And a whole lot more.
First up, hyperbolic ramp-up; from the London Telegraph:
Theresa May: Isil will become nuclear threat if we don’t stop them
Home Secretary Theresa May warns Isil could acquire “chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons” in the “world’s first truly terrorist state”
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant could acquire nuclear weapons if they are allowed to consolidate their hold in Iraq and Syria, Theresa May has warned.
Isil could get hold of “chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons” in the “world’s first truly terrorist state,” the Home Secretary said, in a wide-ranging speech to the Conservative party conference.
The Home Secretary dramatically highlighted the threat to Britain from the terrorist group, which is operating “within a few hours flying time of our country”.
From BBC News, British bombs away:
RAF jets strike first IS targets in Iraq
RAF jets have attacked a “heavy weapon position” and an armed pick-up truck in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence has said.
In the first attacks since Parliament approved military action on Friday, two “precision strikes” were launched and both were “successful”, the MoD said.
The attacks, by two Tornado jets, were part of an international effort against militant group Islamic State (IS).
From the Toronto Globe and Mail, bloviation north of the border:
Canadian military intervention in Iraq is ‘noble,’ Harper says
Stephen Harper is calling Canadian military intervention in Iraq a “noble” cause as his government prepares for an expected air combat mission in the region, saying this country must respond to a direct threat from the Islamic State extremists.
“These are necessary actions, they are noble actions,” Mr. Harper said during Question Period on Tuesday. “When we think that something is necessary and noble, we don’t sit back and say that only other people should do it. The Canadian way is that you do your part.”
He promised a decision on whether and how to extend the mission in the coming days.
Reuters goes against the grain:
Special Report: Islamic State uses grain to tighten grip in Iraq
The group now controls a large chunk of Iraq’s wheat supplies. The United Nations estimates land under IS control accounts for as much as 40 percent of Iraq’s annual production of wheat, one of the country’s most important food staples alongside barley and rice. The militants seem intent not just on grabbing more land but also on managing resources and governing in their self-proclaimed caliphate.
Wheat is one tool at their disposal. The group has begun using the grain to fill its pockets, to deprive opponents – especially members of the Christian and Yazidi minorities – of vital food supplies, and to win over fellow Sunni Muslims as it tightens its grip on captured territory. In Iraq’s northern breadbasket, much as it did in neighboring Syria, IS has kept state employees and wheat silo operators in place to help run its empire.
Such tactics are one reason IS poses a more complex threat than al Qaeda, the Islamist group from which it grew. For most of its existence, al Qaeda has focused on hit-and-run attacks and suicide bombings. But Islamic State sees itself as both army and government.
From the McClatchy Washington Bureau, a drone’s-eye view:
Once targeted, Global Hawk drone now hidden weapon in U.S. airstrikes
The squabbling between the Pentagon and Capitol Hill over whether to kill the biggest of the military’s drones – the Global Hawk – is finished for the moment, with the remotely piloted surveillance aircraft and its builder emerging as the victors.
Now there’s every indication that the rise of the Islamic State has offered the pilotless wonder a chance to show its stuff.
If only its intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance activities, conducted from as high as 11 miles off the ground and on flights of up to 32 hours, weren’t classified. Pentagon officials are tight-lipped about the drone’s role in recent U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.
And next door, via the Guardian:
New Afghanistan pact means America’s longest war will last until at least 2024
Bilateral security deal ensures that President Obama will pass off the Afghanistan war and his new war in Iraq and Syria to his successor
The longest war in American history will last at least another decade, according to the terms of a garrisoning deal for US forces signed by the new Afghanistan government on Tuesday.
Long awaited and much desired by an anxious US military, the deal guarantees that US and Nato troops will not have to withdraw by year’s end, and permits their stay “until the end of 2024 and beyond.”
The entry into force of the deal ensures that Barack Obama, elected president in 2008 on a wave of anti-war sentiment, will pass off both the Afghanistan war and his new war in Iraq and Syria to his successor. In 2010, his vice-president, Joe Biden, publicly vowed the US would be “totally out” of Afghanistan “come hell or high water, by 2014.”
CBC News covers spooky rhetoric:
Homegrown terrorism remains biggest threat, Jeh Johnson says
U.S. Homeland Security secretary arrived Monday for 2-day visit, keynote speech
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says homegrown terrorism by previously unknown individuals is the threat that worries him the most.
Johnson, in remarks to a business audience in Ottawa today, pointed to last year’s Boston Marathon bombings as an example of terrorist threats that are difficult to predict.
In his midday speech to the Canadian American Business Council, he also spoke about measures by the U.S. government to improve the flow of good across the border while maintaining security.
Canada counts security state costs, via the Toronto Globe and Mail:
Security could drive Pan Am costs higher, minister warns
The rising cost of next year’s Pan American Games may balloon even more because of security costs, the Ontario cabinet minister in charge of the file said Tuesday.
“How can I guarantee the cost of the Games when I don’t know what the threat level is going to be?” Culture Minister Michael Coteau told a legislative committee. “I will not put a price tag on the safety of Ontarians.”
The current total for the event is $2.57-billion, of which $239-million is set aside for security. The cost of security has already grown twice from its initial estimate of $113-million. The Games will be held next summer in Toronto, Hamilton and several surrounding suburbs.
Old Blighty takes an Orwellian turn, via the Associated Press:
UK government plans curbs on nonviolent extremism
Britain’s interior minister has proposed new powers to bar people with extremist views from appearing on television or publishing on social media even if they are not breaking any laws.
Home Secretary Theresa May told a conference of the governing Conservatives that if re-elected next year the party will introduce powers to disrupt people who “spread poisonous hatred” even within the law.
May said Tuesday that only a minority of extremists are violent, but there is “a thread that binds” nonviolent extremism to terrorism.
May says tougher powers are needed to stop young people becoming radicalized. She says at least 500 Britons have traveled to Syria and Iraq, mainly to fight with militant groups.
The Associated Press embarrasses:
Germany unable to meet NATO readiness target
Germany’s military is unable to meet its medium-term readiness target should NATO call on its members to mobilize against an attack, officials said Monday.
The revelation follows days of embarrassing reports about equipment failures that included German army instructors being stranded in Bulgaria en route to Iraq when their plane broke down, and delays in sending weapons to arm Kurdish fighters because of another transport problem.
In the latest incident, the military said one of two aging C-160 aircraft flying German aid to Ebola-affected West Africa has also been grounded on the island of Gran Canaria since the weekend, awaiting repairs.
Asked about a Der Spiegel report that Germany at this juncture wouldn’t be able to offer the appropriate number of military aircraft within 180 days of an attack on the NATO alliance, Defense Ministry spokesman Jens Flosdorff confirmed that was the case.
New Europe drones on:
France, Germany to offer drones to monitor ceasefire in Ukraine
France and Germany offered to deploy drones as part of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)’s efforts to monitor Ukraine’s ceasefire, a government official said on Monday.
At a daily news briefing, Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Romain Nadal announced “France and Germany have proposed to provide drones aimed at monitoring the ceasefire’s implementation as requested by the OSCE.”
The drone deployment proposal was being discussed, he added without elaborating.
“The cease-fire is an important opportunity to find a lasting political solution to the conflict and which respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Nadal noted.
A cumulus, not the fog of war, via Aviation Week & Space Technology:
Pentagon’s ‘Combat Cloud’ Concept Taking Shape
Pentagon envisions “combat cloud” as force multiplier for shrinking fleet
The Pentagon has been bitten by the Steve Jobs bug.
The latest vision for data-sharing across ships, aircraft and satellites—a perpetually chased but unrealized plan—is now being dubbed the “combat cloud.” And a retired U.S. Air Force officer is leading a first-of-a-kind charge to bring stakeholders from each of the services, industry and academia together to shape the cloud and attain buy-in, despite the Pentagon’s spotty track record of gaining traction on similar efforts.
Today the Air Force’s very expensive, stealthy aircraft cannot talk to its -legacy systems, and without that crosstalk the effectiveness of those investments will be marginalized. While officers are scrambling to solve the so-called “fifth-to-fourth” problem, a larger dialogue has blossomed about the objective beyond simply connecting F-22s, B-2s and F-35s to the fleet. But will this dialogue produce an executable program to buy the technology that can make the vision—eventually, the cloud—real?
The goal, likely to take a decade or more to realize, is to form an overarching network of data, each platform a node contributing information to the cloud and downloading from it, even in the heat of battle. It would include fighters, intelligence aircraft, satellites, ships and helicopters.
German victim-blaming from the Guardian:
EU’s new digital commissioner calls celebrities in nude picture leak ‘stupid’
Germany’s Günther Oettinger says stars who put naked photos of themselves online could not count on his protection
Former EU energy commissioner Günther Oettinger, 61, is used to accusations that he is more digitally naïve than digitally native by now. But at a hearing in front of the European parliament, the EU’s next commissioner designate for digital economy and society raised some serious questions about his suitability.
During a three-hour grilling by MEPs in Brussels, Oettinger said it would not be his job to protect stars “stupid enough to take a nude photo of themselves and put it online” – seemingly unaware that the recent leak of celebrities’ nude photographs had come about as a result of a targeted hacking attack.
Oettinger said: “We can mitigate or even eliminate some risks. But like with any technology, you can’t exclude all risks.
Maledictions enabled, via Ars Technica:
Advertising firms struggle to kill malvertisements
One provider finds a vulnerable advertising tool that allowed attackers access
In late September, advertisements appearing on a host of popular news and entertainment sites began serving up malicious code, infecting some visitors’ computers with a backdoor program designed to gather information on their systems and install additional malicious code.
The attack affected visitors to The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, The Hindustan Times, Internet music service Last.fm, and India-focused movie portal Bollywood Hungama, among other popular sites. At the center of the malware campaign: the compromise of San Francisco-based Internet advertising network Zedo, an advertising provider for the sites, whose network was then used to distribute malicious ads.
For ten days, the company investigated multiple malware reports, retracing the attacker’s digital footsteps to identify the malicious files and shut the backdoor to its systems.
A major hack counterattack from the Guardian:
Four hackers charged with stealing $100m in US army and Xbox technology
Indictment unsealed on Tuesday reveals Department of Justice charged four people in international computer hacking ring
Four men have been charged with breaking into the computer systems of Microsoft, the US army and leading games manufacturers on Tuesday, as part of an alleged international hacking ring that netted more than $100m in intellectual property, the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
The four are alleged to have stolen Xbox technology, Apache helicopter training software and pre-release copies of games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, according to an unsealed indictment. Two of the hackers pleaded guilty earlier on Tuesday, the DoJ said.
After the jump, protesting the educational memory hole, a cartel photobomb in Mexico and a protest for the disappeared, More Pakistani religious murders, forging Indo/American military alliance, FBI-initiated anti-terror raids Down Under, a large collection of items for the ongoing Occupy protests in Hong Kong [international reactions, censorship and other Beijing reactions, specultation, and more], an unofficial peace feeler from Tokyo to Beijing, China’s search for an Indian Ocean base, a major Chinese stealthy air expansion, a hate speech rebuke in Tokyo, and sniffing for bombs in sewers. . .
Waging war on willful ignorance from Common Dreams:
Sick-Outs and Walk-Outs: Students and Teachers Escalate Fight Against Censorship of History
In response to protests, school board will take up curriculum proposal on Thursday
A passionate coalition of teachers and students in Jefferson County, Colorado are continuing their fight against censorship this week, employing some of the very tactics the conservative school board wants to eliminate from history textbooks.
Seventy-two of 102 teachers at Golden and Jefferson high schools called in absent on Monday, forcing both schools to close for the day; teacher “sick-outs” also closed two high schools on September 19.
Meanwhile, several dozen students from Carmody Middle School walked out of classes on Tuesday morning, marking the first time younger students have joined an ongoing protest by teachers and high schoolers against proposed changes to the district’s history curriculum. Hundreds of students from the majority of the county’s 17 high schools have staged walk-outs and protests over the last two weeks.
The actions are in response to a proposal from the conservative, five-member school board to establish a committee that would review the district’s Advanced Placement history course in order to ensure its materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights” and don’t “encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.” Conservatives nationwide have claimed that the AP history course is “revisionist” and overly focused on the “negative” aspects of American history.
A Cartel photobomb, via the Latin American Herald Tribune:
Mexican Drug Lord Releases Photos Showing Meeting with Mayor
Servando Gomez Martinez, Mexico’s most-wanted drug trafficker, has released photos of himself meeting with yet another mayor in the western state of Michoacan, media reports said.
The photos show the leader of the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel meeting with Juan Hernandez Ramirez, who serves as mayor of the city of Aquila.
Gomez Martinez, known as “La Tuta,” has leaked dozens of videos and photographs to media outlets over the past few months showing him meeting with different officials and politicians in Michoacan.
The Latin American Herald Tribune again, with a protest for the disappeared:
Classmates of Missing Mexican Students Storm State Capitol
Classmates of more than 50 college students who went missing over the weekend in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero pelted the state capitol with rocks on Monday and demanded the resignation of Gov. Angel Aguirre.
Some 3,000 students, teachers and family members of the missing young people marched peacefully to the legislative building in Chilpancingo, Guerrero’s capital.
But during a protest in front of the capitol, youths wearing hoods broke through the security barriers and hurled rocks at the building, destroying the glass facade. Police did not intervene.
More Pakistani religious murders, via the Diplomat:
The Killing of the Sikhs
Rising attacks and religious desecrations are forcing Pakistan’s Sikhs from their homes
On September 6, Harjeet Singh was sitting in his herbal medicine store in the Nothia Bazaar area of Peshawar when two armed men entered the shop and opened fire. Harjeet, 30 and a member of Pakistan’s Sikh minority, succumbed to his injuries while his attackers escaped.
Peshawar is the capital of Pakistan’s north-west province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), which has become the epicenter of militancy and violence in Pakistan over the last decade. Just two days before this attack, another Sikh was stabbed to death in Mardan, another city in KPK. Amarjeet Singh was at his cosmetics shop, when the shutters were pulled down. He was found later that evening by his son- stabbed to death in the warehouse adjacent to the shop.
In early August, two unidentified men fired on three members of the Sikh community in Peshawar. One teenager, Jagmot Singh, was killed and two others were injured.
Forging an Indo/American military alliance via the Economic Times:
Modi’s US visit: Modi & Obama look to strengthen Indo-US defence ties; PM invites US defence firms to invest in India
Expressing confidence in the potential of strengthening Indo-US ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said, “We will further our defence ties; I invite US defence companies to manufacture in India.”
In a joint address, PM Modi and US President Barack Obama touched upon many issues including terrorism and trade facilitation.
“I have sought continued use of US markets for Indian services companies,” Modi said. Inviting US investment in India, Modi sought to assure, “We are focusing in India on not only policy but also processes.”
A major raid Down Under with the Associated Press:
Australian counterterror police raids in Melbourne
Counterterrorism police launched early morning raids on Tuesday in homes across several suburbs in the Australian city of Melbourne where a suspected terrorist was shot dead last week.
A joint state and federal police operation supported by surveillance helicopters executed search warrants in the suburbs of Seabrook, Kealba, Meadow Heights, Broadmeadows and Flemington, Australian Federal Police and state Victoria Police said in a statement.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported a man had been handcuffed and taken into custody. Police would not immediately confirm any arrests.
More from the Christian Science Monitor:
Acting on FBI tip, Australia arrests alleged Islamic State financier
Melbourne raids follow a heightened terror alert earlier in September and the tabling of new security laws in Australia’s parliament
Security forces in Australia carried out a new round of anti-terror raids today, resulting in the arrest of a 23-year-old man in Melbourne on suspicion of funding a US citizen to fight for Islamic State.
The man, named by The Associated Press as Hassan El Sabsabi, is accused of sending about $12,000 to a US citizen he met on social media, in order to help fund his travel to Syria, where IS and other jihadist groups are active. Mr. El Sabsabi was arrested today after an eight-month investigation by Australian police, which were tipped off by the FBI.
“This is a terrorism financing case — we didn’t assess there being a significant community safety risk, or a significant risk to our officers,” Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton said. Police from the state and federal level raided seven properties in Melbourne Tuesday.
Our first Hong Kong turmoil headline comes from BBC News:
Hong Kong democracy protesters seek National Day boost
Thousands more people have been joining pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, ahead of what organisers hope will be the largest day of protests so far.
Tens of thousands of people have been blocking parts of the city for days.
They are demanding that China withdraw plans to vet candidates for the next leadership election in 2017.
Another large gathering elsewhere from China Daily:
China marks first Martyrs’ Day
China has rallied to honor and remember deceased national heroes on the first Martyrs’ Day.
On the eve of National Day, Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping offered flower baskets at the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square on Tuesday morning.
The marble tablet, the foundations of which were laid on Sept 30 1949, stood tall against the gray sky of early Beijing autumn, over a crowd of people holding chrysanthemums.
A British lecture for Beijing from Reuters:
Britain tells China: Seek peace in Hong Kong and allow freedoms
In Britain’s strongest comment yet over clashes between Hong Kong riot police and pro-democracy protesters, finance chief George Osborne urged China to seek peace and said the former colony’s prosperity depended on freedom.
Britain had until Tuesday been wary of angering Beijing with anything that could be interpreted as meddling in the affairs of Hong Kong, which it handed back to China in 1997 after ruling it for more than 150 years.
London’s reticence has angered some democracy campaigners who contend that Britain’s leaders had put tens of billions of dollars in investment flows ahead of a British pledge given in 1997 to allow Hong Kong’s people to run their affairs.
And belittlement from the street, via the Guardian:
Hong Kong activists accuse Cameron of selling out pro-democracy campaign
PM’s criticism of Chinese crackdown weak, say protesters who argue Beijing is violating deal with UK over Hong Kong handover
One of Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy campaigners has accused David Cameron of selling out activists in the territory “for 30 pieces of silver,” and said that the British prime minister has not been strong enough in his criticism of Beijing’s response to the crackdown on protestors.
On Tuesday Cameron said he was “deeply concerned” about the situation in Hong Kong, but the prime minister has failed to back the demands of the pro-democracy campaigners, who argue that China’s tight restrictions on candidates for the post of chief executive ahead of 2017 elections violate the joint agreement signed by Britain and Hong Kong in 1997.
The [cross]strait dope, via Reuters:
Taiwan says China risks hurting ties if it mishandles Hong Kong protests
Taiwan’s leader said on Tuesday that China risked alienating the island’s people and damaging relations if it failed to respond with a “delicate hand” to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
The comments by President Ma Ying-jeou came as tens of thousands of protesters extended a blockade of Hong Kong streets, stockpiling supplies and erecting makeshift barricades ahead of what some fear may be a push by police to clear the roads before Chinese National Day on Wednesday.
Events in the former British colony have been greeted with apprehension in Taiwan. The island has extensive economic ties with China, but Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take back what it regards as a renegade province.
Russian props for Beijing from the London Telegraph:
Russian state television says Britain and US provoked Hong Kong protests
Accusations from pro-Kremlin media reflect Russia’s growing ties with China after US and EU sanctions
Russian state television has claimed the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong are being organised by Britain and the United States.
In a sign of the Kremlin’s deep antipathy for popular street protest and growing anti-Western sentiment in Russian society, the Rossiya 24 channel regurgitated Chinese reports suggesting that leaders of the Occupy Central movement “underwent special training with the American secret services”.
“The tactics of the protesters exactly replicates the beginning of the ‘orange revolutions’, that were in fact coups,” the channel said, referring to the mass demonstrations that ousted governments in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan during the 2000s.
A dash of Realpolitik from CBC News:
Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying says Beijing won’t back down
Pro-democracy movement sets Wednesday deadline for Leung to meet their demands
Pro-democracy protesters demanded that Hong Kong’s top leader meet with them, threatening wider actions if he did not, after he said Tuesday that China would not budge in its decision to limit voting reforms in the Asian financial hub.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has taken a hard line against any perceived threat to the Communist Party’s hold on power, meanwhile vowed in a National Day speech to “steadfastly safeguard” Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability. He said Beijing believes Hong Kong will “create an even better future in the big family of the motherland.”
China’s government has condemned the student-led protests as illegal, though so far it has not overtly intervened, leaving Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous government to handle the crisis. But Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s rejection of the student demands dashed hopes for a quick resolution of the five-day standoff that has blocked city streets, forcing some schools and offices to close.
While Want China Times adds an interesting note:
Leung may be sacrificed as Hong Kong protests continue
China’s central government could be preparing to dump Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung to mollify the the tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators still protesting across the special administrative region, reports our Chinese-language sister paper China Times.
The Occupy Central movement, which has extended to other parts of the city such as Causeway Bay and across to Mong Kok on the Kowloon peninsula, is still going strong three days in despite the use of tear gas and pepper spray by the police. Protesters are now calling for Leung’s resignation in addition to their core demand for the universal suffrage in Hong Kong without the candidates being vetted by Beijing starting from 2017. The Chinese government announced last month that all candidates in the region would still need to be approved by a committee friendly to the Communist Party.
Alex Chow Yong-kang, secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, the region’s biggest student organization, said the areas affected by work and school strikes due to the protests will only continue to expand if the Hong Kong government does not respond to their demands by Oct. 1.
And from France 24, a video report on Chinese censorship of online accounts of the protests:
China censors Hong Kong protests on social media
Program notes:
MEDIAWATCH : We take a look at censorship of Hong Kong protests in mainland Chinese media and how users are getting around it. Also, Valérie Trierweiler visits a market and it becomes a media event…
Global Times covers an impressive display of force:
Beijing tightens security cordons for national week
Beijing has strengthened its public security controls with over 1 million personnel and 2,000 contingency police officers to guarantee a safe National Holiday as China celebrates its 65th anniversary this Wednesday.
According to the municipal committee of politics and law, the capital has launched “level II public security control” and “level I extraordinary control” in key areas. Some 850,000 volunteers and another 400,000 security patrollers will be involved, covering all areas in the city.
Meanwhile, a “city moat project” was launched where militiamen and volunteers will guard over 300 bridges and underground passages along the second and third ring roads.
An unofficial peace feeler from Tokyo to Beijing, via the Asahi Shimbun:
Experts call for Japan-China summit, argue over Senkakus, history
Participants at a private-sector Japan-China forum agreed on the need for the two countries to hold a summit, but even they started bickering over territory and perceptions of history.
Jointly hosted by the Genron NPO, a Japanese think tank, and the publisher of the China Daily, the 10th Tokyo-Beijing Forum was held on Sept 28-29 in Tokyo to discuss various issues between Japan and China, such as security, politics, economics and media.
In his keynote speech on the first day of the session, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who secretly met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in late July, urged the two countries to make efforts to hold a summit at the earliest possible date.
Want China Times covers a major Chinese stealthy air expansion:
PLA to buy 700 stealth fighters, says Jane’s
The PLA Air Force and Navy Air Force are likely to purchase 700 new stealth fighters, said Edward Hunt, a senior defense consultant at IHS Aerospace, Defense & Security in an article written for the UK-based Jane’s Defence Weekly.
The United States alone will purchase 2,616 fifth-generation stealth fighters, including the F-22 and F-35 designed by Lockheed Martin, according to the article. Members of NATO including Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Turkey and Canada are planning to purchase a combined 600 F-35 fighters. In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan, South Korea and Australia will purchase an estimated 300 F-35s.
Russia, China and India are expected to acquire more than 1,500 fifth-generation stealth fighters to counter the United States. The fighters are designed to replace their older fourth-generation fighters including the Su-27, Su-30 and Mig-29. To confront any potential threat from F-35s among the US and its allies in the Far East, China is likely to purchase between 200 and 300 of Chengdu Aerospace Corporation’s J-20 and 400 of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation’s J-31.
From Want China Times, China’s search for an Indian Ocean base:
PLA wants naval bases in Indian Ocean: Yomiuri Shimbun
After a Chinese submarine and warships visited Sri Lanka, Iran and Pakistan, the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Shimbun on Sept. 27 reported that the People’s Liberation Army Navy is seeking to construct naval ports in the Indian Ocean to monitor the movements of the Indian Navy.
Between Sept. 7-14, a Type 039 Song-class diesel-electric submarine anchored at Colombo in Sri Lanka to take on supplies. It is the first time a Chinese submarine has been sent publicly to a port near the Indian Ocean. The visit of Chinese president Xi Jinping to Sri Lanka after the submarine appeared also indicated that Beijing is strengthening its partnership with Sri Lanka. After its stay at Colmbo, the submarine moved on to the Gulf of Aden, according to the PLA Navy.
The Changchun, a Type 052C guided-missile destroyer, and the Changzhou, a Type 054A guided-missile frigate, also launched joint naval exercises with the Iranian and Pakistan navies during their visit to Bandar Abbas and Karachi. Those drills indicated that China is trying to expand its influence into the region through transforming the PLA Navy into a genuine blue-water navy.
A hate speech rebuke in Tokyo from the Japan Times:
DPJ chief assails Abe over rise in far-right hate speech
Democratic Party of Japan leader Banri Kaieda lashed out Tuesday at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, demanding that he publicly denounce the rise in racist rallies in Japan, especially amid concern overseas of possible ties between some Cabinet members and members of far-right and anti-Korean groups.
“I want you to state unequivocally that neither the government nor the prime minister supports such ethnic discrimination and distorted nationalism,” Kaieda said in the Diet a day after Abe delivered a key policy speech.
“Tell us how you will regulate (it),” Kaieda demanded.
Following the Cabinet reshuffle on Sept. 3, several photos emerged on the Internet showing Cabinet members standing alongside known members of a neo-Nazi group and members of the anti-Korean Zaitokukai group.
And for our final item, sniffin’ the sewers from BBC News:
Sewer sensors to sniff out bomb ingredients
Hidden beneath the streets of Stockholm, the city’s sewage plant is working at full throttle. As we head into one of the tunnels, the stench is overpowering: through here, the waste of 700,000 people flows.
But sewer systems have been earmarked for a new use: the fight against terrorism is moving underground. “We have a bunch of electrodes, and immerse them in the sewage,” explains Hans Oennerud.
The devices can detect the chemicals that are used to make homemade explosives, which, as Dr Oennerud explains, are likely to end up in the wastewater.
