The Fantastic Four

This article shows that since satellite imagery is showing North Korea’s nuclear facility being restarted, worldwide suspicion has been growing. The United States already has a shaky relationship with North Korea and U.S. nuclear negotiators have stated that there would be no formal negotiations with North Korea until it showed that it was willing to end its nuclear weapons programs. Meanwhile, in Iran, things are beginning to move, and Rouhani, Iran’s president, has agreed to meet U.K. foreign secretary Hague in New York at the U.N. General Assembly. The Baruch student’s opinion on this issue was that the United States must not approach either country with too much zeal, because too much foreign influence has left the United States with disaster, according to previous similar situations throughout American history.

Russian officials have recently assessed that a bus bomb that went off on Monday was actually done by a suicide bomber. The bomb that was caught on film killed 5 people and injured 25 went off on a highway in Volgograd around 2 PM. Officials believe that a woman was the perpetrator of the hiatus crime. The woman is thought to be the wife of the man that is the leader of a radical Muslim group in Dagestan, a country where Russian forces are actively engaged in suppressing separatists from the rest of society in Dagestan. The police found her identification papers a few feet from the scene of the crime.

http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/air-pollution-hits-harbin-in-northeast-china-closing-schools-and-roads/?ref=world&_r=0

The city of Harbin in China experienced horrible pollution which caused the local schools to close, airports to shut down, and basically paralyzed traffic for hours. The heavy fog caused by the pollution make it nearly impossible to see anything past 10 meters, which is highly dangerous, especially while flying an aircraft or driving a car. The heavy fog happened when the Chinese government made the decision to turn on the coal-powered heating system of the city due to the upcoming winter season. After a air quality index test, the Harbin government found out that the city had scored more than 500. The United States declares that anything between 301 to 500 AQI is considered as Hazardous! Over recent years, there has been a 30 percent increase surge of individuals in the Harbin city that had to be go to the hospital due to respiratory issues. There are three main factors are contributing to the horrible pollution to the city: lack of wind, burning of crops on farms, and the start up of the heating system powered by coal. Even though the pollution has gone to extreme levels, the Harbin government are taking steps to try to reduce it. For example in recent years they had destroyed hundreds of small boilers, along with banning high sulfur coal, and using cleaner car fuel methods.

The article is about the recent terrorist attacks in Kenya.  A shopping center for many tourists was attacked and held for four consecutive days.  Over 60 people are dead and 50 more are still missing among the rubble when 3 of the floors collapsed.  they have also found that a few American and British citizens were apart Of the attacks that took place.  Kenyans are now worried about how thier economy is going to be affected by this.  Kenya’s money comes mostly from tourism but after this tragic event, visiting Kenya is one of the last things on peoples mind.  The Kenyan currency has already fallen against the American dollar.

Article Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/world/europe/greenpeace-activists-face-possible-piracy-charges-in-russia.html

This article is related to the theme of foreign affairs because it highlights the tension between Russia and several other countries belonging to an international environmental awareness organization after an attempt at protesting environmental degradation. Greenpeace, the environmental organization, decided to engage in the act of peaceful protest against Russia’s energy exploration plan in the Arctic. Greenpeace saw Russia’s new energy exploration plan in the Arctic as a threat to the environment and an attempt to exploit natural resources in this small and fragile region. As a result, the organization protested by using a ship to scale an offshore oil platform in the Arctic. Russia responded by towing the ship, which they saw as an intrusion and thwart against their energy plan. The ship’s crew had included citizens from 18 different countries, including one American. These citizens will now face criminal charges, regardless of their nationality. Many argue that what the Greenpeace ship did was illegal, dangerous, and threatened both the people involved in the offshore confrontation and the environment the organization desires to protect. Many also say that this confrontation only worsened the foreign relations between the United States and Russia, two countries that have clashed repeatedly in recent months since the highly publicized arrest of an American diplomat. Many wonder if this move by Greenpeace will be seen by most as an attempt at peaceful protest to save the environment or if it will be interpreted as an unnecessary “extremist” move that will only worsen foreign relations with Russia.

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