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| December 13, 2013 |
 China loses N.K. link but may welcome Kim purge: analyst Beijing (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - China has lost its key North Korean interlocutor with the purging of Kim Jong-Un's uncle, but analysts say the young leader's tightening grip on power may be welcomed by Beijing, which prizes stability in its wayward nuclear-armed ally. Jang Song-Thaek was the second-most powerful member of North Korea's regime and an important link between Pyongyang and Beijing before his dramatic ouster la ... more |  |
 Japan to boost military amid row with China Tokyo (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Pacifist Japan will adopt new defence guidelines next week paving the way for its military to respond more quickly and forcefully to perceived threats from China and North Korea, officials said Thursday. The government of conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will approve rules intended to help air, land and sea forces work together more effectively in the face of danger, an official from A ... more |  |
Lawmakers stall new Iran sanctions as US blacklists violators Washington (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Washington on Thursday blacklisted a dozen overseas companies and individuals for evading sanctions on Iran in a clear warning to Tehran to comply with a nuclear deal, and persuading US lawmakers to hold off on new punitive measures. Only hours after the surprise announcement, two top senators bowed to White House pleas not to introduce new sanctions, acknowledging it could "rupture" unity a ... more |  |
 India's Tejas fighter passes air-to-air missile firing test Mumbai (UPI) Dec 12, 2013 - India's long-awaited light combat aircraft Tejas cleared a critical test point Saturday, accurately test-firing an infrared missile. The firing off the coast of Goa takes the aircraft a step closer to its initial operational clearance scheduled for Dec. 20, the New Indian Express reported, The air-to-air R-73 E missile, made by Vympel NPO of Russia, destroyed a target towed by a ... more |  |
 Ukrainian sent to US prison in cybercrime case Washington (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - A Ukrainian national who admitted to setting up a huge online marketplace for stolen financial data was sentenced to serve 18 years in a US prison Thursday, officials said. Roman Vega, 49, pleaded guilty in 2009 to conspiracies to commit money laundering and access device fraud and has been in jail ever since pending a formal sentencing. He was sentenced by New York federal judge Allyne ... more |  |
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 U.S. Army holds online development event Washington (UPI) Dec 12, 2013 - The U.S. Army has been holding a crowd-sourcing event this week to develop a mobile command post mounted on a lightweight tactical all-terrain vehicle. The online "Make-A-Thon" event involves more than 800 invited soldiers and civilians who are examining, discussing and making recommendations to modify the Kawasake Teryx 750cc LTATV to serve as a command post for platoon and company-siz ... more |  |
Financial groups pour billions into cluster bomb trade: NGO Copenhagen (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Investment in cluster bomb producers fell this year after a US defence contractor stopped making the weapons, but major financial firms continued to back the trade, an NGO said Thursday. The amount of money invested in the seven companies that still make the indiscriminate weapons tumbled to $24 billion (17 billion euros) from $43 billion, according to a report from Dutch peace group IKV Pax ... more |  |
Japan looks for ASEAN backing on China at summit Tokyo (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Japan will this weekend play host to Southeast Asian leaders as it looks to strengthen friendships in a region increasingly dominated by China, and as it squares off with Beijing over disputed islands. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be looking for support from among the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), hoping countries that have their own territorial dispute ... more |  |
 Karzai to discuss troubled US troop deal with India PM New Delhi (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Afghan President Hamid Karzai was to hold talks with Indian leaders Friday, with Washington hoping that New Delhi can help persuade him to sign a deal allowing US troops to stay on post-2014. Karzai was to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid at the start of a visit which will also see him hold talks with business leaders and students in Pune city, before f ... more |  |
 'Close Guantanamo' says US general who opened camp Washington (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - The general who opened the US military's Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba when its first detainees arrived in 2002 on Thursday called for the facility to be closed. "I believe it is time to close Guantanamo," said retired Major General Michael Lehnert in an article published in US daily the Detroit Free Press, adding that the prison "should never have been opened." The article comes as US law ... more |  |
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 Kerry back in search of elusive Mideast peace deal Ramallah, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived on his second Middle East trip in less than a week Thursday in yet another bid to promote a so far elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. He went straight to Ramallah in the West Bank for a meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, slightly later than scheduled because of a winter storm sweeping the region. On Friday, Kerry is to meet Isra ... more |  |
Iraq signs $1.1 bn deal to buy S. Korean fighters Baghdad (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Iraq signed a $1.1 billion deal on Thursday to buy 24 multi-role light fighters from South Korea, as it seeks to build its fledgling air force amid rising violence. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) said it would deliver the T-50IQ, a variant of its T-50 supersonic aircraft, to Baghdad between 2015 and 2016, under the terms of the deal, which will be the Asian nation's biggest arms export. ... more |  |
End looms for US Air Force's 'Warthog' ground-attack jet Washington (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Long disliked by the US Air Force, the A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack jet may finally be heading for the chopping block due to budget constraints. The "Warthog," first designed as a tank buster to target Soviet armored vehicles in the middle of the Cold War in the early 1970s, is shunned by many aviators. Although the twin-engine aircraft is slow, it is incredibly efficient to provide ... more |  |
German police build 'Nazi Shazam' to track banned music Dresden, Germany (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - German police are touting a new high-tech tool to identify illegal neo-Nazi songs in seconds, dubbed "Nazi Shazam" after popular music identification software. Authorities in the eastern state of Saxony hope to use their brainchild to identify and shut down Internet radio stations that play banned songs. "Music is an introduction to right-wing extremism, we all know that, so for me th ... more |  |
Rightwingers seeking to derail peace: Israel negotiator Jerusalem (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Israel's chief peace negotiator on Thursday accused a key coalition partner of deliberately seeking to sabotage talks with the Palestinians by ramping up settlement construction. Speaking just hours before the arrival of US Secretary of State John Kerry on his second visit within a week, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni accused the far-right national religious Jewish Home of deliberately promoti ... more |  |
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 Years later, kidnapped Iraqi's family finds no closure Baghdad (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - It took several years after his father's kidnapping in Baghdad, but at a certain point - he cannot remember precisely when - Ali al-Saffar began referring to him in the past tense. He says he no longer craves justice, and that the anger has largely faded. All he wants is his father's body, to give him a proper burial, to have some closure. "Is it 'My dad is' or 'My dad was?'" asked Ali ... more |  |
Syria opposition in fuel appeal as two children 'die of cold' Beirut (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - The Syrian opposition appealed Thursday for emergency fuel deliveries to rebel-held areas, saying two children had "died of cold" as a winter storm gripped the region. The opposition National Coalition said that parents were unable to keep children warm in bombed out buildings as temperatures plummeted and snow carpeted many of Syria's main battlegrounds. "Hussein Tawil, a six-month-old ... more |  |
Colombia turns down rebels' cease-fire offer Bogota, Colombia (UPI) Dec 12, 2013 - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said he won't halt a military crackdown on Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels until a peace deal is clinched. Santos ruled out a cease-fire, offered by the rebel group known by its Spanish acronym FARC, after a car bomb and mortar attack on a police station Dec. 7 killed at least eight people. The attack occurred as FARC and government n ... more |  |
Engility joins $4B project to counter weapons of mass destruction Chantilly, Va. (UPI) Dec 11, 2013 - High-end consulting firm Engility is joining a $4 billion U.S. defense program aimed at advancing research into ways of combating weapons of mass destruction. The anti-WMD project is being run by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a U.S. Department of Defense agency tasked with countering WMD threats both at their potential inception and in actual combat scenarios. The agency has head ... more |  |
Outside View: Newtonian physics and international politics Washington (UPI) Dec 11, 2013 - One of Newton's famous laws - that every action has an opposite and equal reaction - is often mirrored in international politics. A key question is how to deal with these opposite reactions. Just when breakthroughs in resolving the most pressing international crises appeared possible if not imminent, the roof fell in. Syria's chemical weapons were being dismantled and destroyed ... more |  |
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