Miscellaneous News

ABC78

ABC78

Junior Member
Burundi coup attempt

[Published on May 14, 2015

CCTV's Kofa Mrenje and cameraman Eric Mukenga were in the centre of the capital Bujumbura as news of the coup attempt broke. This is how it played out]


Chinese embassy in Burundi raises safety alert

[Published on May 16, 2015

The Chinese embassy in Burundi has initiated a contingency plan to ensure the safety of hundreds of Chinese nationals. China’s ambassador to Burundi Zhou Ruisheng said they have established an information release system, and warned people to stay on alert.]

 
Equation

Equation

Lieutenant General
Soon to be on French Craigslist or Ebay.:p:D
In a move that could alarm the United States, China is looking to buy the two French-made Mistral-class assault ships that were originally made for Russia. In 2011, Russia and France signed a $1.37 billion deal, under which France was to build two Mistral ships for Russia by the end of 2015. However, Paris averted its plans in 2014 amid Moscow’s
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in the Ukraine crisis.

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China could be the customer France is looking for
Now France is left with two Mistrals in hand, looking for an eager customer. The
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reports that a French task force recently visited China along with a Mistral-class assault ship and an Aconit frigate. It fueled speculations that China could be the newest customer for these ships. Both Mistral ships, the Vladivostok and the Sevastopol, are well-equipped for island warfare.


China has both the necessary infrastructure and use scenarios for these ships. According to
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, it makes sense for China to invest in an advanced assault vessel, given the
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in the East and South China Sea. However, France cannot sell the vessels to anyone without Russia’s permission. Gilles Le Breton, a member of the European Parliament, told the
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that France was actively considering selling them to a third-party.

France proposes to compensate Russia
The French government had proposed to compensate Moscow for its decision to cancel the delivery of two ships to Russia. However, talks between the two countries have made little progress due to disagreement over the amount Russia would receive, reports French website
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. France has proposed to repay $875 million to Russia, plus payments related to Moscow’s expenses before Paris backtracked on the deal. Russia had spent millions of dollars to outfit its ports to house the Mistral ships.

France had modified the Russia-bound vessels to accommodate the Russian Navy’s Kamov Ka-27 helicopters. China already owns Ka-27 as well as its advanced version Ka-28, so adding these ships to its growing and increasingly modern navy makes sense. However, the China-France deal has not been finalized yet.
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plawolf

plawolf

Lieutenant General
EU still had an arms embargo against China.

Besides, even if there wasn't an embargo, China would build its own LHDs rather than import them. Its shipbuilding industry has the capacity to do that with minimal risk of failure, and the cost would be a fraction of what the French would be asking for, while building up local talent and capacity.
 
solarz

solarz

Brigadier
plawolf said:
EU still had an arms embargo against China.

Besides, even if there wasn't an embargo, China would build its own LHDs rather than import them. Its shipbuilding industry has the capacity to do that with minimal risk of failure, and the cost would be a fraction of what the French would be asking for, while building up local talent and capacity.
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China wouldn't be buying those ships for itself, Wolf. They would just sell it to the Russians and make a profit off the difference, lol.
 
plawolf

plawolf

Lieutenant General
solarz said:
China wouldn't be buying those ships for itself, Wolf. They would just sell it to the Russians and make a profit off the difference, lol.
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Why not just build LHDs to sell to Russia instead of merely doing a re-sale?

If Russia really was interested in playing that game, the Indians would be the better choice to use as middleman.
 
A

aksha

Captain
plawolf said:
If Russia really was interested in playing that game, the Indians would be the better choice to use as middleman.
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at the cost of grounding their very expensive 36 rafales .:oops:

(not to mention scorpenes, SRSAM's , and helicopter engines, and probably a lot lot more,)

they won't play this game
 
Equation

Equation

Lieutenant General
Thousands of demonstrators formed a human chain around Japan's parliament in Tokyo on Sunday, protesting the planned construction of a new US airbase on the southern island of Okinawa.


The protesters, who organisers said numbered about 15,000, surrounded the parliament building holding banners reading "No to Henoko", in the latest rally against the controversial base.

Henoko is a small coastal area on Okinawa where Tokyo and Washington plan to relocate the existing Futenma military facility, currently situated in built-up Ginowan.

"We must stop this construction," said one of the protesters, Akemi Kitajima, 66.

"The government is trying to force the plan no matter how strongly Okinawa says 'no' to it."

Okinawa is home to more than half of the 47,000 US service personnel stationed in Japan as part of a defence alliance, a proportion many islanders say is too high.

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About 15,000 protesters surrounded Tokyo's parliament building with banners reading "No to …
The plan to move Futenma, first mooted in 1996, has become the focus of anger among locals, who insist it should be shuttered and a replacement built elsewhere in Japan or overseas.

But both Tokyo and Washington have repeatedly backed the plan, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month insisting it was "the only solution".

The protestors on Sunday also expressed opposition to Washington's scheduled deployment of CV-22 Osprey aircraft at US Yokota Air Base in Tokyo.

The Osprey is a hybrid aircraft with rotors that allow it to take off like a helicopter and engines that can tilt forward, enabling it to fly like an aeroplane at greater speed than a chopper.

More than two dozen Ospreys have been already deployed at Okinawa's Futenma airbase, prompting safety concerns from local residents.

Sunday's rally comes a week after 35,000 people on Okinawa, led by the anti-base governor, protested the new US base plan.
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Ultra

Ultra

Junior Member
'Beautiful Mind' mathematician John Nash, wife killed in car crash
(CNN)John Forbes Nash Jr., the Princeton University mathematician whose life inspired the film "A Beautiful Mind," and his wife died in a car crash Saturday, according to New Jersey State Police.

Nash, 86, and Alicia Nash, 82, were riding in a taxi near Monroe Township when the incident occurred, State Police Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Williams said.

They were traveling southbound in the left lane when the taxi went out of control while trying to pass another car, Williams said.

The car crashed into the guard rail, and they were ejected from the vehicle. They were pronounced dead at the scene, Williams said

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John Nash was best known for this Nash Equilibrium.............
....."A simpler example is what is known as the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Two conspirators in a crime are arrested and offered a deal: “If you confess and testify against your accomplice, we’ll let you off and throw the book at the other guy — 10 years in prison.”

If both stay quiet, the prosecutors cannot prove the more serious charges and both would spend just a year behind bars for lesser crimes. If both confess, the prosecutors would not need their testimony, and both would get eight-year prison sentences.

At first glance, keeping quiet might seem the best strategy. If both did so, both would get off fairly lightly.

But the calculation of the Nash equilibrium shows they should both confess.

This type of problem is called a noncooperative game, which means the two prisoners cannot convey intentions to each other. Without knowing what the other prisoner is doing, each is faced with this choice: If he confesses, he could end up with freedom or eight years in prison. If he stays quiet, he goes to prison for one year or 10 years.

In that light, confessing is the better option. And he knows that the other prisoner has the same incentive to confess, so it is less likely he would stay quiet.

Further, changing strategy to staying mum would be a bad move — longer prison term — unless the other prisoner somehow also decided to do that. Without any communication, that would be a highly risky guess, and thus, this strategy represents a Nash equilibrium."



Nash contributed greatly to the idea of MAD - The strategy is a form of
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in which neither side, once armed, has any incentive to initiate a conflict or to disarm.


The MAD doctrine assumes that
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and that either side, if attacked for any reason by the other,
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. The expected result is an immediate irreversible escalation of hostilities resulting in both combatants' mutual, total and
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.

The doctrine further assumes that neither side will dare to launch a
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because the other side will
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(also called
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) or with surviving forces (a
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), resulting in unacceptable losses for both parties. The payoff of the MAD doctrine was and still is expected to be a tense but stable global peace.


Rest in peace John Nash.
 
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