[GIZMODO] Dov Katz, the head of computer vision at Oculus VR, was arrested near Seattle on December 21 for allegedly soliciting sex from an underage girl. According to charging records, Katz allegedly attempted to pay $350 to have unprotected sex with someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl.
Katz, 38, has been charged with attempted commercial sexual abuse of a minor. According to the charging documents, Katz wasn’t actually texting a 15-year-old girl, but an undercover agent from the Tukwila Police Department. Katz, an Israeli citizen living in America, has since been released on $125,000 bail according to the King County jail website.
Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion in 2014. According to a profile in The Times of Israel, Katz was "an an integral part of the team that developed the Oculus Rift headset."
According to charging documents initially posted by GeekWire, Katz allegedly asked the undercover officer, whom he met on the website Backpage, for an overnight girlfriend experience. Katz also allegedly asked the girl, "how many times do you think you’ll make me...?"
Katz was arrested with $600 in cash when he arrived at an Embassy Suites hotel just south of Seattle, after he allegedly arranged a meeting with someone he believed to be the underage girl. Following the arrest, Katz told officers his phone number, which matched the phone number that was texting the undercover officer. The local prosecution (Non-Federal) charges and bail are meaningless. I'm sure he's back in Tel Aviv right now sipping a cold Goldstar.
Here are the charging documents:
#1
Hat tip to Officer Sudel and the entire Tukwila Anti-Crime Team. You will be downloading all of the data and twisted 'friends' from his cellie, right ?
#3
This will give all the forum posters of the tediously leftie tech community a break from bitching about Trump. They can bitch about how this perv's sex life is his own business, and it's Trump's fault he was arrested...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/27/2016 9:44 Comments ||
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#4
Ah the internet... where men are men, women are men and all the underage girls are FBI agents.
#5
If I were in to soliciting SE from anyone, I would insist on a live video chat
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/27/2016 10:43 Comments ||
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#6
Yes, Arse Technicon, the Purge and other tech leftie web sites staying far away from this story. Fake news by omission...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/27/2016 14:44 Comments ||
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#7
you'd think he could get a virtual 15-yr-old. Still sick and twisted, but relatively harmless if he kept it to himself
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2016 15:37 Comments ||
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#8
Try him fair, then hang him high. You do not do this to the girls at home, and even more so you do not do so when venturing abroad -- it's atrocious manners.
AURORA, Ill. (WLS) -- Security staff at Fox Valley Mall in west suburban Aurora closed the mall early Monday night due to brawls inside. No serious injuries were reported.
Aurora police said they received a call for assistance from mall security due to an unruly crowd in a common area. Shortly after, a fight broke out in the food court, police said.
Police said more than 1,000 people were in the vicinity of the fight, which prompted them to evacuate and close the mall for the safety of patrnos. Cell phone cameras captured the commotion as the center of the mall erupted into chaos and terrified shoppers were sent scrambling for the exits.
"I'm still a little shaken up. I've never seen that many people inside brawling like that," said Alexis Malone, who was working inside the mall.
Seven juveniles were arrested and more are being questioned, police said. Officers from the Illinois State Police, DuPage County Sheriff's Office, Naperville, West Chicago, St. Charles, Geneva and Fox Valley Park District also responded to assist. Nearly 75 officers responded in total.
#1
Similar disturbances took place elsewhere. Appears these events may have been social media coordinated. Are we witnessing a Presidential inauguration day dress rehearsal ?
#3
George and a Donk machine that considers an entire strata of society to be useful for stuffing ballot boxes and nothing else, thus no need for a civil society.
[USA Today] TALLAHASSEE -- Two men who likely never met died the same bone-crushing way, according to recently released investigative reports: They fell asleep in dumpsters that city garbage trucks emptied and were killed in the maw of the trash compactor.
The bodies of William J. "Jay" Norris and Anthony D. Todd were found two months apart at the Leon County waste transfer station. One was a longtime homeless resident of Tallahassee. The other was a more recent arrival.
As coincidental as those bizarre circumstances appear, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office said no foul play was involved. The two deaths were purely accidental and seemingly avoidable.
Their deaths raise questions about the safety of trash bins and whether enough precautions are in place to prevent people from getting trapped in trucks' compactors.
#1
Dumpsters generate their own heat from decomposition. Hard-core homeless folks in the northern regions find that helpful on cold nights.
Plus, they're out of the wind and somewhat hidden when the lid is closed.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/27/2016 11:04 Comments ||
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#2
Their deaths raise questions about the safety of trash bins and whether enough precautions are in place to prevent people from getting trapped in trucks' compactors
How about this lesson from Darwin: "Don't sleep in trash bins"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2016 11:04 Comments ||
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#3
Don't laugh Frank G. Soon enough, OSHA will require that dumpsters be labelled accordingly in 36 different languages + braille at specified locations. Then, of course, there's the literacy problem...and lawsuits!
#9
@#7: I like your thinking - a local grocery store has (3) of 'em.
An enterprising member of the "dispossessed" could set up a folding table identifying him/herself as the Desk Clerk and rent bouquet-bucket time for 1/2 their can money (wakeup call extra).
Deadly synthetic opioids are streaming into the United States amid a flood of mail that arrives unscreened from abroad every day, overwhelming the Postal Service and fueling the drug epidemic gripping much of the country, security experts and Massachusetts lawmakers say.
Nearly 1 million packages a day enter the country without any advance electronic information that might flag the presence of dangerous opioids such as fentanyl, much of which is manufactured in China, said Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant Homeland Security secretary.
An estimated 340 million pieces of mail each year pass unchecked through the Postal Service and US Customs without the prior electronic screening that was authorized by Congress 14 years ago but has yet to be fully implemented, Kayyem said..."There is a lot of money to be made," she said. In addition to opioids, security officials are concerned about hazardous materials and counterfeit goods that are slipping through.
#1
Nearly 1 million packages a day enter the country without any advance electronic information that might flag the presence of dangerous opioids
Gee, I remember the 70s and the customs dog hitting every mail shipment at the APO. No fancy electronics. That dog was good in hitting drugs and chocolate chip cookies. Not a 'techie' solution, but one that is doable if you are really serious.
[AyPee] President Compañero Raul Castro ...Fidel's little brother... faces what could be his toughest year since he took power in 2006. 2017 brings a possible economic recession and a U.S. president-elect who has promised to undo Obama's normalization unless the Cuban government makes new concessions on civil rights. Resistance to pressure from Washington is a founding principle for the Cuban communist system, making domestic concessions in exchange for continued detente a virtual impossibility.
"People expected that after Obama came there would be changes in the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba but that we could keep the best of what we have, the benefits for the people," Alex Romero, a 42-year-old state photography shop employee said. "Trump's not going to be able to get what he wants, another type of Cuba. If the world's number one power takes us on, 2017 is going to be really bad for us."
Cuba publishes few credible economic statistics, but experts expect the country to end this year with gross domestic product growth of 1 percent or less. It maintained a rate close to 3 percent from 2011-2015. One bright spot is tourism, booming since Obama and Castro's detente announcement set off a surge in overall visitor numbers.
The slowness of macroeconomic growth despite a surge of interest in foreign investment and the greatest tourism boom in decades attests to both long-term mismanagement of the Cuban economy and the depth of the crisis in other sectors, particularly aid from Venezuelan in the form of deeply subsidized oil. Venezuela was also the prime destination alongside Brazil for Cuban doctors and other professionals whose salaries go directly to the Cuban government; another vital source of hard currency believed to be slackening. Nickel, another of Cuba's main exports, has seen a sharp price drop this year.
The revenue drop may be creating a vicious cycle for Cuba's state-run industries. Experts say cutbacks in imported industrial inputs this year will lead to lower productivity in Cuba's few domestic industries in 2017 and make zero growth or recession highly likely.
The government cut back summer working hours and gas rations for state-owned vehicles and has so far avoided any sustained power outages. But a crackdown on black-market gasoline sales to taxi drivers led to increased prices, squeezing many Cubans already struggling to get by. Many Cubans say, however, that worsening conditions could drive them to rally around the government rather than against it.
One cushion will be remittances from Cuban expatriates in the United States and other countries, estimated by some experts to be in excess of $3 billion a year and rising as Cubans flood to the United States in fear that they may soon lose special immigration privileges. Another bright spot is Cuba's growing private sector, particularly businesses boosted by increased demand from tourists.
While rising food prices are a constant problem for ordinary Cubans, many of those investing in food production are finding success.
Fernando Funes, owner of a farm that supplies vegetables to about 30 private restaurants in Havana, most with tourist clienteles, has nearly doubled his workforce from 12 to 20 in recent years, all earning about $25 a week.
"We have a lot more opportunities to start projects these days," Funes said. "Personally I'm optimistic about 2017."
#1
Cuba has faced deep problems every year since the Castros took over in 1959. So much for the communist-created "paradise (sarc)." File with the other failed communist states such as Venezuela, etc.
#2
One of the first things I learned about politics was this:
objective poverty is not a problem; poverty relative to expectations is the problem. A country with expectations rising faster than results is set up for catastrophe if the results trend dips much at all.
This was all taught in the context of Tsar Nicholas, if Cuban expectations rise quickly and can't be met................
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appears to lack a plan on how to deal with North Korea even though his administration is set to take off in less than a month, a U.S. expert said Sunday.
Yup, that's it. We're doomed because Trump doesn't have a plan to deal with an expert's pet peeve. You can see it coming. Might as well fold up shop now...
Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also said in an interview with CBS television that the Trump foreign policy team doesn't seem to have a full strategy yet on China.
North Korea is "not an issue that Trump knows a lot about," Glaser said, adding that the concern for the United States is that the North Koreans could pose an existential threat to the homeland if they can make a nuclear warhead that can potentially reach U.S. territory.
"Do we have a strategy that focuses on defense? Do we take a much more aggressive posture against North Korea?" Glaser said, wondering about Trump's plan. "Some people are raising the possibility of a pre-emptive strike on a missile, if it's on a launch pad, because we don't know what's atop that missile, whether it's a satellite or a nuclear warhead.
"There may be some discussions about whether we really need to try to cut off trade and harm North Korea's economy, go beyond sanctions that are really focused on depriving North Korea of weapons of mass destruction," she said.
Most American experts
None of whom are named...
agree that North Korea will be one of the biggest problems facing the Trump administration as the communist nation stepped up its development of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the continental U.S.
Outgoing President Barack Obama also reportedly warned Trump of the dangers the North poses to the U.S. when the two met at the White House last month.
After spending eight years of doing largely nothing...
During the election campaign, Trump said he would pressure China to exercise its influence over North Korea as the main food and energy provider to rein in the regime in Pyongyang, saying the North is basically China's problem to fix.
But he also expressed a willingness to hold direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over "hamburgers," a remark seen as aimed at underscoring the point he's a great negotiator. However, the remark invited huge criticism that such a meeting would only bolster the North's dictator.
Not sure how: the fat bastard is about as wedged into his seat as is possible to be.
Earlier this month, Trump strongly criticized China for "not helping us at all with North Korea" when "China could solve that problem." He even questioned why the U.S. should stick to the policy of recognizing only China, not Taiwan, when Beijing is uncooperative over the North and engages in unfair trade practices.
That doesn't sound like Trump 'bolstering' Pudgy's image...
"It looks to me like Trump is trying to keep China off balance, to try and signal that he's not necessarily going to conduct business as usual in the same way that it has been conducted over the last eight years under Obama and that he thinks it can appear that he can gain some leverage by signaling a willingness to confront China," Glaser said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
We have more than three. They are on my timeline.
North Korea may go all-out next year to idolize its corpulent young leader Kim Jong-un as the regime tries to solidify his leadership and make it as powerful as those of his predecessors, a government report said Monday.
"On the occasions of major political events, (North Korea) is expected to mobilize the party, military and cabinet to idolize Kim on a grand scale," the Ministry of Unification said in a forecast on the North Korean regime in the new year.
"Starting from the Mt. Baekdu hero rally slated for August, the North may try to elevate the status of Kim Jong-un to that of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in a bid to justify power succession and solidify the regime's unity," the ministry said, referring to the two previous leaders.
I think putting all three of the murderous bastards on the same pedestal is appropriate...
Earlier this year, the North announced the hosting of an international event for 2017 to highlight the country's liberation from Japanese colonial rule (1910-45) and the nation-building efforts by its late leaders.
A host of other anniversaries will also be utilized for the idolization efforts, including the 105th birthday of Kim Il-sung, the 75th birthday of Kim Jong-il, the 85th anniversary of the North Korean military's founding and the 5th year since Kim Jong-un coming to power, which all fall in 2017, according to the ministry.
On the military front, North Korea will continue to build up its nuclear and missile capabilities next year, the ministry said, predicting that Pyongyang would conduct tests of submarine-launched ballistic missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles and missiles that can carry mock nuclear warheads.
In the new year, the regime may also seek to obtain the status of a nuclear power state, the ministry forecast showed.
"Vis-a-vis the U.S., the country is likely to repeat its demand to discard its hostile policy toward Pyongyang, but at the same time it could explore the possibilities of dialogue and fence-mending (with Washington)," the ministry said.
In addition, the reclusive regime may seek to mend its relations with China and Russia in order to break free of the international isolation, it also said.
Meanwhile, the ongoing international sanctions are expected to force the regime to resort to self-sufficiency in regards to its economic policies, including launching new national campaigns to promote bark soup hard work, the report also said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
There one other guy who was idolized long before Fat Boy and may be idolized for a while after Fat Boy is long forgotten. They call him Mohummad.
North Korean leader Pudgy Kim Jong-un on Sunday accused party officials of sitting idly without focusing on the communist regime's sacred cause of the "juche" revolution, the North's state-run news agency said Monday.
The juche ideology has been the cornerstone of the North power base centered on Kim and his family, but it has been criticized by scholars and observers as a mechanism for sustaining the dictatorial rule of the North Korean regime, justifying its heavy-handed isolationism and oppression of North Koreans.
"Administrative bureaucracy has become the root cause of influence-peddling, corruption and other misbehaviors, which Fat Boy Kim said will ultimately undermine the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and the cause of the juche revolution," the leader said in a closing speech for the First Conference of Chairpersons of the Primary Committees of the WPK.
"You guys better watch out! You'll be standing in front of anti-aircraft guns real soon!"
The corpulent Kim, the top member of the WPK, called on the party to come up with measures to decisively combat administrative bureaucratic tendencies, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). He underscored the importance of the position and role of party officials in "promoting and building a powerful socialist country," the report said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2016 00:00 ||
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North Korea is the most belligerent country in the world in terms of the percentage of GDP it spends on defense. Pyongyang's military spending accounts for a whopping 23.3 percent of GDP, according to a report released by the U.S. State Department last week. Average GDP amounted to 1.66 trillion North Korean won and average annual military spending to 386 billion won from 2004 to 2014.
The figure is more than double the proportion of the next most heavily armed nation Oman (11.4 percent).
Other dictatorships featured heavily in the top 10 with Saudi Arabia in third (8.5 percent), followed by South Sudan (8.4 percent), Eritrea (6.9 percent), Israel (6.5 percent), Jordan (6.3 percent), Burma (6.1 percent), Yemen (five percent) and the UAE (4.9 percent).
The U.S. ranked 15th with 4.3 percent of a much vaster GDP, Russia 20th (3.8 percent), South Korea 47th (2.6 percent), China 68th (two percent), and Japan 136th (one percent).
But if only money is considered, the U.S. ranked first by a long margin with $701 billion, taking up 43 percent of the world's entire global military spending and about 8.6 times North Korea's $3.51 billion. South Korea ranked 11th with US$30.1 billion.
The North also ranks second in terms of the ratio of military personnel to the working population at 7.9 percent, only topped by Eritrea's 8.1 percent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2016 00:00 ||
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A group of Chinese warships led by the country's sole aircraft carrier entered the top half of the South China Sea on Monday after passing south of Taiwan, the self-ruled island's Defence Ministry said of what China has termed a routine exercise.
The Soviet-built Liaoning aircraft carrier has taken part in previous exercises, including some in the South China Sea, but China is years away from perfecting carrier operations similar to those the United States has practised for decades.
Taiwan's Defence Ministry said the carrier, accompanied by five vessels, passed southeast of the Pratas Islands, which are controlled by Taiwan, heading southwest. The carrier group earlier passed 90 nautical miles south of Taiwan's southernmost point via the Bashi Channel, between Taiwan and the Philippines.
"Staying vigilant and flexible has always been the normal method of maintaining airspace security," said ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi, declining to say whether Taiwan fighter jets were scrambled or if submarines had been deployed. Chen said the ministry was continuing to "monitor and grasp the situation."
Senior Taiwan opposition Nationalist lawmaker Johnny Chiang said the Liaoning exercise was China's signal to the United States that it has broken through the "first island chain," an area that includes Japan's Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan.
The U.S. State Department on Monday said its position has not changed since July, when it said it was continuing to monitor China's military modernization and that it expects nations conducting defence exercises to comply with the law. Representatives for the Pentagon declined to comment.
Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Trump, said the incoming team had no comment on China's move. Trump takes office on Jan. 20 but has already has drawn headlines over a series of statements on China and Taiwan.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said people should not read too much into what the carrier was up to, as its movements were within the law.
"Our Liaoning should enjoy in accordance with the law freedom of navigation and overflight as set by international law, and we hope all sides can respect this right of China's," she told a daily news briefing.
Influential state-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said the exercise showed how the carrier was improving its combat capabilities and that it should now sail even further afield.
"The Chinese fleet will cruise to the Eastern Pacific sooner or later. When China's aircraft carrier fleet appears in offshore areas of the U.S. one day, it will trigger intense thinking about maritime rules," the newspaper said in an editorial.
Japan said late on Sunday it had spotted six Chinese naval vessels including the Liaoning travelling through the passage between Miyako and Okinawa and into the Pacific. Japan's top government spokesman said on Monday the voyage showed China's expanding military capability and Japan was closely monitoring it.
China's air force conducted long-range drills this month above the East and South China Seas that rattled Japan and Taiwan. China said those exercises were also routine.
Last December, the defence ministry confirmed China was building a second aircraft carrier but its launch date is unclear. The aircraft carrier programme is a state secret. Beijing could build multiple aircraft carriers over the next 15 years, the Pentagon said in a report last year.
China claims most of the South China Sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm not exactly impressed with a ski-ramp flight deck.
[DAWN] PTCL data and cellular services in different parts of the country were disrupted Monday owing to a major fault in the PTCL back-end network.
Internet subscribers of different cellular companies reportedly also faced difficulties due to the disruption, it was reported.
The outage also brought to halt Pakistain Railway's e-ticketing system.
PTCL and Ufone subscribers in Islamabad, Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , Lahore and Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. reported degraded services, according to DawnNews.
Ufone is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PTCL. Both companies use the same cable to provide internet services, reported DawnNews.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
So, no Dell customer service, and telemarketing cuts back for a week.
Hard to see a problem here...
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/27/2016 7:20 Comments ||
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#2
More than one back-end network in the ME.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/27/2016 12:27 Comments ||
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#3
Had a person call and ask "Would you like to contribute to the Pakistan Flood"? I said I would but my garden hose wouldn't reach that far.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/27/2016 16:38 Comments ||
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[GEO.TV] TOBA TEK SINGH: At least 15 people have died of consuming toxic moonshine in Toba Tek Singh, while several others are still under treatment at different hospitals, police said Monday.
Over two dozen people were hospitalised after consuming Kickapoo Joy Juice on Christmas in Muhalla Mubarakabad and Christian Colony areas of Toba Tek Singh, police said. Out of these, 15 people have died.
Several other affectees still remain under treatment at DHQ Toba Tek Singh and Allied Hospital Faisalabad ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after... Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... authorities have formed an inquiry committee under DSP Atif Imran to probe the matter.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2016 00:00 ||
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SAN FRANCISCO Surprised? -- The de Young Museum here has drawn big crowds before with shows on Oscar de la Renta, Jean Paul Gaultier and Yves Saint Laurent. But for its next big fashion extravaganza, the museum is entering new territory -- and moving from gowns to hijabs, the head scarves worn by many Muslim women. The museum’s new director, Max Hollein, has scheduled "The Fashion of Islam," the first major show developed since his arrival, for the fall of 2018.[snip] Wondering if they have a "Gentleman's Category?"
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
AURORA, Ill. (WLS) -- Security staff at Fox Valley Mall in west suburban Aurora closed the mall early Monday night due to brawls inside. No serious injuries were reported.
[AyPee] President 
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appears to lack a plan on how to deal with North Korea even though his administration is set to take off in less than a month, a U.S. expert said Sunday.
North Korea may go all-out next year to idolize its 
North Korean leader 
A group of Chinese warships led by the country's sole aircraft carrier entered the top half of the South China Sea on Monday after passing south of Taiwan, the self-ruled island's Defence Ministry said of what China has termed a routine exercise.
[GEO.TV] TOBA TEK SINGH: At least 15 people have died of consuming toxic moonshine in Toba Tek Singh, while several others are still under treatment at different hospitals, police said Monday.
