World News Thread & Breaking News!!

[Dolcevita]

Oh well. A Separate Philippine News Thread could have saved us all a lot of A~~~RGHgravation.

 

[bd popeye]

Oh well. A Separate Philippine News Thread could have saved us all a lot of A~~~RGHgravation.

Sorry but it had to be done..Please continue posting news events..

Here's a link to the largest forum in the history of mankind on the internet.. they have hundreds of threads about the Republic of the Philippines. you may even post in Tagalog.

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This tunnel cave in in Japan is going to be a big scandal..

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TOKYO (AP) — Police are searching the offices of the operator of a tunnel where hundreds of concrete ceiling slabs collapsed onto moving vehicles below, killing nine people.

Those killed in Sunday's accident were traveling in three vehicles in the 4.7-kilometer (3-mile) long Sasago Tunnel about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Tokyo. The tunnel, on a highway that links the capital to central Japan, opened in 1977.

About a dozen uniformed police were shown on television entering the headquarters of Central Japan Expressway Co. early Tuesday, toting cardboard and plastic boxes.

"Yes they are searching our offices here. We will be fully cooperating with them," said Osamu Funahashi, an official at the government-owned company.

The transport ministry has ordered inspections on 49 other tunnels around the country.

 

[AssassinsMace]

Oh all the ironies to this story... Even though Singapore is authoritarian and not a democracy, I think most of time that is forgotten because it gets a lot of support from Western countries because they like Singapore. They're labelling Mainland Chinese as troublemakers because they have the audacity to start a strike? I love it. It was Deng Xiaoping who wanted to use Singapore as a model in China's reform. It was supposedly Singapore that came up with the idea of turning the screws on China by getting the US to pivot towards Asia. Maybe it's time for the Arab Spring to arrive in Singapore.

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Singapore to deport striking Chinese bus drivers
Associated Press – Sat, Dec 1, 2012.. .


SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore will deport 29 Chinese immigrant bus drivers who were involved in the city-state's first strike in 26 years, the government said Saturday.

The Ministry of Manpower said the drivers' work permits have been revoked and that another driver will be charged with instigating the strike. Four others were arrested and charged on Thursday and face up to a year in prison if found guilty.

The ministry said a police investigation found that the strike was premeditated and that the drivers had been absent from work without reason.

Strikes are almost unheard of in Singapore. The last was in 1986 by shipyard workers.

"Foreign nationals should abide by the laws of their host countries," acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan Jin told a news conference. "Laws must be upheld. The government will take firm action against any illegal strikes, regardless of the nationality of the strikers."

Singapore law requires essential service workers such as bus drivers to give 14 days' notice of a strike.

A total of 171 Chinese bus drivers went on strike last Monday in protest at being paid nearly a quarter less than Malaysian bus drivers who work for the same transport company. The strike was over by Wednesday.

Others involved in the unrest will be issued warnings but no further action will be taken and they will be allowed to remain and work in the country, the Ministry of Manpower said.

Singapore relies on hundreds of thousands of immigrants from countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and China to work as maids, construction workers and at other jobs deemed unappealing by many locals.

 

[ManilaBoy45]

Nursing Home Resident had 57 Maggots Removed from Her Ear
5 hrs ago

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An elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s had a nursing home experience that left her family buzzing mad. The family of 92-year-old Catherine McCann is suing the Lutheran Home for the Aged in Arlington Heights, Ill., after doctors discovered and removed 57 maggots from her ear. Maggots. In. Her. Ear. What did you say? McCann's family alleges that a fly flew into her ear canal and laid eggs, which were only discovered after McCann — who can’t speak — tugged on her ear to let her husband know. McCann’s family was understandably distressed and disgusted, with her irate husband noting that he had paid the home $270,000 to care for his wife. [Source]

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

Deja vu

4 December 2012 Last updated at 11:49 ET
Iranian TV shows off 'captured US ScanEagle drone'

Iranian state television has shown images of what it says is an unmanned US drone captured in its airspace.

The Revolutionary Guards said they had brought down a ScanEagle - one of the smaller, less sophisticated drones employed by the Americans.

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi told the Fars news agency that the drone had conducted several reconnaissance flights over the Gulf in recent days.

But the US Navy said none of its drones was missing in the Middle East.

Other nations in the region, including the United Arab Emirates, also operate ScanEagles - low-cost, long-endurance aircraft with a 10ft (3m) wingspan, Associated Press says.

Rear Adm Fadavi said that "such drones are usually launched from large warships".

Fars said the drone was captured "in the last few days" without giving further details.

A spokesman for US Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain said: "The US Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles operating in the Middle East region.

"Our operations in the Gulf are confined to internationally recognised water and air space.

"We have no record that we have lost any ScanEagles recently."

Last month, the US said Iranian warplanes had shot at a US surveillance drone flying in international airspace. Iran said the aircraft had entered its airspace.

November also saw Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, write to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to complain about what he said were repeated US violations of Iranian airspace near the Bushehr power station, describing them as "illegal and provocative acts".

A year ago, Iranian TV broadcast pictures of an American RQ-170 Sentinel surveillance drone that Iran said had been brought down using electronic warfare. The US said it had malfunctioned.

Iran rejected a US call for the return of the drone. It subsequently claimed to have developed its own unmanned drone.

Washington and Tehran are engaged in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The Revolutionary Guards are an elite unit of the Iranian military which operate their own naval forces.

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Navy: No U.S. drones missing after Iran claim

By Ali Akbar Dareini and Brian Murphy - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 4, 2012 6:03:23 EST

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran claimed Tuesday it had captured a U.S. drone after it entered Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf— even showing an image of a purportedly downed craft on state TV — but the U.S. Navy said all its unmanned aircraft in the region were “fully accounted for.”

The conflicting accounts leave the possibility that the drone claimed by Iran, a Boeing-designed ScanEagle, could have been plucked from the sea in the past and unveiled for maximum effect following escalating tensions over U.S. surveillance missions in the Gulf.

Other countries in the region — such as the United Arab Emirates — also have ScanEagle drones in their fleets.

Cmdr. Jason Salata, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said ScanEagles operated by the Navy “have been lost into the water” over the years, but there is no “record of that occurring most recently.”

The Iranian announcement did not give details on the time or location of the claimed drone capture.

It’s certain, however, to be portrayed by Tehran as another bold challenge to U.S. reconnaissance efforts in the region. Last month, the Pentagon said a drone came under Iranian fire in the Gulf but was not harmed. A year ago, Iran managed to bring down an unmanned CIA spy drone possibly coming from Afghanistan.

“The U.S. Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles operating in the Middle East region,” said Salata. “Our operations in the Gulf are confined to internationally recognized waters and airspace.”

Iran claimed it captured the drone after it entered Iranian airspace. A report on state TV quoted the navy chief of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Ali Fadavi, as saying the Iranian forces caught the “intruding” drone, which had apparently taken off from a U.S. aircraft carrier.

“The U.S. drone, which was conducting a reconnaissance flight and gathering data over the Persian Gulf in the past few days, was captured by the Guard’s navy air defense unit as soon as it entered Iranian airspace,” Fadavi said. “Such drones usually take off from large warships.”

Al-Alam, the Iranian state TV’s Arabic-language channel, showed two Guard commanders examining what appeared to be an intact ScanEagle drone. It was not immediately clear if that was the same drone Iran claimed to have captured.

In the footage, the two men then point to a huge map of the Persian Gulf in the background, showing the drone’s alleged path of entry into Iranian airspace.

“We shall trample on the U.S,” was printed over the map, next to the Guard’s coat-of-arms.

If true, the seizure of the drone would be the third reported incident involving Iran and U.S. drones in the past two years.

Last month, Iran claimed that a U.S. drone had violated its airspace. The Pentagon said the unmanned aircraft came under fire — at least twice but was not hit — and that the Predator was over international waters.

The Nov. 1 shooting in the Gulf was unprecedented and further escalated tensions between the United States and Iran, which is under international sanctions over its suspected nuclear program. Tehran denies it’s pursuing a nuclear weapon and insists its program is for peaceful purposes only.

In late 2011, Iran claimed it brought down a CIA spy drone after it entered Iranian airspace from its eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. The RQ-170 Sentinel drone, which is equipped with stealth technology, was captured almost intact. Tehran later said it recovered data from the top-secret drone.

In the case of the Sentinel, after initially saying only that a drone had been lost near the Afghan-Iran border, American officials eventually confirmed it had been monitoring Iran’s military and nuclear facilities. Washington asked for it back but Iran refused and instead released photos of Iranian officials studying the aircraft.

The U.S and its allies believe Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charge, saying its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes only, such as power generation and cancer treatment.

Iran, meanwhile, has claimed advances in drone technology.

In November, Iranian media reported that the country had produced a domestically made drone capable of hovering. Earlier, Iran said it obtained images of sensitive Israeli bases taken by a drone that was launched by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and downed by Israel.

Iran also claimed other drones made dozens of apparently undetected flights into Israeli airspace from Lebanon in recent years. Israel has rejected the Iranian assertions.

Murphy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Scan eagle is nothing like The Rq170 It's a close range small Unit. often moved about over the shoulder and launched off a Oversize crossbow like catapult. None of Iran's Neighbors Use it but it is based on a commercial UAV. it was also used in Iraq and Afghanistan, So they might have gotten it form there and decided too spin something.

Clashes outside Egypt presidential palace in Cairo

Police have clashed with protesters in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, where tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the presidential palace.

The police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, some of whom managed to cut through barbed wire around the palace.

The protesters are angry at what they say is the rushed drafting of a new constitution and by President Mohammed Morsi's recent extension of his powers.

Mr Morsi was in the palace but left as the crowds grew, sources there said.

Many of those gathered outside the palace, in the suburb of Heliopolis, chanted slogans similar to those directed against the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak during the uprising in February 2011.

Tear gas was fired after protesters managed to breach a barbed wire cordon surrounding the palace, correspondents say.

But the police quickly retreated, allowing protesters to get closer to the palace walls.

Eighteen people were injured in the brief burst of violence but none seriously, the official Mena news agency reported.

Large crowds remained outside as night fell, while thousands of demonstrators also gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

"We won't be able to speak - there won't be a court that we can go talk to," one protester, Israa Wafid, told Reuters.

"He has made himself a fort and he says it is a temporary fort - this is something we cannot believe.

"We've spent 30 years being betrayed - we won't believe Morsi, he will remain seated in the chair and not leave it."

In a statement read out on television, Egyptian security forces called for calm among the protesters.

A sizeable crowd has also turned out in Egypt's second city Alexandria.
Press action

Mr Morsi adopted sweeping new powers in a decree on 22 November, and stripped the judiciary of any power to challenge his decisions.

He has also called a nationwide referendum for 15 December on a new constitution, which opponents say has been rushed through and fails to protect the rights of minorities, particularly women.

Mr Morsi, who narrowly won Egypt's first free presidential election in June, says he will give up his new powers once a new constitution is ratified.

But his actions have brought out thousands, both his supporters and his opponents, in recent days.

Several newspapers refused to go to press on Tuesday, or printed blank front pages, in protest at what they say is the lack of press freedom in the constitution.

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4 December 2012 Last updated at 13:31 ET
Syria crisis: Nato approves Patriots for Turkey
Comments (574)

Nato has approved the deployment of Patriot anti-missile batteries along Turkey's border with Syria.

The long-expected move emerged from a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels, and amid growing fears that Syria could use chemical weapons.

Nato's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the ministers had "unanimously expressed grave concerns" about the use of chemical weapons.

Syria has said it would never use such weapons against its own people.

The meeting of the 28-member Western military alliance's foreign ministers in Brussels follows a request from Turkey to boost its defences along the border.

In a statement, Nato said it had "agreed to augment Turkey's air defence capabilities in order to defend the population and territory of Turkey and to contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis along the alliance's border".

Recent intelligence assessments have indicated Damascus is contemplating using ballistic missiles, potentially armed with chemical warheads.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Rasmussen told reporters that the foreign ministers had "unanimously expressed grave concerns" about the reports, saying: "Any such action would be completely unacceptable and a clear breach of international law."

He would not give further details on the deployment, but said it would ensure effective protection of Turkey against any missile attack, whether carrying chemical weapons or not.

Nato officials have previously made clear such a move would be purely defensive.
Rebel gains

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says Nato's move is an expression of solidarity with Turkey, and a signal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad he must not widen the war against his own people beyond Syria's borders.

Syria is believed to hold chemical weapons - including mustard gas and sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent - at dozens of sites around the country.

The CIA has said those weapons "can be delivered by aircraft, ballistic missile and artillery rockets".

President Obama has previously warned President Assad he would face "consequences" if he used chemical weapons against his people.

A Nato team has already visited a number of sites in Turkey in preparation for the deployment of Patriot batteries, which could be used to shoot down any Syrian missiles or warplanes that stray over the border.

But analysts say any deployment - possibly supplied by the US, Germany or the Netherlands - could take weeks.

Activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began in March 2011. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the country and another 2.5 million are internally displaced.

Syrian opposition fighters have reportedly made dramatic gains recently, and several government mortar shells - aimed at rebel targets close to the border - have landed across its 900-km (560-mile) border with Turkey.

Although the head of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi told AFP on Monday that the Syrian government could fall "any time", it still holds the capital, parts of the second city Aleppo, and other centres.

In other developments:

A teacher and at least 28 students were killed when shelling hit their school inside the Wafideen refugee camp outside Damascus on Tuesday - state media said it was a rebel mortar attack but rebels blamed government troops.
A journalist working for a state-run newspaper was killed near his home in Damascus, said state media.
The UN said on Monday it was pulling "all non-essential international staff" out of Syria, with as many as 25 out of 100 international staff expected to leave this week.
The EU has withdrawn its mission altogether - the ambassador and head of delegation Vassilis Bontosoglou left Damascus with his six remaining international staff members on Tuesday morning.
Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi is said to have fled the country, amid reports he has been dismissed, ostensibly for making statements out of line with government policy.

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The Tunnel Dig begins

4 December 2012 Last updated at 03:27 ET
Japan's police raid tunnel operator after collapse

Police in Japan have raided the offices of the company responsible for operating the Sasago tunnel that collapsed on Sunday.

Local television showed police entering the main office of Central Nippon Expressway (Nexco) in Nagoya City.

An inquiry is under way after nine people died following the collapse of concrete panels that started a fire in the tunnel, 80km (50 miles) from Tokyo.

Japan has also ordered emergency inspections of other road tunnels.

"Yes they are searching our offices here. We will be fully co-operating with them," company spokesman Osamu Funahashi was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.

Police were also at the company's office in Otsuki City in Yamanashi prefecture, a spokesman said.

The twin-bore Sasago tunnel on the Chuo Expressway in Yamanashi prefecture is one of the longest in Japan at 4.3km (2.7 miles).

In the accident, 270 concrete slabs, each weighing 1.4 tonnes, came crashing down at about 08:00 local time on Sunday (23:00 GMT, Saturday).

Japanese media say that the company that owns Sasago had relied on rudimentary visual inspections there, with no reinforcement or repairs since construction in 1977.

A Nexco official has been quoted as saying that metal rod failure could have been to blame for the collapse.

Rescuers on Monday had started bringing out the bodies of those who were killed in the incident, some of whom were badly burned and not easily identifiable.

The country's highway network has more than 1,500 tunnels and officials estimate that about a quarter of these are more than 30 years old.

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* puts on Helmet and Digs in for the ProChina assault. *

3 December 2012 Last updated at 21:50 ET
Chinese firm in illegal nuclear exports to Pakistan

A Chinese government-linked company has pleaded guilty to illegally exporting high-performance coatings from the US to a nuclear power plant in Pakistan.

China Nuclear Industry Huaxing Construction was fined $3m (£1.9m), the US Department of Justice said.

The US has restricted nuclear-related exports to Pakistan since the country's detonation of a nuclear device in 1998.

It marks the first time a Chinese company has admitted guilt in a US criminal export case.

Nanjing-based Huaxing admitted to charges that it conspired to ship the epoxy coating through China to Pakistan's Chashma II Nuclear Power Plant in 2006 and 2007.

Huaxing was building the site as part of a nuclear cooperation pact signed between Pakistan and China.

A Chinese subsidiary of the company that made the coating, PPG Industries, pleaded guilty in the same investigation in 2010

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[ManilaBoy45]

By Jethro Mullen, CNN
December 4, 2012 -- Updated 1316 GMT (2116 HKT)

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(CNN) -- An intense typhoon thumped into the southern Philippines on Tuesday, destroying homes, setting off a landslide and killing more than two dozen people, authorities said.

Typhoon Bopha struck the large southern island of Mindanao, which is rarely in the direct path of tropical cyclones, fueling fears that it could be as devastating as a storm that killed more than 1,200 people there almost a year ago.

Cebu/Mactan Doppler Image @ 1600 Hours Dec. 4th

 

[icbeodragon]

China Clarifies Boarding Rules in South China Sea
BEIJING—A Chinese official clarified new regulations allowing Chinese police to board foreign ships in parts of the disputed South China Sea that had raised fresh alarm among some of China's neighbors.
Several experts on the region had said the rules, which have yet to be published in full, appeared to apply to waters around islands that China claims, although it was unclear how they would be enforced in practice.

The new regulations apply only to waters around islands for which China had announced "baselines," said Wu Shichun, the director of the foreign affairs office of the southern Chinese province of Hainan, who is also president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, Tuesday following expressions of concern about the rules from several countries in the region, already on edge from other scuffles with China. He said their main purpose was to deal with Vietnamese fishing boats operating in the waters near Yongxing island in the Paracels, which China calls the Xisha islands.

He said the rules, which take effect Jan. 1, let police check and expel vessels that enter or conduct illegal activity within 12 nautical miles of the islands for which China has announced baselines—the low-water line along the coast from which countries measure their territorial waters under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

China formally announced baselines for its mainland coast and the Paracel Islands—which are also claimed by Vietnam—in 1996, but hasn't yet done so for other islands in the South China Sea, where the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have territorial claims.

"For islands whose territorial water baselines have not yet been announced, since there is no way to clearly define the width of their territorial sea, the aforementioned problem does not exist," Mr. Wu said. "The outside world should not overreact to the revision of these rules, or read too much into them, nor should anyone give a one-sided or distorted explanation."

Chinese state media's report of the new rules last week had raised concern in the U.S. and several Asian countries that China had authorized its increasingly well-armed security forces to board foreign vessels anywhere in the South China Sea, a key shipping route that Beijing claims almost in its entirety.

It was the latest in a string of incidents in the contested and potentially resource-rich waters of the South China Sea.
Chinese state media's report of the new rules last week had raised concern in the U.S. and several Asian countries that China had authorized its increasingly well-armed security forces to board foreign vessels anywhere in the South China Sea, a key shipping route that Beijing claims almost in its entirety.

It was the latest in a string of incidents in the contested and potentially resource-rich waters of the South China Sea.

The Philippine and U.S. governments asked China to clarify the regulations last week, while Singapore on Monday expressed concern over the development. India's navy chief, Adm. D.K Joshi, said on Monday his country was prepared to send warships to the area to protect Indian interests if necessary.

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi said Tuesday that China's new coastal-management rules seriously violate Vietnam's sovereignty, as the rules cover Vietnamese islands.

China has had de facto control of the Paracels since seizing them from South Vietnam in a brief conflict in 1974. Beijing established a new city, called Sansha, with its own military garrison on Yongxing in July to administer the islands and waters that Beijing claims.

Vietnam's not going to be happy, but the rest of the region (and some outside it) are probably breathing a sigh of relief.

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[solarz]

Vietnam's not going to be happy, but the rest of the region (and some outside it) are probably breathing a sigh of relief.

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I doubt it. This is nothing new, China has been claiming this since day one. Western media perpetrates the myth that China claims the entire South China Sea for its own propaganda purposes.

 

[Equation]

By Jethro Mullen, CNN
December 4, 2012 -- Updated 1316 GMT (2116 HKT)

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(CNN) -- An intense typhoon thumped into the southern Philippines on Tuesday, destroying homes, setting off a landslide and killing more than two dozen people, authorities said.

Typhoon Bopha struck the large southern island of Mindanao, which is rarely in the direct path of tropical cyclones, fueling fears that it could be as devastating as a storm that killed more than 1,200 people there almost a year ago.

Cebu/Mactan Doppler Image @ 1600 Hours Dec. 4th

Here's the latest report. My condolences to all the victims family.

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[icbeodragon]

I doubt it. This is nothing new, China has been claiming this since day one. Western media perpetrates the myth that China claims the entire South China Sea for its own propaganda purposes.

I wasn't aware it was the Western media that placed that ox tongue on China's passports .

I can post relevant non-western source articles highlighting their concerns if you so desire. Though old, they would be world news, if not necessarily breaking.

Here's the latest report. My condolences to all the victims family.

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Damn... R.I.P to the dead, speedy recovery to the wounded...