ASIA IS RATTLED BY TRUMP’S THREAT TO DESTROY NORTH KOREA; “WE WILL DESTROY NORTH KOREA IF PROVOKED"

ASIA IS RATTLED BY TRUMP’S THREAT TO DESTROY NORTH KOREA:

“WE WILL DESTROY NORTH KOREA IF PROVOKED".

INTERNATIONAL HATRED & ISOLATION OF NORTH KOREA MAKES IT EASY FOR KIM JONG UN TO STARVE HIS PEOPLE IN EXCHANGE FOR DEVELOPING MORE NUKES.


Sources: ABC News


****** Trump's North Korea threat leaves Asia struggling to explain


Was it a bluff?

A warning that Washington would shoot down North Korea's next missile test?

A restatement of past policy?

Or simply just what it seemed: a straightforward threat of annihilation from the president of the United States?


Officials and pundits across Asia struggled Wednesday to parse Donald Trump's vow Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly to "totally destroy North Korea" if provoked.

In a region well used to Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons generating a seemingly never-ending cycle of threats and counter-threats, Trump's comments stood out.

South Korea officially played them down, while some politicians worried that Trump's words signaled a loss of influence for Seoul.

Tokyo focused on his mention of Japanese citizens abducted by the North.

Analysts across Asia expressed surprise, worry, even wry amusement, in one case, that Trump's words seemed to mirror threats normally emanating from North Korean state media.

Amid the speculation, the focus of Trump's belligerence, North Korea, remained silent in the hours after the speech.

Officials from the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a liberal who has advocated dialogue with the North while being forced into a hawkish position by the North's weapons tests, called Trump's words a signal of Washington's strong resolve to deal with the North, but also essentially a repetition of the basic stance that all options will be considered when confronting Pyongyang.

Trump has previously threatened the North with "fire and fury." Pyongyang responded to those past remarks with a string of weapons tests, including its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation and two missiles that flew over U.S. ally Japan.

Park Soo-hyun, a Moon spokesman, said that Trump's comments "reaffirmed the need to put maximum sanctions and pressure against North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations" so that Pyongyang realizes that abandoning its nuclear weapons is the only way forward.

Marcus Noland, a North Korea specialist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said in an online post that Trump's threat will feed a long-standing North Korean narrative that claims that the United States poses an existential threat.

"With those words, President Trump handed the Kim regime the soundbite of the century. It will play on a continuous loop on North Korean national television," Noland wrote.

North Korea's regular weapons tests are an attempt to create an arsenal of nuclear missiles that can threaten U.S. troops throughout Asia and the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang tested its first two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July and claims that it can now accurately reach the U.S. homeland, though outside experts say the North may still need more tests before its weapons are fully viable.

Each new test pushes the nation that much closer to that goal.

Some South Korean opposition politicians saw the comments as another sign that South Korea is losing its voice in international efforts to deal with the North's nuclear program.

Trump's U.N. speech came days after U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis created unease in South Korea by saying without elaboration that the United States has military options against North Korea that wouldn't involve the destruction of Seoul.

The South Korean capital is within easy artillery range of the huge array of North Korean weapons dug in along a border only an hour's drive from greater Seoul's 25 million people.

Kim Su-min, a lawmaker in the People's Party, expressed worry that South Korean officials heard nothing from Washington before both Mattis' and Trump's remarks.

"The government should comprehensively review its diplomatic and national security system and do its absolute best so that our stance on critical issues related to the existence of our country and the lives of our people doesn't go ignored," Kim said.

Diplomacy meant to rid the North of its nukes has been moribund for years, and Pyongyang has made huge strides over the last several years in its quest for nuclear tipped missiles that can reach anywhere in the world.

Trump has pushed Beijing, which is the North's only major ally, to do more to influence Pyongyang's behavior, so far to no avail.

A Chinese expert on North Korea was surprised by the vehemence of Trump's speech, saying "his rhetoric is full of military force."

Cheng Xiaohe of Renmin University said in an interview that he initially thought that "the U.S. had nearly declared war on North Korea." The speech signals that "if North Korea conducts another missile test, the U.S. is very likely to intercept."

Officials in Tokyo, meanwhile, welcomed a reference by Trump to North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s.

"I think it means an understanding has gotten through" to the United States and other countries, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura said, according to Kyodo News service.

Trump said, "We know it kidnapped a sweet 13-year-old Japanese girl from a beach in her own country to enslave her as a language tutor for North Korea's spies."

The girl, Megumi Yokota, was one of at least 17 people that Japan says North Korea kidnapped.

Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in South Korea, described Trump's threats as similar to the type of bluffing that North Korea has used for decades.

"It's a bit funny to see how the U.S. president behaves in exactly the same way, using exactly the same words his North Korean counterparts have been using for decades," Lankov said.

Rhetoric that isn't followed by action will eventually undermine the U.S. image internationally. "It makes American threats far less efficient," he said.
Lankov said he expects North Korea to respond to Trump's threats with "equally powerful ... equally comical" and "probably more ridiculous rhetoric."

NORTH KOREA EVADES SANCTIONS WITH HELP FROM AMERICAN CHINESE BUSINESSMAN (SUN SIDONG)

NORTH KOREA EVADES SANCTIONS WITH HELP FROM AMERICAN CHINESE BUSINESSMAN:

SUN SIDONG OF LONG ISLAND NY SUPPORTS NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR MISSILE PROGRAM.

HOW DID SIDONG GO UNDECTED IN HIS EFFORTS TO SUPPORT NORTH KOREA?

ISN'T THIS ACT OF TREASON OR A WAR CRIME??


Sources: MSN News


***** Did Owner of Million-Dollar U.S. Home Help North Korea Evade Sanctions?


The five-bedroom house in New York's Long Island suburbs — listed for nearly $1.3 million — boasts a southern exposure and proximity to a country club.

But here's what's more interesting:

The seller, a Chinese national named Sun Sidong, has been linked by American security experts to a network of Chinese companies under Treasury sanctions for helping companies and individuals who support North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

According to Chinese corporate filings, Sun is the listed owner of Dandong Dongyuan Industrial Co., which has shared an email address with another Chinese company, Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material Co., a coal exporter suspected of helping North Korea evade sanctions.

The coal company and "four related front companies" were targeted by a federal search warrant allowing prosecutors to secretly monitor their financial transactions at eight U.S. banks, seizing any funds stemming from illegal sanctions-busting, according to a May federal court ruling.

The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell of Washington, D.C., said the eight American financial institutions — Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BNY Mellon, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, and Standard Chartered Bank — had already processed upwards of $700 million in prohibited transactions involving North Korea since 2009. The ruling does not allege any wrongdoing by any of the banks.

On Tuesday, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material Co. and its primary shareholder in response to "attempted evasion of U.S. sanctions."

That shareholder, a Chinese businessman named Chi Yupeng, was also named in a civil complaint filed Tuesday by the Justice Department seeking a money laundering penalty against the firm, as well as the seizure of $4 million in funds allegedly laundered for North Korea's ruling party. The complaint alleges that front companies controlled by Chi Yupeng comprise one of the largest financial facilitators for North Korea.

Chi Yupeng hung up on NBC News several times when asked for comment.

The Justice Department also moved to seize nearly $7 million from a Singapore firm over similar allegations, and Treasury levied sanctions against a number of other Chinese and Russian entities — 16 in total — it accused of helping North Korea evade sanctions.

The government's investigation was supported by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a non-profit U.S. think tank, is part of a new get-tough approach to North Korean sanctions that began in the Obama administration and is accelerating under President Trump, current and former U.S. officials say.

While it's widely assumed that North Korea has for years been subjected to punishing international pressure as it defied the world and advanced toward a nuclear missile capability, the sanctions against North Korea have been full of holes, experts say — far less restrictive, for example, than the measures that brought Iran to the nuclear bargaining table.

Sun's Great Neck house is an example of how the alleged sanction-busting networks can stretch around the globe, even to the luxe suburbs of Long Island. "The fact that you have somebody who's engaged in trade that is potentially not just sanctioned, but dangerous, and that individual then invests in real estate in the United States reflects that there are holes in the system," NBC News National Security Analyst Juan Zarate said.

The North Korea sanctions targeted specific military technology, "but what you didn't see until quite recently are these kind of broader sanctions to go after the North Korean economy as a whole," said Peter Harrell, who was the deputy assistant secretary for counter threat finance and sanctions in the State Department from 2012 to 2014.

Nor was there an aggressive enforcement effort against banks and individuals doing business with Pyongyang. As a result, the North Korean economy has grown steadily over the last decade, analysts say. And while the country as a whole remains extremely poor, the elite live relatively well amid a building boom of gleaming skyscrapers in the capital.

"Until February of 2016, U.N. sanctions against North Korea were strong on paper but poorly enforced, and U.S. sanctions against North Korea were comparatively weak — weaker than our sanctions against Belarus and Zimbabwe," said Joshua Stanton, a North Korea expert and former Army officer.

Now, that is changing — though it may be too late. North Korea tested a missile that many experts say could strike the U.S. mainland, and American intelligence officials say the country may be months away from being able to mount a nuclear warhead on such a missile.

Still, aided by new sanctions imposed in the past year, the Trump administration is moving to increase economic pressure on North Korea, by targeting the Chinese companies that have for years helped the North fund its military activities.

"Justice is stepping it up by going after the Chinese banks," said Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who served as the nonproliferation advisor to the U.S. delegation to the 2005 Six-Party Talks on North Korea.

In June, the U.S. Treasury Department designated China's Bank of Dandong — based in a city on the North Korean border that serves as a center of trade between the two countries — to be a "primary money laundering concern." It said the small bank "acts as a conduit for illicit North Korean financial activity." Two Chinese individuals were also targeted in the government's action.

Last September, the Justice Department charged Dandong-based businesswoman Ma Xiaohong with evading sanctions and laundering millions of dollars for North Korea. Ma has not made a court appearance and her whereabouts are unclear.

Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., recently introduced a bill that would cut off entities that do business in North Korea, including the top ten Chinese importers of North Korean goods, from using the American financial system.

In August, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed new sanctions meant to pressure Pyongyang's export revenue. They crack down on North Korea's primary exports — including iron, iron ore, coal, lead, lead ore and seafood — and target banks and joint ventures with foreign companies.

C4ADS, which focuses on international security, uses sophisticated software and business records to map links between companies involved with North Korea.

In June, the group published a report — titled "Risky Business" — naming Sun, who owns the Great Neck house, as part of a network that may be exporting technology that could be used in North Korea's missile program.

Chinese business records cited by C4ADS show Sun owns 97 percent of Dandong Dongyuan Industrial Co. Ltd., a general-purpose trading firm whose businesses include the sale of automobiles, machinery, natural resources, and general household products, the report says. NBC News confirmed that the records show Sun as primary shareholder.

Customs records indicate the firm has exported to three countries: North Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the United States. From 2013 to 2016, the company sent $28 million worth of material to North Korea, the records show.

For example, Dandong Dongyuan Industrial Co. sent North Korea a shipment of radio navigational aid apparatus valued at nearly $800,000 in June 2016, the C4ADS report said. Experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies concluded that "this category might contain guidance devices for ballistic missiles."

NBC News reviewed shipment data from Panjiva, which tracks global trade. It shows more than 60 shipments of items by Sun's company to North Korea that fall into the category of "nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof." This broad category is set by the country of origin, in this case the Chinese government. Experts say dual-use items like these help the Kim regime evade sanctions that are explicitly designed to prevent its nuclear capability.

"The danger with the export of dual-use items is that they appear to be legitimate. These are things that could be used for normal purposes," Zarate said. "You have parties that are willing to export what are really dangerous items to a regime that has been sanctioned, and trying to use the cloak of legitimate commerce in order to do that."

C4ADS also links Sun to a ship carrying arms from North Korea to an unknown destination. In August 2016, a cargo vessel flying a Cambodian flag was intercepted by Egyptian authorities entering the Suez Canal with parts for 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades aboard. The grenade parts were hidden under 2,300 tons of iron ore, which is one of the newly banned mineral exports targeted by the U.N.'s recent sanctions program.

According to shipping records reviewed by NBC News, one of Sun Sidong's companies owned the vessel from April 2012 until August 2014, when ownership was transferred to a company controlled by Sun Sihong, who according to C4ADS is Sun's sister.

In 2015, Sun registered a New York-based company called Dongyuan Enterprise USA. On March 2, it received a shipment of "used furniture" from Dandong Dongyuan Industrial Co., Sun's Chinese company. Originally shipped from Dandong, the cargo traveled to the U.S. from Busan, South Korea, according to its bill of lading.

The real estate agent who brokered the sale of the Great Neck home to Sun recalled that the family was expecting furniture to arrive from China.

Sun, whose U.S. company operates out of a New York City address he does not own, bought the Great Neck property near the country club for $1.1 million in December 2016.

The house is already on the market again. Sun's U.S. real estate broker told NBC News that's because Sun "doesn't want to do business here."

One lesson of Sun's activities is that targeting a small number of key actors could put a severe dent in North Korean's effort to evade sanctions, according to David Johnson, the executive director of C4ADS.

"The networks that perpetrate sanctions evasion for North Korea are limited, centralized, and vulnerable," Johnson said. "That is, we can touch them, there are very few pressure points, and we can make a major impact."

NORTH KOREA'S STARVING CHILDREN vs NUCLEAR WEAPONS (PLEASE PRAY)

NORTH KOREA'S CHILDREN ARE STARVING (PRAY):

KIM JONG UN IS USING FOOD DISTRIBUTION MONEY TO DEVELOP MORE NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

CHINA KNOWS THIS BUT DOESN'T CARE.


Sources: Asia Press, Fox News, CNN, The Guardian, BBC News, Newsweek, Youtube


**** Unicef warns of severe child malnourishment in North Korea


About 25,000 children in North Korea require immediate treatment for malnutrition after a drought cut food production by a fifth and the government reduced rations, Unicef has warned.

The UN’s children’s fund is asking for £12.6m ($18m) in donations for its North Korea work as part of a global £1.9bn humanitarian appeal for children.

It said the money needed for its work had doubled in three years, driven by global conflicts and extreme weather that were forcing growing numbers of children from their homes and exposing millions more to food shortages, violence, disease and abuse.

For the first time, it said a quarter of the worldwide appeal would go towards educating children in emergencies, focusing on 5 million children affected by the Syrian civil war, which is now in its fifth year.

In North Korea, Unicef said severe drought during 2015 in four agricultural provinces led to a 20% reduction in crop production compared with 2014.

“The impact of this will continue into 2016. Cereal rations were reduced, impacting the nutritional and health status of women and children,” it said in a statement.

International aid appeals for North Korea are often severely underfunded as foreign governments try to pressure Pyongyang to curtail its nuclear ambitions.

Aid workers warn that whenever North Korea conducts nuclear weapon trials – such as the hydrogen bomb test this month – foreign funds dry up. During 2015, Unicef received only 38% of the £15.5m North Korea appeal.

The hermit nation suffered a famine in the 1990s that killed as many as a million people, and the country still relies heavily on foreign aid.

“The severe drought last year reduced food production and children’s access to safe, clean water,” Unicef’s representative in North Korea, Timothy Schaffter, told the Guardian.

“Without safe water, children are at greater risk of diarrhoea, which is a leading cause of malnutrition and death. We have reports of a 72% increase in diarrhoea among children under five in the most severely drought-affected provinces.

“If we are unable to secure additional funding, our supplies of essential medicines will start running out in March, nutrition supplies will be depleted by mid-year, and our highly successful immunisation programme will run out of basic vaccines before the year’s end.”

In its global 2016 appeal, the bulk of the funds sought would provide life-saving aid needed for Syria and the resultant refugee crisis in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, Unicef said.

It called for £126m for children in Yemen, where 10 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, and said it needed £17.9m to help children in Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world, and where a political crisis has led to street fighting and mass displacement.

About one in nine children worldwide are living in conflict zones, said Unicef which warned of donor fatigue: protracted crises in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan were all less than 40% funded in 2015.

“In the past few months I have seen with my own eyes children pushed beyond the boundaries of human suffering in Burundi, north-east Nigeria and along the migrant and refugee route in Europe,” said Afshan Khan, Unicef’s director of emergency programmes.

Extreme weather posed a further risk to children. “Climate change, deforestation and the worsening El Niño weather system are pointing to more frequent and intense disasters in 2016, impacting a larger number of children in east Asia and the Pacific,” Unicef regional emergency adviser Carmen van Heese said.

The impact of El Niño in the Pacific islands had caused typhoons and floods, Unicef said. Drought warnings are in force for Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and Palau.

“Children and families are struggling to cope with one of the worst El Niño cycles ever recorded, with more frequent and intense cyclones expected in 2016,” Unicef said, warning of further malnutrition and crop failures.

N KOREA & CHINA'S BRUTAL COMMUNISM CAN NO LONGER BE IGNORED

NORTH KOREA & CHINA'S BRUTAL COMMUNISM CAN NO LONGER BE IGNORED:

CHINA SUPPORTS NORTH KOREA'S COLD, BLOOD-THIRSTY REGIME.

USA LEADERS & US MILITARY MUST ENGAGE NOT IGNORE.


Sources: FoxNews, Youtube


***** North Korea is a threat to the US and so is China


President Trump on Friday declared that the “era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed,” thankfully turning the page on the Obama Administration's disastrous policies towards Pyongyang.

But America’s woes in Asia don’t stop with North Korea. In fact, the challenge Washington faces in that vital part of the world are much bigger. The good news is that the Trump Administration does have a narrow window to do something about it—before it's too late.

Now is the time for Washington to end the era of “strategic patience” with another rogue regime, one that is not only aiding North Korea’s military rise but is also on a crash course to dominate the Asia-Pacific.

That country is none other than the People’s Republic of China.

To be fair, the challenge China has posed to U.S. national security always seems to be get placed on the backburner, to be dealt with another day—something both Democrat and Republican administrations are guilty of.

The reasons are obvious. Years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, a great recession like no other, a Syrian civil war that seems never ending, tensions with Russia and now an epic struggle to ensure ISIS is simply no more have all ensured Beijing gets a pass for its actions -- time and time again.

President Trump on Friday declared that the “era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed,” thankfully turning the page on the Obama Administration's disastrous policies towards Pyongyang.

But America’s woes in Asia don’t stop with North Korea. In fact, the challenge Washington faces in that vital part of the world are much bigger. The good news is that the Trump Administration does have a narrow window to do something about it—before it's too late.

Now is the time for Washington to end the era of “strategic patience” with another rogue regime, one that is not only aiding North Korea’s military rise but is also on a crash course to dominate the Asia-Pacific.

That country is none other than the People’s Republic of China.

To be fair, the challenge China has posed to U.S. national security always seems to be get placed on the backburner, to be dealt with another day—something both Democrat and Republican administrations are guilty of.

The reasons are obvious. Years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, a great recession like no other, a Syrian civil war that seems never ending, tensions with Russia and now an epic struggle to ensure ISIS is simply no more have all ensured Beijing gets a pass for its actions -- time and time again.

Continue Reading Below


As Washington cast its focus everywhere else, China has decided to shed the notion of a so-called “peaceful rise," and instead pursue a dangerous course of action that is only leading to rising tensions with America, and if successful, will turn Asia into Beijing’s own private sphere of influence.

How China has worked to achieve its goals is clear, and in fact, is very much out in the open.

First, Beijing has done all it can to create an arc of instability, from the East China Sea all the way to the very ends of the South China Sea to advance its agenda. China prods and pushes its claims of “indisputable sovereignty” in all directions along this track, using civilian ships like fishing vessels, a dangerous maritime militia, and coast guard vessels that are many times nothing more than redesigned Chinese naval vessels, to ensure its mastery of the seas around them. Its goal is to turn such vital waterways into extensions of its territory, or what it calls “blue national soil."

Indeed, Beijing’s actions in the hotly disputed South China Sea deserve special attention. The beating heart of Asia’s economic miracle, China has literally drawn borders around this critical part of the global ocean commons. Called the nine-dash-line, China has done what no other nation has dared to do in centuries: place outlandish claims over vast waterways, that if enforced, would destroy the notion that oceans and seas can be claimed by no one. Beijing has even gone so far as to build island military bases out of small rocks and reefs in the area, tipping the strategic balance in its favor.

Next, to ensure the region takes China’s claims seriously, Beijing’s military might has advanced by leaps and bounds. Experts inside the Pentagon have privately told me that they fear America may now lack the ability to protect its interests and allies against China if conflict did break out—unless Washington was willing to accept casualties not seen since the Vietnam War, or worse.

Beijing’s strategy to dominate Washington in a conflict is also quite clear. Knowing that it still can’t match America ship for ship or plane for plane, Beijing has developed countless classes of deadly missiles. In the event of a conflict over Taiwan, the South or East China Seas or in Korea, China would shower U.S. bases, warships or allies with potentially thousands of missiles. And worst of all, thanks to treaty commitments agreed to with the now defunct Soviet Union, Washington is unable to legally build land-based missiles in the ranges needed to respond in kind.

But for Beijing this is simply not enough. China has even decided that it must begin to match America in as many possible areas of traditional military might as possible. Through cyber espionage, it has stolen classified data involving some of America’s most advanced military platforms. Such theft has included data on the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters, the THAAD missile defense system and many others. Take a look at China’s latest stealth fighter, the J-20. See a resemblance to America’s stealth weapons? The reason is obvious.

For Washington and its allies, the accumulation of Chinese economic, military and diplomatic muscle means the international community can no longer ignore this threat.

Considering all of this, now is the time for America to push back against Chinese acts of aggression—and not through failed foreign policy slogans like a “pivot” or “rebalance”—but through actual deeds.

The Trump administration must develop a comprehensive strategy to ensure that Beijing does not dominate the Asia-Pacific, bully our allies or partners in region, or is able to defeat Washington in a military conflict.

Let there be no doubt, the growing threat of a nuclear North Korea compounded with the rise of China and its aggressive acts to ensure it dominates Asia are the two biggest foreign policy challenge America faces today. There can be only one response: when it comes to Trump’s foreign policy strategy, “America First” must mean Asia is the top priority above all else.

It's well past time that Washington make ‘Asia First’ a slogan it will put steal behind. There simply is no other choice.

RUSSIA TO OBAMA: PROVE KREMLIN INTERFERED IN DEMS' 2016 ELECTION LOSS

RUSSIA TO OBAMA: PROVE THE KREMLIN INTERFERED IN DEMS' 2016 ELECTION LOSS:

IS OBAMA & KEY DEMS TRYING TO START WORLD WAR 3 (ARMAGEDDON)??

YES......OBAMA WANTS WAR WITH RUSSIA, IRAN, CHINA AND SYRIA.

I THINK YOU KNOW WHY (CALIPHATE).


Sources: CNN, NBC, Fox News, End Times Prophecy News, Jim Beckwith, News Max, YouTube


**** Russia Challenges US to prove campaign hacking claims or shut up


Story highlights:

Dmitry Peskov said US accusations of hacking "look unseemly" without proof

US intelligence agencies have pinned blame on Russia for election-related hacking

The United States must either stop accusing Russia of meddling in its elections or prove it, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was "indecent" of the United States to "groundlessly" accuse Russia of intervention in the US election campaign, Russian state news agency Tass reported.

"They should either stop talking about that or produce some proof at last. Otherwise it all begins to look unseemly," Peskov reportedly said about the latest accusations that Russia was responsible for hacker attacks.

President Barack Obama on Thursday vowed retaliatory action against Russia in the light of allegations that it meddled in the US presidential election campaign.

"I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing," he told NPR.

What is known about the hacking

• Data and thousands of emails were stolen from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, among other targets.

• US intelligence agencies in October pinned blame on Russia for campaign-related hacking.

• WikiLeaks, which published much of the information obtained by hacking, has refused to reveal its sources.

• The United States has not alleged that Russia interfered with the voting process on Election Day.

'Sophisticated tools'

A US official familiar with the election-related hacking told CNN Thursday that the operation was carried out with sophisticated hacking tools, suggesting that Putin was involved.

The source said while Putin's "fingerprints" were not on the hacking, "the nature of the operation was such that this had to be approved by top levels of the Russian government."

Russian cyberhacking activity has continued largely unabated since the election, including against US political organizations, US officials briefed on the investigation told CNN.

US President-elect Donald Trump dismissed the US intelligence community's assessment, in comments Sunday.

He suggested that there was no proof Russia had hacked the election, saying the snooping in Democratic Party servers and emails of Clinton campaign staffers could have been done by China or even someone sitting in New Jersey.

Clinton: Putin grudge was behind hack

Clinton said Thursday night that Putin's alleged involvement in the hacking of Democratic organizations during the 2016 election stemmed from a longtime grudge the Russian President has held against her.

Meanwhile, her campaign chairman, Podesta, issued a scathing rebuke of the FBI.

He wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that the bureau's "seemingly lackadaisical response to the very real Russian plot to subvert a national election" by comparison with its overzealous investigation of Clinton's emails "shows that something is deeply broken" there.

Russian hacking and the 2016 election, explained

Saakashvili: It's déjà vu

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told CNN Friday that he was not surprised by the US claims against Russia.

"Well I almost was, like, vindicated when the same administration in Washington suddenly started to speak about Russian involvement in the election," he said, speaking in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

"Because we, for me, it's déjà vu. They were the same people telling us, "no, no, it cannot possibly be true." And now it came to their doorsteps. And of course he [Putin] does all those things. Of course he is a great master."

TRUMP'S FREE TRADE SPEECH REMINDS VOTERS ITS ALL ABOUT THE ECONOMY (STUPID)

TRUMP'S FREE TRADE SPEECH REMINDS USA ITS ALL ABOUT THE ECONOMY 

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE ECONOMY STUPID.

Sources: Reuters, CNN, TIME, YouTube

Video Highlights: 

2016 Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump's FREE TRADE SPEECH delivered 6-30-2016 in New Hampshire was very encouraging and really made Trump appear as an Intelligent leader.

His speech was strongly focused on renegotiating current Free Trade agreements and bringing American jobs back from overseas.

Without more jobs there will be no MIDDLE CLASS within the American workforce.

**** Trump vows to reopen, or toss, NAFTA pact with Canada and Mexico

(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to force Canada and Mexico to renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement with the United States if elected, as part of an effort to protect and restore American jobs.

Trump criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement as a U.S. job killer, saying he would be willing to scrap the pact if Canada and Mexico were unwilling to budge. He also tried to link Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to the deal on the eve of a meeting in Ottawa of the "three amigos," the leaders of the three NAFTA signatories: the United States, Mexico and Canada. 

In his most detailed speech on trade, the presumptive Republican nominee said he would pull the United States out of negotiations for a deal among 12 Pacific Rim nations and promised to use executive power to resolve trade disputes with China.

Trump also pledged to revive the U.S. steel and aluminum industry, speaking at an aluminum scrap company in Monessen, Pennsylvania, nearly 30 miles (50 km) south of Pittsburgh, the one-time American steelmaking capital.

Trump has identified Pennsylvania as a state he believes he can wrest from the Democrats in the Nov. 8 election. He also campaigned on Tuesday in Ohio, which like Pennsylvania is a Rust Belt state. 

Democratic President Barack Obama won both states in 2008 and 2012, but manufacturing job losses have led to voter anxiety in the region.

"I'm going tell our NAFTA partners that I intend to immediately renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better deal for our workers. And I don't mean just a little bit better, I mean a lot better," Trump said in Pennsylvania.

If Canada and Mexico do not agree to renegotiate the pact, Trump said he would notify them under the agreement's terms "that America intends to withdraw from the deal."

He tried to tie his Democratic rival to the pact, approved in 1993 during the administration of her husband, President Bill Clinton, as he called NAFTA one of the "worst legacies" of the Clinton years.

On MSNBC after Trump's speech, Clinton spokeswoman Kristina Schake called the wealthy New York businessman the "king of outsourcing," in an apparent reference to Trump-branded products such as suits and ties made overseas. 

"It was full of hypocrisy and misstatements and outright lies," Schake said.

Trade has been a vulnerability for Clinton, who struggled for white, blue-collar votes in her Democratic primary race against U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who criticized her for supporting trade deals and said she was too close to Wall Street. 

TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP

Trump echoed Sanders' criticism on Tuesday, saying Clinton supported the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, while she was secretary of state and only opposed it once she was running for president. Clinton's campaign said she opposed the agreement because it was not strong enough on currency manipulation and other areas. 

Clinton has said she will evaluate each trade deal on its merits but does not believe the TPP is good for U.S. workers. Sanders now says he will vote for Clinton in November, although he has not formally withdrawn from the race.

Trump said he saw no way to fix the TPP, calling it a "death blow" for American manufacturing. Although China is not part of the agreement, Trump said Beijing might try to enter it "through the back door" later on.

Later, during a rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio, Trump said the deal was "just a continuing rape of our country."

Just hours before Trump spoke, Clinton allies sought to pre-empt the planned trade speech by saying Trump's policies amounted to empty promises.

Earlier, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a trade conference in Washington that "Trump embodies everything that is wrong with our current trade policy. He has consistently sent American jobs overseas to line his own pockets."

The AFL-CIO, which collectively represents more than 12 million workers, making it the largest U.S. labor federation, endorsed Clinton this month.

POPULIST ANGER

Both Clinton and Trump have acknowledged that Britain's vote to leave the European Union signaled a global economic frustration among working-class voters that could reverberate in the U.S. election.

"There is a lot of legitimate anxiety, fear and even anger in many parts of our country because people feel like the economy has failed them," Clinton said in Denver on Tuesday. "I think this is going to be one of the defining issues in this election."

Trump has seized on the historic Brexit vote to bolster his argument that voters are rising up against establishment leaders, saying Americans would reject the "global elite" and support his presidential candidacy.

But Trump has broken with Republican Party orthodoxy in criticizing trade deals, and has threatened to slap tariffs on Mexican and Chinese imports. His rhetoric has drawn criticism from many economists, who say such practices could spark trade wars.

As Trump spoke, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is usually in sync with prominent Republicans on trade policy, said on Twitter: "Under Trump's trade plans, we would see higher prices, fewer jobs, and a weaker economy."

DONALD TRUMP SAYS TRUE NATIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS HIGHER THAN 23%

@Trump

DONALD TRUMP SAYS TRUE NATIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS HIGHER THAN 23%:

MAINSTREAM MEDIA ONLY REPORTS GOVT PROPAGANDA NOT THE TRUTH.

Sources:  NBC, Meet The Press, Washington Post

"They have this phony number, 5.2 percent. Everybody that quits looking for a job is considered statistically a person that has a job. It’s a phony number. You probably — real numbers like 22, 23 percent. In fact, if you look at crowds like this and crowds wherever I go, if we were really at five percent, 5.2 percent, nobody would be there.”

— Donald Trump, speech at Liberty University, Jan. 18, 2016

“You have 60, 70, 80 million people out there that want to work that aren’t getting jobs.”

— Trump, interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Jan. 10, 2016

For a supposedly successful businessman, Donald Trump has remarkably little understanding of employment statistics. In fact, he often utters contradictory “facts” depending on the venue. At Liberty University, he said that the real unemployment rate is “22-23 percent,” but in the past he has asserted it was as high as 42 percent.

WAL-MART Is Selling DONKEY Meat & Fox Meat In CHINA! They Also Refuse To Pay Employees Decent Wages!

#WalMartDONKEYS

WAL-MART is Selling DONKEY MEAT & FOX MEAT in CHINA!!

OMG!! Is there a possibility some of that DONKEY & FOX MEAT could be in American Stores too??

This is more Negative Public Relations for the "King Of Processed Food & Low Wages".

Ironically the OBAMA Administration supports WAL-MART.

How can Pres OBAMA claim to support MINIMUM WAGE Increases, yet still be an Advocate for WAL-MART...."King Of Processed Food & Low Wages"??

"Wal-Mart Recalls Contaminated Donkey Meat In China"


Wal-Mart is recalling donkey meat in China after it was found to be contaminated with other animal products.

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) said it was recalling the meat in Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong.

The company apologized to customers and said it would provide refunds.

State media said the product -- Five Spice Donkey Meat -- had been contaminated with fox meat.

Wal-Mart spokespeople in the U.S. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But in a statement posted on Weibo -- China's popular Twitter (TWTR)-style micro blogging site -- the company said it had "zero-tolerance" for contamination problems. It said it was stepping up its food safety efforts by introducing routine DNA testing of easily adulterated meat products such as beef, mutton, donkey and venison.

Suppliers would be subject to inspections by a third party, and Wal-Mart will report companies suspected of fraud to the local police, it added.

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world but has faced growing pains in China, where it is slated to close many under-performing stores in early 2014.

In its latest quarterly earnings report, the company said the Chinese closures would hit overall profitability.

Food safety and contamination problems have plagued other companies in China.

Earlier this year, a series of scares damaged confidence in local powdered infant formula, causing a surge in demand for baby milk from Western countries.

Global brands have built up a reputation among many Chinese consumers for safer products, but they've had their own share of problems.

Yum! Brands (YUM, Fortune 500), which owns the KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands, has faced an uphill battle in China as it grappled with the fallout from a food safety scandal that began in late 2012 and fears over a new strain of bird flu.


Sources: AP, CBS News, CNN, Reuters, Youtube

"Outsourcing Pioneer!" Mitt Romney Invested Heavily In Companies That Outsourced American Manufacturing Jobs!

That's Right! Mitt Romney was responsible for the Outsourcing American Jobs trend by large Corporations.





Romney’s Bain Capital invested in companies that moved jobs overseas

Mitt Romney’s financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.

During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in running Bain, a private equity firm that he founded, it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

While economists debate whether the massive outsourcing of American jobs over the last generation was inevitable, Romney in recent months has lamented the toll it’s taken on the U.S. economy. He has repeatedly pledged he would protect American employment by getting tough on China.

“They’ve been able to put American businesses out of business and kill American jobs,” he told workers at a Toledo fence factory in February. “If I’m president of the United States, that’s going to end.”

Speaking at a metalworking factory in Cincinnati last week, Romney cited his experience as a businessman, saying he knows what it would take to bring employers back to the United States. “For me it’s all about good jobs for the American people and a bright and prosperous future,” he said.

For years, Romney’s political opponents have tried to tie him to the practice of outsourcing American jobs. These political attacks have often focused on Bain’s involvement in specific business deals that resulted in job losses.

But a Washington Post examination of securities filings shows the extent of Bain’s investment in firms that specialized in helping other companies move or expand operations overseas. While Bain was not the largest player in the outsourcing field, the private equity firm was involved early on, at a time when the departure of jobs from the United States was beginning to accelerate and new companies were emerging as handmaidens to this outflow of employment.

Bain played several roles in helping these outsourcing companies, such as investing venture capital so they could grow and providing management and strategic business advice as they navigated this rapidly developing field.

Over the past two decades, American companies have dramatically expanded their overseas operations and supply networks, especially in Asia, while shrinking their workforces at home. McKinsey Global Institute estimated in 2006 that $18.4 billion in global information technology work and $11.4 billion in business-process services have been moved abroad.

While the export of jobs has been disruptive for many workers and communities in the United States, outsourcing has been a powerful economic force. It has often helped lower the prices that American consumers pay for products and created a global supply chain that has made U.S. companies more nimble and profitable.

Romney campaign officials repeatedly declined requests to comment on Bain’s record of investing in outsourcing firms during the Romney era. Campaign officials have said it is unfair to criticize Romney for investments made by Bain after he left the firm but did not address those made on his watch.

In response to detailed questions about outsourcing investments, Bain spokesman Alex Stanton said, “Bain Capital’s business model has always been to build great companies and improve their operations.

We have helped the 350 companies in which we have invested, which include over 100 start-up businesses, produce $80 billion of revenue growth in the United States while growing their revenues well over twice as fast as both the S&P and the U.S. economy over the last 28 years.”

Until Romney left Bain Capital in 1999, he ran it with a proprietor’s zeal and attention to detail, earning a reputation for smart, hands-on management.

Bain’s foray into outsourcing began in 1993 when the private equity firm took a stake in Corporate Software Inc., or CSI, after helping to finance a $93 million buyout of the firm. CSI, which catered to technology companies like Microsoft, provided a range of services including outsourcing of customer support. Initially, CSI employed U.S. workers to provide these services but by the mid-1990s was setting up call centers outside the country.

Two years after Bain invested in the firm, CSI merged with another enterprise to form a new company called Stream International Inc. Stream immediately became active in the growing field of overseas calls centers. Bain was initially a minority shareholder in Stream and was active in running the company, providing “general executive and management services,” according to SEC filings.

By 1997, Stream was running three tech-support call centers in Europe and was part of a call center joint venture in Japan, an SEC filing shows. “The Company believes that the trend toward outsourcing technical support occurring in the U.S. is also occurring in international markets,” the SEC filing said.

Stream continued to expand its overseas call centers. And Bain’s role also grew with time. It ultimately became the majority shareholder in Stream in 1999 several months after Romney left Bain to run the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Bain sold its stake in Stream in 2001, after the company further expanded its call center operations across Europe and Asia.

The corporate merger that created Stream also gave birth to another, related business known as Modus Media Inc., which specialized in helping companies outsource their manufacturing. Modus Media was a subsidiary of Stream that became an independent company in early 1998. Bain was the largest shareholder, SEC filings show.

Modus Media grew rapidly. In December 1997, it announced it had contracted with Microsoft to produce software and training products at a center in Australia. Modus Media said it was already serving Microsoft from Asian locations in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan and in Europe and the United States.

Two years later, Modus Media told the SEC it was performing outsource packaging and hardware assembly for IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Computer Corp. The filing disclosed that Modus had operations on four continents, including Asian facilities in Singapore, Taiwan, China and South Korea, and European facilities in Ireland and France, and a center in Australia.

“Technology companies, in particular, have increasingly sought to outsource the business processes involved in their supply chains,” the filing said. “. . . We offer a range of services that provide our clients with a one-stop shop for their outsource requirements.”

According to a news release issued by Modus Media in 1997, its expansion of outsourcing services took place in close consultation with Bain. Terry Leahy, Modus’s chairman and chief executive, was quoted in the release as saying he would be “working closely with Bain on strategic expansion.” At the time, three Bain directors sat on the corporate board of Modus.

The global expansion that began while Romney was at Bain continued after he left. In 2000, the firm announced it was opening a new facility in Guadalajara, Mexico, and expanding in China, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea.

In addition to taking an interest in companies that specialized in outsourcing services, Bain also invested in firms that moved or expanded their own operations outside of the United States.

One of those was a California bicycle manufacturer called GT Bicycle Inc. that Bain bought in 1993. The growing company relied on Asian labor, according to SEC filings. Two years later, with the company continuing to expand, Bain helped take it public. In 1998, when Bain owned 22 percent of GT’s stock and had three members on the board, the bicycle maker was sold to Schwinn, which had also moved much of its manufacturing offshore as part of a wider trend in the bicycle industry of turning to Chinese labor.

Another Bain investment was electronics manufacturer SMTC Corp. In June 1998, during Romney’s last year at Bain, his private equity firm acquired a Colorado manufacturer that specialized in the assembly of printed circuit boards. That was one of several preliminary steps in 1998 that would culminate in a corporate merger a year later, five months after Romney left Bain. In July 1999, the Colorado firm acquired SMTC Corp., SEC filings show. Bain became the largest shareholder of SMTC and held three seats on its corporate board. Within a year of Bain taking over, SMTC told the SEC it was expanding production in Ireland and Mexico.

In its prospectus that year, SMTC explained that it was in a strong position to meet the swelling demand from other manufacturers for overseas production of circuit boards. The company said that communications and networking companies “are dramatically increasing the amount of manufacturing they are outsourcing and we believe our technological capabilities and global manufacturing platform are well suited to capitalize on this opportunity.”

Just as Romney was ending his tenure at Bain, it reached the culmination of negotiations with Hyundai Electronics Industry of South Korea for the $550 million purchase of its U.S. subsidiary, Chippac, which manufactured, tested and packaged computer chips in Asia.

The deal was announced a month after Romney left Bain. Reports filed with the SEC in late 1999 showed that Chippac had plants in South Korea and China and was responsible for marketing and supplying the company’s Asian-made computer chips. An overwhelming majority of Chippac’s customers were U.S. firms, including Intel, IBM and Lucent Technologies.

A filing with the SEC revealed the promise that Chippac offered investors. “Historically, semiconductor companies primarily manufactured semiconductors in their own facilities,” the filing said. “Today, most major semiconductor manufacturers use independent packaging and test service providers for at least a portion of their . . . needs. We expect this outsourcing trend to continue.”


Sources: Boston Globe, CBS News, Washington Post, Youtube

Chen Guangcheng Arrives In U.S. To Study Law At NYU School Of Law

Is Chen Guangcheng just temporarily visiting the United States to REST & Study Law? Or He is planning to Defect?









Chinese human rights activist Chen arrives in U.S.

Chinese human rights Activist Chen Guangcheng arrived Saturday evening in the United States, bringing an end to a diplomatic firestorm that erupted after he escaped from house arrest and took to YouTube to complain about abuse he said his family suffered at the hands of authorities.

United Airlines Flight 88 landed at New York/Newark Liberty International Airport to little fanfare after the U.S. State Department prohibited public and media access. Traveling with Chen were his wife and two children.

Less than two hours later, Chen, 40, spoke from New York University, where he will participate in a fellowship.

"I am very grateful to the assistance of the American Embassy and the promise of the Chinese government for protection of my rights as a citizen over the long term," Chen said to a mob of reporters and onlookers. "I am very gratified to see the Chinese government has been dealing with the situation with restraint and calm."

The activist indicated through a translator that the U.S. government granted him partial citizenship rights. He asked people to work with him to "promote justice and fairness in China." And Chen said he was looking forward to recuperating in "body and spirit."

Reporters traveling with him were denied access to Chen for much of the 13-hour flight from Beijing until he agreed to talk to one member of the media.

Chen expressed mixed feelings about arriving in the United States, saying he has unfinished business at home, according to CNN's Steven Jiang, who was on board the flight.

Chinese-speaking diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing traveled with the family, according to two senior State Department officials.

Chen had neither passport nor visa in hand when he was abruptly shuttled to the Beijing airport for the flight. At the airport, Chen waited with his wife and two children in a secure location. He was in a wheelchair, dark glasses over his eyes -- Chen is blind.

Chen had been in a Chinese hospital for the past few weeks, awaiting the documents to travel to the United States.

The self-taught legal activist angered Chinese officials with his fight against alleged forced abortions under China's one-child policy.
Chen spent four years in prison, and was then held under constant lockdown in his village.

In his April video after his escape, Chen addressed the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, detailing alleged abuses during the family's 18 months of heavily guarded detention at home.

"They broke into my house and more than a dozen men assaulted my wife," he said. "They pinned her down and wrapped her in a comforter, beating and kicking her for hours. They also similarly violently assaulted me."

On Saturday, Chen said he was confident officials will conduct a thorough investigation of the abuse and treatment toward him.

"I don't believe the central government will lie to me," he said.

Journalists and supporters were prevented from visiting Chen during his house arrest. One of those supporters is Hollywood actor Christian Bale, who was roughed up by security guards while attempting a visit in December. Chen indicated Saturday he would like to meet Bale.

Bale, in an e-mail Saturday to CNN, said, "Please shake Chen's hand, and give him and his family a hug from me upon their arrival in the U.S. They must be overwhelmed with relief at being together, and finally, safe; but also worried about their family who remain in Shandong. I would love to meet with Chen when he has the time."

Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, a Texas-based Christian human rights organization that has been campaigning for Chen's freedom, said the activist was deeply grateful to the international community's efforts to secure his freedom -- efforts that tested U.S. relations with the Communist giant.

Chen spent six days in the U.S. Embassy after he escaped house arrest ahead of a visit to Beijing by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The move infuriated Chinese authorities.

The one thing Chen could not leave behind was fear of reprisals for the rest of his extended family at the hands of the authorities in Shandong Province in eastern China.

"My elder brother was taken away by these thugs without any reasoning and then they came back and started beating up my nephew, and they used stakes and violently beat him up," Chen told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a telephone call from his hospital room earlier this week.

Chen added that his relatives' homes had been broken into and they had been beaten by people working for the government.

Chen said his nephew Chen Kegui tried to defend himself and now faces a "totally trumped-up" charge of attempted homicide. "After my nephew was beaten up, he actually was waiting to surrender himself and the police come back again and violently beat up my sister-in-law," Chen said.

The authorities in Linyi, the city that oversees Chen's village, had issued a statement accusing Chen Kegui of injuring government officials with a knife and saying he would be dealt with according to the law. They have declined to comment on the matter since.

ChinaAid urged the international community to continue to monitor the situation for Chen's extended family in China, amid concerns over possible reprisals by the authorities.

Amnesty International echoed that concern.

"Chen's journey to the United States would not have been possible without his own valiant character, the courageous support of his family and friends and the robust voice of the international community that never stopped working on his behalf," said Frank Jannuzi, head of Amnesty International's Washington office.

"But while Chen and his immediate family are safe, Amnesty International continues to be concerned about those in China who share his quest for justice, for they remain in serious jeopardy," he said. "Countless people, known and unknown, are subject to arbitrary detention, beatings and other forms of repression.

For Chen, whose escape from authorities in Shandong played out like a Hollywood thriller -- a persecuted blind man who climbed over a high wall and hid in a pig sty -- Saturday's sudden journey over an ocean and a continent was perhaps a fitting chapter in his story.

Sunday morning, Chen will begin a new life in America, calm and resolute as always.
New York University law professor Jerome Cohen first met Chen when the activist traveled to the United States as part of a State Department program in 2004.

"You got the feeling you were in the presence of some Chinese equivalent of Gandhi or something," Cohen said. "He had this gentle but steely moral force."

Chen never sought out to be a rabble-rouser, Cohen said, though he will always be thought of as one.


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Sources: AP, CBS News, CNN, NY Daily News, Youtube, Google Maps

Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan Are Newlyweds! Who Is Priscilla Chan?

‎"Now that Mark zuckaberg made the big announcement... Folks should be happy.. He and Facebook just saved the Institution of Marriage."
Davey D











Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg marries Priscilla Chan

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has updated his status to "married."

Zuckerberg and 27-year-old Priscilla Chan tied the knot at a small ceremony at his Palo Alto, Calif., home Saturday, capping a busy week for the couple.

Zuckerberg took his company public in one of the most anticipated moves in Wall Street history Friday. And Chan graduated from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, on Monday, the same day Zuckerberg turned 28.

The couple met at Harvard and have been together for more than nine years.

A company spokeswoman said Zuckerberg designed the ring featuring "a very simple ruby" that he designed himself.

The ceremony took place in Zuckerberg's backyard before fewer than 100 guests, who all thought they were there to celebrate Chan's graduation.




Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg marries longtime girlfriend

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg updated his status to “married” on Saturday.

Zuckerberg and 27-year-old Priscilla Chan tied the knot at a small ceremony at his Palo Alto, Calif., home, capping a busy week for the couple.

Zuckerberg took his company public in one of the most anticipated stock offerings in Wall Street history Friday. And Chan graduated from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, on Monday, the same day Zuckerberg turned 28.

The couple met at Harvard and have been together for more than nine years.

A source authorized by the couple to speak said Zuckerberg designed the ring featuring “a very simple ruby.”

The ceremony took place in Zuckerberg’s backyard before fewer than 100 guests, who all thought they were there to celebrate Chan’s graduation.

Even after the IPO, Zuckerberg remains Facebook’s single largest shareholder, with 503.6 million shares. And he controls the company with 56 percent of its voting stock.

The site, which was born in a dorm room eight years ago, has grown into a worldwide network of almost a billion people.

Zuckerberg founded Facebook at Harvard in 2004.

He was named as Time’s Person of the Year in 2010, at age 26.

Zuckerberg grew up in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.




Meet Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg's No-Nonsense Girlfriend

So who is the woman, to borrow Facebook's terminology, Zuckerberg finds himself "in a relationship" with?


1.) She's been with Zuck since college

Although "The Social Network" made it seem as though Zuckerberg's ambition was driven in part by his failures with women, the truth is he and Chan have been dating since their college days at Harvard.

They met at a party while waiting in line for the bathroom; Chan later told The New Yorker that she thought Zuckerberg was "this nerdy guy who was just a little bit out there."


2.) He offered her a job, she offered him candy

When Zuckerberg left Harvard in 2005 to focus on Facebook full time, he began recruiting classmates for positions at the facebook (as it was then known). According to The Harvard Crimson, Zuckerberg was sitting outside after a campus recruiting session when Chan walked by:

"Hey Priscilla, do you want a job at the facebook?" Zuckerberg asked a passing friend.

"I'd love a job at facebook," Priscilla Chan '07 responded, offering him a Twizzler.


3.) Their relationship has rules

Author and tech journalist Sarah Lacy has written that Chan has imposed strict rules on her relationship with Zuckerberg -- not because she doesn't trust him, but because he's such a workaholic. One of the top rules: "One date per week, a minimum of a hundred minutes of alone time, not in his apartment, and definitely not at Facebook."


4.) She helped spark Zuckerberg's interest in China

Chan, who is Chinese-American, brought Zuckerberg on a trip to China in 2010. (Their holiday included some business meetings, which prompted speculation about Facebook's interests in the Chinese market.) To prepare for the visit, Zuckerberg studied the Chinese language every morning.


5.) She's on Facebook

That's a no-brainer, right? According to the publicly available portion of Chan's Facebook page, she's into cooking, photography, learning Spanish, working with kids and visiting warm locales.


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Sources: AOL, AP, Ask Men, CBS News, CNN, Daily Mail, Facebook, Harvard Crimson, Mashable, The New Yorker, Twitter, Washington Post, Youtube, Google Maps