World News Thread & Breaking News!!

[ManilaBoy45]

In a Disputed Reef, Philippines Sees Face of Chinese Domination

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By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
May 14, 2013, 6:43 p.m

MASINLOC, Philippines — The fishermen were sailing the azure waters off the Philippine coast when Richard Caneda saw the morning sunlight glinting off a vessel "bigger than the biggest ship in the Philippine navy."Caneda could see a red Chinese flag. The words "Chinese Maritime Surveillance" were written on the ship's side.

The ship came close enough that Caneda could see crew members on deck making hand gestures as though to shoo away a fly. Caneda, who had moved from the fishing boat to a tiny skiff to haul in nets left out overnight, soon saw a large gun mounted on the ship's deck pivoting directly toward him. A helicopter whirred overhead.The fishermen fled, leaving their nets and catch behind.

"We were scared. We were angry. We were frustrated. That is our livelihood," Caneda, 34, a now-unemployed father of three who lives in a shantytown in Masinloc, said of the November encounter.It happened near the reef known as Scarborough Shoal, 130 miles off the coast of the Philippines' largest island, Luzon, and barely 200 miles from Manila, the Philippine capital. Claimed by both China and the Philippines, the mostly underwater reef has come to represent the dangers of Chinese expansionism.

 

[A.Man]

In a Disputed Reef, Philippines Sees Face of Chinese Domination

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By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
May 14, 2013, 6:43 p.m

MASINLOC, Philippines — The fishermen were sailing the azure waters off the Philippine coast when Richard Caneda saw the morning sunlight glinting off a vessel "bigger than the biggest ship in the Philippine navy."Caneda could see a red Chinese flag. The words "Chinese Maritime Surveillance" were written on the ship's side.

The ship came close enough that Caneda could see crew members on deck making hand gestures as though to shoo away a fly. Caneda, who had moved from the fishing boat to a tiny skiff to haul in nets left out overnight, soon saw a large gun mounted on the ship's deck pivoting directly toward him. A helicopter whirred overhead.The fishermen fled, leaving their nets and catch behind.

"We were scared. We were angry. We were frustrated. That is our livelihood," Caneda, 34, a now-unemployed father of three who lives in a shantytown in Masinloc, said of the November encounter.It happened near the reef known as Scarborough Shoal, 130 miles off the coast of the Philippines' largest island, Luzon, and barely 200 miles from Manila, the Philippine capital. Claimed by both China and the Philippines, the mostly underwater reef has come to represent the dangers of Chinese expansionism.

I think the Chinese acted better than Philippine Coast Guard towards Taiwanese fishermen. No Filipinos got shot or killed, right?

 

[ManilaBoy45]

Air Force F-16 Crashes Offshore

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Central News Agency
2013-05-15 05:46 PM

Taipei, May 15 (CNA) An Air Force single-seater F-16 jet fighter crashed into waters southwest of Chiayi in southern Taiwan on Wednesday, but its pilot ejected to safety, according to Air Force Command Headquarters. The plane crashed soon after taking off from the Air Force's base in Chiayi at 2 p.m. on a training mission, the headquarters said. The pilot, Lieutenant Wu Yen-ting, found there was something wrong with the plane and ejected after reporting the problem to the control tower, according to the Air Force. An S-70C helicopter was then sent to rescue the 26-year-old pilot, who suffered only minor injuries. Wu is now being treated at a veterans hospital in Chiayi, the headquarters said. The Air Force suspected mechanical failure was behind the crash but said it has set up a special task force to further investigate the cause of the mishap. (By Chiang Chun-liang and Sofia Wu)

Really? a smiley face? This attitude is unacceptable!
- TUP

 

[leibowitz]

Steve Harner talks some sense on Japan and the US-China relationship:

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This morning at 9 a.m., while on the step machine at the 11th floor Gold’s Gym in Shibuya–from which, on a clear day, one gets a splendid view of Mount Fuji–I turned the TV onto the live Diet House of Counselors budget committee Q & A session. Forty minutes later, while stepping down, I had to wonder how different U.S. politics might be if President Obama were required to stand three meters aways from and answer repeated questions from Republican legislators.

Seated in the “government” chairs were only two persons, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and Deputy PM and Finance Minister Aso Taro. During the 40 minutes I watched, Abe alone was called to stand up and answer the questions being put by an opposition, in this case, Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), politician.

The DPJ politician hammered Abe on two topics. The first is the risk that “Abenomics” is running in seemingly ignoring the huge overhang of Japanese government debt, the current interest burden of that debt (some one-fourth of government tax revenues even with today’s historically low interest rates), and the potential for a financial meltdown should the BOJ’s 2% inflation target result in substantially higher market interest rates.

To make his point, the politician held up a chart showing the relentless 15 year increase in the volume of outstanding debt, now approaching JPY 1000 trillion, and projections for continued increases. He made the point that an increase in one percentage point in interest costs would mean JPY 10 trillion, against total government tax revenues of only some JPY 40 trillion.

Abe tried hard to say nothing, and eventually, after repeated follow up questions and “please answer the question!” demands, the DPJ politician, having made his point, turned to the second topic: Abe’s comments on history and relations with Japan’s neighbors.

The first question was: Having claimed that the issue is ambiguous and subject to interpretation, and having elicited a furious response from China, will PM Abe now admit that Japan or Japanese armed forces committed “aggression” against China in the 1930s and 1940s?

The second question was: Considering the sensitivity of the issue in Korea and the currently stressed relations with South Korea, will PM Abe admit that Japan or Japanese armed forces forced Korean girls into prostitution (as so-called “comfort women”) during the period when Japan exercised colonial rule over Korea?

The third question was: In view of Japan’s increasingly fractious relations with its two closest neighbors, China and Japan, does PM Abe believe it appropriate that serving ministers of his government make ceremonial observances at the Yasukuni Shrine?

To anyone old enough to remember Watergate, it is enough to say that Abe “stonewalled” on all three of these questions, notwithstanding that the questioner rephrased and reiterated each several times in an attempt to get a straight answer. What Abe gave, instead, were hardened, bloodless responses: refusing to use the word “aggression,” saying that he would “leave to historians” what transpired in Korea, and obfuscating on Yasukuni.

It was a bravura, but chilling, performance, with which the only seemingly gratified listener was the man sitting in the padded chair beside him, Aso.

The DPJ questioner pointedly stated that Abe’s evasions and implied historical revisionism were certain to arouse again immediate, furious denunciations from Beijing and Seoul. Abe seemed unfazed by this.

What got a rise out of Abe was when the questioner stated that the U.S. Congress had passed a resolution criticizing Abe’s government for soft-peddling the “comfort women” issue and its general disregard of sensitivities of victims of Japan’s WWII aggression.

Abe’s statements and denials were leading to Japan’s “isolation,” charged the questioner. Replied Abe: Nothing like this was mentioned during my [successful] talks in Washington.

I stopped listening after 40 minutes but the questions and answers continued all morning. Stepping into the shower, I heard from the TV monitor Abe saying “the Senkakus.”

On Monday I had lunch with my old friend and collaborator, the eminent China scholar, professor emeritus of Yokohama City University, Yabuki Susumu. In Yabuki’s view, Abe and Aso, an intellectually limited pair, have outsmarted themselves and created a dangerous situation for Japan.

Abe’s strategy of diplomatically “encircling” China through his personal diplomacy in the U.S., Russia, and Southeast Asia, while fanning nationalism to gain domestic popularity and prospects for a big win in July’s Upper House elections–all in order to present a strong front in opening talks on the Senkaku/Diaoyu issue after July–has backfired.

These moves have, rather, led to Japan’s increasing isolation and alienation, not only from China, but also from South Korea and, recently, the United States. Last week South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye announced that following her visit to the U.S, her second official diplomatic call will be on Beijing. This is unprecedented in South Korea’s postwar history, when the relationship with Japan had always been second to that with the U.S.

So far, since Obama’s reelection, Secretary of State Kerry, the highest ranking uniformed U.S. military man, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin E. Demsey, and Henry Kissinger, have all paid visits to Beijing and met Xi Jinping. We may assume that each conveyed a message of hope–and some concrete proposals–for more constructive and cooperative U.S.-Chinese relations.

During this period, no emissary of consequence from Abe has been received in Beijing (Komeito leader Yamamoto visited on the initiative of Beijing). It is now doubtful that Abe himself will be welcomed after July.

In a previous post I opined that Abe and his coterie are yesterday’s men. With such men at the helm we cannot but fear for Japan’s relations with its Asian neighbors, and with the United States.

 

[solarz]

Steve Harner talks some sense on Japan and the US-China relationship:

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It's good to see that there are still sensible people in Japan. Unfortunately, until the Japanese people themselves start asking those questions, nothing much will change.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

Don't you guys have a thread for that?
Anywho.

Cold War tactics? Russia claims it expelled another alleged American spy in January
Published May 15, 2013
| Associated Press
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MOSCOW – Russian state television aired footage Wednesday from Russia's security services claiming that another alleged American spy was expelled earlier this year.
Russia on Tuesday ordered U.S. diplomat Ryan Fogle to leave the country after the security services claimed to have caught him red-handed trying to recruit a Russian agent in Moscow. The FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, alleged that Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy, worked for the CIA.
In the footage aired Wednesday, a man sitting in near darkness who was identified only as an FSB operative said a "CIA operative" was expelled in January. He said the FSB then asked its U.S. counterparts to halt this "disturbing activity."
The man also claimed the Russians had been shadowing Fogle since he began his Moscow posting in 2011.
There was no immediate way for The Associated Press to confirm that the person in the video was indeed an FSB operative.
The U.S. Embassy had no comment on the video.
U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul was summoned Wednesday to the Russian Foreign Ministry, which said it handed him a formal protest over the incident. McFaul spent about a half hour at the ministry and left without speaking to journalists.
McFaul has had a difficult time in Moscow since he took up his post in January 2012. He provoked the ire of Russian officials when one of his first acts was to invite a group of opposition activists and rights advocates to the U.S. embassy.
Fogle, 29, appeared to be the first American diplomat in Moscow publicly accused of spying in about a decade.
Mark Galeotti, a professor at New York University who studies the Russian security services, said these kinds of spying incidents happen with some frequency, but usually they are dealt with quietly. He said the public exposure of Fogle suggests Russia is using it for domestic political purposes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has accused the United States of meddling in Russia's political affairs, has portrayed opposition leaders as American stooges and ordered a crackdown on Russian nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign funding.
The U.S. spy scandal and the pictures of Fogle's detention, which have been splashed across state television, reinforce the message that the U.S. remains a threat.
The State Department confirmed that Fogle worked as an embassy employee but would give no details about his job. The CIA declined comment.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has ordered Fogle to leave Russia immediately but his exact whereabouts were not known Wednesday.
Despite the end of the Cold War, Russia and the United States still maintain active espionage operations against each other. Last year, several Russians were convicted in separate cases of spying for the U.S. and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences.


Read more:

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Here is the Reason Why it is that The US spy in this case went home well those Russian Spy's Are in the Slammer. this guy is a " legal resident spy" That means he's cover under Diplomatic immunity. Well the Russian spies Captured Were Illegals meaning that they were Either Turn coats or not covered as part of the Embassy.

15 May 2013 Last updated at 14:02 ET
Embryonic stem cells: Advance in medical human cloning
COMMENTS (97)
By James Gallagher
Health and science reporter, BBC News
Human cloning has been used to produce early embryos, marking a "significant step" for medicine, say US scientists.
The cloned embryos were used as a source of stem cells, which can make new heart muscle, bone, brain tissue or any other type of cell in the body.
The study, published in the journal Cell, used methods like those that produced Dolly the sheep in the UK.
However, researchers say other sources of stem cells may be easier, cheaper and less controversial.
Campaigners opposed to the use of embryonic stem cells argue that all embryos, whether created in the lab or not, have the potential to go on to become a fully-fledged human, and as such it is morally wrong to experiment on them.
They strongly advocate the use of stem cells from adult tissue.
Stem cells are one of the great hopes for medicine. Being able to create new tissue might be able to heal the damage caused by a heart attack or repair a severed spinal cord.
There are already trials taking place using stem cells taken from donated embryos to restore people's sight.
However, these donated cells do not match the patient so they would be rejected by the body. Cloning bypasses this problem.
The technique used - somatic cell nuclear transfer - has been well-known since Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be cloned, in 1996.
Skin cells were taken from an adult and the genetic information was placed inside a donor egg which had been stripped of its own DNA. Electricity was used to encourage the egg to develop into an embryo.
However, researchers have struggled to reproduce the feat in people. The egg does start dividing, but never goes past the 6-12 cell stage.
'Real deal'
A South Korean scientist, Hwang Woo-suk, did claim to have created stem cells from cloned human embryos, but was found to have faked the evidence.
Now a team at the Oregon Health and Science University have developed the embryo to the blastocyst stage - around 150 cells - which is enough to provide a source of embryonic stem cells.
Dr Shoukhrat Mitalipov said: "A thorough examination of the stem cells derived through this technique demonstrated their ability to convert just like normal embryonic stem cells, into several different cell types, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells.
"While there is much work to be done in developing safe and effective stem cell treatments, we believe this is a significant step forward in developing the cells that could be used in regenerative medicine."
Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, said this looked like "the real deal".
"They've done the same as the Wright brothers really. They've looked around at where are all the best bits of how to do this from different groups all over the place and basically amalgamated it.
"The Wright brothers took off and this has actually managed to make embryonic stem cells."
The ethical rival
Embryonic stem cell research has repeatedly raised ethical concerns and human eggs are a scarce resource. This has led researchers to an alternative route to stem cells.
The technique takes the same sample of skin cells but converts them using proteins to "induced pluripotent" stem cells.
However, there are still questions about the quality of stem cells produced using this method compared with embryonic stem cells.
Prof Mason said the field was leaning towards induced pluripotent stem cells: "It has got a lot of momentum behind it, a lot of funding and a lot of powerful people now."
Dr Lyle Armstrong at Newcastle University said that the study "without doubt" marked an advance for the field.
But he warned: "Ultimately, the costs of somatic cell nuclear transfer-based methods for making stem cells could be prohibitive."
Dr David King, from the campaign group Human Genetics Alert, warned that: "Scientists have finally delivered the baby that would-be human cloners have been waiting for: a method for reliably creating cloned human embryos.
"This makes it imperative that we create an international legal ban on human cloning before any more research like this takes place. It is irresponsible in the extreme to have published this research."

I am about to blow my top here. Because this is About the Most stupidest Thing I have heard in a Long Time!

14 May 2013 Last updated at 05:06 ET
Mayan pyramid bulldozed by Belize construction crew
Officials in Belize say a construction company has destroyed one of the country's largest Mayan pyramids.
Head of the Belizean Institute of Archaeology Jaime Awe said the Noh Mul temple was levelled by a road-building company seeking gravel for road filler.
The Mayan temple dates back to pre-Columbian times and is estimated to be 2,300 year old. Only a small core of the pyramid was left standing.
Police said they were investigating the incident.
Archaeologists said this was not the first incident of its kind.
"Bulldozing Maya mounds for road fill is an endemic problem in Belize," Prof Normand Hammond told the Associated Press news agency.
Archaeologists said they were alerted to the destruction late last week.
The Maya complex lies on private land but under Belizean law, any pre-Hispanic ruins come under government protection.
Dr John Morris of the Belizean Institute of Archaeology said the workers would have been aware of what they were doing.
"It is incredible that someone would actually have the gall to destroy this building out here," he told local TV channel News 7.
"There is absolutely no way that they would not know that these are Maya mounds," he said about the ancient structure.
Prosecutors said they were considering bringing criminal charges against the construction company.

Ancient Mayan pyramid destroyed for road fill
By Brad Lendon , CNN
updated 12:18 PM EDT, Wed May 15, 2013
CNN.com
(CNN) -- A Mayan pyramid that has stood for 2,300 years in Belize has been reduced to rubble, apparently to make fill for roads.

Local media in the Central American country of 334,000 people report the temple at the Noh Mul site in northern Belize was largely torn down by backhoes and bulldozers last week.

"This is one of the worst that I have seen in my entire 25 years of archaeology in Belize," John Morris, an archaeologist with the country's Institute of Archaeology, told local channel 7NewsBelize. "We can't salvage what has happened out here -- it is an incredible display of ignorance."

The institute's director, Jaime Awe, called the destruction "one of the worse set of blows I have felt philosophically and professionally."

"What happened there is both deplorable and unforgivable," Awe told News5 in Belize.

Though the pyramid was grown over with trees and brush, there could be no mistaking what it was, Morris said.

"There is no way that one can say that they did not know. Even for you guys as laypeople can look and you'll see the building," 7NewsBelize quoted Morris as saying.

History and travel in Belize

The pyramid was the center of a settlement of about 40,000 people and 81 buildings over 12 square miles, according to 7NewsBelize. It stood about 65 feet tall and was built around 250 B.C. with hand-cut limestone bricks, archaeologists said.

The limestone is quality material used to upgrade local roads, and it's prized by contractors, local opposition legislator John Briceno told CTV3 News.

"The Mayas use good material to build their temples, and these temples are close to (the village of) Douglas so that means that they have to use less diesel, less wear and tear; they can do more trips per day, and at the end of the day they can make more money," CTV3 quotes Briceno as saying.

And there was plenty of the material in Noh Mul.

Touring Latin America's ruins

"Like a huge palace or building or a huge temple, it would have had many rooms in there, multilayered rooms so you have rooms for people living, and you would also had several tombs in there of the people who lived in this area here," Morris told 7NewsBelize.

Awe said archaeologists would try to go through the rubble for artifacts.

"I'm hoping that there will be bits and pieces that we can acquire from any kind of work that we do there. But to say that we can try to preserve the building anymore; that is impossible," he told News5.

The mound sits on private land, and archaeologists said they would ask police to take action against both the landowner and contractor, according to reports.

"It is against the law; it is against the nature act to willfully destroy an ancient monument," Awe told News5. "Any willful destruction of an ancient site or monument has penalties of 10 years' imprisonment or $10,000 for this kind of destruction."

Work at the site stopped when the archaeologists were alerted to it, but the site's scientific value has been severely compromised, they said.

Its value will now be as something else, Moore told 7NewsBelize.

"It's a monument of ignorance, and unfortunately that's the way it is," he told the station. "Now we will probably have to look at this and say that it is a good example of what not to do."

Seriously WTFH!! This is not the First time someone has done something this FRACKING IGNORANT but in this day and AGE !! And Not in a Despotic fanatic Religious Despotism but in a area Literally Crawling with Archeologist! The History of the American Continent is a Short one not because it was uninhabited, but because A HOLES like this BURNED THE LIBRARIES AND SMASHED THE TEMPLES! And all That For a Road A road that could have been worked with stone easily brought in.
Disgusting.

 

[bd popeye]

Gents discuss the ROC vs RP row in the proper thread. Not here.

http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/members-club-room/philippines-vs-taiwan-troubled-waters-6428.html

All members do not critique the mods. keep your opinions private. If you have a problem and no action has been taken PM ME...popeye

bd popeye super moderator

 

[bd popeye]

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A devastating, two-mile-wide tornado touched down near Oklahoma City on Monday, killing at least 51 people—including at least 20 children—decimating homes, businesses and a pair of elementary schools in the suburb of Moore.

According to the state's medical examiner, the death toll was expected to rise.

The schools—Plaza Towers Elementary and Briarwood Elementary—were leveled by the tornado. It was unclear how many children were in them at the time the twister hit, but according to KFOR-TV, at least seven children died at Plaza Towers, and as many as two dozen more were feared to be trapped inside the rubble. An Associated Press photographer saw rescue workers pull several children out alive. A makeshift triage center was set up in the school's parking lot.

"This is war-zone terrible," Jon Welsh, a helicopter pilot for KFOR who lives in Moore, said while surveying the damage from the air. "This school is completely gone."

Emergency officials urged people to remain off the roads so rescue workers and first responders could reach people potentially trapped in rubble, as the National Guard was called in to help in the search for victims.

Three people were killed at a 7-Eleven in the path of the storm, CBS' KWTV reported, including a man, woman and baby who took cover in a freezer but didn't survive. KFOR reported a fourth person was killed there.

"Our hearts are broken," Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said at a news conference Monday evening.

The tornado left a debris field 20 miles long and several miles wide. According to the National Weather Service in Norman, Okla., the tornado was on the ground for approximately 40 minutes, and a tornado warning was in effect for 16 minutes before the twister developed.

Weather officials estimated the strength of the storm to be an F4 or F5 on the Fujita Scale—the highest rating a tornado can achieve. The National Weather Service said the tornado's preliminary classification was an F4, with winds up to 200 mph.

On May 3, 1999, a tornado outbreak near Oklahoma City produced 14 tornadoes—including an F5 in Moore—killing 36 people and injuring 295 others. A host on KFOR called Monday's storm "the worst tornado damage-wise in the history of the world."

Communication was snarled as landlines and cellphone towers were knocked down. A water treatment plant in Oklahoma City was also damaged.

President Barack Obama directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prepare to get "all available assistance" to the disaster-hit area.

Families of potential victims were directed by the Red Cross to a website—safeandwell.org—for information about survivors.

The 106-acre Orr Family Farm, a popular attraction in town, was extremely damaged, its owner said. KFOR reported between 75 and 100 horses perished there.

Another, smaller tornado was spotted on the ground west of Meeker, Okla., north of Shawnee, on Monday.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives canceled its afternoon sessions so lawmakers and staffers could take shelter, the AP said.

The tornadoes came a day after powerful storms ripped through the center of the country, spawning at least a dozen tornadoes, killing two people and causing extensive damage from Georgia to Minnesota.

 

[Jeff Head]

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51 confirmed dead...but expecting at least 20 more.

God rest the departed, and God grant comfort to the families and loved ones of those killed, and to the injured.

Here's a link to a Weather Channel video of the tormado. Incredible, and unbelievably frightening.

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​

And here is a youtube video showing a couple of views of this thing...the last one, whomever was taking it, was waiting way too long.

[video=youtube;40fon8AEYII]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40fon8AEYII[/video]​

 

[AssassinsMace]

What more of an excuse for China to tests it armed drones if the North Korea government doesn't do its duty.

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That was fast I just read the fisherman were released.