Channel News Asia – Taiwan is arming more of its fleet with its new “carrier killer” anti-ship missiles as China conducts further sea trials of its first aircraft carrier, local media said Monday. Five of the Taiwanese navy’s eight Perry-class frigates have been armed with the supersonic Hsiung Feng (Brave Wind) III weapons, the Taipei-based China Times said. Some of its smaller patrol boats have also been equipped with the missiles, which are designed to cruise at a speed of Mach 2.0, or twice the speed of sound, with a range of up to 130 kilometres, the newspaper said. The defence ministry declined to comment on the report. The China Times said the navy plans to deploy 120 such missiles — dubbed “aircraft carrier killers” by their developer — in a project costing an estimated 12 billion Taiwan dollars (US$400 million). The missiles were first unveiled by Taiwan in August last year on the same day that China began sea trials for its first aircraft carrier, a reconditioned 1980s-era warship originally commissioned by the Soviet navy. Read Article
Space – China launched an optical military reconnaissance satellite Thursday (May 10) aboard a Long March 4B rocket, successfully orbiting another member in a fleet of spacecraft spying for Chinese intelligence agencies. Read article
Reuters – Explosives planted on a bicycle killed nine people in the relatively peaceful Faryab province of northern Afghanistan on Monday, including a provincial council member, police said, amid an increase in violence across the country. The attack came a day after gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital Kabul, dealing another blow to the country’s attempts to negotiate a deal with the Taliban as a means to ending the war. The Taliban denied involvement. Police said the remote-controlled bomb killed eight civilians and council member Amanullah Shahabzai as they sat in front of a pharmacy in the Ghormach district of Faryab. Read Article
CNN – hree NATO service members were killed Saturday during attacks in Afghanistan, while a fourth died of noncombat-related injuries, according to the International Security Assistance Force. A roadside bomb took the life of one service member in the southern part of the country, while two others were killed in the same region when two attackers wearing Afghan Police uniforms turned their weapons on NATO troops. Read Article
Financial Times – The situation in the euro zone has become so bleak that it is giving rise to the most improbable rumours. The latest to make the rounds of European hedge fund managers suggests that the euro will be tied to the dollar at close to parity, a dramatic fall from its current level of just under $1.30 and one that would involve the printing of hundreds of billions of euros. Read Article
BBC – A senior Afghan peace negotiator has been shot dead in Kabul, officials say. Arsala Rahmani was a key member of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, which leads Afghan efforts to make peace with the Taliban. Correspondents say his death is a major blow to President Hamid Karzai as Mr Rahmani was key in reaching out to Taliban commanders. Read Article
Mail Online – Two British servicemen have been murdered by rogue Afghan policemen as they guarded a public meeting. It is thought the two gunmen went berserk during the meeting, or ‘shura’, in Helmand province and opened fire with semi-automatic rifles. One of the attackers was shot dead by a British-trained Afghan policeman, while the second was wounded and fled. Read Article
Daily News and Analysis – Nearly 70% of the districts in the state have fluoride contents beyond the permissible limit in ground water. Data available from the ministry of water resources, concerning ground water quality scenario, reveals that 18 of Gujarat’s 26 districts have fluoride content above the permissible limit. Gujarat ranks 5th among the 19 states in high fluoride content in ground water. If that isn’t enough, the nitrate content in ground water is also quite high in various districts of the state. Read article
Editorial Note: Flouride occurs naturally in many places in India in DEEP water wells that are relied on for clean water.
AP – A gunman shot dead a top member of the Afghan peace council Sunday in Kabul, police said. The assassination strikes another blow to efforts to negotiate a political resolution to the decade-long war. Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban official turned Afghan peace negotiator, was in his vehicle when he was killed by an unknown attacker in another vehicle at an intersection in the west part of the city, according to Mohammad Zahir, head of the Kabul police department’s criminal investigation division. Read Article
Guardian – When Alex Aan picked up a copy of Karen Armstrong’s Holy War from his local library in west Sumatra in 2005, he had little inkling of his own religious battle to come. But after posting “God doesn’t exist” on Facebook, the soft-spoken civil servant, 30, faces up to 11 years in jail for what is considered blasphemy in Indonesia. His case has stoked a debate in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, whose 240 million citizens are technically guaranteed freedom of religion but protected by law only if they believe in one of six credos: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism. Those who question any of those face five years in prison for “insulting a major religion”, plus an additional six years if they use the internet to spread such “blasphemy” to others. Read Article
Bloomberg – China cut the amount of cash that banks must set aside as reserves for the third time in six months, pumping money into the financial system to support lending after data showed a slowdown in growth is deepening. Reserve ratios will fall 50 basis points, effective May 18, the People’s Bank of China said on its website yesterday. The level for the nation’s largest lenders will decline to 20 percent based on previous statements. Read Article
Dawn – Pakistan carried out a successful test firing of a short-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile on Thursday, the military said. The launch of the Hatf III, which has a range of up to 290 kilometres and can also carry conventional warheads, came at the end of a field training exercise, a military statement said. Two weeks ago Pakistan test-fired an intermediate range ballistic missile, seen as a response to India’s launch of its new long-range Agni V, capable of hitting targets anywhere in China. Read Article
AFP – An Afghan soldier opened fire on NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing an American and leaving two others wounded, officials said. The death brings to 20 the number of NATO soldiers killed by Afghan colleagues in at least 15 separate attacks so far this year. The shootings have forced US-led troops to step up security and fanned tensions between Western soldiers and the Afghan security forces they are supposed to be training to take responsibility for the country by 2014. “An Afghan army soldier turned his weapon against US soldiers inside an Afghan-US military base in Kunar province, killing one US soldier and injuring two others,” said provincial police chief Ewaz Mohammad Naziri. Read Article
Independent – Panasonic’s January-March losses ballooned 10-fold to 438 billion yen (£3.4 billion), completing a year of record red ink at the Japanese electronics maker battered by natural disasters and an ailing TV business. The firm racked up a 40.7 billion yen loss for the same period the previous year. Read Article
Reuters – China’s economy stuttered unexpectedly in April with lower than expected output data, softening retail sales and easing prices suggesting economic headwinds might be stiffer than thought, requiring more robust policy responses to counter them. Industrial output expanded at its slowest annual pace in April in nearly three years, while fixed asset investment growth dipped to its lowest in almost a decade. Read Article
BBC – The United States is resuming sales of some weapons to Bahrain, but says it will not supply the Gulf state with any crowd control equipment. The US State Department says the shipment will help Bahrain “maintain its external defence capabilities.” Arms sales were frozen last year after the Bahraini government suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations. Read Article
Defence Web – Algeria has signed a contract with China Shipbuilding Trading Company for three light frigates, after ordering two Meko A-200N frigates from Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. The three light frigates will be built either at Guangzhou or the Shanghai Huangpu Shipyard. The vessels will displace around 2 800 tons fully loaded, and will be powered by MTU diesel engines. The Algerian Navy has been undergoing expansion in recent years as it faces problems such as smuggling, illegal migration and indigenous terrorism. These threats mainly affect Algeria’s harbours and maritime communication routes and ships passing through the Straits of Gibraltar. Consequently, the Algerian Navy maintains a well-trained and well-equipped fleet to provide security to more than 1000 km of coastline. Read Article
Bloomberg – Mainland China’s gold imports from Hong Kong surged more than sixfold in the first quarter, adding to signs that the country may displace India as the world’s largest consumer of the precious metal on an annual basis. Imports from Hong Kong were 135,529 kilograms (135.53 metric tons) between January and March, from 19,729 kilograms in the year-earlier period, according to data from the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong government. Shipments in March rose 59 percent from February, yesterday’s data showed. Read Article
Business Insider – We told you earlier today about how dangerous the US position in the China-Philippines disputed islands conflict could be. But, guess what! It looks like now there’s a new actor entering the frey. The Times of India reports that India has officially released an “unusual” statement on the conflict, which reads as follows:
“Maintenance of peace and security in the region is of vital interest to the international community. India urges both countries to exercise restraint and resolve the issue diplomatically according to principles of international law.”
So why is India getting involved? Read Article
Reuters – Lawmakers in the House of Representatives are pushing for the Pentagon to provide more accurate reports on China’s military development and for tighter controls on defense-related technology transfers to foreign countries. Randy Forbes, chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, said on Thursday the measures – which his panel included in next year’s defense authorization bill – were aimed at addressing China’s two decades of double-digit military budget growth and “aspirations of supplanting the U.S. position in the (Asia-Pacific) region.” Read Article
Xinhua – China’s first deep-water drilling rig started operations in the South China Sea at 9:38 a.m. on Wednesday, marking “a substantial step” made by the country’s deep-sea oil industry. The sixth-generation semi-submersible CNOOC 981, owned by China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), began drilling in a sea area 320 km southeast of Hong Kong at a water depth of 1,500 meters. Read Article
Bloomberg – Oil fell for a seventh day in New York, its longest run of declines since December 2009, as hopes for a solution to Europe’s debt crisis receded, U.S. supplies rose and Chinese imports fell. West Texas Intermediate oil fell as much as 0.5 percent. Crude inventories rose 3.7 million barrels last week to 379.5 million, the highest level since 1990, even as fuel supplies shrank, Department of Energy data showed. Read Article
AFP – Laos has postponed construction of a controversial dam on the Mekong, an official said Thursday, dismissing fears that the work was going ahead despite growing regional opposition. “There is no construction on the Mekong river,” Viraphonh Viravong, director general of the Ministry of Energy and Mines’ department of electricity, told AFP by telephone. Read article
BBC – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has been given the nod to take over a US bank, the first such US approval for a Chinese firm. The US Federal Reserve approved state-owned ICBC’s plans to acquire the US subsidiary of Bank of East Asia. This comes just days after high-level economic talks between the US and China in Beijing. Read Article
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