North finally got a chance to reunite with their family since 2010. Millions of citizens have been split due to the Korean war in the 1950s. The countries have since then host reunions for the relatives on both sides. But this had proven hard as the South Korean and the North Korean government band all sorts of communications between the two sides, email, phone call everything was banned. A lot of times the relatives on one side don't even know that if their relative is alive or not, and also only a few hundred out of more than 72000 are chosen to go to this reunion so there is a high chance that they might not be even able to see their relatives, if they did go to this reunion activity. North Korean said that this is going to be a start on fixing the relationship with South Korea for the first time this year.

  Well i think this is absurd that they got to wait so long to meet their relatives. I think that the North Korean government should let their citizens go back to their relatives in the South. They have been separated because of the war, they are all mainly 70-80 year old men, why won't the North Korean government let them back to South Korea. As i have said they are all old men, when they live in North Korea they can't do anything but to sit there doing nothing and crying and being sad about their relatives in the south. Whereas if the North Korean let the old men back to South Korea then they could live the rest of their life in peace and they can finally be happy about living without strict laws in North Korea.

Entry #4 - 3rd February, 2014

Title: Corruption Across EU "Breathtaking" - EU Commission
Date: 3rd February, 2014
By: BBC

  The extent of corruption in Europe is "breathtaking" and it costs the EU's economy at least 12 billion Euros annually. 3 quarters of Europeans have taken a surveyed commission study said that corruption was wide spread, and more than half said that the problem have increased. Europe's corruption problem is extreme although Sweden is the country with the least problems. 64% of the British respondent of the survey said that they believed that corruption is widespread in the UK, while the EU average for this question was 74%. There's also high levels of bribery in Poland, Slovakia etc. Sweden is one of the countries with the least problems, the anti-fraud association is going to learn from Sweden to deal with this problem.
   This is quite disturbing, as you can see there's actually quite a fuzz going on in EU, with their economics problems and stuff. In the past years the economic have been bad in Europe, for countries like Greece well we found the problems now, as you can see on the chart, 60%-69% of their own citizens think that their country is corrupted. 120 billion dollars is wasted in corruption, this amount of money can be spent on public health and services instead of wasting them. The governments of all the great nations in Europe should think about their anti-corruption policies and make a change, or else the situation is just going to get worse.