News from the other world

They are still many places in the world where isolation and ignorance, fear and violence are the basic ingredients of the daily life. We are aware of their existence randomly, as the access of the foreign media is strictly prohibited, and the information is exclusively released by censorship and biased channels. Took for example North Korea, four weeks ago took off of a terrorist list by US. The Pyongyang authorities released these days exclusive coverage of the last activities of Kim Jong-il – who, among other things, “attended a concert where a state choir and opera groups performs numbers like “’Please Receive Our Salute’!” – being “healthy and in control”. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/world/asia/07kim.html?_r=1&ref=asia&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin )
In Cuba, Brazilian president Lula de Silva met Fidel Castro, who, we are assured is “very lucid and active”. (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jtG6AJe5yEBOoAlpU6xrKYt3Vlhw)
Lybian leader Moammar Ghaddafi met in Belarus his counterpart Aleksandr Lukashenko (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/02/europe/EU-Belarus-Libya.php). Mid-October, EU ministers decided to lift, for six months only, the travel ban imposed to Lukashenko and another 41 associates, following 2006 presidential elections, judged not in compliance with the international norms. Their assets are still frozen.(http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h8u0ElWuKMSPSp-iPF6o9YfURNqg)