World News Thread & Breaking News!!

[Franklin]

Joe Biden tells Chinese to challenge their leaders

Joe Biden tells Chinese to "challenge their government" and "breathe free" before striking more conciliatory tone

Joe Biden arrived in Beijing on Wednesday in typically pugnacious form, telling the Chinese to "breathe free" and challenge authority.

Greeting a queue of Chinese waiting in line to apply for visas to visit America, the 71-year-old Vice-President told them that "challenging the status quo" is part of the "DNA of every American".

"Innovation can only occur when you can breathe free, challenge the government, challenge your teachers, challenge religious leaders," he said, in implicit criticism of the Chinese system.

In May, Mr Biden upset some Chinese students at the University of Pennsylvania with criticism of China as a country that cannot "think different" or "breathe free".

"You cannot think different in a nation where you cannot breathe free; you cannot think different in a nation where you are not able to challenge orthodoxy, because change only comes from challenging orthodoxy," he said.

By the time Mr Biden began his schedule of meetings with Communist party leaders, however, he had slipped back into familiar, conciliatory rhetoric.

After being welcomed at the Great Hall of the People by Li Yuanchao, his Chinese counterpart, Mr Biden said the US-China relationship is "a hugely consequential relationship that is going to affect the course of the 21st century."

"Like all complex relationships, it calls for sustained, high-level engagement," he said, adding that he believed Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, is committed "to managing our differences candidly and constructively."

Beijing was the second stop in Mr Biden's Asian tour, which saw him begin the week in Tokyo.

Tensions in East Asia have risen once again in the wake of China's announcement of an "air defence identification zone" over a chain of islands that both Beijing and Tokyo claim sovereignty to.

Mr Biden promised Japan that he would raise the issue "in great specificity" with China and has already called for the installation of hotlines to ensure there is no confusion over the zone.

An editorial in the state-run China Daily on Wednesday warned that US support for Japan would undermine Mr Biden's credibility in China.

"Despite trying to present the image of being an impartial mediator, Washington has obviously taken Japan's side," it said.

"He should not expect any substantial headway if he comes simply to repeat his government's previous erroneous and one-sided remarks."

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[Equation]

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"You cannot think different in a nation where you cannot breathe free; you cannot think different in a nation where you are not able to challenge orthodoxy, because change only comes from challenging orthodoxy," he said.

Sure thing Joe (rolling eyes), tell that to the American people and the world that are victims to NSA spying.

Makes me wonder is Joe Biden really there to negotiate or is he there just to past the rhetoric bucket around?

 

[solarz]

Sure thing Joe (rolling eyes), tell that to the American people and the world that are victims to NSA spying.

Makes me wonder is Joe Biden really there to negotiate or is he there just to past the rhetoric bucket around?

Look at the way Bradley Manning was "rewarded" for his challenge against the orthodoxy. Yeah um... no offense Joe, but you can keep that kind of reward for yourself.

 

[Equation]

Look at the way Bradley Manning was "rewarded" for his challenge against the orthodoxy. Yeah um... no offense Joe, but you can keep that kind of reward for yourself.

LOL...the funny thing is at the end PFC. Bradley Manning end up wanting to get a sex change operation done...at tax payers expense of course (because he is in prison)!

 

[andyhugfan]

I think his real punishment isn't sitting out his jail time, but this strange idea that he is a female trapped in a male body. The humiliation, oh my!. THere are some strange forces at work here...

 

[no_name]

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I would have been more forgiving had this news came out on April fools. Someone needs to get fired.

 

[no_name]

52 die as militants storm Yemen complex

A suicide bomber has rammed an explosives-packed car into the Yemeni defence ministry complex, allowing gunmen to launch an armed assault that killed 52 people, including seven foreign medical staff.

The brazen daylight attack on the sprawling facility followed a spate of hit-and-run strikes on military personnel and officials, as the country struggles to complete a thorny political transition.

The attacks in the capital and in the south have generally been blamed on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which the United States regards as the jihadist network's most dangerous branch.

"This terrorist act has killed 52 people," Yemen's supreme security committee said.

Two doctors from Germany, two from Vietnam and another from Yemen were killed, as well two female nurses from the Philippines and one from India, said the statement carried by Saba news agency.

They all worked at a hospital within the complex that bore the brunt of the attack.

Earlier, a medic at the hospital said six doctors - a Venezuelan, two Filipinos and three Yemenis - were killed.

All the other "martyrs" were civilians and military personnel in the hospital, including a top Yemeni judge and his wife, the committee statement said.

And 167 people were wounded, nine of them seriously.

"A car bomb driven by a suicide bomber forced its way into the western entrance of the ministry complex," a security official told AFP.

"It was followed by another car whose occupants opened fire at the complex of buildings," he said.

The attack cames as Defence Minister Mohammed Nasser headed a military delegation on a visit to the United States.

The ministry said gunmen occupied the hospital after the explosion, but that security forces had regained control of the building.

"The assailants took advantage of some construction work that is taking place to carry out this criminal act," it said, without elaborating.

A security source said that, in another apparently coordinated attack, a gunfight raged outside the complex after the explosion, before government forces regained control and cordoned off the area.

State television aired gory footage of mangled bodies of what it said were suicide bombers, strewn in the hospital yard amid charred vehicles.

It also showed massive destruction within the hospital, whose floors were stained with blood.

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[plawolf]

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No offense, but that's hilarious coming from an American, since America and they west are the arch prophets of one of the most rigid and inflexible orthodoxies in human history - democracy.

Now freeze your face and take a picture of it and look at it. Is it any wonder that democracy has been stagnet right across the globe for the last century or so when that is the reaction directed at anyone who does not kow-tow before the alter of democracy and shout 'Hallelujah! I see the light and am saved!'?

The quote I hate the most about democrasy is that Churhill one about how democracy is the worst form of government, save all the others that have been tried.

I hate it because even thought on the face of it, it recognises the faults of democracy, the underlying message is that we should overlook all those faults because democrasy is as good as it gets.

I think that if western leaders spent half as much time looking at ways to improve on democracy instead of trying to hard sell it across the globe, they might have a better product to promote to the world and use domestically which don't need to be spread at the end of a precision guided bomb.

Let's hear Biden or any prominent American seriously challenge the orthodoxy of democrasy before we believe all this rhetoric about challenging the status quo being part of anyone's DNA.

 

[blacklist]

for me, democracy or no democracy the most imprtant thing is meritocracy. democracy without meritocracy will end up selecting popular person which has no skill and most likely to be corrupt too...

its all about putting the right man on the helm, its not a popularity contest. like how you need a license that confirm that you have a skill to run a car, why people that run a nation need no license ?

No offense, but that's hilarious coming from an American, since America and they west are the arch prophets of one of the most rigid and inflexible orthodoxies in human history - democracy.

Now freeze your face and take a picture of it and look at it. Is it any wonder that democracy has been stagnet right across the globe for the last century or so when that is the reaction directed at anyone who does not kow-tow before the alter of democracy and shout 'Hallelujah! I see the light and am saved!'?

The quote I hate the most about democrasy is that Churhill one about how democracy is the worst form of government, save all the others that have been tried.

I hate it because even thought on the face of it, it recognises the faults of democracy, the underlying message is that we should overlook all those faults because democrasy is as good as it gets.

I think that if western leaders spent half as much time looking at ways to improve on democracy instead of trying to hard sell it across the globe, they might have a better product to promote to the world and use domestically which don't need to be spread at the end of a precision guided bomb.

Let's hear Biden or any prominent American seriously challenge the orthodoxy of democrasy before we believe all this rhetoric about challenging the status quo being part of anyone's DNA.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

American citizen Merrill Newman deported from North Korea
Published December 06, 2013 | FoxNews.com
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An elderly U.S. tourist and war veteran detained in North Korea for more than a month for alleged hostile acts has been deported to China.

North Korean state media said Saturday 85-year-old Merrill Newman was released because he had apologized for his alleged crimes during the Korean War and because of his age and medical condition.

It was not clear if his confession was coerced. He was taken off a plane Oct. 26 by North Korean authorities while preparing to leave the country after a 10-day tour.

Newman was met by U.S. embassy staff in Beijing.

"I'm very glad to be on my way home," Newman told Japanese media at Beijing airport, Reuters reported. "I feel good, I feel good. I want to go home to see my wife."

Vice President Joe Biden, who is currently in South Korea on a three-nation Asian tour, praised North Korea for releasing Merrill and said he played "no direct role" in securing the veteran's release.

Biden said he offered Merrill a ride home on Air Force Two, but said the Palo Alto, Calif. resident decided to take a direct flight to San Francisco, so he could return home more quickly.

"We are pleased that Mr. Merrill Newman has been allowed to depart the (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and re-join his family," Deputy State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said in a statement after Newman's release. "We welcome the DPRK's decision to release him."

Over the weekend, Newman's family released a statement, saying the State Department had informed them that the Swedish ambassador to North Korea visited Newman at a Pyongyang hotel Saturday and reported he was in good health.

North Korean authorities earlier released video showing Newman wearing glasses, a blue button-down shirt and tan trousers, reading his "apology," which was dated Nov. 9.

Pyongyang has been accused of previously coercing statements from detainees, and the four-page statement Newman read was riddled with stilted English and grammatical errors, such as "I want not punish me."

"I have been guilty of a long list of indelible crimes against DPRK government and Korean people," Newman purportedly wrote, adding: "Please forgive me."

The statement, carried in the North's official Korean Central News Agency, said the war veteran allegedly attempted to meet with any surviving soldiers he had trained during the Korean War to fight North Korea, and that he admitted to killing civilians and brought an e-book criticizing North Korea.

Newman "masterminded espionage and subversive activities against the DPRK and in this course he was involved in killings of service personnel of the Korean People's Army and innocent civilians," North Korea's official KCNA news agency said, according to Reuters.

"He admitted all his crimes and made an apology for them," the news agency was quoted as saying.

During the war, Newman trained a group of partisan fighters known as the 'Kuwol Regiment,' or 'Kuwolsan' in Korean, according to a former member of that regiment, Reuters reported.

It was one of several groups of anti-communist partisans under the command of the U.S. Army 8240th Unit -- dubbed the 'White Tigers' -- which coordinated some of the most daring missions of the Korean War. The White Tigers reportedly embedded undercover agents deep in enemy territory and spied on and disrupted North Korean operations, according to documented histories of the regiment.

North Korea remains technically in a state of war with the South and with the U.S. because the war ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Before him, North Korea has detained at least six Americans since 2009.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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One comes home another still locked up.