China muscles US in Pacific

DateFebruary 16, 2013

.WITHIN two decades the United States will be forced out of the western Pacific, says a senior Chinese military officer, amid concerns that increasingly militarised great-power rivalry could lead to war.

Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu, at the People's Liberation Army's National Defence University, told Fairfax Media this week that American strategic influence would be confined ''east of the Pacific midline'' as it is displaced by Chinese power throughout east Asia, including Australia.

Colonel Liu's interpretation of one facet of what the new Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, calls ''a new type of great-power relationship'' adds to the uncertainty and anxiety surrounding China's strategic ambitions.

It clashes with comments days earlier by his university colleague, General Zhu Chenghu, who told a conference in the US: ''We have no intention of driving the US out of east Asia or the western Pacific.''

Concern about China's strategic ambitions has grown since last year's Chinese occupation of islands administered by the Philippines in the South China Sea and, particularly, China's continuing brinkmanship with Japan and its security guarantor, the US, in the East China Sea.

Japanese leaders have accused China of locking weapons-guiding radars on Japanese targets - which China denies - while Western military sources say Chinese planes, ships and submarines have challenged Japanese-controlled waters and airspace around the Senkaku Islands.

Some security analysts say Australian political leaders are in public denial about the stakes involved and invidious choices the nation may have to face.

''It's the most dangerous strategic crisis that the US has faced - that the world has faced - since the end of the Cold War,'' said Hugh White, former deputy secretary of the Department of Defence.

China and Japan, he said, were drifting closer to a war that could draw in the US. ''This makes rather a nonsense of the mantra we hear both from Gillard and Abbott that 'we don't have to choose between the US and China','' he said.

An assertive, rising China has also triggered the formation of a regional latticework of new security linkages, partly pioneered by Australia and now championed by the new Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who proposes a ''democratic security diamond'' involving India, the US and Australia.

Ely Ratner, a fellow at the Centre for a New American Security, said Australia should speak louder in favour of international laws, norms and institutions given its dependence on rules and institutions that enable the free flow of goods in east Asia.

As much as 57 per cent of Australian exports pass through sea lanes in the South China Sea, according to Australian government estimates.

''The overriding question is whether China is interested in a region based on rules and institutions that seek co-operative, non-coercive ways to deal with disagreements,'' said Mr Ratner, who previously worked at the China desk of the US State Department.

''Or is it going to deal with disagreements by using military, non-military and economic coercion, as we saw against the Philippines and Japan, and diplomatic coercion as we saw at the East Asia Summit,'' he said, referring to China's intervention at the summit to block discussion of maritime security issues.

Last month, James Fanell, intelligence chief for the US Pacific Fleet - which commands six aircraft carrier groups - told a San Diego conference that China's ''expansion into blue waters is largely about countering the Pacific Fleet''.

Even China's civilian maritime surveillance agency ''has no other mission but to harass other nations into submitting to China's expansive

claims,'' he said. Colonel Liu, who previously warned Australia not to support the Japanese ''wolf'' or American ''tiger'' in any military showdown, does not hold the rank of general or act as an official spokesman.

But his views have been taken more seriously since his fiercely nationalistic book The China Dream was allowed back onto the shelves after Mr Xi's elevation in November, when Mr Xi began talking about his own nationalistic ''China Dream''.

And they reflect a common assertion in some quarters of Beijing, and particularly the People's Liberation Army, that the Obama administration's ''pivot'' to Asia is an aberration in a story that will see the US Pacific Fleet eventually give up on its allies in the region.

But, said Robert Rubel, Dean of the US Naval War College's Centre for Naval Warfare Studies, China's military ambitions will face natural internal and external constraints as aggressive behaviour will cause its neighbours to rally together.

''Some guys here say they're xenophobic, they're hostile, and they're probably right, but if they're halfway rational there are limits to how much trouble they can cause without bringing their own house down,'' said Professor Rubel, who helped design the US National Maritime Strategy.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/china-muscles-us-in-pacific-20130215-2eiu3.html#ixzz2KxvuCisZ

Iran last month claimed to have successfully sent a monkey into space in a Pishgam rocket. That announcement was also accused of being faked as photographs of the monkey before and after showed two clearly different animals. Iran is sticking to its guns.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/irans-laughable-fighter-jet-caught-out-in-photoshop-blunder-20130213-2ebwb.html#ixzz2KjxwSs2M

Iran's 'laughable' fighter jet caught out in Photoshop blunder

DateFebruary 13, 2013 - 9:21AM

Iran has been caught out in another Photoshop blunder in an effort to prove its purported stealth fighter jet is the real deal.

An Iranian state news agency released a new picture of the radar-dodging jet flying above snow-covered mountains.

But the picture was immediately suspected to be fake, with the lighting on the plane and its position similar to its appearance in pictures on the ground in Tehran at the unveiling earlier this month.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described it as "among the most advanced fighter jets in the world", capable of hitting ground and air targets by stealth, but experts dismissed it as a "laughable fake" which looks like a toy or mock-up model.

Now the new picture has also been laughed off, after it was revealed by The Atlantic Wire that the background image of the mountain was taken from the stock image site PickyWallpapers.com.

Aviation experts have questioned whether the jet shown can even fly as it was too small to accommodate a real pilot and the controls and wiring looked too simple. It also lacked the bolts and rivets found on all aircraft and offered wonky aerodynamics.


Some claim the Iranian jet was Photoshopped onto this generic picture of Mount Damavand. Photo: PickyWallpapers.com

In 2008, news wire Agence France-Presse had to retract an official image of an Iran missile launch following revelations it was doctored to include an extra missile. The photo had appeared on the front pages of many media outlets including NYTimes.com and the front page of The Los Angeles Times.

In November last year Iran showed off a new drone design, but it was later revealed that the photographs it released were ripped off from a Japanese university and doctored.

Iran last month claimed to have successfully sent a monkey into space in a Pishgam rocket. That announcement was also accused of being faked as photographs of the monkey before and after showed two clearly different animals. Iran is sticking to its guns.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/irans-laughable-fighter-jet-caught-out-in-photoshop-blunder-20130213-2ebwb.html#ixzz2KjxwSs2M

Pope was not afraid to say sorry
DateFebruary 12, 2013 - 2:44PM (0)


Benedict XVI was a courageous pontiff who made a sincere attempt to restore the good name of the Catholic Church.

.When Joseph Ratzinger was chosen by his fellow cardinals to be Pope in April 2005, he was universally billed as the continuity candidate. He had spent 25 years doing John Paul II's bidding in charge of the old Holy Office, and most Catholics believed they knew exactly what Benedict XVI stood for. Few expected any surprises. Yet now he has pulled off the biggest surprise of all by becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign.

The flawless logic of his resignation letter demonstrates that there is nothing clouding Benedict's reason. "To steer the boat of St Peter ... both strength of mind and body are necessary," he explained, before stating that he simply didn't have the stamina for it any more.

Which isn't in the least surprising. In any other multinational organisation of 1.3 billion members, the idea that an 85-year-old could continue to exercise absolute authority on a daily basis would be regarded as untenable. For the Pope is not some figurehead, the religious equivalent of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, abdicating on her 75th birthday to make way for "the next generation". He is an absolute monarch.

Logic, though, isn't the quality most often associated with the papacy. John Paul II and before him Paul VI carried on in office long after their bodies had failed them. They upheld the conviction in Catholicism that being elected pope is a divinely ordained duty, to be carried along a personal Via Dolorosa ("Way of grief") unto death.

But that is not what canon law stipulates. It explicitly sets out conditions for abdication, and so Benedict has invoked them. There is no mystery, or smoking gun, but rather just extraordinary courage and selflessness. Perhaps having watched John Paul II, a vigorous athlete of a man when he took office, decline into someone unable to move or to be understood, made Benedict's decision for him. He did not want to be a lame-duck pope; he knew that is not what the Catholic Church needs.

Yesterday's announcement inevitably prompts the question of how his eight years on St Peter's throne are to be viewed. As some kind of extended postscript to John Paul II's eye-catching, game-changing era? Or as a stand-alone epoch with distinctive policies and preoccupations?

The consensus leans heavily towards the former, but history could well judge Benedict more kindly. He may have lacked his predecessor's physical and spiritual charisma, and his unmissable presence on the world stage when major events were happening around him (the collapse of the Berlin Wall, two Gulf wars, September 11), but Benedict has nevertheless shown himself to be very much his own man. Two of his decisions as Pope illustrate what a break he made with his predecessor.

Just as they don't retire, popes also avoid at all costs admitting that they get things wrong, notwithstanding that they are infallible in certain matters of faith and morals. So few can have expected "God's Rottweiler", as he was known when he was carrying out John Paul's orders in relation to dissenters, to start breaking the mould as Pope by issuing mea culpas. But that is precisely what he did.

In January 2009, for instance, he wrote to every Catholic bishop in the world to confess to his own mishandling of the case of Bishop Richard Williamson. This self-styled English prelate, a member of the fundamentalist Lefebvrist group excommunicated by John Paul, had been readmitted to the Catholic Church on Benedict's watch. But days before, Williamson had given a TV interview in which he denied the Holocaust. The international outcry was huge – and magnified because of Benedict's own brief spell in the Hitler Youth. The Pope's response was a heartfelt and humble letter of apology.

His second volte-face came over the issue of paedophile priests. Under John Paul, the issue had been shamefully brushed under the carpet. The Polish pontiff, for example, declined to hand over to justice one of his great favourites, Father Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the Legionaries of Christ, a traditionalist religious order. Despite well-documented allegations going back many years about Maciel's sexual abuse of youngsters in his seminaries, he was treated on papal orders as an honoured guest in the Vatican.

Yet within a month of taking office, Benedict moved to remove any protection and to discipline Maciel. He ordered the priest, then in his late 80s, never again to say mass or speak in public. And when Maciel died in 2008, his low-key funeral was followed by a rapid dismantling of the religious organisation he had built.

It was part of a concerted drive that made Benedict the first pope to sincerely attempt to address clerical abuse and restore the good name of the Catholic Church. In March 2009, for example, he sent another letter of apology, this time to Catholics in Ireland. "You have suffered grievously," he wrote to Irish victims of paedophile priests, "and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. It is understandable that you find it hard to forgive or be reconciled with the Church. In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel."

That is quite a statement coming from a pope. It may be that his own past as a lieutenant of John Paul made him part of the problem, but he was unafraid to look this appalling betrayal of trust in the eye, not least in a series of meetings he arranged on his travels.

In fact Benedict wasn't much of a traveller. Global Catholicism and international leaders usually had to come to him in Rome rather than vice versa. Yet, though small of stature and delicate as bone china in demeanour, he grew slowly into the dignity of his office after it had initially threatened to swamp him.

So his 2010 trip to Britain did not, as had been widely predicted, pale beside the enduring and vivid memory of John Paul's barnstorming 1982 visit. Instead the crowds warmed to this serious man, with his nervous smile and understated humanity, as he kissed babies and waved from his Popemobile. Even sceptics responded positively to his determination to speak his mind about the marginalisation of religion.

There were, inevitably, notable failures in his reign. He was too much the career Vatican insider to shake up the curia, the Church's central bureaucracy. Its scheming and corruption was exposed for all to see in the "Vatileaks" scandal last year, with Benedict's own butler, Paolo Gabriele, convicted of stealing the Pope's private papers that revealed squabbling cardinals and unprincipled priests in the papal inner circle.

And Benedict's chosen "big tent" approach to leadership – which was to make him more German Shepherd than Rottweiler by welcoming dissidents back into the fold – also soon blew away. What remained was a willingness to make concessions to schismatic ultra-conservatives, but paper-thin patience with liberal theologians or grassroots movements such as that demanding genuine doctrinal change in Austria.

Patently more at home in a library or a theological college than on the world political stage, Benedict could be clumsy – as when in September 2006 his return to his alma mater, Regensburg University in Bavaria, was overshadowed by derogatory remarks about the prophet Mohammed which he quoted in his lecture. But he went out of his way to make amends on a trip to Turkey soon afterwards, joining Muslim clerics in prayer in the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. This was only the second time a pope had ever entered a mosque.

For every failure, there was a success. His inaugural encyclical, Deus Caritas Est ("God is Love"), in December 2005 broke new ground, first in being written in such a way that non-theologians could follow it, and second in celebrating human love without the standard Catholic exemptions for gays, the unmarried and those using contraception. "Sex please, we're Catholics" was the reaction of the influential Catholic weekly, the Tablet.

Though his decision to opt for retirement will mark out this papacy in history, Benedict's eight-year rule did not see the Catholic Church perform spectacular U-turns on any major doctrinal questions. Yet it was also so much more than a seamless continuation of what had gone before.

John Paul II may have left his cardinals with little choice other than to elect Joseph Ratzinger as a safe pair of hands. But Benedict XVI has, by the way he has stood down and by his record in office, made it more possible that a moderniser, in touch with the realities of life in the 21st century, will be chosen as the 266th successor to St Peter.

Peter Stanford is a former editor of the Catholic Herald.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/pope-was-not-afraid-to-say-sorry-20130212-2e9ke.html#ixzz2Kg4ZW36I

Ratzinger was behind great Catholic cover-up

DateFebruary 12, 2013 - 4:06PM

Citing wavering strength of mind and body, Pope Benedict XVI announced his decision to resign from the papacy at the end of February. He will be the first Pope to abdicate in nearly six centuries. In 2010, as allegations of paedophilic priests continued to swirl, the late Christopher Hitchens decried individual and institutional corruption within the church's sacred walls. His original article is reprinted below.

On March 10 [2010], the chief exorcist of the Vatican, the Reverend Gabriele Amorth (who has held this demanding post for 25 years), was quoted as saying that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", and that "when one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia". This can perhaps be taken as confirmation that something horrible has indeed been going on in the holy precincts, though most inquiries show it to have a perfectly good material explanation.

Concerning the most recent revelations about the steady complicity of the Vatican in the ongoing – indeed endless – scandal of child rape, a few days later a spokesman for the Holy See made a concession in the guise of a denial. It was clear, said the Reverend Federico Lombardi, that an attempt was being made "to find elements to involve the Holy Father personally in issues of abuse". He stupidly went on to say that "those efforts have failed".

He was wrong twice. In the first place, nobody has had to strive to find such evidence: It has surfaced, as it was bound to do. In the second place, this extension of the awful scandal to the topmost level of the Roman Catholic Church is a process that has only just begun. Yet it became in a sense inevitable when the College of Cardinals elected, as the vicar of Christ on Earth, the man chiefly responsible for the original cover-up. (One of the sanctified voters in that "election" was Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, a man who had already found the jurisdiction of Massachusetts a bit too warm for his liking.)

There are two separate but related matters here: First, the individual responsibility of the Pope in one instance of this moral nightmare and, second, his more general and institutional responsibility for the wider lawbreaking and for the shame and disgrace that goes with it. The first story is easily told, and it is not denied by anybody. In 1979, an 11-year-old German boy identified as Wilfried F. was taken on a vacation trip to the mountains by a priest. After that, he was administered alcohol, locked in his bedroom, stripped naked, and forced to suck the penis of his confessor. (Why do we limit ourselves to calling this sort of thing "abuse"?) The offending cleric was transferred from Essen to Munich for "therapy" by a decision of then-Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, and assurances were given that he would no longer have children in his care. But it took no time for Ratzinger's deputy, Vicar General Gerhard Gruber, to return him to "pastoral" work, where he soon enough resumed his career of sexual assault.

It is, of course, claimed, and it will no doubt later be partially un-claimed, that Ratzinger himself knew nothing of this second outrage. I quote, here, from the Reverend Thomas Doyle, a former employee of the Vatican embassy in Washington and an early critic of the Catholic Church's sloth in responding to child-rape allegations. "Nonsense," he says. "Pope Benedict is a micromanager. He's the old style. Anything like that would necessarily have been brought to his attention. Tell the vicar general to find a better line. What he's trying to do, obviously, is protect the Pope."

This is common or garden stuff, very familiar to American and Australian and Irish Catholics whose children's rape and torture, and the cover-up of same by the tactic of moving rapists and torturers from parish to parish, has been painstakingly and comprehensively exposed. It's on a level with the recent belated admission by the Pope's brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, that while he knew nothing about sexual assault at the choir school he ran between 1964 and 1994, now that he remembers it, he is sorry for his practice of slapping the boys around.

Very much more serious is the role of Joseph Ratzinger, before the church decided to make him supreme leader, in obstructing justice on a global scale. After his promotion to cardinal, he was put in charge of the so-called "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" (formerly known as the Inquisition).

In 2001, Pope John Paul II placed this department in charge of the investigation of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. In May of that year, Ratzinger issued a confidential letter to every bishop. In it, he reminded them of the extreme gravity of a certain crime. But that crime was the reporting of the rape and torture. The accusations, intoned Ratzinger, were only treatable within the church's own exclusive jurisdiction. Any sharing of the evidence with legal authorities or the press was utterly forbidden. Charges were to be investigated "in the most secretive way ... restrained by a perpetual silence ... and everyone ... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office ... under the penalty of excommunication." (My italics). Nobody has yet been excommunicated for the rape and torture of children, but exposing the offence could get you into serious trouble. And this is the church that warns us against moral relativism! (See, for more on this appalling document, two reports in the London Observer of April 24, 2005, by Jamie Doward.)

Not content with shielding its own priests from the law, Ratzinger's office even wrote its own private statute of limitations. The church's jurisdiction, claimed Ratzinger, "begins to run from the day when the minor has completed the 18th year of age" and then lasts for 10 more years. Daniel Shea, the attorney for two victims who sued Ratzinger and a church in Texas, correctly describes that latter stipulation as an obstruction of justice. "You can't investigate a case if you never find out about it. If you can manage to keep it secret for 18 years plus 10, the priest will get away with it."

The next item on this grisly docket will be the revival of the long-standing allegations against the Reverend Marcial Maciel, founder of the ultra-reactionary Legion of Christ, in which sexual assault seems to have been almost part of the liturgy. Senior ex-members of this secretive order found their complaints ignored and overridden by Ratzinger during the 1990s, if only because Father Maciel had been praised by the then-Pope John Paul II as an "efficacious guide to youth".

And now behold the harvest of this long campaign of obfuscation. The Roman Catholic Church is headed by a mediocre Bavarian bureaucrat once tasked with the concealment of the foulest iniquity, whose ineptitude in that job now shows him to us as a man personally and professionally responsible for enabling a filthy wave of crime. Ratzinger himself may be banal, but his whole career has the stench of evil – a clinging and systematic evil that is beyond the power of exorcism to dispel. What is needed is not medieval incantation but the application of justice – and speedily at that.

Slate.com



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/ratzinger-was-behind-great-catholic-coverup-20130212-2e9jb.html#ixzz2Kg0spCin

He'll just be the first pope not to die on the job.

First time in over 600 years a pope has resigned. When he was elected he wasn't expected to last long in his old age, so I guess it isn't such a shock. The big question is what direction will the church take from here? Another Vatican II like scenario is needed for the modernisation of Catholicism. Although serious talks of a Latin American Pope are growing. But as Bob Maguire said, no matter what happens "Jesus Christ runs the Catholic Church".

He knew what was coming to him, atheism etc.

Pope just stepped down.

-PB

Pope to resign on Feb 28: Vatican
DateFebruary 11, 2013 - 10:00PM

.Pope Benedict XVI has announced he will resign on February 28, a Vatican spokesman says, which will make him the first pope to do so in centuries.

"The Pope announced that he will leave his ministry at 8:00 pm on February 28 (0600 AEDT March 1)," said the spokesman, Federico Lombardi, on Monday.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/pope-to-resign-on-feb-28-vatican-20130211-2e95n.html#ixzz2KaZoDcTG

US intel officer warns China 'bully on high seas'

February 5, 2013 - 6:07PM

A top US navy intelligence officer has warned China is a bully on the high seas, with ambitions to sink American warships and seize control of waters from its neighbours.

Captain James Fanell also accused Beijing of ''fabricating'' history to claims disputed islands in the south and east China seas and described China as the ''principal threat''.

The marked escalation in rhetoric fuels a sense of a growing and dangerous rivalry between the US and China in the region - and is a headache for Australian defence planners seeking not to antagonise either country.

''They are taking control of maritime areas that have never before being administered or controlled in the last 5000 years by any regime called China,'' Captain Fanell told a conference in San Diego.

China's attitude was undoubtedly expansionist, he said – ''what's mine is mine, and we'll negotiate what is yours''.

Captain Fanell's blunt comments last week came in the wake of a warning from a senior Chinese military officer that the US was acting as ''the global tiger'', leading Japan, ''Asia's wolf'', in mauling China.

The Chinese officer warned Australia should not become a ''jackal for the tiger or dance with the wolf''.

The communist regime has increasingly given license for trusted military officers to speak out on regional affairs in what is widely interpreted as deliberate messages without being an official view.

The US now appears to be responding in kind.

''We need China to act like a great nation ... but that is not the China I've watched over the past decade,'' Captain Fanell said.

The deputy chief of staff for intelligence and information operations for US Pacific Fleet, covering oceans from

''Hollywood to Bollywood'', Captain Fanell said China was at the centre of virtually every dispute.

''My assessment is the [People's Liberation Army] Navy has become a very capable fighting force. Much of the intelligence record is classified beyond what we can discuss in this forum, but just to give you one example, in 2012 the PLA Navy sent seven surface action groups and the largest number of its submarines on deployment into the Philippines sea in its history,'' he said.

''I can tell you as the fleet intelligence officer, the PLA Navy is going to sea to learn how to do naval warfare ... Make no mistake – the [People's Republic of China] navy is focused on war at sea, and sinking an opposing fleet.''

Sam Roggeveen, from the Lowy Institute in Sydney, said the presentation did not represent the US government line and may yet be disowned.

''But such a brutally candid assessment from such a senior source is nevertheless bad news,'' Mr Roggoveen said.

''It indicates that China is throwing its weight around in exactly the way its neighbours fear, and that China has no appetite for cooperation or negotiation on its territorial claims.''

He also warned the US military's attempted to engage China were perhaps too pessimistic, calculating that China is a military adversary which the US must face down in concert with its friends and allies.

Captain Fanell said China's ''harassments'' on the high seas had expanded over time.

''In my opinion, China is knowingly, operationally and incrementally seizing maritime rights of its neighbours under the rubric of a maritime history that is not only contested in the international community but has largely been fabricated by Chinese government propaganda bureaus in order to 'educate' the populous about China's rich maritime history, clearly as a tool to sustain the Party's control.''



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/us-intel-officer-warns--china-bully-on-high-seas-20130205-2dwb8.html#ixzz2K0g3mENT

Critics question changing face of Iran's space monkey

by: AAP From: Herald Sun February 03, 2013

..On January 28, official Iranian media published pictures of a monkey named Pishgam (Pioneer) prior to the launch.

The animal had light grey fur and a red mole above its right eye.

But later, the ISNA news agency released photos taken during presenting the monkey to the press after its landing which showed a darker fur and no mole.

These differences have been pointed out by Western media, which have questioned the success of the monkey space mission.

A previous attempt to send a primate into space failed in 2011.

On Facebook, a comment underneath the monkey's pictures reads: the monkey "went into space and met a doctor who removed its mole," an ironic reference to some Iranians passion for cosmetic surgery.

Iranian authorities did not directly responded to these questions on Saturday night.

Two websites close to the regime, Rajanews and Nasimonline, have said without citing sources that the monkey images available to the media before the launch were "archive" images of the doomed 2011 launch.

Instead, the monkey presented to the press after the sub-orbital flight was the one that successfully completed the mission.

Neither Iranian site gave any explanation why the reputed archive pictures were used by the media.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/critics-question-changing-face-of-irans-space-monkey/story-e6frf7jo-1226567635909

French forces faster than expected: US

by: Dan De Luce From: AAP February 02, 2013 1:22PM

.."They have made tremendous progress. I give them a lot of credit," Panetta told AFP at the Pentagon on Friday.

"They have moved much faster than we had anticipated. They now control Timbuktu and Gao and have moved into the north to capture some of the cities in the far north as well.

"That's very good progress."

Despite the swift advance, the most difficult challenge lies ahead to ensure security does not unravel again, says Panetta, who is due to retire from his post later this month after decades in Washington.

"The challenge now is to make sure that you can maintain that security and that you are not overstretched and that, ultimately, as you begin to pull back, that the other African nations are prepared to move in and fill the gap of providing security," he said.

"And that's going to take some work."

French President Francois Hollande was to visit Mali on Saturday and appeal to African nations to take the lead from France in the fight against Islamist militants.

France is keen to hand over its military operation to nearly 8000 African troops slowly being deployed, which the United Nations is considering turning into a formal UN peacekeeping operation.

The French campaign, launched three weeks ago after a push south by rebel fighters raised fears the country could become a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda-linked extremists, has claimed a rapid succession of victories in key Islamist strongholds.

Panetta spoke as French troops were poised to secure the northeastern outpost of Kidal, the rebels' last bastion.

He said the US military would look to bolster its efforts in the region to counter Al-Qaeda affiliates and assist African armies against the militants.

"The United States has to take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that Al-Qaeda has no place to hide," said Panetta, who served as CIA director before taking over the Pentagon in 2011.

"It was always clear to me that AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) was an element of Al-Qaeda that we had to keep our eye on, and that has proven true," said Panetta, referring to the terror network's branch in Africa's Sahel region.

Asked about plans to use an air base in Niger under a new agreement, Panetta said the US military's Africa Command would do everything possible "to try to work with the countries in that region to make sure that AQIM is not only weakened but ultimately defeated there as well."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/french-forces-faster-than-expected-us/story-e6frf7k6-1226567246529

A United Nations report has told Israel it must immediately start withdrawing its settlers from the Palestinian territories, saying Palestinians' human rights are being "violated on a daily basis".

"[Israel must] cease all settlement activities without preconditions [and] must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers" from the occupied territories, said the report commissioned by the UN's Human Rights Council in March 2012.

Israel settling its population into occupied territory falls "into the provision of article eight of the ICC (International Criminal Court) statute [on war crimes]," said France's Christine Chanet, who chaired the mission.

She said it was unclear if the ICC could prosecute Israel for such crimes.

Israel immediately dismissed as "biased", ratcheting up tensions that this week saw the Jewish state become the first country to ever boycott a rights review by the UN body.

"The Human Rights Council has sadly distinguished itself by its systematically one-sided and biased approach towards Israel. This latest report is yet another unfortunate reminder of that," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said in a statement.

The experts, who will present their findings to the 47-member state council on March 18, also called on Israel to "ensure adequate, effective and prompt remedy to all Palestinian victims... of human rights violations that are a result of the settlements".

The council's decision to dispatch the fact-finding mission to determine what impact the settlements are having on the rights of Palestinians so enraged the Jewish state that it immediately cut all ties with the body.

Ms Chanet along with Asma Jahangir of Pakistan and Unity Dow of Botswana, published their findings just two days after Israel became the first nation to boycott a regular review by the UN rights council.

Israel has come under widespread international criticism for ramping up its construction of settlements in the Palestinian territories, notably in the occupied east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to establish as the capital of their future state but that Israel considers part of its "indivisible" capital.

All Israeli settlements on Palestinian land beyond the so-called 1949 Green Line are considered illegal under international law.

"Settlements are being maintained and developed through a system of total segregation between the settlers and the rest of the population" in the territories, the report found, adding that Israeli military and police helped maintain the segregation "to the detriment of the rights of the Palestinian people."

The report authors were not permitted to travel to Israel or the Palestinian territories for their mission but instead relied on a wide range of interviews.

Long list of breaches

Through these interviews, Ms Jahangir said the experts - who she stressed were "neutral" - had seen agony.

The report lists a long list of breaches, including to freedom of self-determination, non-discrimination, freedom of movement, equality, due process, fair trial, arbitrary detention, freedom to access places of worship, education, water and housing, which were "interrelated, forming part of an overall pattern."

For instance, the experts noted that different legal systems and standards apply to Palestinians and their settler neighbours.

Settlers who commit violent acts against Palestinians are seldom held accountable, the report said, with a study by the Israeli Yesh Din rights group showing that more than 91 per cent of such cases between 2005 and 2012, were closed without indictment.

In comparison, between 90 and 95 per cent of cases of violence committed by Palestinians against settlers were investigated and went to court.

Arbitrary arrests and detentions of Palestinians were also common, pointing out that last year some 4,100 Palestinians were held in Israeli military detention - 21 of them under the age of 16.

The report pointed out that since the 1967 Six Day War that saw Israel capture the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, some 250 settlements had been built in the latter two and today are home to an estimated 520,000 settlers.

The settlements are "leading to a creeping annexation that prevents the establishment of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state," the report found.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-31/israel-must-pull-all-settlers-from-palestinian-land3a-un/4494736

Yeah China is really a dodgy ally to have for North Korea. Ideologically they may have some similarities but China is too dependant on the US (its really a mutualistic relationship between the US/China). The US is much more important to China than North Korea is and thus you'd feel that as long as this is the case, China would continue a lukewarm relationship with North Korea whilst continuing to benefit from their US relationship.

Kerry appointed next US secretary of state

by: By Ivan Couronne From: AAP January 30, 2013

..Kerry - a senator from Massachusetts best known outside the United States for his unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign - was nominated last month to take over the foreign affairs portfolio in Obama's second term team.

The Senate voted 94-3 in favour of the veteran Democratic legislator after the chamber's Foreign Relations Committee, which Kerry chairs, approved the nomination earlier on Tuesday.

His nomination was pushed through the Senate in a matter of days, given the clear bipartisan support for the 69-year-old veteran Democratic politician, who spent 28 years in the Senate and has allies on both sides of the aisle.

"John has earned the respect of leaders around the world and the confidence of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, and I am confident he will make an extraordinary secretary of state," Obama said in a statement.

"I look forward to his counsel and partnership in the years ahead as we ensure American leadership in the world and advance the interests and values that keep our nation strong."

Kerry is known to have long coveted the job, but almost lost out to US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, seen as Obama's first choice.

Rice withdrew from consideration for the post under Republican fire over the administration's confused public response to the September 11 attack on a US mission in Libya that left four Americans dead.

Earlier, Kerry said he was "humbled" and gratified by the support from his colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who voted unanimously in his favour.

"They've been wonderful, they've been really superb," he said of his fellow committee members, adding that he was a little sad to leave the august chamber.

"I'm very wistful about it, it's not easy," he said.

At his confirmation hearing last week, Kerry called for "fresh thinking" as he outlined his foreign policy agenda and plans for relations with Iran, China and the Middle East.

"American foreign policy is not defined by drones and deployments alone," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"We cannot allow the extraordinary good that we do to save and change lives to be eclipsed entirely by the role that we have had to play since September 11th, a role that was thrust upon us," he said.

The decorated Vietnam veteran turned anti-war activist built strong credentials in the Senate. He has sat down with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, soothed nerves in Pakistan and visited the Gaza Strip.

But he will face a number of significant challenges in the months and years to come, as the United States tries to extricate itself from war in Afghanistan and rebuild ties in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring revolts.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-senate-confirms-kerry-for-state-dept/story-e6frf7k6-1226564776063

Thousands of people rally in Washington DC for greater gun control in the US

by:
Brett Zongker From:
AP January 27, 2013
10:16AM

THOUSANDS of people in the US, many holding signs with the names of gun violence victims and messages such as "Ban Assault Weapons Now", have joined a rally for gun control, marching from the Capitol to the Washington Monument.

Participants were led by Washington Mayor Vincent Gray and other officials, and the crowd stretched for about two blocks along Constitution Avenue. Police blocked off half the road.
Participants held signs reading "Gun Control Now" and "Stop NRA", referring to the National Rifle Association, an influential gun rights lobbying group, among other messages. Other signs were simple and white, with the names of victims of gun violence.

About 100 residents were expected from Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in December. The rally was organised in response to that shooting.
.

Once the crowd arrived at the monument, speakers called for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the crowd it was not about taking away constitutional rights to keep and bear arms, but about gun safety and saving lives. He said he and President Barack Obama would do everything they could to enact gun control policies.
"We must act, we must act, we must act," said Duncan.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington, DC's non-voting representative in Congress, said the gun lobby could be stopped. The crowd chanted back, "Yes, we can."
Norton said the nation didn't act after previous mass killings, but she said "we the people", won't give up this time.
"We are all culpable if we do nothing now," she said.

Actress Kathleen Turner was also expected to appear, along with Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund and Colin Goddard, a survivor from the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that left 32 dead, the largest mass shooting in US history.

Molly Smith, the artistic director of Washington's Arena Stage, and her partner organised the march.

While she's never organised a political march before, Smith said she was compelled to press for a change in the law.

The march organisers support Obama's call for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines as well as for universal background checks for gun sales. They also want lawmakers to require gun safety training for all buyers of firearms.
Smith said she supported a comprehensive look at mental health and violence in video games and films. But she said the mass killings at Virginia Tech and Aurora, Colorado, and Newtown, Connecticut, all started with guns.

"The issue is guns. The Second Amendment gives us the right to own guns, but it's not the right to own any gun," she said.

"These are assault weapons, made for killing people."


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/thousands-of-people-rally-in-washington-dc-for-greater-gun-control-in-the-us/story-fnd134gw-1226562770328

That's why they've got the early warning systems in place. I'd say a major military conflict will take place before the end of the year.

So with North Korea now saying theyll undertake nuclear tests in the direction of US, how long till US lose their shit?

It's only a matter of time before China declares war on us and invades us for our mineral wealth. They're going to need ALL of our coal sooner rather than later. Doesn't China use something like 50% of the worlds coal?