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."

TRUMP CHIDES UNITED NATIONS FOR MISMANAGEMENT, URGES IMMEDIATE REFORM

TRUMP CHIDES UNITED NATIONS FOR MISMANAGEMENT, URGES IMMEDIATE REFORM:

TRUMP WANTS TO LEAD UNITED NATIONS IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION TO HELP MORE PEOPLE GLOBALLY NOT FATTEN THE POCKETS OF ELITE GLOBALISTS.


Sources: Business Insider, CNN, Fox News, Reuters, Youtube


**** 'Bureaucracy and mismanagement': Trump urges reform during his first UN visit


U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the United Nations for bloated bureaucracy and mismanagement on his first visit on Monday to U.N. headquarters, calling for "truly bold reforms" so it could be a greater force for world peace.

Ahead of his maiden speech to the annual U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump hosted a short event to boost support for changes to the United Nations.

"In recent years the United Nations has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement, while the United Nations on a regular budget has increased by 140 percent and its staff has more than doubled since 2000," Trump said.

"The United Nations must hold every level of management accountable, protect whistleblowers and focus on results rather than on process," Trump said.

"I am confident that if we work together and champion truly bold reforms the United Nations will emerge as a stronger, more effective, more just and greater force for peace and harmony in the world," Trump said in his first remarks at the U.N. in New York since his inauguration as president in January.

In a building where long statements are commonplace, Trump spoke for just four minutes.

Some 128 countries were invited to attend Monday's reform meeting after signing on to a U.S.-drafted 10-point political declaration backing efforts by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "to initiate effective, meaningful reform."

U.N. Security Council veto powers Russia and China did not sign the declaration.

Businessman Trump, who complained during his 2016 election campaign about the United States paying a disproportionate amount of money to the United Nations, made the point again on Monday.

"We must ensure that no one and no member state shoulders a disproportionate share of the burden and that's militarily or financially."

The United States is the biggest U.N. contributor, providing 22 percent of its $5.4 billion biennial core budget and 28.5 percent of its $7.3 billion peacekeeping budget. The contributions are agreed on by the 193-member General Assembly.

Guterres, who also took office in January, told the meeting: "To serve the people we support and the people who support us, we must be nimble and effective, flexible and efficient."

He agreed that U.N bureaucracy was a problem that kept him up at night.

"Our shared objective is a 21st century U.N. focused more on people and less on process," Guterres said. "Value for money while advancing shared values – that is our common goal."

Trump also said that all peacekeeping missions should "have clearly defined goals and metrics for evaluating success."

The United States is reviewing each of the U.N. peacekeeping missions as annual mandates come up for Security Council renewal in a bid to cut costs.

The United States is a veto-wielding council member, along with Britain, France, Russia and China.

On Sunday night, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

When asked if the U.N. refugee agency could perform its current missions if the United States cut its voluntary contributions to the budget, according to a pool report Grandi answered: "I would say no."
"U.S. aid is vital to what we do to support refugees around the world and to find solutions to their situations," Grandi said.

MICHAEL BROWN'S FAMILY BLAMED FOR FERGUSON RIOTS AFTER BROWN'S FAMILY COMPLAINS TO UNITED NATIONS (APARTHEID)

MIKE BROWN'S FAMILY BLAMED FOR PROTESTS BY FERGUSON'S KLAN-CONTROLLED POLICE DEPT, MEDIA AND THE FEDS:

MIKE'S FAMILY WENT TO THE UNITED NATIONS, NOW THE OBAMA ADMIN, FERGUSON POLICE & MEDIA ARE TRYING TO SHUT THEM UP.

THE FEDS WANT TO CONTINUE MURDERING BLACK PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY BUT WANT US TO BE QUIET ABOUT IT.

THAT IS APARTHEID.

Article Sources: CNN; KPLR11; USA Today; Youtube

ARTICLE: "Police Asking: Did Michael Brown's Sep-father Intend To Spark Riots?"

To some, they're the gut-wrenching emotional cries of a man whose stepson's life was taken.

Others say they were dangerous words that sparked a powder keg as violent protests broke out in Ferguson, Missouri last week.

But did Michael Brown's stepfather intend to incite rioting in the St. Louis suburb?

That's a question Ferguson police say they're looking into.

Brown's stepfather didn't hold back as news of a grand jury's decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson reached Ferguson.

As throngs in front of the Ferguson Police Department listened to St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch's announcement on cell phones and radios, Louis Head stepped onto a platform above the crowd and embraced his wife, Brown's mother. He then turned to the demonstrators -- some of them shouting "F--- the police!" -- and yelled, "Burn this motherf---er down!" and "Burn this bitch down!"

His comments drew widespread attention in the aftermath of the violence as a video of his reaction, recorded just after McCulloch's announcement, circulated online.

No charges have been filed against Head, but police have interviewed people who know Head and who were with him November 24, the day a prosecutor announced that Wilson would not be indicted in the August 9 shooting, Police Chief Tom Jackson said Tuesday.

Head isn't being singled out, but he's one of the people being "looked at as part of an ongoing investigation into the activities surrounding Nov 24 pertaining to the rioting, looting and arsons," Ferguson spokesman Jeff Small said.

Brown's mother has defended her husband's reaction. Last week, CNN's Sunny Hostin asked her about accusations that her husband's words single-handedly started rioting and fires.

"I say that that's impossible," Lesley McSpadden said. "These things have been going on since August 9th, when it first happened."

Protests rocked Ferguson that day, hours after Wilson shot Brown. They grew as time passed and news of the shooting spread.

When the prosecutor finally revealed the grand jury's long-awaited decision last week, it wasn't long before Ferguson erupted again.

St. Louis County Police tweeted their first reports of looting less than 15 minutes later. In the hours that followed, a row of businesses on West Florissant Avenue, a major thoroughfare in the St. Louis suburb, was engulfed in flames. Police cars and vehicles at a nearby dealership were turned into fireballs. There were so many blazes that firefighters couldn't reach them all.

Police chief: 'We are pursuing those comments'

Police have not spoken to Head about his actions, but they intend to do so, Jackson said Tuesday, adding that multiple law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation.

The police chief told TV and radio host Sean Hannity something similar Monday, but he didn't classify the probe as formal.

"We are pursuing those comments, and there's a lot of discussion going on about that right now, but I really can't get into that at this time," he said.

But police aren't singling out Head, Jackson told Hannity.

"We can't let all that happened in Ferguson and Dellwood and the community die. Everyone who is responsible for taking away people's property, their livelihoods, their jobs, their businesses -- every single one of them needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," he said.

McSpadden, who was standing next to Head when he made the comments and herself told the crowd she'd never experienced anything like this, offered some context in a CNN interview last week.

After hearing the grand jury's decision, McSpadden said she felt like she'd been shot herself and her "emotions were raging." Head was angry, too, she said.

"He just spoke out of anger. It's one thing to speak, and it's a different thing to act. He did not act. He just spoke out of anger," she said. "When you're that hurt and the system has did you this wrong, you may say some things as well. We've all spoke out of anger before."

Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump has previously called Head's remarks inappropriate but asked the public not to condemn the family for being human. More recently, he told CNN to remember that Brown's mother and father have repeatedly asked protesters to remain peaceful.

He further called Head's statements "indefensible" and "not appropriate in any way."

"We don't condone people acting on emotion calling for people to do irresponsible things at all," Crump told CNN. "And so we want his family, his mother and father's message to come across louder than anybody who might be associated with them. ... And they can't control what others do. They can control what they pray for."

Others have called for Head's arrest, including Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who told radio host Laura Ingraham last week "that he should be arrested and charged with inciting to riot."

Would prosecutors pursue charges?

St. Louis County Police also said Tuesday that they were looking into Head's comments. Police will present their investigation to prosecutors once its complete, police spokesman Brian Schellman said.

But is it a case prosecutors would pursue?

It's unlikely, CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes said.

"I think they'll have a hard time proving that somebody that heard him in the midst of all that noise actually went over and did an arson or committed an act of starting a fire. I think most of the people you see in the crowd are not watching CNN. They're not watching media reporting of him saying that," he told "The Situation Room." "So it is probably very few people that heard it at that time."

Also, Fuentes said, it's likely many people who'd gathered in Ferguson as the grand jury's decision was announced were already determined to act.

"I think the cause and effect of his words will be hard to prove," Fuentes said.

Hostin, a CNN legal analyst, said prosecutors should also weigh what impact charging Head could have on the community.

"I think any prosecutor that looks at a case like this, given what is going on, what has gone on in Ferguson, would never touch this case," she said. "You would have to be really tone deaf to the larger issues that are at play here to bring a case like that."

Ferguson police also under investigation

More than a week after the grand jury's decision, investigations into Brown's shooting and its aftermath are far from over.

The U.S. Justice Department also is investigating the shooting as part of a civil rights probe -- and investigating the Ferguson Police Department, looking at past incidents, procedures and training.

Another part of the probe, according to law enforcement officials, is a pattern of actions by Jackson, the Ferguson police chief, who critics accuse of inflaming public reactions after Brown's shooting.

Among them: the chief's decision to release a video showing a convenience store robbery in which Michael Brown stole cigars minutes before the fatal confrontation with Wilson, Jackson's comments to the media that Wilson would be welcomed back to the police department if a grand jury declined to bring charges, and, now, Jackson's announcement that his department was investigating Head for possibly inciting a riot.

Wilson resigned over the weekend, saying he was worried about putting Ferguson's residents and police officers at risk.

On Tuesday, the Fraternal Order of Police revealed that its members had been providing the officer with free protection since Brown was killed.

Wilson began receiving threats via phone, email and social media after the shooting, and "the (Ferguson Police) department being unwilling or unable as an entity to provide security for him, Fraternal Order of Police members from the surrounding area volunteered and have provided him with security from that time, right up until the present," said the group's executive director, Jim Pasco.

Despite Pasco's assertion that a police department is supposed to protect someone "when a person in the community is inundated with threats on his or her life," it's been widely reported that Wilson went into hiding so hastily after the Brown shooting that he left his lawn half-mowed.

In another development Tuesday, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced that the National Guard will scale back operations in the area.

"The Guard has completed its duties within the city of St. Louis, and has begun to systematically reduce its presence in St. Louis County," Nixon said in a statement.

Troops are still supporting local law enforcement agencies in Ferguson and other parts of the county, he said.

UNITED NATIONS HARSHLY CONDEMNS UNITED STATES FOR POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST BLACK PEOPLE (DEMANDS U.S. GOV'T IMMEDIATELY ADDRESSES ISSUE)

UNITED NATIONS TORTURE COMMITTEE HARSHLY CONDEMNS UNITED STATES FOR RACISM......POLICE BRUTALITY..........AND EXCESSIVE FORCE:

U.N. OFFICIALS DELIVER 16-PAGE EMBARRASSING, SCATHING REPORT REVEALING HOW HORRIBLY POLICE MISTREAT BLACK YOUTH & BLACK INMATES IN THE UNITED STATES.

U.N. DEMANDS THAT U.S. FEDERAL GOV'T OFFICIALS INDEPENDENTLY INVESTIGATE & ADDRESS THESE ISSUES IMMEDIATELY.

Article Sources: International Business Times; TIME; CNN; PressTV; Youtube

ARTICLE: "Ferguson Shooting: UN Torture Committee Condemns US For Excessive Force In Law Enforcement"

The United Nations on Friday denounced the U.S. for reportedly violating an international treaty against torture, including several instances of police shootings of unarmed black youth.

In a 16-page review of the U.S.’ track record on torture since 2006, the U.N. took aim at what it said were “numerous reports” of police brutality against minorities as well as distressing conditions in some U.S. prisons, according to Reuters.

The document, which does not mention the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, specifically, came in the wake of a grand jury’s decision not to indict a Ferguson police officer in the August shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

The U.N. Committee against Torture cited several examples of "excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, in particular against persons belonging to certain racial and ethnic group.”

The report, the U.N.’s first on the U.S. since 2006, condemned the extensive use of Tasers against people resisting arrest, citing two recent cases in Florida and Chicago that turned deadly.

In response to the grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for Brown’s death, committee member Alessio Bruni said the U.N. "has to respect the decision" of the jury, according to CNN.

The comments were made Friday at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where Brown’s parents testified in front of the committeeearlier this month.

The committee’s report focused mainly on the U.S.’ treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, however its allegations broadened to include other alleged abuses, such as the “prolonged suffering” endured by victims of prison rape and death row inmates who undergo so-called botched executions, as well as the excessive use of solitary confinement.

Wilson gunned down 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.

The shooting sparked national protests over police brutality and the nature of policing in the U.S. Wilson will not stand trial for the shooting after a grand jury found that he had acted in self-defense, a decision that was met with riots across the country.


#StopPoliceBrutality

Pres. Obama's UN Speech...He Vows US Will Do Its Part On Climate Change

At a U.N. summit on climate change, President Barack Obama vowed to "meet our responsibility."

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UN Wasted $196 Billion On Ineffective, Mismanaged World Hunger Programs

MSNBC----

In the last two decades, the world has spent more than $196 billion trying to save people from death and disease in poor countries.

Millions of people are now protected against diseases like yellow fever, sleeping under anti-malaria bed nets and taking AIDS drugs.

But there isn't much proof that pricey programs led by the United Nations and its partners are responsible, according to two studies published Friday in the medical journal, Lancet.

Trying to show health campaigns actually saved lives is "a very difficult scientific dilemma," said Tim Evans, a senior World Health Organization official who worked on one of the papers.

In one paper, WHO researchers examined the impact of various global health initiatives during the last 20 years.

Some programs hurt care:

They found some benefits, like increased diagnosis of tuberculosis cases and higher vaccination rates. But they also concluded some U.N. programs hurt health care in Africa by disrupting basic services and leading some countries to slash their health spending.

In another paper, Chris Murray of the University of Washington and colleagues tracked how much has been spent in public health in the last two decades — the figure jumped from $5.6 billion in 1990 to $21.8 billion in 2007 — and where it’s gone. Much of that money is from taxpayers in the West. The U.S. government was the biggest donor, contributing more than $10 billion in 2007.

They found countries don't get more donations even if they're in worse shape. Ethiopia and Uganda both receive more money than Nigeria, Pakistan or Bangladesh, all of whom have bigger health crises.

Some experts were surprised how long it took simply to consider if the world's health investment paid off.

Richard Horton, the Lancet's editor, labeled it "scandalous" and "reckless" health officials haven't carefully measured how they used the world's money.

Experts said that in some cases, the U.N. was propping up dysfunctional health systems. "If you've got rotten governments, no amount of development aid is going to fix that," said Elizabeth Pisani, an AIDS expert who once worked for the U.N., citing Zimbabwe as a prime example.

Disproportionate funding:

Murray and colleagues also found AIDS gets at least 23 cents of every health dollar going to poor countries. Globally, AIDS causes fewer than 4 percent of deaths.

"Funds in global health tend to go to whichever lobby group shouts the loudest, with AIDS being a case in point," said Philip Stevens of International Policy Network, a London think tank.

In WHO's study, researchers admitted whether health campaigns address countries' most pressing needs "is not known."

When Cambodia asked for help from 2003-2005, it said less than 10 percent of aid was needed for AIDS. But of the donations Cambodia got, more than 40 percent went to diseases including AIDS.

WHO acknowledged change was necessary, but insisted it needed even more money, warning fewer donations would jeopardize children's' lives.

U.N. agencies, universities and others working on public health routinely take from 2 to 50 percent of a donation for "administrative purposes" before it goes to needy countries.

Others said there is little incentive for health officials to commission an independent evaluation to find out what their programs have achieved.

"The public health community has convinced the public the only way to improve poor health in developing countries is by throwing a ton of money at it," Stevens said. "It is perhaps not coincidental that thousands of highly paid jobs and careers are also dependent on it."


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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps