It’s official: “China is extremely concerned by the way things are going [in North Korea],” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman today. “We oppose any behavior which may exacerbate the situation and any acts which are not beneficial towards the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”The Communist Party-run Global Times editorial today shows how Chinese nationalists are […]

A confidential legal review has just decided that the President should have broad power to issue preemptive cyber attacks, says the NYT.This review comes at a time when the pace of attacks on sensitive computer systems has picked up. The Energy Department, two American power stations, the NYT, the WSJ, and Washington Post have all been recent […]

It’s finally happening: The U.S. Postal Service is expected to announce a new plan to cut Saturday mail delivery by August, reports the NYT.These plans have been floated by the USPS for some time now as a solution to the agency’s chronic financial woes, but nothing has happened yet because of the need for congressional approval for such a move. Thus […]

Like many others, Via Meadia welcomes the development of MOOCs (massive open online courses) like those offered by Coursera and EdX. But there’s a problem: we’ve noticed that many of online ed’s biggest boosters have often never experienced an online class for themselves and so tend to overlook some serious problems in the platforms that are out […]

The most unpopular governor in the country, Illinois’s Pat Quinn, will stand up to give the State of the State speech this evening, and he won’t be bearing good news. Due mostly to a crisis of unfunded pensions, Illinois has the worst credit outlook in the country, having been downgraded a dozen times by credit agencies […]

Is rampant street violence coming to Tunisia too? Could be, as opposition leader Chokri Belaid was shot and killed in front of his home in Tunis today. An outspoken critic of the  Islamist party Ennahda, which is widely considered moderate but has at times been indulgent of the radical Salafis, Belaid had received several death […]

Argentina is already in trouble with the IMF for playing fast and loose with economic statistics. Now President Kirchner has put a two-month price freeze on all products sold in Argentina’s major supermarkets in an attempt to slow down the inflation her government claims isn’t serious. It’s the kind of move rattled Argentinian governments traditionally make as […]

Finding a penny for good luck will soon prove difficult in Canada: the Royal Mint officially stopped distributing the coin on Monday. All prices will now be rounded to the nearest nickel. The BBC reports: The Canadian penny is being withdrawn from circulation because production costs have exceeded its monetary value. […]The government has estimated that the […]

Adventure-seeking tourists will soon have new a reason to flock to Abbottabad, the Pakistani city where U.S. Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden: a $30 million amusement park, with “a zoo, water sports, a mini-golf course, rock climbing and paragliding.”Osama enthusiasts and haters can both rest easy, the 50-acre park reportedly has no connection to […]

The busy malls that dot the wide American landscape will soon be deserted. Up to 15 percent of suburban shopping concourses will close in the next five years, driven out of business by online retail outlets: “I think 200 [malls] are going out of business,” said Gerry Mason, executive managing director at property group Savills. “We’re […]