DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: U.S., Japan Unveil Revised Plan For Okinawa

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: U.S., Japan Unveil Revised Plan For Okinawa

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 27, 2012: The United States and Japan announced on Thursday a revised agreement on streamlining the U.S. military presence on Okinawa that will shift 9,000 Marines from the southern Japanese island to Guam and other Asia-Pacific sites.

The new plan, unveiled days before Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda meets President Barack Obama in Washington, helps the allies work around the central but still-unresolved dispute over moving the Futenma air base from a crowded part of Okinawa to a new site that has vexed relations for years.

"I am very pleased that, after many years, we have reached this important agreement and plan of action. I applaud the hard work and effort that went into crafting it," U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement.

"Japan is not just a close ally, but also a close friend."

Under the agreement, 9,000 U.S. Marines will be relocated. Five thousand will go to Guam and the rest to other sites such as Hawaii and Australia, a joint U.S.-Japanese statement said.

The updated version of a long-delayed 2006 plan was needed to achieve "a U.S. force posture in the Asia-Pacific region that is more geographically distributed, operationally resilient and politically sustainable," the statement said.

Snags over Okinawa had raised questions about the viability of the Obama administration's strategy of shifting U.S. forces from other regions to the Asia-Pacific to deal with nuclear saber-rattling by North Korea, the rapid military buildup of China and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Friction over U.S. bases intensified after the 1995 gang rape of a Japanese schoolgirl by U.S. servicemen. The case sparked widespread protests by Okinawans, who had long resented the American presence due to crime, noise and deadly accidents.

There are about 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan under a 1960 bilateral security treaty.

Okinawa, occupied by the United States from 1945-72, accounts for less than 1 percent of Japan's total land but hosts three-quarters of the U.S. military facilities in the country in terms of land area.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.ca/2012/04/dtn-news-defense-news-us-japan-unveil.html

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Chinese Firm Suspected In Missile-Linked Sale To North Korea According To U.S. official

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Chinese Firm Suspected In Missile-Linked Sale To North Korea According To U.S. official

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 23, 2012: The United States believes a Chinese firm sold North Korea components for a missile transporter showcased in a recent military parade and will press Beijing to tighten enforcement of a U.N. ban on such military sales, a U.S. official said on Saturday.

The Obama administration suspects the Chinese manufacturer sold the chassis - not the entire vehicle - and may have believed it was for civilian purposes, which means it would not be an intentional violation of U.N. sanctions, the senior official said.

But such a sale - coming to light amid tensions over a failed North Korean rocket launch earlier this month - raises concerns in Washington on whether China is making enough of an effort to abide by the prohibition on weapons sales to Pyongyang.

The New York Times first reported on U.S. findings about the origin of parts of the transporter launcher system - essentially a large truck on top of which a missile is mounted - displayed in a parade in Pyongyang on Sunday.

The newspaper said the administration suspected the Chinese manufacturer involved in the transaction was Hubei Sanjiang. The official, who confirmed details of the administration's thinking on the matter, said the firm likely sold the part to a front company that was used to mask the buyer's true identity.

Beijing, reclusive North Korea's only major ally, has denied it has broken any rules, although a modern, eight-axle missile transporter spotted in the military parade to celebrate the founder of North Korea was said by some western military experts to be of Chinese design and possibly origin.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.ca/2012/04/dtn-news-defense-news-chinese-firm.html

DTN News - YEMEN UNREST: Soldiers Defected To Anti-Government Side And Join Rally To Demand Prosecution Of Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh

DTN News - YEMEN UNREST: Soldiers Defected To Anti-Government Side And Join Rally To Demand Prosecution Of Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 23, 2012: A defected army soldier backing anti-government protesters pray on the bonnet of a military vehicle as they secure a street, where a rally to demand the prosecution of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa March 23, 2012.      (Photo - Reuters)

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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Russia's Putin Warns Against Attacks On Iran Would Be "Truly Catastrophic"

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Russia's Putin Warns Against Attacks On Iran Would Be "Truly Catastrophic"

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 26, 2012: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia is concerned about the "growing threat" of an attack on Iran over its nuclear program, warning that the consequences would be "truly catastrophic."

In an article on foreign policy for publication on Monday, six days before a March 4 presidential election he is almost certain to win, Putin also warned Western and Arab nations against military intervention in Syria.

"I very much hope the United States and other countries ... do not try to set a military scenario in motion in Syria without sanction from the U.N. Security Council," Putin said, according to a transcript.

On Iran, he said that "the growing threat of a military strike on this country alarms Russia, no doubt. If this occurs, the consequences will be truly catastrophic. It is impossible to imagine their real scale."

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2012/02/dtn-news-defense-news-russias-putin.html

DTN News - INSIGHT BIHAR STATE ~ INDIA NEWS: From Darkest India, An Enlightened Leader

DTN News - INSIGHT BIHAR STATE ~ INDIA NEWS: From Darkest India, An Enlightened Leader

 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 5, 2012: Patna is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world. The modern city of Patna lies on the southern bank of the Ganges. The city also straddles the rivers Kosi, Sone and Gandak. The population is 1.8 million people. Patna is approximately 25 km long and 9 km to 10 km wide. Ancient Patna, known as Patliputra, was the capital of Magadha Empire under the Nanda, Mauryan, Sunga, Gupta and Pala dynasties. Patliputra was also a famous seat of learning and fine arts. Its population during Maurya period (around 300 BCE), was about 400,000. The Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain pilgrim centres of Vaishali, Rajgir (or Rajgriha), Nalanda, Bodhgaya, and Pawapuri are nearby and Patna is also a sacred city for Sikhs. The tenth and last Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, was born here. Apart from being the administrative centre of the state and its historic importance, the city is also a major educational and medical centre. The walled old area, called Patna City by the locals, is a major trading centre.

History

Legend ascribes the origin of Patna to a mythological King Putraka who created Patna by magic for his queen Patali, literally Trumpet flower, which gives it its ancient name Pataligrama. It is said that in honour of the first born to the queen, the city was named Pataliputra. Gram is the Sanskrit for village and Putra means son.

From a scientific history perspective, it would be appropriate to surmise that the history of Patna started around the year 490 BCE when Ajatashatru, the king of Magadh, wanted to shift his capital from the hilly Rajagriha to a more strategically located place to combat the Licchavis of Vaishali. He chose the site on the bank of Ganges and fortified the area. From that time, the city has had a continuous history, a record claimed by few cities in the world. Gautam Buddha passed through this place in the last year of his life, and he had prophesized a great future for this place, but at the same time, he predicted its ruin from flood, fire, and feud.

With the rise of the Mauryan empire, the place became the seat of power and nerve centre of the sub-continent. From Pataliputra, the famed emperor Chandragupta Maurya (a contemporary of Alexander) ruled a vast empire, stretching from the Bay of Bengal to Afghanistan

Early Mauryan Patliputra was mostly built with wooden structures. Emperor Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, transformed the wooden capital into a stone construction around 273 BCE. Chinese scholar Fa Hein, who visited India sometime around 399-414 CE, has given a vivid description of the stone structures in his travelogue.

Megasthenes (350-290 BCE), Greek historian and ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya, gives the first written account of Patliputra. In his book Indika, he mentions that the city of Palibothra (Pataliputra, modern day Patna) was situated on the confluence of the rivers Ganges and Arennovoas (Sonabhadra – Hiranyawah) and was 9 miles (14 km) long and 1.75 miles (2.82 km) wide.

Much later, a number of Chinese travellers came to India in pursuit of knowledge and recorded their observation about Pataliputra in their travelogues, including those of a Chinese Buddhist Fa Hien, who visited India, between 399 and 414 CE, and stayed here for many months translating Buddhist texts.

In the years that followed, the city saw many dynasties ruling the Indian subcontinent from here. It saw the rules of the Gupta empire and the Pala kings. However, it never reached the glory that it had under the Mauryas.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2012/02/dtn-news-insight-bihar-state-india-news.html

DTN News - INSIGHT BIHAR STATE ~ INDIA NEWS: From Darkest India, An Enlightened Leader

DTN News - INSIGHT BIHAR STATE ~ INDIA NEWS: From Darkest India, An Enlightened Leader

 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 5, 2012:  There's an apocryphal story about Bihar, a sprawling state on the Gangetic plains of eastern India that for decades held the dubious honor of being the most violent, poverty-stricken and corrupt in the land.

A Japanese minister visiting in the 1990s, shocked at the decrepit buildings, the darkness at night even in the centre of town and the crumbling roads, declared that it was all solvable.

"Give me three years," he told a state leader, "and I can turn Bihar into Japan."

"That's nothing," came the laconic reply from his host. "Give me three days and I will turn Japan into Bihar."

Bihar is no longer the butt of jokes, however, not since Nitish Kumar took charge of the ruined state in 2005 and began to turn it around -- winning such respect that he stands a decent chance of one day becoming prime minister of India.

"My first priority was governance, my second priority was governance and my third priority was governance," Chief Minister Kumar told Reuters at his office in the state capital, Patna, a dusty city where property prices have soared to levels paid in far away New Delhi, even as its streets teem with the desperately poor.

"Bihar suffered not because of bad governance but because of a lack of governance."

When India launched reforms to open up its state-stifled economy 20 years ago, many states surged ahead, leaving behind the 3.5 percent "Hindu rate of growth" that had plagued the decades after the country's independence from Britain in 1947, and with it Bihar.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2012/02/dtn-news-insight-bihar-state-india-news.html