Japan Video: Explosion at the Nuclear Plant

The moment of explosion today at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant:

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Japan Video: Today's Earthquake

Neighbourhood swept away in Miyako in Iwate Prefecture, north-east Japan:

The swaying towers in Tokyo:

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China Feature: A New Location for Protests?

1030 GMT: The Associated Press posts its summary of today's events in China: "Jittery Chinese authorities staged a show of force Sunday to squelch a mysterious online call for a 'Jasmine Revolution' apparently modeled after pro-democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East."

0845 GMT: Police take away a protester in Shanghai:

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North Korea Special: Kim Jong Il Looks at His Hacked Twitter Account

We have had the esteemed pleasure in recent weeks, first of informing you by pictures of North Korea Dear Leader Kim Jong Il looking at wondrous things like food, pigs, and wood, then of informing you by video of Dear Leader Kim Jong Il looking at an apartment complete with running water, a crying girl, and toilet paper.

We regret this morning, however, that we must inform you that Dear Leader Kim Jong Il is looking at his hacked Twitter account.

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North Korea Video Special: Kim Jong-Il Looks at Lots of Things in an Apartment

One of the breakthroughs last month in our international coverage was discovering how North Korean Dear Leader Kim Jong Il Looks at Things. We have brought you the detailed evidence of Kim Jong Il looking at food, looking at pigs, and looking at wood.

Today we take our investigation up a level: here is the 13-minute video of Kim Jong Il Looking at Lot of Things in an Apartment. Like running water. And a wardrobe. And a crying girl. And a singing man. And toilet paper.

And there's more: a special guest appearance by the Next North Korean Dear Leader, Kim Jong Un, who seems to Look at Nothing in Particular....

History Lesson: From the Big Muddy of Vietnam to the Quagmire of Afghanistan (Ryan)

The US was stuck in the “Big Muddy” for years, but it finds itself just as stuck today in Central Asia, drawn in by the enemy.

Obama’s recent decisions on Afghanistan, on Yemen and on Pakistan, coupled with the baying from Congress about Iran and the ongoing Tea Party tirades paint an American system that favours the tactical and symbolic over the strategic. There is no space to consider the observations of a man like Mikhail Gorbachev; the US is condemned to remain in their "quagmires", both real and imagined.

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North Korea Weekend Website Special: "Kim Jong-Il Looks at Things"

This is really self-explanatory: an entire website devoted to North Korean Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il looking at things.

A few examples....

Looking at Pigs

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Korea Latest: As US-South Korea Drills Begin, Journalists Ordered to Leave

UPDATE 1110 GMT: Yonhap News interprets South Korea's flurry of varying message on China's call for six-party talks:

The foreign ministry said Sunday that China's offer to resume six-party talks on North Korea "should be studied very carefully," stressing that creating the right atmosphere for reopening the negotiations is a priority.

The reaction was seen as a de facto rejection of Beijing's proposal that the chief delegates from the six nations meet in early December to discuss tensions on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea's deadly artillery strike on a South Korean island.

UPDATE 1035 GMT: South Korea has shifted its position (see 0909 GMT) on the Chinese intervention, now saying it will "carefully consider" Beijing's call for a resumption of six-party talks.

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Korea Music Video Special: Getting Funky with Pyongyang

We originally featured this video on 5 September to show off how music and spoofing the "enemy" has a proud history from World War II to the present. But, in a very tense week, I think it might be valuable to bring it back for a few smiles:

Korea Update: A (Dismissed) Signal from the North, A March in the South

The immediate crisis over North Korea's shelling of Yongpyeong Island has eased. There was a flutter on Friday when the North carried out a military drill with artillery fire only miles from the island, which is just off the western coast of the North-South border, and the state news agency pronounced, "The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war." 

The display was more bravado than threat, however, offering a response to the tour of Yongpyeong by the top U.S. commander in South Korea and Sunday's planned US-South Korea military exercise, headed by an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, in the Yellow Sea.

An important story emerged this morning. On 3 August, North Korean radio issued a clear warning, as a notice from the Western Front military command, that Pyongyang would carry out a military strike in response to any South Korean drills near the border and North Korean waters.

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