<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Stringer</span></p><p class="caption">Soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) jump as part of their winter training in temperature of negative 26 degrees Celsius at China's border with Russia in Heihe, Heilongjiang province.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The Chinese government is buying up shares to prop up its stock markets, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/chinese-stocks-are-getting-hammered-again-2015-8">repeating a tactic used during last year's meltdown</a>. </p><p>The so-called "National Team" is injecting cash into the market after Monday's 7% crash, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-05/china-said-to-intervene-in-stock-market-after-590-billion-rout">according to a report by Bloomberg News.</a></p><p>The government is also preparing to extend a ban on short selling - where investors borrow stocks and sell them, pocketing a profit if the price falls - in an effort to keep the stock market bouyant.</p><p>The sell-off on Monday saw about $590 billion wiped from Chinese shares, according to the Bloomberg report. The fall was so steep that it <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/2016-chinas-stock-markets-january-4-2016-1">triggered a break clause that suspended trade for the day</a>.</p><p>Markets reopened on Tuesday and the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index immediately opened 3% lower. But with an hour left to trade, the index is now down around 1.47%.</p><p>The reaction of Chinese authorities to the crash is similar to what happened last summer, when shares plunged more than 40% in two separate crashes. </p><p>The Chinese state bought shares directly, limited debt-fuelled gambling on the markets and loosened pension policy to allow pension funds to hold more stocks. There were about 40 interventions but only direct buying kept markets up. </p><p>Here's the list of policy actions China tried last time. Depending on how things go this year, the government may try a similar scatter-gun approach again:</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><strong>June 27</strong></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">1. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-china-cuts-interest-rates-again-to-support-economy-2015-6">China's central bank, People's Bank of China, cuts interests rate by 0.25%</a>.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">June 30</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">2. Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) tells investors and fund managers to stay rational and not to panic.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 2</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">3. Brokers loosen margin financing requirements; the practice of lending to retail investors who use the money to trade shares.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">4. State Council decides to suspend large public share offerings until Shanghai Composite Index of shares returns to 4,500 level.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">5. Police investigate three media outlets for spreading rumours and the government vows to impose heavy penalties for manipulation. Government-run news sources Xinhua and People's Daily both publish articles calling for investors' confidence.</span></p><p class="p2"><strong>July 3</strong><br /><span class="s1"></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">6. Margin financing: some brokers lower threshold and loosen policy again.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">7. Crackdown on short selling and several brokers suspended the business.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 6</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">8.<span> China Financial Futures Exchange (</span>CFFEX) restricts index future trading.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">9. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/china-could-roll-out-a-policy-bazooka-if-stocks-continue-to-fall-2015-7">China Securities Finance Corporation (CSFC) to use funds contributed by various brokers to buy exchange traded funds.</a> Social Securities Fund (SSF) vows not to reduce existing equity positions in its portfolio.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 7</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">10. China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) allows insurers to invest more in blue-chip stocks.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 8</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">11. PBOC vows to maintain market stability and avoid systematic financial risk. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/panic-about-china-just-drove-a-colossal-sell-off-in-asian-markets-2015-7">It will provide ample liquidity to CSFC via interbank lending, financial bond, pledged financing, and relending facilities.</a></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">12. CSFC grants credit to 21 brokers via pledged stocks to allow them to buy more equities.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">13. CSFC invests in mid-cap stocks via mutal funds.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 9</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">14. China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) suspends reviews of share offerings.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">15. China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) allows banks to roll over matured loans pledged by stocks.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">16. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/chinese-police-are-investigating-possible-malicious-short-selling-of-shares-2015-7">Minister of Public Security &amp; CSRC investigate "malicious" short selling activities.</a></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">17. CSFC says it will purchase mutual fund products to stabilize liquidity.</span></p><p class="p2"><strong><span class="s1">July 13</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">18. CSRC probes trading system vendor Hundsun Tech for allowing illegal margin financing.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">19. China tightens rules on futures trading.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 15</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">20. CSDC to extend business hours for major shareholders to increase their own companies' stock holdings.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 16</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">21. CSRC demands brokers' proprietary trading to maintain net purchase on daily basis and it will allow brokers</span><span class="s1"> to exceed their risk limits</span><span class="s1">.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 17</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">22. CSFC receives RMB 1.3 trillion from 17 commercial banks.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 20</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">23. CSRC clarifies that government money will not be exiting the stock market.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 27</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">24. CSRC denies rumour that state buying has stopped.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">July 30</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">25. CSFC grants Rmb200 billion liquidity to five mutual funds.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">26. CIRC urges insurers not to net sell equities in near future and demands daily report on equity holdings.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">27. China Securities Depository and Clearing Co., Ltd (CSDC) cuts fees.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">August 3</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">28. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/chinas-stock-market-regulator-is-now-targeting-high-frequency-traders-2015-8">CSRC investigates electronic trading; 24 funds suspended for 3 months.</a></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">29. Shanghai Stock Exchange (SHEX) and Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZEX) significantly raises commission to discourage program trading.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">30. Policy banks announce RMB 1 trillion bonds to support infrastructure and construction in coming years.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">31. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-a-ban-on-short-selling-wont-help-china-pick-up-its-stock-market-2015-8">Stock markets change settlement dates to discourage speculative short-selling and to mitigate intraday volatility.</a></span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">August 7</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">32. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/china-wont-influence-stock-market-2015-8">Speculation that CSFC has war chest of RMB3 trillion to invest in stock market.</a></span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">33. CSRC vows to crack down on margin financing and illegal short selling.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">August 11</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">34. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/china-just-devalued-its-currency-2015-8">PBOC adjusts currency fix, devaluing by 3%.</a> Four out of five CSFC-invested mutual funds have started investing in A-share stock market.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">August 14</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">35. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/chinas-stock-market-crash-just-started-up-again-2015-8">CSFC publishes its exit plan:</a> Part of its stock holding will be transferred to Huijin; CSFC says it won't exit the stock market over the next few years.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">36. Ministry of Finance (MOF) relaxes rules for state-owned venture capital funds.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">August 18</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">37. CSRC investigates HOMS and Hithink RoyalFlush for illegal lending to finance retail stock purchases (margin financing).</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">August 21</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">38. CSRC suspends approval of 191 mutual funds and seeks to encourage more risk-tolerant investors.</span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">August 23</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">39. State Council issues new pension fund investment guidelines, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/afp-china-to-allow-pension-fund-to-invest-in-stocks-2015-8">allowing stock investment at 30% of net assets.</a></span></p><p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">25 August</span></strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">40. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/chinas-central-bank-just-denied-it-was-lowering-the-yuan-to-boost-exports-2015-8">Chinese central bank PBOC cuts interest rates by 0.25%.</a></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/turing-pharmaceuticals-ceo-martin-shkreli-daraprim-hedge-arrested-2015-12">The infamous pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli has been arrested</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5jMW9reTr5qxe5Vl3v3TW7Gkcs2u-7as" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

China's 'National Team' is doing everything in its power to stop stocks crashing - here's the playbook

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>New Zealand Police</span></p><p class="caption">More than 77 pounds of cocaine were found hidden in a statue of a horse's head.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>On Friday, New Zealand made its largest cocaine bust ever, seizing <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/horse-head-seizure-in-new-zealand-mexican-cartel-expansion-2016-7" target="_blank">nearly 80 pounds</a> of the drug hidden in a horse's head statue that arrived in the country from Mexico.</p><p>While three people are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/horse-head-seizure-in-new-zealand-mexican-cartel-expansion-2016-7" target="_blank">in custody</a> in relation to the shipment, it's not yet clear who sent the drugs or what their final destination was.</p><p>While New Zealand has seen <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/horse-head-seizure-in-new-zealand-mexican-cartel-expansion-2016-7" target="_blank">its own drug use rise</a>, it's also likely that the shipment was destined for Australia, where a kilo of cocaine, about 2.2 pounds' worth, can fetch $228,000 to $259,000 - far more than the same amount commands in the US.</p><p>The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/horse-head-seizure-in-new-zealand-mexican-cartel-expansion-2016-7" target="_blank">arrest</a> of two Mexican nationals in relation to the bust suggests that it may be part of efforts by Mexican drug cartels to expand internationally, moving into new markets and capturing new consumers.</p><p>If the shipment was orchestrated by a Mexican cartel, then the odds are the Sinaloa cartel of jailed kingpin <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-approved-el-chapo-guzmans-extradition-but-delays-remain-2016-5" target="_blank">Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán</a> - which controls are large <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-sinaloa-cartel-global-cocaine-trade" target="_blank">portion of the world's cocaine</a> - was involved.</p><p>If the Sinaloa cartel was behind the cocaine shipment, it's not the only Mexican criminal organization seeking to expand into Asia - nor is it limiting its offerings to cocaine. </p><h2>Push and pull</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>UN World Drug Report 2016</span></p><p class="caption">South America is the global hub of cocaine production.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Active links between Mexican cartels and the Australian drug market were <a href="http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/publications/mexican-drug-cartels-and-dark-networks-emerging-threat-australias-national-security" target="_blank">uncovered in 2010</a>, when Mexican nationals, who had links to cartels, were arrested during counter narcotics operations in Australia.</p><p>According to a <a href="http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/COG%20%2325%20Web%20v3.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> from the Australian National University, cartel expansion in Asia has been driven by "push" factors and "pull" factors.</p><p>Declining demand and falling prices in US and European markets has pushed traffickers to other markets.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters/John Vizcaino</span></p><p class="caption">A Colombian anti-narcotics policeman walks on packs of cocaine at the police base in Necocli February 24, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Those traffickers have been pulled toward Asia by Australia's high prices for illicit drugs ($228,000 to $259,000 for a kilo of cocaine, versus $54,000 in the US), as well as increased demand for illegal drugs related to the region's rapid economic growth.</p><p>The region also has the most amphetamine-type stimulant users in the world, and at the wholesale level, meth can <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/mexico-cartels-threaten-australia-national-security-report" target="_blank">cost 20 times</a> more in Australia than it does in Mexico.</p><p>Australia isn't the only target, however. In early 2015, police reported "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cocaine-smugglers-are-tapping-into-south-asia-2015-7" target="_blank">larger than usual amounts</a>" of high-purity cocaine had been intercepted in India, and drug seizures in that country <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cocaine-smugglers-are-tapping-into-south-asia-2015-7" target="_blank">tripled</a> between 2009 and 2013. In June 2015, authorities in Bangladesh <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cocaine-smugglers-are-tapping-into-south-asia-2015-7" target="_blank">seized</a> a $14 million shipment of cocaine, believed to be from Bolivia.</p><p>Nor are the drugs in question limited to cocaine. China <a href="http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/COG%20%2325%20Web%20v3.pdf" target="_blank">accounts for 50%</a> of the region's annual crystal-meth seizures (though much of the drug is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-strategy-against-drug-trafficking-has-completely-failed-2016-4" target="_blank">produced in China</a>). In 2013, South Korea <a href="http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/COG%20%2325%20Web%20v3.pdf" target="_blank">seized</a> more than 30 pounds of crystal meth that it linked to Mexico, and that same year, Japanese authorities <a href="http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/COG%20%2325%20Web%20v3.pdf" target="_blank">discovered</a> crystal-meth trafficking from Mexico into their country.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>UN World Drug Report 2016</span></p><p class="caption">Since 2009, global amphetamine seizures have fluctuated annually between about 20 and 46 tons, the UN reports.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Though the ANU's report notes that the danger posed to Australia is not from any one group, but rather from "<a href="http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/publications/mexican-drug-cartels-and-dark-networks-emerging-threat-australias-national-security" target="_blank">dark networks</a>" of "multiple organizations ... where one unit is not merely the formal subordinate in some larger hierarchical arrangement," it does describe the specific threats traffickers - Mexican cartels in particular - present to Australia.</p><p>Mexican cartels have pursued the wholesale side of the drug market in Australia, leaving retail distribution to local criminal groups (much as they do with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dea-maps-of-el-chapo-guzman-control-of-us-drug-market" target="_blank">street gangs in the US</a>). And not only do Mexican cartels not discriminate when it comes to partnering with criminal groups - they often add incentives to ensure their continued access to the market.</p><p>Worryingly, these incentives <a href="http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/COG%20%2325%20Web%20v3.pdf" target="_blank">include illegal firearms</a>, many of which flow into the hands of criminal groups in Mexico from sources in the US.</p><p>Mexican cartels' growing partnerships with Australian criminal groups "is of particular concern because of the potential escalation of violence between local criminal groups vying for control of domestic distribution networks, made all the more lethal due to the diffusion of illegal firearms from the cartels," the ANC's <a href="http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/publications/mexican-drug-cartels-and-dark-networks-emerging-threat-australias-national-security" target="_blank">report</a> states.</p><h2>'They are businessmen ... They are everywhere'</h2><p>While Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel is not the only game in town among Mexican criminal organizations, reports and arrests indicate that the Sinaloa organization has an outsize presence in <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> drug markets.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.stratfor.com/interactive/areas-cartel-influence-mexico">Courtesy of Stratfor</a></span></p><p class="caption">A look at Sinaloa's operations in Mexico.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The cartel is believed to have operations in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-sinaloa-cartel-global-cocaine-trade" target="_blank">up to 50 countries</a>, ranging from Argentina up to the US, across Europe and Africa, and throughout Asia and Oceania.</p><p>It's suspected of <a href="http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/COG%20%2325%20Web%20v3.pdf" target="_blank">partnering</a> with Chinese traffickers to bring precursor chemicals into Mexico to fuel that country's growing meth industry. It's also turned up in Hong Kong, and the arrest of suspected Sinaloa cartel operative in the Philippines in 2015 led to the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-strategy-against-drug-trafficking-has-completely-failed-2016-4" target="_blank">revelation</a> that the cartel was attempting to break into that country's meth trade.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Recaptured drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted by soldiers at the hangar belonging to the office of the Attorney General in Mexico City</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In Australia, the Sinaloans appear to have a significant presence. In September 2010, a report indicated that the cartel was moving more than <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/sinaloa-cartel-expands-reach-in-peru-australia" target="_blank">1,100 pounds</a> of cocaine into Australia each month.</p><p>In early 2013, court documents <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/court-docs-describe-sinaloa-cartel-expansion-in-australia" target="_blank">detailed</a> how the Sinaloa organization would fly millions of dollars from Australia to the US to purchase cocaine, and then move that cocaine back to Australia.</p><p>The Sinaloa cartel has "the capacity to negotiate with Nigerian criminal groups, European criminal groups - they provide to everybody. They are businessmen," Antonio Mazzitelli, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime representative for Mexico, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-strategy-against-drug-trafficking-has-completely-failed-2016-4" target="_blank">told</a> Vice earlier this year.</p><p>"They are everywhere. They had the capacity to take advantage of the globalization of the demand for illicit drugs. They have the capacity to provide all types of drugs everywhere," Mazzitelli <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-strategy-against-drug-trafficking-has-completely-failed-2016-4" target="_blank">said</a>.</p>      <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/agents-mexico-dumpster-cocaine-marijuana-longest-drug-tunnels-2016-4">Federal agents found one of the longest US-Mexico drug tunnels hidden under a dumpster</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="M5MWowMzE6zI5O_s6bMEd5LsYVtQ0MK3" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A cocaine-stuffed horse-head statue might be the latest sign of Mexican cartels' expansion

<p>An expert on China is tweeting an absolutely gripping, <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec">minute-by-minute account</a> of the bloody Tiananmen Square protests that erupted 25 years ago in the heart of Beijing.</p>
<p>The pro-democracy protests, led mostly by unarmed students, lasted weeks but came to a head on June 3 and June 4 of 1989. On June 4, Chinese troops fired at civilians, killing more than 1,000, according to some estimates. Many others were injured, arrested, or even executed for taking part in the demonstrations.</p>
<p>Now that it's technically June 4 in China, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Chovanec">international affairs expert and professor Patrick Chovanec</a> is "live-tweeting" the events of 25 years ago. Here are some of his recent tweets. <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec">Visit his Twitter feed to see the entire minute-by-minute account</a>. </strong></p>
<h1 class="ProfileHeaderCard-name"> </h1>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>June 4, 1989, 5:15am - APCs advance on a holdout group of 200 students reluctant to leave Tiananmen Square <a href="http://t.co/wNJJdg3ji3">pic.twitter.com/wNJJdg3ji3</a></p>
- Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec/statuses/473934453203431425">June 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>June 4, 1989, 5:15am - Students are herded out of SE corner of Tiananmen Square. A handful shout brave slogans. <a href="http://t.co/1AW4UGHpSg">pic.twitter.com/1AW4UGHpSg</a></p>
- Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec/statuses/473934108444590080">June 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>June 4, 1989, 5:00am - Truck filled w/armed soldiers watches as remaining students are herded out of Tiananmen Square <a href="http://t.co/ayqTq12JvE">pic.twitter.com/ayqTq12JvE</a></p>
- Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec/statuses/473932346287460352">June 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>June 4, 1989, 5:00am - APC machine gunners keep watch as remaining students are herded out of Tiananmen Square <a href="http://t.co/jPwKU6vr7X">pic.twitter.com/jPwKU6vr7X</a></p>
- Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec/statuses/473931778672308225">June 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>June 4, 1989, 5:00am - Soldiers herd remaining students off of Monument to People's Heroes and onto the Square <a href="http://t.co/dzHw9vBmSE">pic.twitter.com/dzHw9vBmSE</a></p>
- Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec/statuses/473930930252697600">June 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>June 4, 1989, 4:45am - 2 foreign witnesses say Cui shot into a crowd, killing an elderly woman, a man, &amp; a small girl <a href="http://t.co/QK5rfHxB4M">pic.twitter.com/QK5rfHxB4M</a></p>
- Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec/statuses/473930527800832000">June 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>June 4, 1989, 4:45am - Infantryman Cui Guozheng is stabbed, lynched, and burned at Chongwenmen intersection <a href="http://t.co/txK4lJw3Oy">pic.twitter.com/txK4lJw3Oy</a></p>
- Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec/statuses/473929911607234561">June 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>June 4, 1989, 4:30am - There is fierce controversy over whether any students were in tents when APCs ran them over <a href="http://t.co/PNyVUYafEB">pic.twitter.com/PNyVUYafEB</a></p>
- Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec/statuses/473929211628228608">June 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>June 4, 1989, 4:30am - APCs crush student tents in Tiananmen Square. There appears to be a body at bottom left. <a href="http://t.co/wUYZNzTFBE">pic.twitter.com/wUYZNzTFBE</a></p>
- Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec/statuses/473928712489295873">June 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>June 4, 1989, 4:30am - Armored vehicle topples the "Goddess of Democracy" in Tiananmen Square <a href="http://t.co/9XBMBtiFLK">pic.twitter.com/9XBMBtiFLK</a></p>
- Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) <a href="https://twitter.com/prchovanec/statuses/473926896510844929">June 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

Somebody Is Tweeting A Minute-By-Minute Account Of Tiananmen Square, And It's Gripping

<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Before being charged with <span>corruption and graft in June, retired </span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">General Xu Caihou was one of the major figures of Chinese politics. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But President Xi Jinping's has pledged to capture both "tigers and flies" in his aggressive anti-graft campaign, and Xu's former tiger status has offered him no relief. </span></p>
<p>At the height of Xu's power and influence from 2004 to 2012, the general could be have been <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1452749/retired-top-pla-general-xu-caihou-held-cash-rank-probe?page=all">considered</a> the most influential voice in China's military. During this time, former Chinese President Hu Jintao, known for his weak control of China's armed forces, had largely ceded influence over the military to Xu, who was the vice-chairman in the Central Military Commission. This role put Xu directly behind Hu as the leader of the Chinese military.</p>
<p>Xu retired from the military in 2012 after having served since 1968. However, Xu's rank and retirement did not stop Xi's anti-graft campaign, and investigations into the former general started in March 2014.</p>
<p class="p1">"This is the most high-profile attack on a military figure since Deng Xiaoping's time," <span>Christopher K. Johnson, an expert on Chinese politics at the Center for Strategic and <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">International</keyword> Studies, </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/world/asia/china-moves-against-one-of-its-top-leaders.html?_r=0">told</a><span> The New York Times. "</span>There's a message here from Xi to all resisters. It also sends a huge message on <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> structural reform." </p>
<h3 class="p1">Xi's Biggest Target Yet</h3>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Up until his retirement in 2012, Xu's political star was steadily rising. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In 1999 Xu was promoted to the Central Military Commission after serving as the political commissar of the Jinan Military Region. His <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20140709173740/http://china.dwnews.com/news/2014-07-02/59484868.html">focus</a> within the Commission was the facilitation of promotions and the carrying out of performance evaluations of military officers. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In 2004, Xu became the vice-chairman of the Commission. This promotion, coupled with Hu's hands-off policy towards the military, enabled Xu to become the principal influencer within China's armed forces. Simultaneously, Xu </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/world/asia/china-moves-against-one-of-its-top-leaders.html?_r=0">was part of</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> China's Politburo, the ruling Communist Party's 25-member elite decision-making body. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But none of Xu's successes could shield him from the Xi's anti-graft campaign, which, as Xi Jinping stated in his book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/XI-JINPING-GOVERNANCE-English-Version/dp/7119090577">The Governance Of China</a>," is aimed at "improving party conduct, upholding integrity, and combating corruption." </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Probes against Xu began in March 2014. By June, Xu had been </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/28/china-general-xu-caihou-bribery-corruption">court-martialed</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and stripped of his rank and title. The charges leveled against Xu included taking advantage of his position for awarding promotions and accepting bribes in exchange for military appointments. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 15px;">The drive to carry out disciplinary action against Xu <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1452749/retired-top-pla-general-xu-caihou-held-cash-rank-probe?page=all">shocked</a> his supporters. Xu is terminally ill with bladder cancer and his backers believed that his diagnosis was already a death sentence. The investigation pressed on anyway. </span></p>
<p>In October, Xu confessed to taking bribes. <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2014/10/china-former-pla-general-confesses-to-taking-extremely-large-bribes/">According</a> to investigators, Xu had <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"taken advantage of his position to assist the promotions of others, accepting huge bribes personally and through his family."</span></p>
<h3><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The Depth Of Corruption In China</span></h3>
<p>The evidence against Xu was overwhelming. It<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> revealed the jaw-dropping scope of official corruption throughout the Chinese political and military ranks. </span></p>
<p>When Xu's house was raided, he was found to have had so much illicit cash and precious gems that it took a week to count up all of his ill-gotten wealth and 12 trucks to haul the money away, <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/4883f674-7171-11e4-818e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Ov4EVsof">according</a> to the Financial Times.</p>
<p>The former general meticulously organized his<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> fraudulent earnings. <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/4883f674-7171-11e4-818e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Ov4EVsof">According</a> to the FT, cash was stored in boxes labeled with the name of the individual soldiers who had paid him for promotions. </span></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Under Xu, selling promotions expanded into an enormously lucrative business that permeated through all levels of the military. </span></p>
<p class="p1">"Such transactions did not only happen at the highest levels but also expanded to the grass roots," an unnamed senior colonel in the Chinese military <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1452749/retired-top-pla-general-xu-caihou-held-cash-rank-probe?page=all">told</a> the South China Morning Post. "The PLA has improved retirement and job replacement for veterans in the past decade, but it [the selling of ranks] has become a cash cow for many senior officials."</p>
<h3 class="p1">Stamping Out Corruption</h3>
<p class="p1"><a href="http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/xi-aims-his-anti-corruption-campaign-at-the-pla/">According</a> to The Diplomat, some China watchers believe that President Xi's targeting of Xu was a pragmatic mix of anti-corruption maneuvering as well as a political purge. Xu was rumored to have had extremely close ties with former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and the general remained heavily influential within the military even after his retirement in 2012. </p>
<p class="p1">By targeting Xu, Xi took down a potential rival to his own power base within the Chinese military as well as standing by his promise to take down "tigers." Importantly, aside from Xu's supporters, many in the military <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2014/10/china-former-pla-general-confesses-to-taking-extremely-large-bribes/">supported</a> Xi's move. </p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Xi is using the anti-corruption push to consolidate power. But the drive to arrest Xu and other military officials accused of graft has several other purposes too.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">China is desperate to rehabilitate the image of its military and show it as an honorable institution above the fray of corruption. </span></p>
<p>The drive to cut graft is also directly linked to China's military modernization efforts. Beijing is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-military-advancements-2014-10">investing</a> billions of dollars in closing the gap with the US's military capabilities in east Asia. However, all of its possible gains are undercut if individuals who can pay for positions are promoted above more talented officers. This is a deep, systemic problem in a military that is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-military-advancements-2014-10">developing</a> a range of high-end weaponry in a bid for regional dominance, including next-generation planes, new ballistic missiles, and an aircraft carrier group.</p>
<p>This lack of meritocracy has led to a number of prominent Chinese generals and analysts <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-chinese-militarys-ability-to-wage-war-eroded-by-graft-its-generals-warn-2014-18">openly wondering</a> if the military is simply too corrupt to fight a war effectively. This is this opposite of the image of strength that China wants to project during a period of heightened <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/asias-disputed-borders-2014-11">border tensions</a> with both Japan and its neighbors in the South China Sea.</p>
<p>Since Xu pleaded guilty in October, China's anti-graft operation has rapidly expanded. Beijing <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/15/us-china-military-corruption-idUSKBN0KO18Q20150115">announced</a> in January that an additional 16 senior officials are under investigation for "seriously violating party discipline." The majority of the officials have ties to Xu. </p>

This Former General Is One Of The Biggest Targets Of Xi Jinping's Anti-Corruption Push

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Joe Raedle/Getty</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>John McAfee did not kill his neighbor in Belize.</p><p>I know because I asked him that exact question. </p><p>"Do you know what questioning is there? They string you up buy your heels and they put a football helmet on your head. And then they beat that with a baseball bat until your brain turns to mush," McAfee told me, after denying his involvement.</p><p>"It leaves no scar. It leaves no bruise. It's not something I was doing. If you wanted to do it, I'd be happy to point you to someone who would do that to you," McAfee said. </p><p>I have no doubt that he would.</p><p>The 70-year-old former software executive is an enigma: Smart, entertaining, and a little bit of intimidating in a way that keeps you on edge. </p><p>His life has fluctuated from drug use to creating a multi-million dollar company and back again. He was accused of murdering his neighbor in Belize - by the press only, he says - and his dog was shot in his military compound by armed soldiers before he fled. He's since moved back to the US and lives in the one small town in Alabama that has gigabit internet access.  He was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mcafee-arrest-driving-under-influence-possession-of-handgun-2015-8">arrested earlier this summer</a> on charges of driving under the influence and handgun possession. (</p><p>McAfee is also running for president of the United States. </p><p>And don't laugh, because he is taking this seriously: He showed up at Techcrunch Disrupt, a three-day San Francisco startup, for a TV interview and stopped by the press room during his campaign visit. He left that night to fly off to do another magazine cover on his campaign trail.</p><p>"I will be president. You can laugh all you want. I'll bet you a dollar. I will be president or I would not be doing this," he said, <a href="http://recode.net/2015/09/21/john-mcafee-i-will-be-president-you-can-laugh-all-you-want/">as reported by Re/Code</a>.</p><h2>Meet the Cyber Party</h2><p>To run for president, McAfee created his own party: the Cyber Party.</p><p>He's against the internet of things, which lets televisions spy on our private conversations. He's extremely (and justifiably) concerned that a pair of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/researchers-show-the-ability-to-remotely-hack-and-control-a-car-2015-7">hackers took over a jeep</a>. He hired his friend who hacked the United Airlines entertainment systems (and was subsequently detained) as his chief technology officer to advise him. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Henderson County Police</span></p><p class="caption">A mugshot from earlier this summer, when McAfee was arrested in Tennessee on charges of driving under the influence of prescription drugs.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>McAfee argues that the government is not educated on cyber warfare or cyber science - any of the cyber-isms - and that will do us in. Our country is too lazy to have switched to the metric system and that's putting us behind. He really hates that there are 5,280 feet in a mile when the rest of the world can just move decimal places. </p><p>We're also in a cyber war, McAfee said, and no one is aware of it. </p><p>"T<span style="font-weight: 400;">he Chinese have declared war on us, they just haven't spoken it out loud. They have sucked up 14 million records of every employee who has worked for the US government for the past thirty years, including every top secret cleared employee and that includes every agent we have embedded in every country on this planet. No greater coup of warfare has ever been achieved and China walked off with that and America has never said a word," McAfee said.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another argument in his campaign arsenal: No one would elect him if he was illiterate, so why are we electing government officials who say they have never sent an e-mail or don't know what wiping a hard drive means? </span>The Chinese would laugh those politicians off the stage, McAfee argues, and yet we elect them in the US. Not just as president, but in every government office.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Computer software pioneer McAfee speaks with reporters outside his hotel in Miami Beach</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p> </p><p>The government also needs a cyber overhaul.</p><p>"<span style="font-weight: 400;">We have to re-architect all of our systems. All of our programs, all of our computers. We started out in the 70s building software. And we've built upon software, upon software, upon software. It is full of holes. It is like a waffle. It's like a sea sponge," McAfee says. "That's how they walked off with 14 million records. A child could have done it. We're in a tragic situation in a world."</span></p><h2>How he'll fix it</h2><p>McAfee says he has the votes. He told reporters that he has the tech vote, the tattoo vote, and the black vote, as one BBC reporter summarized. We ran out of time to run the math together. But, assuming he does win, he does know what his first steps in office will be:  </p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">His first act would be to pardon everyone with a marijuana conviction that is behind bars. "</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">My first act would be to pardon them, because I can do that as president, get these people out, get them jobs and keep them moving," McAfee said.</span></p><p>His second would be to disband the Transportation Security Administration.</p><p>He's already written extensively about how the next plane to go down will not be from weapons that slipped by. "<span>It will be brought down by two kids in China, Russia, or Afghanistan who are bored of playing Grand Theft Auto and say 'Let's bring down an airplane.' And from the internet, they will hack into it and bring it down," he said.</span></p><p>It won't leave us unsafe in the sky, he argues, because flight marshalls are still there.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A Transportation Security Administration arm patch and shield is seen at Los Angeles International Airport</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"<span style="font-weight: 400;">The TSA was a response to an imaginary future that never materialized. The future that did materialize the TSA cannot protect us from," McAfee said.</span></p><p>Also on the list: Opening up the borders, creating schools, and generating more jobs. Good-bye Border Patrol.</p><p>"<span style="font-weight: 400;">What purpose does it serve? It's not keeping bad people out I assure you. I know for a fact, having lived in Belize, they're coming in," McAfee said.</span></p><p>"Maybe it's the person perceived to be paranoid that actually perceives the truth of life and should be paranoid. You should be paranoid, we should all be paranoid. The man standing behind you with his hands in his pockets behind you looking comfortable, he should be paranoid. I could wake his ass up by saying 'Look, here's the situation we're in. We're in a cyber war and we're losing. The Chinese are invading and we don't even see it. We are in a world that depends upon a science that demands metrics and we have 5,280 feet in a length. And we have 212 degrees as the boiling point of water. What madness!'"</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tips-tricks-apple-2015-7">All the incredibly useful things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Ex-fugitive and a little bit crazy, cybersecurity legend John McAfee is running for president

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"></div><p></p></div>China is in the process of developing its own native fifth-generation fighter to compete with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-pak-fa-poses-serious-challenge-to-us-2014-5">Russia's T-50</a>.</p>
<p>Although China has been secretive about the exact specifications of the aircraft, experts are warning that the plane could be a game-changer in East Asia's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-south-china-sea-graphic-2014-7">potentially fragile security environment</a>. </p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">China's Chengdu J-20 is currently in its fourth round of prototypes. On July 26, the most recent version of the fighter flew for two hours before successfully landing. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Information about the J-20 is limited, but an unnamed Asian government source </span><a href="http://www.janes.com/article/41254/fourth-known-j-20-prototype-makes-first-flight">told</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> IHS Jane's that upwards of 20 J-20s could be deployed by within the decade. </span></p>
<p>The J-20 has evolved rapidly from its first documented prototype in 2011. Each successive prototype has shown a number of design advancements that help the plane evade enemy radar detection. These changes include modifying the plane's wing size and adjusting the air intakes to maximize stealth. </p>
<p>It's likely that China is also <a href="http://news.usni.org/2014/03/19/china-unveils-capable-stealth-fighter-prototype">outfitting</a> the J-20 with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar in the plane's nose.</p>
<p>AESAs are incredibly powerful radar systems broadcast at a range of frequencies, allowing a plane to remain stealthy in the process. And the use of the AESA in the J-20's nose marks a striking similarity to the design of the U.S.'s F-35 fifth-generation fighter. </p>
<p>The similarities between the F-35, the F-22, and the J-20 are likely not a coincidence.</p>
<p>Aviation expert Carlo Kopp notes that China imitates the basic shapes and skeletal designs of existing aircraft to speed development while minimizing the risk of a costly and embarrassing engineering failure later on. </p>
<p class="p1">"By cleverly exploiting contemporary United States-developed stealth fighter shaping design rules," Kopp <a href="http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-NOTAM-090111-1.html">writes</a> for the independent Australian think tank Air Power Australia, "Chengdu engineers were able to rapidly get an excellent basic shaping design with a minimum of risk and cost, and significant long-term stealth performance growth potential." </p>
<p class="p1">This potential, if China capitalizes on it, could allow the J-20 to achieve levels of stealth on par with, or even exceeding, the F-35.</p>
<p class="p1">This stealth capability could put all of East Asia at risk - the integrated air <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> systems in the region <a href="http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-NOTAM-090111-1.html">rely</a> primarily on types of radar that would be incapable of adequately detecting the J-20.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></p>
<p class="p1">China would have undisputed first-strike superiority throughout a region where tensions are on the rise. Exact details of the aircraft's </p>
<p class="p1">fuel capacity and range are unknown, but estimates give the J-20 a <a href="http://www.jamestown.org/programs/chinabrief/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=37903&amp;cHash=388055c494bacab998da29dfe56c08a0#.U_TpskhPJz9">striking range</a> of 1,000 nautical miles, which would place Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Philippines airfields within reach of China.</p>
<p class="p1">And China has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-south-china-sea-graphic-2014-7">simmering economic and territorial disputes</a> with each of these countries.</p>
<p class="p1">China's J-20 has likely also benefited from Chinese espionage.</p>
<p class="p1">A Chinese entrepreneur was arrested in July after <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-hackers-stole-f-35-data-2014-7">stealing gigabytes</a> of data related to the F-35 and the F-22, along with other U.S. military aviation projects. Previous <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stolen-f-35-technology-used-china-fighter-2014-3">extensive theft</a> of F-35 data is believed to be the driver of a number of redesigns to the J-20 and the cause of the aircraft's improvements within each prototype stage. </p>
<p class="p1">However, China is still believed to be a long way from developing a native engine system for the plane.</p>
<p class="p1">Engines are "the long pole in the tent," Reuben F. Johnson, a Russian and Chinese military aerospace analysts who writes for Jane's, <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2012/12/the-long-pole-in-the-tent-chinas-military-jet-engines">told</a> The Diplomat. Until China develops its own engines, it is limited to using Russian imports. </p>
<p class="p1">Ultimately, the overall quality of a plane is just one factor in the aircraft's effectiveness, David Cenciotti, a military aviation expert and founder of <a href="http://theaviationist.com/">The Aviationist</a>, told Business Insider via email. </p>
<p class="p1">"We don't know much about the [J-20], but it is safe to say it's not always a matter of technology, armament or on-board equipment," Cenciotti wrote. "T<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">heoretically, the J-20 will be able to match Western fifth-gen fighters in a one vs one confrontation, but a realistic engagement with airborne early warning and emissions control procedures would be something much different[.]" </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">And, as Cenciotti warns, training and logistics may be the most important factor. And if China can get that right, they'll have a fighter plane that can overcome their rivals' existing air defenses, and even match the over trillion-dollar F-35.</span></p>

China's Fifth-Generation Fighter Could Be A Game Changer In An Increasingly Tense East Asia

<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Facebook </span></p><p class="caption">Raymond Chow posing with a tommy gun-shaped cake in a picture posted on his Facebook page last month.</p></div><p></p></div><br /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">By his own account, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, one of the central figures in </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leland-yee-2014-4">a massive criminal probe that ensnared California State Senator Leland Yee</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> last month, once ruled over the criminal underworld in San Francisco's Chinatown. However, after being released from federal prison in 2006, Chow </span><a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1463259/reformed-gangster-raymond-shrimp-boy-chow-caught-fbis-net">claimed to have turned over a new leaf</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">. He gave speeches to school and community groups and even </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Raymond-Shrimp-Boy-Chow-%E5%91%A8%E5%9C%8B%E7%A5%A5/320363858024079">created a Facebook page</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> where he described himself as a "reformed soldier" and posted a trio of honors from politicians featuring his name, including what Chow labeled a "</span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=395080903885707&amp;set=pb.320363858024079.-2207520000.1396549520.&amp;type=3&amp;theater">letter of congratulations</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">" from Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.</span></p>
<p>In the wake of Chow's arrest on money laundering charges and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leland-yee-2014-4">allegations from the FBI</a> that he "holds a '489' position in the Triad, which is an internationally-based Chinese organized crime group," the official recognitions he received have <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/28/6277946/fbi-sting-cracks-reformed-image.html">raised eyebrows</a> and a spokesperson for Feinstein explained to Business Insider how Chow ended up with the letter. </p>
<p>"Senator Feinstein did not award Mr. Chow. She often writes congratulatory message on behalf of California organizations. In this case, each year she sends a letter to Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services regarding their 'In the Trenches' honorees. Those individuals were selected by Bayview, not Senator Feinstein. The letter was addressed to the organization, not any individual," the spokesperson said.</p>
<p>Chow was <a href="http://sfreentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/10th_annual_trenches_flyer_2012.pdf">named as a "change agent"</a> at the "In The Trenches" award ceremony held July 21, 2012. The awards are presented by Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services and are given to people "who have changed their lives for the better," "change agents, who have made positive impacts in people's lives," and "community leaders." The letter from Feinstein was dated July 21, 2012 and was addressed to the director of the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center, Suzy Tyner. It featured Chow's name along with all the other "In The Trenches" honorees.</p>
<p>The other two political plaudits posted on Chow's Facebook page also appear to be related to his "change agent" award. Chow received a "certificate of recognition" from state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano dated June 29, 2012 and a "certificate of honor" from San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on the day of the award ceremony. The text on Chow's certificate from Lee also referenced the award.</p>
<p>"I am pleased to recognize and honor Raymond Chow for his tenacity and willingness to give back to the community and working 'in the trenches' as a Change Agent," Lee wrote. </p>
<p>Lee's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the letter on Tuesday. Ammiano <a href="http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/03/ex-con-shrimp-boy-linked-to-yee-arrest-was-honored-by-feinstein-ammiano.html">gave a statement to the Sacramento Bee</a> about the certificate he gave to Chow late last month and said it was requested by Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services. </p>
<p>"One of the ceremonial aspects of being in the Assembly is providing recognition to people in the district at the request of respected community organizations," said Ammiano. "It appears that my office provided such a recognition to Raymond Chow as a 'change agent' at the request of the Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services organization. The group acknowledged Chow's efforts at reform and helping others. That is all there is to it."</p>
<p>Following his arrest, Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services seems eager to distance from Chow. The group's executive director, Cathy Davis, criticized Chow in <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1463259/reformed-gangster-raymond-shrimp-boy-chow-caught-fbis-net">an interview with the Los Angeles Times</a> published Thursday. </p>
<p>"He really made a bad name for a lot of people we try to honour," Davis said. </p>
<p>According to an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leland-yee-2014-4">affidavit given by FBI special agent Emmanuel Pascua</a> and filed in federal court March 23, one of the "official acts" Yee allegedly performed in exchange for bribes was issuing an official state senate proclamation honoring the Chee Kung Tong, a fraternal organization based in San Francisco's Chinatown of which Yee is "the Dragonhead, or leader. The affidavit also said the undercover FBI investigators learned Chow was "in charge of a criminal element" of the Chee Kung Tong. </p>
<p>Though Pascua said FBI investigators were led to Yee by a Chee Kung Tong associate Chow introduced to undercover agents, the state senator and the gangster do not seem to have been on good terms. In 2011, Pascua said Chow ate dinner with an undercover agent where he said "he helped Senator Yee enough already." and "explained that Senator Yee made a big mistake" by not "supporting" him "on one occasion."</p>
<p>Chow has not responded to requests for comment from Business Insider. However, in an update <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=670124569714671&amp;set=a.348704995189965.78978.320363858024079&amp;type=1&amp;stream_ref=10">posted on his Facebook page on March 29</a>, three days after his arrest, Chow suggested the allegations against him have been exaggerated. </p>
<p>"Don't believe everything you read or hear. Make your decision after you meet me and get to know me," he wrote. "I got to laugh today and I hope this photo does the same for you."</p>
<p>View the letter from Feinstein and the certificates from Lee and Ammiano below. </p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Facebook </span></p></div><p></p></div> </p>

How An Alleged San Francisco Gangster Ended Up With A 'Letter Of Congratulations' From A U.S. Senator  

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">REUTERS/Aung Hla Tun </p><p class="caption">A <keyword id="16488" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Jade">jade</keyword> merchant inspects the most valuable jade lot that will be auctioned at the Mid-Year Emporium in Yangon November 13, 2007.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>HPAKANT, Myanmar (Reuters) - Tin Tun picked all night through teetering heaps of rubble to find the palm-sized lump of jade he now holds in his hand. He hopes it will make him a fortune. It's happened before.</p>
<p>"Last year I found a stone worth 50 million kyat," he said, trekking past the craters and slag heaps of this notorious jade-mining region in northwest Myanmar. That's about $50,000 - and it was more than enough money for Tin Tun, 38, to buy land and build a house in his home village.</p>
<p>But rare finds by small-time prospectors like Tin Tun pale next to the staggering wealth extracted on an industrial scale by Myanmar's military, the tycoons it helped enrich, and companies linked to the country where most jade ends up: China.</p>
<p>Almost half of all jade sales are "unofficial" - that is, spirited over the border into China with little or no formal taxation. This represents billions of dollars in lost revenues that could be spent on rebuilding a nation shattered by nearly half a century of military dictatorship.</p>
<p>Official statistics confirm these missing billions. Myanmar produced more than 43 million kg of jade in fiscal year 2011/12 (April to March). Even valued at a conservative $100 per kg, it was worth $4.3 billion. But official exports of jade that year stood at only $34 million.</p>
<p>Official Chinese statistics only deepen the mystery. China doesn't publicly report how much jade it imports from Myanmar. But jade is included in official imports of precious stones and metals, which in 2012 were worth $293 million - a figure still too small to explain where billions of dollars of Myanmar jade has gone.</p>
<p>Such squandered wealth symbolizes a wider challenge in Myanmar, an impoverished country whose natural resources - including oil, timber and precious metals - have long fueled armed conflicts while enriching only powerful individuals or groups. In a rare visit to the heart of Myanmar's secretive jade-mining industry in Hpakant, Reuters found an anarchic region where soldiers and ethnic rebels clash, and where mainland Chinese traders rub shoulders with heroin-fueled "handpickers" who are routinely buried alive while scavenging for stones.</p>
<p>Myint Aung, Myanmar's Minister of Mines, did not reply to written questions from Reuters about the jade industry's missing millions and social costs.</p>
<p>Since a reformist government took office in March 2011, Myanmar has pinned its economic hopes on the resumption of foreign aid and investment. Some economists argue, however, that Myanmar's prosperity and unity may depend upon claiming more revenue from raw materials.</p>
<p>There are few reliable estimates on total jade sales that include unofficial exports. The Harvard Ash Center, which advises Myanmar's quasi-civilian government, has possibly the best numbers available.</p>
<p>After sending researchers to the area this year, the Harvard Ash Center published a report in July that put sales of Burmese jade at about $8 billion in 2011. That's more than double the country's revenue from natural gas and nearly a sixth of its 2011 GDP.</p>
<p>"Practically nothing is going to the government," David Dapice, the report's co-author, told Reuters. "What you need is a modern system of public finance in which the government collects some part of the rents from mining this stuff."</p>
<h3>HIDING STONES</h3>
<p>Chinese have prized jade for its beauty and symbolism for millennia. Many believe wearing jade jewelry brings good fortune, prosperity and longevity. It is also viewed as an investment, a major factor driving China's appetite for Burmese jade. "Gold is valuable, but jade is priceless," runs an old Chinese saying.</p>
<p>Jade is not only high value but easy to transport. "Only the stones they cannot hide go to the emporiums," said Tin Soe, 53, a jade trader in Hpakant, referring to the official auctions held in Myanmar's capital of Naypyitaw.</p>
<p>The rest is smuggled by truck to China by so-called "jockeys" through territory belonging to either the Burmese military or the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), both of whom extract tolls. The All China Jade Trade Association, a state-linked industry group based in Beijing, declined repeated requests for an interview.</p>
<p>Hpakant lies in Kachin State, a rugged region sandwiched strategically between China and India. Nowhere on Earth does jade exist in such quantity and quality. "Open the ground, let the country abound," reads the sign outside the Hpakant offices of the Ministry of Mines.</p>
<p>In fact, few places better symbolize how little Myanmar benefits from its fabulous natural wealth. The road to Hpakant has pot-holes bigger than the four-wheel-drive cars that negotiate it. During the rainy season, it can take nine hours to reach from Myitkyina, the Kachin state capital 110 km (68 miles) away.</p>
<p>Non-Burmese are rarely granted official access to Hpakant, but taxi-drivers routinely take Chinese traders there for exorbitant fees, part of which goes to dispensing bribes at police and military checkpoints. The official reason for restricting access to Hpakant is security: the Burmese military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have long vied for control of the road, which is said to be flanked with land-mines. But the restrictions also serve to reduce scrutiny of the industry's biggest players and its horrific social costs: the mass deaths of workers and some of the highest heroin addiction and HIV infection rates in Myanmar.</p>
<p>There are also "obvious" links between jade and conflict in Kachin State, said analyst Richard Horsey, a former United Nations senior official in Myanmar. A 17-year ceasefire between the military and the KIA ended when fighting erupted in June 2011. It has since displaced at least 100,000 people.</p>
<p>"Such vast revenues - in the hands of both sides - have certainly fed into the conflict, helped fund insurgency, and will be a hugely complicating factor in building a sustainable peace economy," Horsey said.</p>
<p>The United States banned imports of jade, rubies and other Burmese gemstones in 2008 in a bid to cut off revenue to the military junta which then ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma. But soaring demand from neighboring China meant the ban had little effect. After Myanmar's reformist government took power, the United States scrapped or suspended almost all economic and political sanctions - but not the ban on jade and rubies. It was renewed by the White House on August 7 in a sign that Myanmar's anarchic jade industry remains a throwback to an era of dictatorship. The U.S. Department of the Treasury included the industry in activities that "contribute to human rights abuses or undermine Burma's democratic reform process."</p>
<p>Foreign companies are not permitted to extract jade. But mining is capital intensive, and it is an open secret that most of the 20 or so largest operations in Hpakant are owned by Chinese companies or their proxies, say gem traders and other industry insiders in Kachin State. "Of course, some (profit) goes to the government," said Yup Zaw Hkawng, chairman of Jadeland Myanmar, the most prominent Kachin mining company in Hpakant. "But mostly it goes into the pockets of Chinese families and the families of the former (Burmese) government."</p>
<p>Other players include the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL), the investment arm of the country's much-feared military, and Burmese tycoons such as Zaw Zaw, chairman of Max Myanmar, who made their fortunes collaborating with the former junta.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">REUTERS/Minzayar </p><p class="caption">Hand-pickers search for jade through rubble dumped by mining companies at a jade mine in Hpakant township, Kachin State July 8, 2013.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<h3>THE CHINA CONNECTION</h3>
<p>Soldiers guard the big mining companies and sometimes shoot in the air to scare off small-time prospectors. "We run like crazy when we see them," said Tin Tun, the handpicker.</p>
<p>UMEHL is notoriously tight-lipped about its operations. "Stop bothering us," Major Myint Oo, chief of human resources at UMEHL's head office in downtown Yangon, told Reuters. "You can't just come in here and meet our superiors. This is a military company. Some matters must be kept secret."</p>
<p>This arrangement, whereby Chinese companies exploit natural resources with military help, is both familiar and deeply controversial in Myanmar.</p>
<p>Last year, protests outside the Letpadaung copper mine in northwest Myanmar triggered a violent police crackdown. The mine's two operators - UMEHL and Myanmar Wanbao, a unit of Chinese weapons manufacturer China North Industries Corp - shared most of the profits, leaving the government with just 4 percent. That contract was revised in July in an apparent attempt to appease public anger. The government now gets 51 percent of the profits, while UMEHL and Myanmar Wanbao get 30 and 19 percent respectively.</p>
<p>China's domination of the jade trade could feed into a wider resentment over its exploitation of Myanmar's natural wealth. A Chinese-led plan to build a $3.6 million dam at the Irrawaddy River's source in Kachin State - and send most of the power it generated to Yunnan Province - was suspended in 2011 by President Thein Sein amid popular outrage.</p>
<p>The national and local governments should also get a greater share of Kachin State's natural wealth, say analysts and activists. That includes gold, timber and hydropower, but especially jade.</p>
<p>A two-week auction held in the capital Naypyitaw in June sold a record-breaking $2.6 billion in jade and gems. But jade tax revenue in 2011 amounted to only 20 percent of the official sales. Add in all the "unofficial" sales outside of the emporium, and Harvard calculates an effective tax rate of about 7 percent on all Burmese jade.</p>
<p>It is, on the other hand, highly lucrative for the mining companies, whose estimated cost of production is $400 a ton, compared with an official sales figure of $126,000 a ton, the report said.</p>
<p>"Kachin, and by extension Myanmar, cannot be peaceful and politically stable without some equitable sharing of resource revenues with the local people," said analyst Horsey.</p>
<h3>THE PECKING ORDER</h3>
<p>At the top of the pecking order in Hpakant are cashed-up traders from China, who buy stones displayed on so-called "jade tables" in Hpakant tea-shops. The tables are run by middleman called laoban ("boss" in Chinese), who are often ethnic Chinese. They buy jade from, and sometimes employ, handpickers like Tin Tun.</p>
<p>The handpickers are at the bottom of the heap - literally. They swarm in their hundreds across mountains of rubble dumped by the mining companies. It is perilous work, especially when banks and slag heaps are destabilized by monsoon rain. Landslides routinely swallow 10 or 20 men at a time, said Too Aung, 30, a handpicker from the Kachin town of Bhamo.</p>
<p>"Sometimes we can't even dig out their bodies," he said. "We don't know where to look."</p>
<p>In 2002, at least a thousand people were killed when flood waters inundated a mine, Jadeland Myanmar chairman Yup Zaw Hkawng told Reuters. Deaths are common but routinely concealed by companies eager to avoid suspending operations, he said.</p>
<p>The boom in Hpakant's population coincided with an exponential rise in opium production in Myanmar, the world's second-largest producer after Afghanistan. Its derivative, heroin, is cheap and widely available in Kachin State, and Hpakant's workforce seems to run on it.</p>
<p>About half the handpickers use heroin, while others rely on opium or alcohol, said Tin Soe, 53, a jade trader and a local leader of the opposition National League for Democracy party. "It's very rare to find someone who doesn't do any of these," he said.</p>
<p>Official figures on heroin use in Hpakant are hard to get. The few foreign aid workers operating in the area, mostly working with drug users, declined comment for fear of upsetting relations with the Myanmar government. But health workers say privately about 40 percent of injecting drug users in Hpakant are HIV positive - twice the national average.</p>
<p>Drug use is so intrinsic to jade mining that "shooting galleries" operate openly in Hpakant, with workers often exchanging lumps of jade for hits of heroin.</p>
<p>Soe Moe, 39, came to Hpakant in 1992. Three years later, he was sniffing heroin, then injecting it. His habit now devours his earnings as a handpicker. "When I'm on (heroin), I feel happier and more energetic. I work better," he said. The shooting gallery he frequents accommodates hundreds of users. "The place is so busy it's like a festival," he said. Soe Moe said he didn't fear arrest, because the gallery owners paid off the police.</p>
<h3>MOVING MOUNTAINS</h3>
<p>Twenty years ago, Hpakant was controlled by KIA insurgents who for a modest fee granted access to small prospectors. Four people with iron picks could live off the jade harvested from a small plot of land, said Yitnang Ze Lum of the Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association (MGJEA) in Myitkyina.</p>
<p>A 1994 ceasefire brought most of Hpakant back under government control, and large-scale extraction began, with hundreds of backhoes, earthmovers and trucks working around the clock. "Now even a mountain lasts only three months," said Yitnang Ze Lum.</p>
<p>Many Kachin businessmen, unable to compete in terms of capital or technology, were shut out of the industry. Non-Kachin workers poured in from across Myanmar, looking for jobs and hoping to strike it rich.</p>
<p>The mines were closed in mid-2012 when the conflict flared up again. Myanmar's military shelled suspected KIA positions; the rebels retaliated with ambushes along the Hpakant road. Thousands of people were displaced.Jade production plunged to just 19.08 million kg in the 2012/13 fiscal year from 43.1 million kg the previous year. But the government forged a preliminary ceasefire with the Kachin rebels in May, and some traders predict Hpakant's mines will re-open when the monsoon ends in October.</p>
<p>When operations are in full swing, the road to Hpakant is clogged with vehicles bringing fuel in and jade out. Such is the scale and speed of modern extraction, said Yitnang Ze Lum, Hpakant's jade could be gone within 10 years.</p>
<p>"Every Kachin feels passionately that their state's resources are being taken away," a leading Myitkyina gem trader told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "But we're powerless to stop them."</p>
<p>(Andrew R.C. Marshall reported from Myitkyina; Min Zayar Oo reported from Hpakant; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing <a></a></p>

Myanmar's Old Guard Is Clinging To An $8 Billion Jade Empire

Here's the full text of Trump's 2019 State of the Union address

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Last week's terrorist attack in Garissa, in eastern Kenya, is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/al-shabaab-just-pulled-off-one-of-the-ghastliest-terror-attacks-in-recent-memory-2015-4">the deadliest single massacre</a> ever committed by the Somali al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab. The murder of 147 people at a university was the bleakest possible evidence that there is no target al Shabaab considers off-limits.</p><p>In exacerbating the 2011-2013 Somali famine, Shabaab - which at that point controlled far more of the fractious Horn of Africa country than it does currently - contributed to a disaster that ended up <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22380352">killing</a> over 260,000 people by <a href="http://www.cfr.org/somalia/al-shabaab-somalias-spreading-famine/p25630">blockading humanitarian relief</a>. The large-scale and mostly-invisible atrocity was on a scale that not even ISIS and Bokko Haram have been able to match yet.</p><p><span>The university attack also shows certain discontinuities with Shabaab's recent past. A few years ago, Shabaab controlled the Somali capital of Mogadishu and attracted foreign fighters from all over East Africa. Today, it's a terrorist group with a remote safe-haven that actually exports violence to Somalia's neighbors.</span></p><p>The Garissa attack doesn't prove that Shabaab is getting more brutal - it was always one of the world's most depraved armed groups. This isn't even the first time it's attacked a university - Shabaab <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report/87387/somalia-attack-on-graduation-ceremony-the-last-straw">bombed a medical school graduation ceremony</a> in Mogadishu in 2009.</p><p>Nevertheless, the attack shows that in the absence of territorial control, Shabaab is inflicting its violence <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">wherever it can while pushing its network outwards.</span></p><p>"Even a small insurgency, transformed, makes for a huge terrorist capability," <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2015/04/3-berger-intelwire-shabab-isis#.VR7OIvoQFdN.twitter">analyst JM Berger wrote</a> in a blog post shortly after the Garissa attack. And Shabaab has transformed itself in a very specific way, using methods that, as analyst Clint Watts argued in a World <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Politics">Politics</keyword> Review article shortly before the attack, <a href="http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/15418/end-game-al-shabab-as-a-model-for-the-islamic-state-s-decline">could become a model for ISIS</a> once it loses its territory.</p><p>Shabaab has remained dangerous despite the loss of much of its territory and top leadership, including the domineering Ahmed Godane and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-drone-strike-killed-al-shabaab-leader-garaar-in-somalia-pentagon-2015-3">more recently Adnan Garaar</a>, Shabaab's head of external operations and the mastermind of the September 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As Rahma Dualeh, a senior consultant with the Nairobi-based think tank Sahan Research and an expert in security in the Horn of Africa explained to Business Insider, Shabaab has a large contingent of foreign fighters and multiple partner groups inside of Kenya. And it's created an atmosphere of terror in Somalia in places that it doesn't still control, ensuring that it maintains enough influence to hold on to its safe-haven well into the foreseeable future.</span></p><h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Shabaab's foreign network</h3><p>Dualeh said that there are enough entrenched Shabaab-linked local groups in Kenya to make it counter-productive to look at terrorism as a problem emanating solely from the Somali side of the border. It's a local problem that observers and experts still don't fully understand. As Dualeh puts it, "It's d<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">ifficult to identify who the 'them' is" when looking at terrorism in Kenya."</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Is it Al Hijra, the shadowy underground extremist network that may extend into neighboring Tanzania? Is it the separatist Mombasa Republican Council, or the jihadist Muslim Youth Council, long considered to be a Kenyan extension of Shabaab influence? </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Shabaab may have also have sleeper cells around with the Horn, with some yet-unknown operational relationship with local groups. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Dualeh recalled Shabaab's <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/top-ugandan-prosecutor-2010-bombing-trial-shot-dead-193131774.html">March assassination</a> of a lawyer prosecuting suspected Shabaab terrorists in Kampala, the typically tranquil capital of Uganda and site of a major Shabaab attack in 2010. The event raised the ominous possibility that Shabaab was more present in the region's population centers than many would like to believe. </span></p><p>"Definitely we have to consider the possibility of sleeper cells in places we might not have been thinking of, like in Kampala or Dar el-Salam [Tanzania's capital]," Dualeh says.</p><p>Complicating matters is Shabaab's success in drawing foreign recruits. Shabaab originally formed to fight a multinational African force that dislodged the fundamentalist Islamic Courts Union from power in Somalia in 2006. There are large, marginalized Somali minorities in Ethiopia and Kenya, and a very small but nevertheless worrying number of Somalis in neighboring countries traveled to Somalia to resist what some of them viewed as a foreign, Christian occupation of their homeland.</p><p>Those fighters now have a network that can help them carry out attacks inside their countries of origin - as Dualeh noted, the suspected head of al Hijra is believed to be responsible for representing Kenyan Shabaab fighters in Somalia.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><h3>Grievances in Kenya ...</h3><p>Kenya has a large Somali and Muslim minority that's long suffered from various forms of political and economic exclusion. A <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136670/daniel-branch/why-kenya-invaded-somalia">still-ongoing Kenyan invasion of southern Somalia in 2011</a>, along with <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27890084">a string of terrorists incidents</a> inside of Kenya, have led to spiking ethnic tensions along with heavy-handed responses from the country's security services.</p><p>"Mass arrests are coming down hard on the Somali population of Kenya," Dualeh explains. The government has tried to deflect criticism by presenting its terrorist problem as a purely external matter - while also associating legitimate domestic critics with the country's security issues.</p><p>"People who are talking about economic and political inclusion are being labeled as terrorists," Dualeh says, saying that the government is trying "to make their narrative easier" by associating regional or ethnic autonomy movements in the country's northern and eastern regions with the Shabaab threat.</p><p>Tensions are particularly high in Kenya's northeastern province, an impoverished and desertifying border area with a large Somali population, and a region still hosting large numbers of refugees from Somalia's famine.</p><p>This atmosphere of political and ethnic tension has exploded in the past, during riots targeting Kenya's Somali community <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/11/2012112021333440883.html">in 2012</a> and an <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/02/2013251139463500.html">anti-Somali backlash</a> in the wake of the Westgate shooting.</p><p>This gives Shabaab's network a recruitment opening, while fosters a general sense of uncertainty and panic in which the region's worst actors could thrive.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><h3>... and an atmosphere of terror in Somalia</h3><p>Shabaab hasn't ruled over Mogadishu for over 3 years. But the group is still present and has footholds in the displaced persons camps that ring the city. Shabaab also <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-blast-gunfire-at-popular-mogadishu-hotel/2696816.html">killed over 20 people</a>, including a top-ranking diplomat, in an attack on a Mogadishu hotel just days before the Garissa massacre.</p><p>Even if <a href="http://www.riftvalley.net/event/somalia-ready-foreign-investment#.VSQ8Z63tBuU">post-conflict investment</a> is pouring in and Somalia has its most stable government in a generation, Shabaab is a potent physical and psychological presence and provide a dispiriting lesson in how a much-diminished terrorist group can exercises power just by lurking in the shadows.</p><p>For instance, the school system in Mogadishu runs off of Shabaab's schedule for off-days and holidays rather than the government's, years after the group last ruled the capital. And Shabaab still exacts taxes from travelers and transport companies entering and leaving the capital, even if they work with relief organizations.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"In Somalia it's becoming increasingly more difficult for them to maintain ground, but just </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">because they don't maintain ground doesn't mean they don't maintain influence," says Dualeh.</span></p><p>"They're c<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">oercive in nature even though Shabaab's not physically there," she adds, speaking of the Somali capital. "It's going to be a long time before we see people carrying out their business without the fear of Shabaab."</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p><h3>A chilling precedent</h3><p>Shabaab has foreign fighters, entrenched and covert foreign networks, and a dangerous psychological advantage over its targets.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Total victory over the group is going to take advances against the group in Somalia, along with concurrent shifts in Kenya's internal dynamics. And it'll take a return to normality in Shabaab-effected regions that might take years or even decades to fully affect.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Shabaab shows that even groups that lose the strategic initiative for years at a time can remain deadly so long as they can exploit local grievances and keep their networks intact.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The loss of promising, young life in Garissa is both an unfathomable tragedy, and a warning as to how illusory conventional victories over terrorists groups can be. ISIS may lose its territory in the Middle East one day. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But if Shabaab is any precedent, the world will have swapped the group's vast territorial control for a set of perhaps more manageable yet even murkier and even less readily solvable problems.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/beauty-standards-family-values-china-2015-2">What the Chinese saying 'The ugly wife is a treasure at home' actually means</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="A2ZDA2czqSqbJOFG5SDDrvRmvRoUjAPm" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The survival of Somali al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab is a chilling precedent

<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Choosing a country from the Axis of Evil might not sound like the best way to start a relaxing vacation, but surely it's one way to have an adventure you'll never forget. </p>
<p class="p1">It was US President George W. Bush who designated <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Iran">Iran</a>, <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Iraq">Iraq</a>, and <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/North_Korea">North Korea</a> as three evil nations in his State of the Union Speech in 2002. All three were accused of developing weapons of mass destruction for their "terrorist allies." (Turns out that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cia-and-m16-spy-agencies-knew-iraq-didnt-have-wmds-before-2003-invasion-2013-3">wasn't entirely true</a>.)</p>
<p class="p1">Since then, however, the Saddame Hussein regime in Iraq was overthrown, the government in Iran has softened somewhat, and North Korea has started granting visas to Americans. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Since North Korea's </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://travel.cnn.com/how-travel-north-korea-042681">visa back-flip in 2010</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, it has been possible to enjoy a vacation in all three of the countries.</span></p>
<p class="p1">So, if you've got the <keyword id="6354692" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Travel">travel</keyword> bug and are up for some adventure, here's our guide to vacations inside the former "Axis of Evil."</p>
<h2 class="p1"><strong>Iran</strong></h2>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">While <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Iran">Iran</a> is seen by some in the West as a country full of crazy fundamentalists hell-bent on America's nuclear destruction, the reality you'll see inside the country </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-truth-about-iran-2014-9">couldn't be further from the truth</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">When Bush named the country as part of the axis, it actually </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/axis/axis.html">came as a surprise to some observers</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="p1">The fact is, the majority of the Iranian public love Westerners - Americans in particular - making Iran one of the safest countries on our list even for female travelers. Opinion polls show the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/the-iran-we-dont-see-a-tour-of-the-country-where-people-love-americans/258166/"><span class="s1">majority of Iranians</span></a> hold a favorable opinion of Americans, making Iran second only to Israel as the <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/database/indicator/1/country/106/"><span class="s1">most supportive population in the Middle East</span></a>.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
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<p class="p1">To travel as a Westerner is to be routinely stopped on the street and welcomed by curious and generous Iranians. When I was there last summer I was constantly offered with cold drinks, invited to parties, and given free tours by locals. </p>
<p class="p1">There is a ton to see there: the massive shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, cheap ski resorts in the Alborz mountains north of the city, ancient clay-baked mosques in Kashan, the stunning central square of Isfahan, the Tatooine-like ruins of Na'in, and the ancient ruins of Persepolis near Shiraz.</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">While Western sanctions mean you can't use your Visa or MasterCard in the country, you won't have to take much cash. All expenses </span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 1.5em;">- including transport, food, and accommodation - amounted to less than $200 for my 11-day trip last year. </span></p>
<p class="p4">Inexpensive, air conditioned buses run frequently between most cities, and a full falafel sandwich will often only set you back 25 cents. There's amazing rosewater ice cream almost everywhere in summer for about 10 cents a cone.</p>
<p class="p4">Return flights to Tehran from mainland Europe can be found for $200-to-400.</p>
<p class="p1">Check visa conditions before you book, as those who travel on British or <a href="http://uncorneredmarket.com/american-travel-iran/">American passports</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> will have to <a href="http://uncorneredmarket.com/american-travel-iran/">apply in advance</a></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">. </span></p>
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<p class="p1">Iran is safe for female travelers. Iranian women dress fashionably, and the level of respect on the streets could be considered high even by Western standards. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">However, it is mandatory to wear a headscarf in public at all times. Headscarves are skimpy, colorful, and barely attached in Tehran, but in regional areas more conservative coverings are the norm.</span></p>
<p class="p1">Gay travelers should be aware that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/17/iran-persecution-gay-community-revealed">homosexual sex is punishable by death for Iranian citizens</a>.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> Deportation is probably the very best you can hope for if authorities somehow discover you. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Discretion is highly advised, and as far as we can tell, no foreigners have run into trouble with this. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Despite claims to the contrary by the firebrand former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there are </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/sep/26/iran.features11">gay people in Iran</a>.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> Some more privileged young men in Tehran apparently </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/mar/16/iran-gay-rights">live somewhat openly</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Iranian-Americans should be aware that the country does not recognize dual citizenship and will likely treat you as an Iranian if you end up in trouble. The country's hardline judicial system currently has at least four Iranian Americans imprisoned - </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/tehran-detains-three-us-iranian-journalists-201472504942870216.html">three journalists</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and a </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/09/18/un-panel-raps-iran-over-imprisonment-christian-pastor-saeed-abedini/">pastor</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span>While many countries have representation in Tehran, US consular services are conducted through the Swiss Embassy. The UK is still in the process of opening its embassy. </span><span> </span></p>
<h2 class="p1"><strong>North Korea</strong><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></h2>
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<p class="p1">While Iran is the perfect place for backpackers to explore independently on the cheap, <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/North_Korea">North Korea</a> is anything but. The country is intensely secretive, and the only real way in is an organized tour which will be strictly controlled by the North Korean government. </p>
<p class="p1">While the threat of any violence is low, you should know the government has arrested <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-american-begins-sentence-of-farm-work-and-isolation-in-north-korea-reports-2014-9">at least three Americans</a> for suspected subversive activity. Also, be aware that most of the money you pay for your tour will likely end up in the hands of one of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-is-as-bad-as-the-nazis-2014-3">worst human rights abusers in the world today</a>, the North Korean government.</p>
<p class="p1">The regime is accused of running Nazi-style labor camps rife with rape, murder, and starvation. Human Rights Watch recently released a video with first-hand accounts and drawings painting a horrific picture of brutal violence.</p>
<p class="p1">Yet despite this, thousands of tourists, mostly from China, travel to North Korea every year for a peek inside the clandestine country. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/09/02/whats-it-like-to-report-from-north-korea-frustrating-mainly/">One guide estimates</a> that 4,000<span> non-Chinese tourists tourists visit North Korea annually. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Touring North Korea must be one of the most uniquely bizarre travel experiences in the world. Any time you're out of your hotel, you'll be accompanied by at least two government minders who will serve as guides (two so they can keep an eye on you, and each other).</span></p>
<p class="p1">As <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/09/02/whats-it-like-to-report-from-north-korea-frustrating-mainly/">Anna Fifield of The Washington Post writes</a>, "It's such a thrill to get an elusive visa and see this closed society with your own eyes, yet so maddening when you realize that you're moving through a kind of real-life 'Truman Show.'"</p>
<p class="p1">While in the country, you will see only what the North Korean government wants you to see, so the prison camps and more poverty stricken areas are likely to be off-limits. You will also be denied any chance to speak with any "normal" North Koreans not vetted by the government.</p>
<p class="p1">You can, however, say hello as if you pass North Koreans on the street and maybe even share a few beers with your guides. But that's about as far as any cultural exchange will go.</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">What will perhaps strike you most in North Korea is the cult of personality surrounding its former leaders Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"Wherever possible, the magnificence of the Kims, especially KIS [Kim Il Sung], was emphasized. Busts, statues, murals, and slogans were everywhere," North Korean <a href="http://asiansecurityblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/against-dogmatic-bourgeois-flunkeyism-or-what-i-learned-in-nk-1/">scholar and tourist Robert Kelly writes</a>.</span></p>
<p class="p1">"At a bowling alley, the ball and pins which KIS bowled on the facility's opening were kept under glass at the entrance, surrounded by flowers, with photos and a dedicatory statement from KIS inscribed on the wall," <a href="http://asiansecurityblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/against-dogmatic-bourgeois-flunkeyism-or-what-i-learned-in-nk-1/"><span>he</span> wrote</a>.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">You will learn of Kim Il Sung's personal guidance of the construction of Pyongyang's metro, and you'll be told he wrote 18,300 books. You may even be <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g294444-d3227576-r147152589-Pyongyang_Hotel-Pyongyang.html#CHECK_RATES_CONT">advised against crumpling any newspaper</a> that has his image.</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Most Western tourists to the country appear to end up in one particular hotel in the country's capital, Pyongyang. The quirky hotel, the Yanggakdo <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">International</keyword>, is situated on slither of land in the <span>Taedong river. It </span>is known as the "Alcatraz of Fun" by government guides and has </span><a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g294444-d644971-r91064622-Yanggakdo_Hotel-Pyongyang.html">4 out of 5 stars on Trip Advisor</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p class="p1">Tourists are free to explore the small island on foot; however, Lonely Planet is careful to point out that you shouldn't attempt to cross the bridge under any circumstances.</p>
<p class="p1">The hotel has a karaoke lounge, a bowling alley, a casino with a foreigners-only disco, and a secret fifth floor which does not appear on the elevator buttons (But if you're brave, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qQGt_E5cjg">you can go to the fourth floor and take the stairs</a>.)</p>
<p class="p1">Despite being 47 stories high with a revolving restaurant at the top floor, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/10/18/hotel-of-doom-alcatraz-of-fun-north-koreas-finest-tourist-stays/">The Washington Post reports</a> that, "like the thousand or so rooms, the restaurant is mostly empty, all of it an elaborate show of prosperity that doesn't exist."<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Americans have been able to visit the country since 2010, and rumors of restrictions on Israeli or Jewish travelers are false. Almost all travelers will require a visa, which will be issued after a trip has been booked, approved, and paid for.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Be aware that while visas are often given late they are rarely denied, and if you arrange it beforehand, you can even pick one up in 20 minutes through the North Korean embassy in London. </span></p>
<p class="p1">Tours in North Korea cost $200-$400 a day including accommodation, meals, and transport from China. Americans will probably have to pay towards the higher end of that scale<span class="s5"> </span>because the North Koreans have banned Americans from some forms of travel. A return flight from the US to China can be snatched for as low as $800. </p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In case of any emergency, the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang has taken charge of consular services for Canadian, American, Australian, and Nordic travelers. Also take note that certain items are banned; leaving a copy of the Bible with his contact details in a bathroom got one American tourist </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/02/jeffrey-fowle-north-korea_n_5643464.html">15 years in a North Korean prison camp</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<h3 class="p1"><strong>Iraq</strong></h3>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Rounding out our "Axis of Evil" trifecta is </span><a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Iraq">Iraq</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, probably one of the most dangerous countries in the world to visit. The emergence of the militant group known as the Islamic State, or ISIS, has shattered the</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> stability that parts of the country had previously been enjoying. </span></p>
<p class="p1">For travelers this means most of the country - birthplace of many of the planet's oldest civilizations and most recent conflicts - is entirely off limits.</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Iraq is home to the remains of Babylon, the ruins of Hatra, the Tal Afar fortress, the The Great Mosque of Samarra, and the Al-Shaheed Monument and Swords of Qadisiyah in Baghdad. But to visit any of these sites now is to risk kidnapping, murder, gunfire, and terrorist attacks.</span></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="p1">The safer region of Kurdistan, however, still has many sites to offer. The region is semi-autonomous, and with minimal violence in recent years it has experienced massive economic development with high levels of foreign investment, infrastructure development, and tourism. Some areas are highly Westernized.</p>
<p class="p1">In Kurdistan there's the towering ancient citadel of Erbil, the mountaintop settlement of Amadiya, and the plunging gorges, waterfalls, and snow capped peaks of the Zagros Mountains.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="p1">There's also the memorial to Saddam Hussein's gassing of the Kurds in Halabja, the Amna Suraka museum which documents Hussein's brutality, and the Sulaimani Museum, the second largest history museum in the country.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">While tourist visas to other areas of Iraq are currently suspended, the Kurds will grant a free 15-day visa on arrival to citizens of the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, and many EU member states.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">Return flights from Turkey to Erbil range from $300-$500. You can fly into Istanbul in Turkey from most major centers in Europe for $150-$200 return. </p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">While it always pays to know where you are, you're at little risk of accidentally venturing outside of the Kurdish safe region - the region's borders are tightly controlled. Still, it's advisable to stay away from the Turkish border and the city of Kirkuk. </span></p>
<p class="p1">Take extreme care if you're hiking in the mountains near the Iranian border. In 2009 three American hikers wandered too close to the border and were detained and accused of spying by Iran.</p>
<p class="p1">The woman in the group was released after 14 months, but the two men weren't freed for <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15000563">more than two years</a>.</p>
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