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
NY Times – Scientists who have studied a degenerative brain disease in athletes have found the same condition in combat veterans exposed to roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, concluding that such explosions injure the brain in ways strikingly similar to tackles and punches. The researchers also discovered what they believe is the mechanism by which explosions damage brain tissue and trigger the wasting disease, called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., by studying simulated explosions on mice. The animals developed evidence of the disease just two weeks after exposure to a single simulated blast, researchers found. Read article
CBS — Surveillance aircraft used by the U.S. military overseas could soon be coming to the skies above Los Angeles County. KNX 1070?s Charles Feldman reports the Federal Aviation Administration is making it easier for local law enforcement agencies to fly unmanned drones. The FAA has streamlined the process that would allow agencies to fly smaller, unarmed versions of the drones that hunt down terrorists in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Read Article
CBC – At least 72 civilians, a third of them under the age of 18, were killed by NATO airstrikes, according to a report released Monday by Human Rights Watch — one of the most extensive investigations into the issue. The New York-based advocacy group called on the Western alliance to acknowledge the casualties and compensate survivors. 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
BBC – At least 30 people – including 23 soldiers – have died in heavy overnight clashes in the central Syrian city of Rastan, according to activists. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of others were wounded in the city, in the restive Homs province. Three troop carriers were destroyed in fighting, the UK-based group said. If confirmed, the attack would be one of the deadliest suffered by security forces in the 14-month-long uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Read Article
Reuters – Militants clash in Lebanon leaving three dead and sparking fears of more sectarian strife between Alawite and Sunni Muslims. Andrew Raven reports.
BBC – Heavy fighting broke out in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo when a deadline expired for army mutineers to surrender. Thousands of Congolese villagers fled over the Ugandan border overnight, officials in Uganda told the BBC. Last weekend, the army gave the hundreds of fighters who defected last month five days to turn themselves in. They are loyal to Bosco Ntaganda, who is known as the “Terminator” and wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes. The International Criminal Court accuses Gen Ntaganda of recruiting child soldiers for the same rebel group as Thomas Lubanga, who in March became the first person to be convicted by the court of war crimes. Read Article
Press TV – Somalia’s al-Shabab fighters say a US assassination drone attack has left at least 38 people dead and dozens of others wounded in the Horn of Africa state, Press TV reports. The airstrike is said to have taken place in Somalia’s southwestern district of Badade, a Press TV correspondent reported. The US military uses remote-controlled drones in Somalia for reconnaissance operations and targeted killings. 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 – A red-faced Pentagon has conceded that an instructor at its Joint Forces College in Virginia for military officers was until recently teaching a course advocating “total war” with Islam that could require obliterating the holy cities of Mecca and Medina without concern for civilian deaths. The material in the course, which officers could elect to take but was not obligatory, flew in the face of repeated assertions by the Obama administration that the war on terrorism is just that and should under no circumstances be read as an assault on a religion observed by 1.4 billion people around the world. Read Article
Defense News – The U.S. military said May 9 that 12,000 troops from 17 countries are taking part in this month’s military exercises in Jordan, seeking to enhance their abilities to meet “security challenges.” “The tactical execution of Eager Lion 2012 exercise will officially start on May 15,” said Maj. Robert Bockholt, public affairs officer at U.S. Special Operations Command Central. Read Article
MiamiHerakd – there was the thunderous whump whump of low-flying helicopters, and even the jarring blast of explosions at the abandoned Grand Bay Hotel in Coconut Grove early Tuesday during a military training exercise that jolted many unsuspecting residents from their beds. “It was quite a shocking experience,” said Jane Muir, who was awakened around 1:45 a.m. by the sound of military choppers that later dropped rappelling soldiers onto the Grand Bay’s rooftop. “It was kind of that bizarre feeling that you were surrounded by wind.” From her third-floor balcony, Muir then watched the soldiers fire off flares and smoke bombs before searching floor by floor through the darkened hotel, their paths marked by flashlights and the pop-pop-pop of gunshots. “The show of force was so overwhelming,” she said. 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
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
Guardian – A government scientist sacked for exposing the dangers to firefighters from the caustic air at Ground Zero in the days after 9/11 got her job back on Monday. A federal court ordered that Cate Jenkins, a chemist at the Environmental Protection Agency, be reinstated to her job with back pay. Her lawyer said the decision, although based on matters of legal process, amounted to vindication for Jenkins’s claims that the EPA had covered up the danger posed to first responders and others in lower Manhattan from the asbestos and highly corrosive dust that rose from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. Read Article
Reuters – Pentagon chief Leon Panetta warned lawmakers last month not to pick apart piece by piece the finely balanced 2013 defense budget he sent to Capitol Hill earlier this year. But lawmakers in the Republican-led House of Representatives are doing exactly that. The House Armed Services Committee began work on Wednesday on a defense policy bill that would authorize nearly $4 billion in spending above the amount Panetta requested in the Pentagon budget he had proposed. Read Article
Reuters – The first of a new class of U.S. coastal warships will be sent to Singapore next spring for a roughly 10-month deployment, the Navy said on Wednesday, spotlighting a move that may stir China’s fears of U.S. involvement in South China Sea disputes. Deployment of the shallow-draft ship “Freedom” will help refine crew rotations, logistics and maintenance processes to maximize the class’s value to U.S. combat commanders, Rear Admiral Thomas Rowden, the Navy’s director of surface warfare, told reporters. Read Article
ABC – South Korea and Japan will meet next month to consider the signing of a historic military cooperation agreement — the first of its kind between the two nations It would also represent a milestone since Japan’s colonial rule over Korea ended in 1945. Read Article
NY Times – The American military claimed responsibility and expressed regret for an airstrike that mistakenly killed six members of a family in southwestern Afghanistan, Afghan and American military officials confirmed Monday. The attack, which took place Friday night, was first revealed by the governor of Helmand Province, Muhammad Gulab Mangal, on Monday. His spokesman, Dawoud Ahmadi, said that after an investigation they had determined that a family home in the Sangin district had been attacked by mistake in the American airstrike, which was called in to respond to a Taliban attack. Mr. Mangal summoned the American regional commander, Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus of the Marines, to complain, and General Gurganus apologized, Mr. Ahmadi said. Read Article
Washington Post – The Defense Department has inadequately protected from reprisals whistleblowers who have reported wrongdoing, according to an internal Pentagon report, and critics are calling for action to be taken against those who have been negligent. The report, dated May 2011, accuses the officials, who work in the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General, of persistent sloppiness and a systematic disregard for Pentagon rules meant to protect those who report fraud, abuses and the waste of taxpayer funds, according to a previously undisclosed copy. The report was obtained by the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group. Read Article
Independent – Turkey’s state-run news agency says Turkish troops have killed five Kurdish rebels in an overnight clash in southeast Turkey. The Anadolu Agency said today the clash took place near the town of Tatvan in Bitlis province. Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy in the largely Kurdish southeast. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since the rebels took up arms in 1984. Read Article
Business Insider – DARPA is at it again. This time, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has announced plans to create nanochips for monitoring troops health on the battlefield. Kate Knibbs at Mobiledia reports the sensors are targeted at preventing illness and disease, the two causes of most troops medical evacuations. What seems like a simple way of cutting costs and increasing efficiency has some people concerned that this is the first step in a “computer chips for all” scenario. Bob Unruh at WND reports one of those opponents, Katherine Albrecht, co-author of Spychips says “It’s never going to happen that the government at gunpoint says, ‘You’re going to have a tracking chip. It’s always in incremental steps. If you can put a microchip in someone that doesn’t track them … everybody looks and says, ‘Come on, it’ll be interesting seeing where we go.’” Read Article
Reuters – Fighting between rebels and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces erupted in an oil producing province in eastern Syria, residents and activists said on Sunday, the eve of a parliamentary election the authorities say shows reforms are under way. Rebels armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked tank positions in the east of the provincial capital Deir al-Zor, in response to an army offensive against towns and villages in the tribal area bordering Iraq that has killed tens of people and stopped others reaching supplies and medical care, they said. Read Article
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