Miscellaneous News

Taking this story at face value, just bizarre.

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One dead, two hurt as vehicle tries to ram U.S. spy agency gates
WASHINGTON | BY MARK HOSENBALL

(Reuters) - Two people tried to run their vehicle through the National Security Agency's gates near Washington on Monday before guards at the spy agency fatally shot one of them, said officials, who added there was no evidence of a link to terrorism.

The second occupant of the vehicle was also shot, according to one official, and a police officer was injured.

Both suspects, who were dressed in women's clothes and may be transgender, tried to drive their sport utility vehicle through an entrance at the agency's Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters, U.S. law enforcement and security officials said.

The motive was not immediately known, but one official said drugs may have been involved in the incident that occurred about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Washington.

Officials told Reuters they could not confirm media reports that weapons and drugs were found in the SUV.

The surviving suspect was a resident of Baltimore, a federal law enforcement official said. Local news media said the person was in intensive care.

A law enforcement official said investigators were trying to determine the identity of the person who died.

A Howard County police spokeswoman said the SUV was stolen in the morning from outside a hotel in nearby Jessup, Maryland.

RELATED COVERAGE
› Police officer hurt in gate-crashing attempt at U.S. spy agency
› One dead, one hurt trying to drive vehicle into U.S. spy agency
The NSA said in a statement that the two people in the vehicle "attempted an unauthorized entry" and failed to follow directions to leave the gate area.

The vehicle accelerated toward an NSA police car blocking the road at the base gate. Officers fired when the driver refused to stop.

The vehicle crashed into the police car. One of the vehicle's occupants died at the scene of an undetermined cause, the NSA statement said. A federal official said both occupants had been shot by NSA police.

Television helicopter footage showed two damaged vehicles outside the gates to NSA headquarters, just off a major highway linking Baltimore and Washington. Video showed at least one person in uniform being wheeled to an ambulance.

One of the vehicles shown was marked "Police" and had its hood up. The other, a dark vehicle, had front-end damage.

The FBI said it was working with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland to determine whether federal charges were warranted.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Lisa Lambert, Mark Hosenball and Ian Simpson; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and John Clarke; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, James Dalgleish, Tim Ahmann, Eric Beech and Peter Cooney)
 

SteelBird

Colonel
Two US F-18 Fighters Forced to Land in Taiwan
Taipei -- Two American
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have made a rare landing at an Air Force base in Taiwan after one of the planes encountered mechanical problems,Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense confirmed Wednesday.

The pilots landed their planes at Tainan Air Force Base at 1:19 p.m. on Wednesday after requesting permission to land because of a mechanical glitch in one of the two aircraft, the ministry said. Mark Zimmer, the spokesman for the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the U.S.'s de facto embassy in Taiwan, could not provide further details on the planes, but he confirmed that the crew members and the planes are safe and thanked Taiwan for its assistance.
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(photos from sina.com)
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
This is simply disgusting.:mad: These terrorists are nothing but animals. My heart goes out to the victims families.:(



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Horrible stories coming from this.

They gathered students and asked them if the were Muslims, non-Muslims, or Christians.

They killed the Christians out of hand.

Others, they gave a test on the Koran, and if someone who said they were Muslim but could not quote certain verses from the Koran correctly...they too were killed.

One girl hid under her bed and heard other students she knew being caught and administered these questions...and being killed....while she hid.
 

Miragedriver

Brigadier
Russia and China: are strong allies against the United States?
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Much has been written about the close personal relationship that hold the leaders of Russia and China. Both leaders have met on at least 10 occasions since Xi took office. And they have always shown a great tune.

But the real reasons behind these frequent contacts and are more closely related to the sharing of a common enemy and not by the personal friendship of the two leaders. The history of relations between China and Russia is well known, and not by the mutual cordiality demonstrated but, rather, by mutual distrust that have historically governed their relations. So what has happened to improve both relations, the Xi himself has described as the "most strategic" for his country?

Xi and Putin need each other to deal with perceived threats to the United States and its allies. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO and the EU (European Union) have been expanding inexorably their spheres of influence to the gates of Russia. A fact that Putin sees as a hostile policy, to express the fact that the West treats Russia as "enemy".

A similar sentiment Chinese experience with US policy in Asia. China feels encircled by US actions, which looks set to maintain its influence in the region. Thus, both Putin and Xi share the need to deal with the common enemy in different scenarios. And this common defensive posture is leading an approach in the interests of both nations.

China's willingness to import Russian gas and oil has been helpful to Putin's Russia, to the sanctions imposed by the US and the EU because of Ukraine. And there are analysts even believe that these economic agreements, are only a disguise bailout. Although a more likely explanation is in China's interest to guarantee these supplies in the event of suffering a blockade by the Pacific Fleet of the US And in this Asian scene are important-and little publicized in the media-Russian movements. The Russian presence has become apparent at an air base in Vietnam. And from there, organized as fuel for their long-range bombers. A presence that complicates US efforts to forge a military alliance with Vietnam.

What can the US do?
It is almost impossible for Russia to abandon China, which has become the last resort for the Russian economy. But China does not need to Russia in the same way. In fact, China would prefer to keep a better relationship with the West. And here there is a substantial opportunity for the US to improve its relationship with China and away from Russia.

American foreign policy should refrain from interfering in territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The United States has no real interest there. Neither the United States should continue its constant sermons, within the UN, the Chinese on the Law of the Sea even when they are also party to the Convention. If this shift occurs outside US police itself an arbiter on maritime routes, the China-Russia relationship is terminated by cooling and then may reappear border disputes between the two.

Source:
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Not breaking news, but I thought it would be interesting to post


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Miragedriver

Brigadier
This is VERY concerning!
Any thoughts by some of our economists?


US isolated as Australia and Russia join China's development bank
Countries add to list of names signing up after Washington rebuked UK earlier this month

(Daily Telegraph - UK) America's opposition to China’s development bank appeared increasingly isolated on Sunday after Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands and Russia all said they plan to join.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a rival to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, institutions founded with American help, has now signed up many of America’s Western allies.

The UK angered Washington when it became the first major western country to join the Chinese-led bank, but a string of nations have since put their name to the $50bn organisation.

On Sunday, Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said the country, a key US ally, is signing a memorandum of understanding to join the AIIB to “allow Australia to participate as a prospective founding member”.

Meanwhile, China’s ministry of finance said Denmark had written to “announce its intention to apply to be a founding member”. It follows Russia and Netherlands saying on Saturday that they plan to join, while Brazil, South Korea, France, Germany and Italy
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.

The US,
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via the AIIB,
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when the UK said it planned to join the AIIB.

“Based on many discussions, we have concerns about whether the AIIB will meet these high standards, particularly related to governance, and environmental and social safeguards,” US National Security Council spokesman Patrick Ventrell said earlier this month.



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Miragedriver

Brigadier
I guess North Korea needs more money

US researchers: Hundreds of North Korea missiles threaten Asia

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nuclear-armed North Korea already has hundreds of ballistic missiles that can target its neighbors in Northeast Asia but will need foreign technology to upgrade its arsenal and pose a more direct threat to the United States, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.

Those are the latest findings of a research program investigating what secretive North Korea's nuclear weapons capability will be by 2020.

Unlike Iran, the current focus of international nuclear diplomacy, North Korea has conducted atomic test explosions. Its blood-curdling rhetoric and periodic missile tests have set the region on edge and there's no sign of negotiations restarting to coax it into disarming.

For now, the emphasis is on sanctions and military preparedness. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visits Japan and South Korea this week amid speculation the U.S. wants to place a missile defense system in South Korea against North Korean ballistic missiles, which Seoul is reluctant about as it would alienate China. The U.S. has already deployed anti-missile radar in Japan.

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U.S. military officials have expressed growing concern about North Korea's capabilities. Navy Adm. William Gortney, commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told reporters Tuesday that it is the U.S. assessment that North Korea has the ability to miniaturize a warhead to put on an intercontinental ballistic missile.

U.S. officials are most concerned about a long-range missile called the KN-08 that has been displayed in military parades. It is said to be capable of being launched from a road-mobile vehicle and would therefore be difficult to monitor via satellite.

But the research published Tuesday by the North Korean Futures Project stresses that for now the principal threat from North Korean missiles is to its neighbors in Asia. The project is conducted by the U.S.-Korea Institute at John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and National Defense University's Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

erospace engineer John Schilling and a research associate at the institute, Henry Kan, say Pyongyang's current inventory of about 1,000 missiles, based on old Soviet technology, can already reach most targets in South Korea and Japan.

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"North Korea has already achieved a level of delivery system development that will allow it to establish itself as a small nuclear power in the coming years," they write in a paper published on the institute's website, 38 North.

Despite the North's 2012 success in launching a rocket into space — the clearest sign yet it has the potential to reach the American mainland — Pyongyang faces greater technical challenges in launching an effective missile across the Pacific at the U.S.

It may already be able to field a limited number of long-range Taepodong missiles in an emergency but they would be unreliable, vulnerable to pre-emptive strike and inaccurate, the analysis says. The KN-08 may achieve "emergency operational status" by 2020, before or with very limited flight testing, it adds.

The analysis says foreign assistance could be critical for overcoming the technological and engineering hurdles North Korea now faces in developing better missiles, including progress on high-performance engines, heat shields, guidance electronics and rocket motors that use solid fuel instead of liquid fuel, it says.

And that's become tougher as North Korea's international isolation has intensified since its first nuclear test explosion in 2006.

That hasn't stopped its nuclear program. According to a recent estimate by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, the North likely has enough fissile material for at least 10 weapons, and that could increase to between 20 and 100 weapons by 2020.

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But whereas the basic designs and production infrastructure are now largely in place for the nuclear program, technological progress on the missile front has been slower, the analysis says. North Korea has failed to make the kind of advances that Iran and Pakistan have made, although both countries relied on North Korean assistance for missiles in the 1990s.

Last October, the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, said North Korea may be capable of fielding a nuclear-armed KN-08 missile that could reach U.S. soil, but because it has not tested such a weapon the odds of it being effective were "pretty darn low."


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