NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding escalating tension between them, India and Pakistan will be part of a mega military drill along with China and five other countries in Russia next month under the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The exercise, aimed at expanding cooperation among SCO member countries, will be held from September 16 to 21 in Orenburg in Russia, officials said. India will send...
India, Pakistan to be part of multi-nation military drills in Russia next month
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Iran seeks to revive oil pipeline across Iraq to Syria amid tensions in Hormuz strait ...
Tehran has discussed with Baghdad the possibility of reopening a pipeline linking Iran and Syria through Iraqi territory to avoid using the Strait of Hormuz for oil transportation in the Persian Gulf. The pipeline would link Iran with the Syrian port city of Biniyas on the Mediterranean Sea, al-Sumaria television channel reported, citing a source said to be familiar with the proposal. The trans-Iraq pipeline would allow Iran to sidestep the Strait of Hormuz...
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Is a 3-D printed gun free speech? This isn’t your 1791 right to arms
5 minutes ago NEW YORK — It’s a question of who’s violating the U.S. Constitution when it comes to print-at-home guns — the federal agency accused of recklessly deregulating the weapons or the states that claim they’re a threat to public safety. A federal judge could provide an answer any day now — and address the balance of power between states and the federal government — in a ruling on digital blueprints that a small gun-technology company, Defense Distributed, wants to publish online for anyone with a 3-D printer. The Obama administration blocked the company’s publishing effort for years on the grounds that it would violate an arms-export...
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Tropical Depression Erin to bypass eastern US, strike Canada
The tropical feature AccuWeather meteorologists were tracking for several days across the southeastern United States became Tropical Depression Six across the open waters of the western Atlantic Ocean on Monday. Further strengthening to Tropical Storm Erin occurred Tuesday evening before losing wind strength and...
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Building local capacity to boost maritime and port safety in Seychelles | 27 August 2019
With an estimated 90% of the country’s imports arriving by sea, it is crucial for Port Victoria to satisfy the international norms established by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and ensure the country’s maritime security. In this regard, a national training workshop on maritime security and the International Ship and Port Facility (ISPS) Code is currently underway to enhance and sustain maritime security within the waters of the Seychelles and on Seychelles flagged vessels. Held at the Seypec House from August 26-30, the five-day workshop is being facilitated by three consultants from the International Maritime Organisation...
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Canadian-trained all-female military unit going through paces in Jordan
OTTAWA — As thousands of troops from more than two dozen countries kick off an annual military exercise in the Middle Eastern country of Jordan amid heightened tensions between the West and Iran, Canadian trainers hope an all-female platoon of Jordanians they’ve been working with for nearly a year are ready to be deployed. “It’s one of the key marks to evaluate where they’re at, if they’re ready to go and how the training has benefited them,” said Master Warrant Officer Lisa Kachanoski, who has been working with the...
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Pentagon claims China ‘bullying’ Vietnam & ‘violating rules-based international order’
The Pentagon has accused China of “coercive interference” with Vietnamese oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea, saying that such “bullying tactics” are violating international rules and norms in the Indo-Pacific region. On Monday, the US Department of Defense said it was “greatly concerned” with Chinese...
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China's new aircraft carrier is going to pack more jet power than its sister ship
China's first domestically built aircraft carrier will take 36 fighter planes to sea when it is commissioned, 12 more than its sister ship the Liaoning, according to state media. The new Type 001A was an upgraded version of the Liaoning, a former Soviet Kuznetsov-class carrier, with a much smaller control tower "island" but greater displacement, Hu Wenming, chief of the ship's construction programme, said in an interview with CCTV on...
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Arab States Give China a Pass on Uyghur Crackdown
On August 21, Qatar informed the UN Human Rights Council that it was withdrawing from a multilateral letter it had signed in support of China’s actions against the Muslim Uyghur minority in the restive Xinjiang province. Although it is unclear what exactly spurred this reversal, the decision is hardly a sign that Doha is preparing to call Beijing out publicly or scale down its bilateral ties. Ali al-Mansouri, Qatar’s permanent representative to the UN, explained the move in innocuous terms: “We wish to maintain a neutral stance, and we offer our mediation and facilitation services.” That careful wording is unsurprising given that Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has met...
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China tells its police forces near Hong Kong to be ready to crack down on ...
China has told its police forces near Hong Kong to be ready to crack down on 'subversive, violent and terrorist activities' ahead of the country's 70th anniversary. The order was issued by the head of China's Public Security Ministry to officers in the southern province of Guangdong after anti-government unrest in the financial hub escalated to a new level over the weekend. Beijing has mobilised hundreds of military trucks and thousands of paramilitary police officers to Shenzhen, a city that borders Hong Kong, and instructed at least two large-scale anti-riot drills to be carried out in a show of military might. A Chinese official has instructed police forces in Guangdong to be ready to...
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Seoul holds military drills on contested islets
Amid bitterly sour bilateral relations, and only days after axing an intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo, Seoul conducted its largest military drills ever on and around a pair of Korean-garrisoned islets that are also claimed by Japan. With South Korea’s Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard deploying around the islets, 10 vessels, including an Aegis-armed destroyer, and 10 warplanes, including F15s, took part in the exercises. TV news footage showed commandos and marines dropping from helicopters onto a landing pad, then aiming small arms into the sea, while warships cruised in the background. The drills were not aimed at North Korea, but took place over two disputed...
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Expanded South Korean military drills around disputed island draw Japanese protest
By Josh Smith SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean forces began two days of expanded drills on Sunday around an island also claimed by Japan, prompting a protest from Tokyo only days after Seoul said it would scrap an intelligence-sharing pact with its neighbor amid worsening relations. Tokyo and Seoul have long been at loggerheads over the sovereignty of the group of islets called Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean, which lie about halfway between the East Asian neighbors in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea. The latest military drills began on Sunday and included...
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Russia Is Trying to Sell Turkey Its Own Stealthy New Fighter After U.S. Revoked Access ...
(Bloomberg) — President Vladimir Putin showed off Russia’s latest stealth warplane to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who’s been barred from buying a new U.S. fighter jet in a dispute with Donald Trump over the purchase of a Russian missile system. Flanked by the Russian and Turkish defense ministers, Putin and Erdogan inspected the cockpit of the fifth-generation Su-57 fighter on Tuesday at opening of the MAKS-2019 international air show outside Moscow. They also toured the Su-35 fighter, helicopter displays and an amphibious aircraft. Welcoming his “good friend” Erdogan to...
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Iran sold oil wanted by U.S. but doesn't know where cargo is going
(Bloomberg) — Iran said it sold an oil cargo on board a contested tanker sailing the Mediterranean Sea but didn’t know where the vessel was going amid U.S. efforts to block delivery of the crude. The Adrian Darya 1, the tanker that the U.S. sought to seize in Gibraltar last week, was sailing more than halfway into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday without declaring any destination. Iran didn’t identify the buyer of the roughly 2 million-barrel cargo. The buyer will determine where the oil is delivered, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said announcing the sale. He didn’t say when Iran sold the crude in comments carried by state-run...
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Hope for Bolton as plans to shut down club are put on hold
Bolton have been told by their administrator that plans to shut down the club have been put on hold, the PA news agency understands. Bolton are on the verge of liquidation after the English Football League gave administrator Paul Appleton 14 days to either sell the Sky Bet League One club or prove they can be funded for the rest of the season. Appleton revealed on Monday there was no money left to fund the club after a takeover...
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New Study: China Would Beat US Military in Pacific
> The United States Studies Centre (USSC), a research center based at the University of Sydney in Australia, released a study titled, "Averting Crisis: American Strategy, Military Spending and Collective Defence in the Indo-Pacific." The study makes the argument that the US would not be able to defeat China in a military confrontation in the Indo-Pacific. The USSC is funded by the Australian government, over the past five years one percent of their budget came from the US government and eight percent came from "US-based foundations, companies or individuals." The three researchers whose names are on the study are part of the USSC’s Foreign Policy and Defence program. The...
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Cause of breathing problems for Essex beachgoers remains a mystery
The reason why children coughed and struggled to breathe at a packed beach on the hottest late August bank holiday weekend on record remains a mystery. Hundreds of families were enjoying the sun in the seaside town of Frinton in Essex on Sunday, when a large number of people began to have trouble breathing. Essex Police said they were investigating, but that the cause remained unknown and the force advised people not to enter the water. Emergency services, including the ambulance and fire service, attended the scene at the seafront off Fourth Avenue shortly after 2pm. Officials in a dinghy warn people to get out of the water (Mark Wray/PA) Despite speculation of a fuel spill from a...
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Recent developments surrounding the South China Sea
BEIJING (AP) — A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons. The waters are a major shipping route for global commerce and rich in fish and possible oil and gas reserves. ___ HAGUE RULING, BASKETBALL FEATURE ON DUTERTE CHINA TRIP Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte arrives in China on Wednesday for a visit that will include meetings with top Chinese officials over the South China Sea and attendance at a world basketball championship game. Advertisement Duterte’s visit will be his fifth to China but the first during which he plans to finally raise the result of the 2016...
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Myanmar to join US-ASEAN maritime drills despite sanctions
Myanmar will be taking part in US-ASEAN military drills despite Washington's sanctions on its army commander-in-chief and other top generals Myanmar's navy will join maritime drills with the US in Southeast Asia next week, a spokesman said Wednesday, in a rare show of military cooperation despite Washington slapping sanctions on top army brass over the Rohingya crisis. The inclusion in the drills does not violate...
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Beijing wary of overplaying its hand in Taiwan
Beijing has reportedly been devising new measures to ramp up its efforts to sway Taiwanese voters’ perception of the mainland and the drawn-out protests in Hong Kong. The new measures are part of a plan to lift the prospects of the Kuomintang party’s presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu and poach support from the incumbent leader Tsai Ing-wen in the lead-up to the January election. Taiwanese papers revealed that, as seen in the previous polls, Beijing may channel funds via trusted businessmen for the mainland-friendly KMT, but this time it would take a back...
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Chinese Navy Drills Near Taiwan Following F-16 Sales by US
Beijing is set to perform new military exercises in the East China Sea later this week, as Taiwan pens a deal to buy dozens of advanced F-16V Viper fighters from the US. ......
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Large military drills kick off in southern Russia
MOSCOW, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Large-scale command and staff drills, involving 8,200 troops, have kicked off on the territory of Russia's Southern Military District, RIA Novosti news...
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Day2: Dokdo defense drill underway
Yonhap South Korea staged an expanded military exercise on and around its easternmost islets of Dokdo in the East Sea for the second and final day Monday, the Navy said, amid escalating tensions with Japan over historical and trade feuds. The two-day regular exercise kicked off on the largest scale ever Sunday, involving all three armed services, as well as the Marine Corp and the Coast Guard, in a sign that Seoul is taking a hard-line stance on the deepening row with Japan. The biannual drills, launched in 1986, usually have been held in June and December, but...
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New Brunswick turfs China-backed Confucius Institute out of elementary schools to curb Beijing's influence
Dominic Cardy has had some experience in international politics, but he’d never seen anything quite like it before. Earlier this year, the New Brunswick education minister received a virtually unannounced visit from China’s top diplomat in eastern Canada, eager to lobby him on a controversial issue. The Montreal-based consul general urged the province not to eject the Confucius Institute from its schools, warning that doing so could imperil New Brunswick’s growing trade with China. The controversial state agency has for 10 years been providing extra-curricular Mandarin and Chinese...
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Why Southeast Asian Navies will Hold Exercises with the US After the Same with China
The first military exercises between the United States and a bloc of 10 Southeast Asian nations, following the same bloc’s drills with China last year, show that both superpowers increasingly hope to influence a part of the world that could swing either way, observers say. U.S. military officials and counterparts from the Southeast Asian bloc that includes Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines will hold exercises in the first week of September near Thailand, multiple Asian media outlets reported last week. “It’s just diplomatic smoke signals and should not be taken beyond that, but even as a diplomatic smoke signal it has to be seriously by China,” said Alan Chong, associate professor at...
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China Threatens Retaliation if US Sells F-16 Fighter Jets to Taiwan
China is threatening to retaliate if the United States sells some of its top military aircraft to Taiwan, narrowing the power gap between its People's Liberation Army and the forces of its rival Taiwan. China said it would sanction American companies that make the F-16V fighter jets, which are normally contracted to Lockheed Martin. And its foreign ministry has pledged further steps, according to the official Xinhua News Agency, which noted on Aug. 21 to "take all necessary measures to protect our interests." For Taiwan, that likely means more economic sanctions such as scaling back tourism bound for the island, analysts in Taipei say. FILE - This photo taken May 25, 2018, by Taiwan's...
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China to stage more war games near Taiwan
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will hold war games north of Taiwan in the East China Sea for the rest of the week, thought to be in response to the United States approving the sale of 66 F-16 fighter jets to Taipei. The live-fire drill, the third in a series of exercises by the Chinese navy and air force within the span of a month, is being seen in Taipei as a response to the recent US approval of the multibillion-dollar sale of 66 F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, a landmark deal laden with political significance to help the self-ruled island better stave off any possible...
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China to conduct fresh military drills near Taiwan
China has said it would stage military exercises in the East China Sea near Taiwan this week. This would be the third set of drills in a month and comes after the recent US approvals of arms sales worth billions to Taiwan, including F-16 jets. Ships would be...
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China to hold fresh military drills near Taiwan
BEIJING: China has said it will stage military exercises in the East China Sea near Taiwan this week, with relations tense between Beijing and the self-ruled island. This will be the third set of drills in a month and comes after the recent US approvals of arms sales worth billions to Taiwan, including F-16 fighter jets. Ties between Beijing and...
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China to hold military drills near Taiwan this week – report
China will stage military exercises in the East China Sea near Taiwan starting on Tuesday, AFP reports. This will be the third set of drills in a month and comes after the recent US approvals of arms sales worth billions to Taiwan, including F-16 fighter jets. Ships will be prohibited from entering the waters off the coast of China’s eastern Zhejiang province for 48 hours, the Zhejiang Maritime Safety Administration said in a brief notice on Monday. It did not offer details on the scale of the exercises or which military units were involved, while state-backed newspaper Global Times called it a “live-fire drill.” The People’s Liberation Army held two large military...
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