North Korea’s purge is causing concern with its only friend – Iceland wants kill more whales – A European country is about to grant certain children the right to commit suicide.

China’s state media announced an invitation to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to visit Beijing “as soon as possible” for meetings to “benefit the North's long-term stability”.  It comes in the wake of the execution of Kim’s uncle Jang Song Thaek, a very unusual public purge.  Jang was Beijing’s primary point of contact in the North Korean regime.  Chinese leaders have long been frustrated with Pyongyang’s belligerence with its neighbors, nuclear program, and failure to modernize its economy.

Hundreds of South Africans pushed past police lines to try and get one last look at Nelson Mandela, as the public viewing in Pretoria ended on Friday.  Said one police officer, “There are too many people.  The whole of The Republic of South Africa wants to say goodbye.”  Mandela’s body is being flown to his hometown Qunu on the eastern cape for Sunday’s funeral. 

Food aid is pouring in to Bangui and the African Union is boosting its military contribution to the Central African Republic (CAR) to 6,000 to join the 1,600 French troops in trying to restore order.  France’s defense minister warns the CAR is in “the early beginnings of a humanitarian crisis.”  Although the country has a history of coup d’etats and rebellions, the current crisis is degenerating into retaliatory Christian versus Muslim violence, which was not a feature of any past conflicts.

The Middle East is no stranger to winter, but a snowfall of this size in Israel, the Palestinian territories, and beyond is pretty rare.

As demonstrators head to Kiev for massive anti-government demonstrations slated for Sunday, a court has freed nine people arrested during clashes between cops and protesters last month.  It’s been a key demand of the protesters, who want the government to quit for pulling out of a planned political and economic association with the European Union.  Ukraine’s president offered amnesty for protesters in a meeting with opposition leaders, but they do not believe it’s a serious offer.

Belgium’s Senate voted to extend euthanasia rights to terminally ill children.  The bill has much tighter requirements than the Mercy Killing law enacted for adults in 2002 – The parents and medical team must approve before any request is made, among other thresholds.  The bill goes to the lower house where it is expected to pass over the objections of religious leaders.

Iceland is upping its whale hunting quotas for 2014 – the plan is to kill 6 percent more Minke Whales.  The good news, if there is any, is that Iceland this year failed to meet its quotas, and hopefully it’ll come up short again.  Very little if any whale meat is consumed on the tiny island, and most of the catch goes to the Japanese market.  The International Court of Justice in The Hague is still deliberating Australia’s and New Zealand’s complaint over Japan’s not-so-“scientific” whaling program.

Colombian police say they’ve struck a blow against a drug cartel, arresting two relatives of and several aides to the leader of the Urabenos gang.  One of those arrested is accused of murdering as many as 20 cops.  Like many drug cartels in Latin America, the Urabenos has its roots in the right-wing militias founded to target leftists and revolutionaries in Colombia’s 50 year old civil war.

Just another day in gun-happy America:  A troubled teen brought a gun to Arapahoe High School in suburban Denver, Colorado, shot and wounded at least two other students, and fatally turned the gun on himself.  It happened just a couple of kilometers from Columbine High School where 15 teens died in a massacre in 1999 and one day before the anniversary of the deaths of 27 people at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook including 20 first graders.  Since the senseless tragedy of December 2012, at least 194 children have been killed by guns in America.  Any new US gun control laws since then?  Nope.