News Stories

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Will be hopping on board an RSAF C-130 plane tomorrow (Dec 30) as an embedded reporter. Who knows? With luck, the guys may spot something useful. Fingers and toes crossed.

I was hoping our MCV won't join the plane. Funny they would send Supreme instead of one of our APVs.

[rantaid]

QZ8501, we found them

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by rantaid

QZ8501, we found them

It hard to say whether it is good or bad that they were found.

In the end, those who lost family and friends needed closure. Knowing what happened, knowing where they died, is a necessary step to move on.

[SaintessHeart]

40 Bodies And Plane Bits Pulled Off The Coast Of Borneo.

And not everyone wants to buy, or has the money to buy trackers you stupid fuck

[ganbaru]

Migrant ship off Greece says armed people on board: reports
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0K80RG20141230

U.S. suspects North Korea had help attacking Sony Pictures: source
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0K71FK20141230

As oil falls, Russia choked by military, social spending
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0K80EK20141230

[mangatron]

So they found the plane? I can't imagine what it must be like doing search and rescue. I hope they find that black box and get all the answers they are looking for. Just a really terrible way to end the year

[GuZidi]

China Challenges US Economic War against Russia by Directly Challenging NATO Power

Directly challenging the NATO powers’ policy of cutting off credit to Russia to undermine the ruble and bankrupt the Russian economy, China is pledging to extend financial aid to Moscow.


On Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed the need for mutual aid between China and Russia in remarks on the ruble crisis, which has seen a drastic 45 percent fall in its value against the dollar this year.

“Russia has the capability and the wisdom to overcome the existing hardship in the economic situation,” Wang said. “If the Russian side needs it, we will provide necessary assistance within our capacity.”

On Sunday, Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng told Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV that Beijing would strengthen ties with Moscow in energy and manufacturing, predicting that Chinese-Russian trade would hit its target of $100 billion this year despite the ruble crisis.

As the ruble’s value in dollars or euros swings wildly, Gao proposed moving away from the dollar in financing Chinese-Russian trade and instead using the Chinese currency, the yuan or renminbi.

Gao said China would focus on “fundamental factors such as how the two economies complement each other,” Reuters reported. “Capital investors may be more interested in a volatile stock or foreign exchange market. But in terms of concrete cooperation between the two nations, we shall have a balanced mentality and push forward those cooperations,” Gao said.

Yesterday, China Daily cited Li Jianmin of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences saying that aid to Russia could pass through channels like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) or the BRICS forum. Significantly, both the SCO (an alliance of China, Russia, and Central Asian states) and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) exclude the United States and Europe.

Li noted that already last month, when Chinese and Russian premiers Li Keqiang and Dmitry Medvedev met in Kazakhstan, they signed extensive deals on railways, infrastructure and development in Russia’s Far East region, north of China. “Loans, cooperation in major projects, and participation in domestic infrastructure investment in Russia are options on the table,” he added.

In one such deal last month, China signed a $400-billion, 30-year deal to buy Russian gas.

These offers of assistance cut across the economic war on Russia launched by US and European imperialism to punish Moscow for opposing their neo-colonial restructuring of Eurasia.

In retaliation for Russian support for President Bashar al-Assad against NATO’s proxy war in Syria and Russian opposition to the NATO-backed Ukrainian regime in Kiev, the NATO powers sought to financially strangle Russia.

As Russian oil revenues fell in line with the fall in world oil prices and the ruble collapsed, they worked to cut off credit to Russia and demanded that Russia acquiesce to the Kiev regime. (See: Imperialism and the ruble crisis)

The basic financial mechanism of this strategy was laid out in London’s Financial Times by Anders Aslund of the Petersen Institute for International Economics. “Russia has received no significant international financing—not even from Chinese state banks—because everybody is afraid of US financial regulators,” he wrote.

With a yearly capital outflow of $125 billion, liquid foreign currency reserves of only $200 billion, and total foreign debts of $600 billion, Russia would run out of dollars and be bankrupted in as little as two years, Aslund calculated.

Now, however, Beijing appears to be accepting the risk of a showdown with the United States and publicly preparing to throw a financial lifeline to Russia. Chinese currency reserves of $3.89 trillion are the world’s largest and, on paper at least, allow Beijing to easily repay Russia’s debts.

Significantly, the calls of Wang and Gao to aid Russia came a day after a divided European Union (EU) summit on Russia last week.

Though the EU supported US sanctions against Russia, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, French President François Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi all publicly opposed calls for more sanctions.

Leading European newspapers also warned of the risk of a collapse of the Russian state.

The economic conflicts erupting between the major powers over the oil crisis and the imperialist war drive in Eurasia testifies to the advanced state of the crisis of world capitalism, and the rising risk of world war.

Chinese aid to Russia, should it materialize, will exacerbate US conflict with China. Washington has tried to militarily encircle it through the “pivot to Asia,” allying with Japan, Australia, and India. Plans for war with China, both economic and military, are doubtless being pored over on Wall Street and in the Pentagon.

A year ago, in an article titled “China must not copy the Kaiser’s errors,”Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf warned China against any action that could be construed as a challenge to US global hegemony. He indicated that a Chinese policy replicating the German Kaiser’s challenge to British hegemony before the outbreak of World War I in 1914 would lead to a similar outcome: all-out conflict.

“If open conflict arrived, the US could cut off the world’s trade with China. It could also sequester a good part of China’s liquid foreign assets,” Wolf wrote, recalling that China’s “foreign currency reserves, equal to 40 percent of GDP are, by definition, held abroad.”

Such naked theft of trillions of dollars that China has earned from trade with the United States and Europe would directly raise the prospect of a collapse of global trade and preparation for war between nuclear-armed powers.

With its ever more reckless and violent policies, US imperialism is vastly overplaying its hand, discrediting itself at home and fueling opposition from rival states.

By driving Russia and China together, in particular, Washington is undoing what was long seen as a major achievement of US imperialist statecraft: the 1972 rapprochement between US President Richard Nixon and Chinese leader Mao Zedong, which turned China into a US ally against the former Soviet Union.

“Many Chinese people still view Russia as the big brother, and the two countries are strategically important to each other,” Renmin University Associate Dean Jin Canrong said, referring to Soviet backing for China as it fought the United States in the Korean War, shortly after the Stalinist Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power in 1949.

“For the sake of national interests, China should deepen cooperation with Russia when such cooperation is in need.”

“Russia is an irreplaceable partner on the international stage,” the CCP-linked Global Times wrote in an editorial yesterday. “China must take a proactive attitude in helping Russia walk out of the current crisis.”

[abc0716]

Dozens die as Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines battered by storms

AirAsia plane with 159 aboard overshoots Philippine runway

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

U.S. suspects North Korea had help attacking Sony Pictures: source
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0K71FK20141230

I notice that article didn't include the information released by security firm Norse over the weekend. They scoured the revealed data from Sony's HR department to identify a disgruntled former employee who may have been central to this event and linked her to half-a-dozen others in the hacktivist community.

Speaking to The Security Ledger, Kurt Stammberger, a Senior Vice President at Norse, said that his company identified six individuals with direct involvement in the hack, including two based in the U.S., one in Canada, one in Singapore and one in Thailand. The six include one former Sony employee, a ten-year veteran of the company who was laid off in May as part of a company-wide restructuring.

https://securityledger.com/2014/12/n...way-from-dprk/

Over at Slate, DPRK observer Suki Kim writes that the Sony hack has diverted public attention away from an event of more immediate concern to Kim Jong-un and his cronies. The General Assembly has asked the Security Council to consider referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court on charges of "crimes against humanity."

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by mangatron

So they found the plane? I can't imagine what it must be like doing search and rescue.

The crew of the C-130 aircraft I was on board today received instructions to turn back to Singapore at about 5.30pm (Singapore time, +8GMT) on Tuesday (Dec 30), but I had already learnt the news at about 3pm via very intermittent mobile communications with my newsroom.

Obviously, it's not good news, but the servicemen — comprising eight flight crew members and 12 volunteer "scanners" from the Air Force — said they were glad because it brings closure to the families of those on board QZ8501.

I'd describe the overall mood as serious and sombre. The men were focused on the mission.

We took off from Paya Lebar Air Base, home of Squadron 122 of the Republic Singapore Air Force, at 12pm on Tuesday, so we were in the air for about five-and-a-half hours by the time the aircraft was told to turn back.

We landed in Singapore at 7.30pm, about an hour earlier than planned.

According to the pilot, we were flying in an area about 150 miles (240km) south of Pontianak in West Kalimantan. And based on reports of where the debris and bodies were spotted, he said we were only about 30 to 50 miles away from the location. But the C-130 wouldn't have flown over there anyway, as it was within the area covered by the Indonesian search teams.

Singapore's search area was about 740km southeast of the city-state. It was about 90 nautical miles (167km) wide and 160 nautical miles long, or 55 times the size of the Republic.

The skies in the search zone today were mostly overcast, but there was no rain and visibility was good.

The aircraft was flying at an altitude of between 500 and 1,000 feet, low enough to distinguish individual trees when we flew over land or along the coastline.

The scanners were instructed to look out for bright objects, which would have shown up clearly, especially if we were flying over open sea, as it was a vast expanse of slate grey. It would have been generally easier to spot debris, given the weather conditions.

My colleague is embedded on board the Singapore Navy landing ship tank, the RSS Persistence. He would be the one facing some unpleasant scenes ahead, as ships in the area start recovering debris and bodies over the next few hours and days.

[ganbaru]

Exclusive: CDC to hire lab safety chief after Ebola, bird flu mishaps
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0K908E20141231

Venezuela confirms recession, inflation hits 63.6 percent in Nov
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0UE1FY20141230

[abc0716]

Indonesia finds two 'large objects' in search for AirAsia jet

Indonesia govt to investigate all Indonesia AirAsia flight schedules after crash

[SaintessHeart]

Mother mourns transchild who committed a
suicide after forcing it through "religious therapy"

Wut.

[ganbaru]

Republican Huckabee quits Fox News as he considers 2016 White House bid
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0KD00B20150104

Obama's Cuba opening hits early obstacles, faces struggle with Congress
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0KC0HP20150103

Germany believes euro zone could cope with Greece exit: report
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0KC0HZ20150103

[SaintessHeart]

Tourist Who Took Camera Inside North Korea Shocked By What He Finds

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Eh, I dunno. I've heard of visitors sightseeing being very directed and sanitised, i've heard that a few of the cities are fine - if you're one of the privileged - but outside things aren't so peachy. But hey, maybe things have gotten better for them over there. Only way to know for sure is if you went yourself.

[DevilHighDxD]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Tourist Who Took Camera Inside North Korea Shocked By What He Finds

I hear NK is pretty much pollution free, will like to visit one day if their ruler is changed.

[GuZidi]

China wages "people's war" on terrorism

[AnimeFan188]

Things to Be Surprised By:

"Since many sites have offered their predictions for 2015, rather than repeat them it
might be better to list some sleeper issues which may have been widely ignored."

See:

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/...-surprised-by/

[ganbaru]

Thousands flee intensifying India-Pakistan clashes
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0KF0DR20150106