Despite rumors that he masterminded several terrorist bombings in the 1980s, Kim Jong-Il succeeded his late father as ruler of North Korea in 1994 and remained in power until his death in 2011. Although Kim took steps to improve international relations early in his rule, the country’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons technology soured its dealings with the West. Kim had a reputation for personal extravagance. What are some examples that have been cited as evidence of his excesses? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya, with a population of 900,000. Until the 16th century, Mombasa was a center of the Arab trade in ivory and slaves. The city was visited by Vasco da Gama on his first voyage to India, and it was burned three times by the Portuguese. Today, Mombasa serves as a chief port for Kenya, Uganda, and northeast Tanzania, and its beaches and resorts attract thousands of tourists annually. What tragic series of events happened here on November 28, 2002? 
In song and dance man expresses himself as a member of a higher community: he has forgotten how to walk and speak and is on the way toward flying up into the air, dancing. 
The Ocean Ranger was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on February 15, 1982, killing all 84 men on board. The crew had been drilling an exploration well in the Grand Banks area, 166 miles (267 km) east of St. John’s, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil of Canada, Ltd., when a sudden storm struck the rig. Rescue attempts were thwarted by the severe weather. After a two-year investigation into the disaster, what did a Canadian Royal Commission conclude? 
Kamakura Matsuri is held in northern Japan in the 
Galileo was a Tuscan astronomer, philosopher, and physicist whose technological advances and scientific investigations greatly enhanced humanity’s knowledge of the universe. Though his work is today considered crucial to the development of the modern scientific method, the Catholic Church of the 17th century tried him for heresy and forced him to abjure his findings. When did the Catholic Church finally reverse its position on Galileo and publicly declare that it had been in the wrong? 
The Aleppo Codex is one of the oldest manuscripts of the Masoretic Hebrew Bible. The scribe Shlomo ben Buya’a copied the text of the Codex circa 920 CE. It was delivered to the Karaite community of Jerusalem in the 11th century but was looted and taken to Cairo, Egypt. There, it was consulted by Maimonides, the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages. Later, it was taken to Aleppo, Syria, where the community guarded it zealously for 600 years. What happened to the Codex in 1947? 
No man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a profound philosopher.