US will not offer new F-16s to Taiwan

Taiwan Air Force F-16 fighter jet takes off from the closed-off section of Sun Yat-sen freeway at Chang-hua county in central Taiwan, in this May 15, 2007 file photo

US President Barack Obama has decided against selling new F-16 jets to Taiwan but will give the island an arms package worth US$4.2 billion (RM12.6 billion), the Washington Times reported.

The newspaper quoted administration and congressional officials as saying the US Congress will be briefed later today on the proposals.

HMS Invincible, pride of the Falklands, is broken up in knacker's yard

As senior Naval officers back First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope's criticisms of the ability of the Navy to fight in Libya, Commander John Muxworthy, who sailed to the Falklands with the Royal Navy Task Force, looks at the ignominious end of a symbol of the once-mighty British fleet.

The image is a poignant symbol of Britain’s rapid decline as a maritime power. With her metallic carcass exposed, the once mighty aircraft carrier HMS Invincible languishes in a Turkish port, being broken up for scrap.

The ship was once the pride of the Royal Navy, a hero of the Falklands War and a veteran of other conflicts from Iraq to Yugoslavia.

But now, as Britain’s naval heritage is obliterated by an irresponsible Coalition Government, she faces an utterly degrading end.

HMS Invincible sits in the Port of Aliaga, Turkey, earlier this year, waiting to be scrapped and recycled

Unseemly death of a courageous veteran: Like a tired but noble beast brought down by jackals, HMS Invincible's carcass is picked clean in a Turkish scrapyard

Sailor in court over submarine shootings

HMS Astute, the first of the biggest ever hunter-killer submarines to be ordered by Britain’s Royal Navy, sails into the River Clyde and up the Gareloch to her new home at HM Naval Base Clyde in Faslane near Glasgow, Scotland in this file picture of November 20, 2009.

A Royal Navy sailor appeared in court today accused of shooting dead a colleague and of the attempted murders of three other crew on board a nuclear-powered submarine.

Ryan Donovan, 22, Dartford, Kent, spoke only to confirm his name, age and address during the short hearing at Southampton Magistrates' Court.

Donovan has been charged with killing Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux, 36, who was fatally shot on board HMS Astute while it was docked in Southampton on Friday.

Iran naval ships enter Suez Canal, says official

An Iranian naval ship travels through the Suez Canal near Ismailia, some 120km north of Cairo February 22, 2011. Two Iranian naval ships entered the Suez Canal today and were heading toward the Mediterranean, a canal official said, a move certain to anger Israel.


Two Iranian ships entered the Suez Canal today and were heading towards the Mediterranean, a canal official said.

“They entered the canal at 5.45am,” the official said. No other details were immediately available.

Israel had said it takes a “grave view” of the passage of the ships – the first Iranian naval vessels to go through the canal since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

US to boost naval forces as China develops carrier: Admiral

 US aircraft carrier USS George Washington anchored in Hong Kong waters upon its arrival in this file photo of October 29, 2009. The United States will continue to upgrade its naval forces in the Pacific to counter China’s growing military strength

The US navy will continue to upgrade its military capabilities in the Pacific given its steadfast commitment to the region, a US vice-admiral said today, while urging China’s growing navy to avoid provocation.

China’s swelling defence budgets, rapid development of advanced systems including aircraft carriers and anti-satellite missiles, and its growing naval aggression in bordering seas, have unnerved regional neighbours and the United States in recent years.

Somali piracy threat worsening by the week, say shippers

Pirates leave a merchant vessel (not shown) for the Somali shore, while under observation by a US Navy ship, in this picture taken on October 8, 2008

Somali piracy is worsening by the week and governments lack the political will to tackle the crisis, which is threatening world trade routes, shipping industry officials said today.

Shippers have warned that more than 40 per cent of the world’s seaborne oil supply passes through the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea and is at risk from seaborne gangs, who are able to operate ever further out to sea and for longer periods, using captured merchant vessels as motherships.

Iran says two warships to pass through Suez canal

-The Swiss franc jumped Thursday in New York trade on a report that Iran was planning to send two warships through the Suez Canal.



Iranian state TV said today two Iranian warships are due to pass through the strategic Suez Canal – an event that would mark the first such passage by the Islamic republic’s navy since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

A similar plan was announced yesterday but then cancelled.

However, English-language Press TV subsequently quoted an official as saying the deployment was back on.

“Two Iranian warships are to cross the Suez Canal. The vessels are on their way to the Suez Canal,” he said.

Egyptian authorities saw “nothing wrong” with the passage of the two warships through the canal, Press TV said.

“Iranian officials were in contact with officials in Cairo to secure the vessels passage,” it quoted an unnamed Iranian navy official as saying.

The passage could be a potential policy headache for Egypt’s new army rulers. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said after the first announcement that the move through the canal en route to Syria would be a “provocation”.

It would be the first time since Iran’s 1979 revolution that Iranian warships had passed through the canal. The revolution poisoned ties with Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel that year.

The canal is a vital commercial and strategic waterway between Europe and the Middle East and Asia. It is also a major source of revenues for the Egyptian government.

Russia agrees to buy French helicopter carriers

The Mistral class is a class of three amphibious assault ships, also known as a helicopter carrier, of the French Navy.


Russia has agreed to buy two helicopter carriers from a French-led consortium, the French and Russian governments said yesterday, in Moscow’s first major foreign arms purchase since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Under the long-discussed deal, the Mistral-type amphibious assault ships will be built by French shipyard companies DCNS and STX along with Russia’s state-run United Shipbuilding Corporation, known as OSK.

Some of France’s NATO allies had voiced concern, urging Paris not to sell Moscow high-tech systems that could be used against Russia’s former communist neighbours, especially since Russia’s brief 2008 war with neighbouring Georgia.

UK, France to share aircraft carriers

Britain and France are getting ready to unveil plans to share aircraft carriers amid pressure on the British military to cut costs, the Times newspaper reported today.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicholas Sarkozy were expected to announce the proposal at a November summit, the Times said, quoting an unidentified British naval source for its information.

No immediate comment was available from British officials on the report.

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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates prods China on NKorea, military ties to US

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, center, Japan's Minister of Defense Toshimi Kitazawa, right, and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae Young, shake hands during the Shangri-La Dialogue's Asia Security Summit in Singapore, Saturday, June 5, 2010.


Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, left, shakes hands Japan's Minister of Defense, Toshimi Kitazawa, during the Shangri-La Dialogue's Asia Security Summit in Singapore, Saturday, June 5, 2010.


The Chinese military's deputy chief of staff, General Ma Xiaotian, listens as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates delivers remarks during the first plenary session at the Shangri-La Dialogue's Asia Security Summit in Singapore, Saturday, June 5, 2010.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates challenged China to deal realistically with the short-term question of how to respond to an antagonistic North Korea and the longer-term issue of whether Beijing's expanding military can establish more durable ties with the U.S.

Asian nations cannot stand by in the face of North Korea's alleged sinking of a South Korean warship, Gates said during an international security summit Saturday that was dominated by questions about the North.

"To do nothing would set the wrong precedent," Gates said.

Turks pray for Gaza victims as activists fly home

Turks pray for Gaza victims as activists fly home.


Israel: the Zionist state and its Palestinian neighbours


Around three thousand demonstrators gathered in the Cape Town city centre to protest against Israel's attack


Tens of thousands of people take part in the funeral service in Istanbul

Tens of thousands of angry Turks chanted anti-Israeli slogans at funeral prayers for victims of the Gaza aid flotilla attack, after activists detained in the raid flew home to a heroes' welcome.

Meanwhile the Jewish state suffered a new diplomatic blow when South Africa recalled its ambassador in protest at Israel's commando assault Monday in which nine people were killed.

And a new boat carrying Malaysian and Irish activists was set to arrive off Gaza at the weekend.

Israel Holds Hundreds Seized During Raid on Flotilla

On Sunday, before an Israeli raid, activists held a news conference aboard the Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla taking aid to Gaza.


After the Israeli raid, a speedboat escorted the ship, now with Israeli forces on board, to the port of Ashdod


A day after Israeli commandoes stormed an aid flotilla seeking to breach the blockade of Gaza, Israel held hundreds of activists seized aboard the convoy on Tuesday as news reports said activists may be planning a fresh attempt to ferry supplies to the embattled enclave.

Profile: Kim Jong-un -On the tracks of 'Kim's successor'

Kim Jong-il reportedly suffered a stroke last year


The only known image of Kim Jong-un shows him as a young boy,third son of Kim Jun-il.

Kim Jong-il's third son, Kim Jong-un, will become North Korea's next leader, according to unconfirmed South Korean media reports. The BBC News website and BBC Monitoring profile this elusive young man.

Kim Jong-un is youngest son of Kim Jong-il and his late third wife Ko Yong-hui.

Born in 1983 or early 1984, the young Kim was initially not thought to be in the frame to take up his father's mantle.

Analysts focused their attention on his half-brother Kim Jong-nam and older full brother Kim Jong-chol.

But speculation that he was in the frame to succeed his father picked up in January, after a report in South Korea's Yonhap news agency suggested that Kim Jong-il had picked him as heir.

China's dilemma on eccentric North Korea

Mr Wen (right) wants to avoid Korean instability at all costs


A war would see a flood of refugees over the North Korea-China border 

At the end of the three-way conference between President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea, Yukio Hatoyama, the Japanese prime minister, and Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, a great many people here must have been hoping to hear Mr Wen criticise North Korea for allegedly torpedoing the South Korean naval ship Cheonan two months ago.

At the very least they would have wanted him to accept publicly that North Korea had been responsible for it, as an international inquiry has maintained. If so, it was one of the most dangerous acts of war in the Korean peninsula in recent years.

Mr Wen refused. He sent his condolences to the families of the 46 South Korean sailors who were killed. He called for restraint. He hinted at the dire consequences of war.

SKorea steps up campaign over ship sinking-China and Japan 'back North Korea financial sanctions'

Japan,China and South Korea PMs wants to avoid Korean instability at all costs


China and Japan has both agree to punish NKorea with financial sanctions.


South Korea PM has tough job to handle NKorea aggression and the death of 46 South Korea submarine crews.


South Korea's former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook (front R), who is the main opposition Democratic Party's candidate for Seoul mayoral position in the upcoming local election, arrives for an election campaign 

South Korea says it has persuaded China and Japan to take part in financial sanctions against North Korea.

It comes in the wake of the sinking of a South Korean naval ship by a North Korean submarine.

In a BBC interview, South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan speculated that the sinking of the Cheonan might have been the result of internal Pyongyang politics.

North Korea has angrily denied any responsibility for the attack.

The North Korean military, Mr Yu said, might have decided to do it in order to distract attention from other problems.

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North Korea threatens to launch 'immediate physical strikes' as South Korea stages anti-submarine drills off coast

Tensions: A South Korean soldier hits an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il during a rally in Seoul

Drills: The South Korean navy has been carrying out anti-submarine exercises off the coast, despite warnings from the north

Anger: More than 10,000 protesters gather at a rally today after the sinking of a South Korean warship in March

North Korea annouced today that it will scrap an agreement aimed at preventing accidental naval clashes after Seoul blamed it for a torpedo attack which sank a South Korean warship.

Tensions between the two countries have risen dramatically since a team of international investigators said last week that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sank the warship on March 26, killing 46 sailors.

North Korea has denied any involvement in the sinking and warned any retaliation would mean war.
The country's military said in a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency: 'Immediate physical strikes will be launched against any South Korean ships that intrude into North Korean waters.'

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THE EVIDENCE AGAINST THE NORTH

* Fragments recovered from the waters near the Koreas' maritime border indicate the torpedo came from communist North Korea.
* Pieces recovered at the sinking site 'perfectly match' the schematics of the torpedo included in introductory brochures provided to foreign countries by North Korea for export purposes.
* A serial number on a torpedo fragment also was consistent with markings from a North Korean torpedo that South Korea obtained years earlier.
* Investigators also confirmed that several small North Korean submarines and a mother ship supporting them left a North Korean naval base on the western coast two to three days ago prior to the attack, and returned to port two to three days after the attack.
* All submarines from neighbouring countries were either in or near their respective home bases at the time of the incident.

North Korea threatens 'all-out war' as torpedo row grows

Parts of a torpedo salvaged from the Yellow Sea Evidence overwhelmingly proves North Korea fired a torpedo that sank a South Korean warship.The marking '1 beon' ('No.1' in English) is written on parts of a torpedo salvaged from the Yellow Sea

A real-size blueprint of a torpedo above torpedo parts salvaged from the Yellow Sea during a press conference at the Defence Ministry in Seoul this morning

North Korea threatened 'all-out war' if Seoul retaliates for the torpedo attack which sank a South Korean warship.

Pyongyang made the threat yesterday as it dismissed a report by an international team of specialists that found a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sank the 1,200-tonne Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors.

Investigators said they had discovered part of the torpedo used in the attack on the sea floor and it carried lettering that matched a North Korean design.
The sinking is one of South Korea's worst naval tragedies and the country's outraged president Lee Myung Bak promised 'stern action' against the North, calling an emergency meeting of his security staff for today.