Free Republic

BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- Vehicle sales in China last month more than doubled from a year earlier to 1.66 million units, a semi-official industry group said Tuesday. Passenger vehicle sales more than doubled to 1.32 million units in January, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement without giving year-earlier figures. China's auto sales last year rose 46% to 13.6 million units, displacing the U.S. as the world's largest auto market.

In a brief op-ed in USA Today, White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan charges that critics who question the Obama administration's decision to grant Miranda rights to accused Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are "serv[ing] the goals of al Qaeda." "Too many in Washington are now misrepresenting the facts to score political points," Brennan writes. "Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda."

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A faulty elevator was behind the shutdown of the observation deck on the world's tallest tower that effectively closed the half-mile-high Burj Khalifa to the public, witnesses and a Dubai rescue official said Tuesday. Visitors who were on the viewing floor at the time of Saturday's incident told The Associated Press they heard a loud noise, then saw what looked like smoke but turned out to be dust seeping out of the crack in one of the elevator doors. ... "What just kind of shocks me is that they were going to brush this under...

SAN JOSE – Laura Chinchilla, who was elected Costa Rica’s first woman president over the weekend, vowed in her victory speech to open a dialogue with all sectors of society and improve the quality of health care, education and security. “We do not get a blank check from the people to do anything, on the contrary, they have placed very solemn obligations on our shoulders, (such as) serious and permanent dialogue with all the parties and social sectors,” the 50-year-old Chinchilla said. Chinchilla, of the ruling National Liberation Party, or PLN, garnered 46.8 percent of the vote, with 71.1 percent...

Russia has started the construction of the fourth Borey-class strategic nuclear-powered submarine designed to carry the Bulava missile, a shipyard spokesman said on Monday. "The work on the sub construction effectively started last year," he said. It was previously reported that construction of the Project 955 Svyatitel Nikolai (St. Nicholas) submarine at the Sevmash shipyard in the northern Russian city of Severodvinsk was delayed from December 2009 until the first quarter of 2010. Russia's newest Borey-class strategic nuclear submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky, which is expected to be armed with the new Bulava sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM), is currently undergoing sea...

Khamenei, whose public statements should be taken seriously, is promising some sort of devastating “punch” against the West on Thursday the 11th, the same day as the Green Movement is calling for a monster protest against his regime. What might he have in mind? I don’t know; they say a lot of things just for effect, but threats/promises from the supreme leader have a certain standing. If I were an Israeli official, I’d recheck my information on Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. Some think he’s preparing some kind of attack against Israel. Surely there has been no shortage in...

Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. WITH Iran having notified the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency on Monday that any day now it will begin enriching its stockpile of uranium in order to power a medical reactor, we should admit that Washington’s approach to countering the Islamic Republic is leading nowhere. What’s needed, however, may be less of a change of plan than a change in how we view the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. Believe it or not, there are some potential benefits to the United States should Iran build a bomb. (I’m speaking for myself here, and in no...

An Egyptian ballistic missile facility near Jabal Hamzah has been photographed by satellites showing it to be under new construction. The images show the facility has been expanded since 2007. Egypt has an aging missile facility and was in desperate need of updating, however, the purpose of pursuing such a program now has come into question.

The past chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has joined the growing list of IPCC critics. According to the Sunday Telegraph, Rajendra Pachauri, the disgraced current IPCC chair, now faces criticism from his immediate predecessor, Robert Watson. The Telegraph reports that Watson “stressed that the chairman must take responsibility for correcting errors.” In another indication that Watson is taking pains to distance himself from the organization he once headed, the Sunday Times, in a story entitled Top British scientist says UN panel is losing credibility, reports that Watson warned the IPCC that it must tackle its blunders....

SYDNEY (AFP) – Anti-whaling activists said Tuesday they had exchanged water cannon fire with Japanese fishermen after ambushing them in Antarctic waters. The Sea Shepherd group, which has been pursuing the fishing fleet since December, said its Steve Irwin ship waited behind an iceberg before surprising Japan's Nisshin Maru whaling boat. "As the Steve Irwin passed by the Nisshin Maru, the factory ship turned on their water cannons and were surprised when the Steve Irwin responded with a more powerful water cannon that had a couple of the whalers diving for the bridge doors as the frigid water struck their...

GUATEMALA CITY – The climate of insecurity in Guatemala is forcing women to arm themselves to protect themselves and their families, the official Diario de Centroamerica newspaper said Monday. A report by the daily says that, regardless of their profession, more and more women are acquiring weapons and are registering them with the Digecam regulatory agency. Some 9,200 weapons have been registered at that agency in the name of women, a figure that represents 4 percent of the total weapons registered. Digecam assistant director Guillermo Mejia said that while it is not very common for women to approach the institution,...

(IsraelNN.com) International travelers in and out Israel may find themselves in the Negev instead of at the venerable Ben Gurion Airport in a few years. Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, who also is Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, has proposed a new international facility to boost growth in the Negev and take the load off the Ben Gurion airport, located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The group of American missionaries in Haiti facing kidnapping charges for trying to take 33 children out of the country last week made an earlier, unsuccessful attempt at taking dozens of other children, a Haitian police officer said Monday. Laura Silsby, left, and two other members of her missionary group are seen after a recent court hearing in Haiti. The officer did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals. He told CNN that he had stopped the 10 Baptist missionaries, including group leader Laura Silsby, on January 26 as they tried to transport 40...

France defended on Monday its decision to sell an advanced warship to Russia, shrugging off concerns that the helicopter carrier could threaten Georgia and arguing that Moscow had to be treated with respect. Russia asked to buy the 21,300-tonne, Mistral class warship to modernise hardware that was exposed as outdated during its five-day war against Georgia in 2008. After months of debate, France finally announced on Monday it would sell the vessel to Russia for an undisclosed sum. President Nicolas Sarkozy defended the decision during a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was paying a flying visit to...

Pakistani Taliban confirms Hakimullah Mehsud's death PTI, 9 February 2010, 01:11pm IST ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday confirmed that its chief Hakimullah Mehsud had died of injuries sustained in a US drone strike, ending weeks of speculation over his fate. Taliban sources based in the Aurakzai tribal region told TV news channels that 28-year-old Mehsud was severely injured in a drone attack in Shaktoi area of North Waziristan Agency on January 14. The sources claimed Mehsud died recently near Multan city in Punjab province while being taken to Karachi for treatment. His body was taken back to the tribal belt,...

The Iranian government on Monday stepped up military threats in advance of an anniversary celebration as major powers continued talks on a new round of sanctions. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in Tehran that his country would stun the Western world on Thursday, the 31st anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution. Iran's defense minister announced on Monday that its forces had conducted successful tests on new armed unmanned aircraft and advanced air defenses. "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance [Western powers] on the 22nd of Bahman [Feb. 11] in a way that...

Geert Wilders’s “hate speech” trial in the Netherlands began just a few weeks ago, but the outcome already seems determined. As Robert Spencer discusses in our lead story today, the Amsterdam District Court has refused to allow Wilders to call fifteen of the eighteen witnesses he had hoped to bring forward in his defense. It is also highly unlikely that the three remaining witnesses will be able to defend Wilders in the manner he desired, because the court has decided that the three witnesses will only be heard behind closed doors. With Wilders denied the opportunity to mount a forceful...

Is Kim Jong Il Avoiding Visiting Chinese Official? FEBRUARY 09, 2010 07:53 North Korean leader Kim Jong Il could be avoiding talking to Chinese envoy Wang Jiarui, who arrived in Pyongyang for a three-day visit Saturday. No confirmation came late yesterday afternoon that Wang, director of the international liaison department of the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party, held talks with Kim. North Korean media said after midnight yesterday that Kim visited a company in Hamhung, South Hamkyong Province. The report failed to mention when he went to the city. Considering that North Korea’s media usually reports on Kim...

Dutch newspapers and news channels report today that a bomb was found in a train at the train station of the city of Den Bosch, in the South of the Netherlands. Experts are supposedly trying to dismantle the explosive device at this moment. Dutch news channel the NOS says that the bomb was found after passengers alerted railroad personnel that a suspicious man was moving in and around the train. When personnel tried to talk to the men he said he had planted a bomb in the train. One witness said: “First, he suddenly asked for a cigarette. ‘Excuse me,’...

Voters are deeply pessimistic about the state of Britain today, believing that society is broken and heading in the wrong direction, a Populus poll for The Times has found. Nearly three fifths of voters say that they hardly recognise the country they are living in, while 42 per cent say they would emigrate if they could. But worries over the pace of social change and dislocation are balanced by the belief that life will get better, according to the survey undertaken at the weekend. It suggests that 70 per cent believe that society is now broken, echoing a Conservative campaign...

The U.S. Navy has sped up its efforts to ready its X-47B UCAS (Unmanned Combat Aerial System), for carrier operations. This includes an additional $2 billion for development, in an attempt to have the X-47B demonstrating the ability to regularly operate from a carrier, and perform combat (including reconnaissance and surveillance) operations, within five years. Senior admirals see this as a way to solve several problems. One is the dominance of the U.S. Air Force in UAV operations (with their fleet of Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk UAVs). Then there is the growing cost of the new F-35, that is...

"Bradninch church blaze arson probe" Monday, February 08, 2010, 07:12 SNIPPET: "ARSONISTS are believed to be responsible for a fire that has destroyed part of a church in Bradninch. Church and Scout leaders have expressed their sadness at the blaze that broke out in an annexe at the back of the Bradninch Baptist Church just after 11pm on Friday." SNIPPET: "The fire service said 25 per cent of the roof and 50 per cent of the first floor of the annexe was severely damaged by fire, while half of the ground floor was damaged by smoke. Investigations are on-going but...

Iran will make the political decision to enrich uranium to military-grade levels once it has accumulated enough fissionable material for a small arsenal of three to four nuclear devices, according to latest intelligence assessments. Iran, according to the recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, has already accumulated 1.8 tons of uranium enriched to four percent. Iran has announced plans to begin enriching uranium to 20% levels for use as fuel in a research reactor it has in Teheran, which is expected to exhaust its present stock within the year. Although material for the fissile core of a nuclear warhead...

USS Freedom (LCS 1), the Navy's first littoral combat ship, is underway off the coast of Florida for final training and certification prior to its maiden deployment to the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) region. Counter-illicit trafficking (CIT), damage control, and systems training began soon after Freedom's arrival at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., on Jan. 25. "This training is extremely important for Freedom and will help us prepare for the CIT mission we expect to perform while in the 4th Fleet area of operations," said Lt. Cmdr. Mark West of Imperial Beach, Calif., operations officer for the Gold Crew, one of...

Air Force Office of Scientific Research and National Science Foundation-funded professor, Dr. Xiang Zhang has demonstrated at the University of California, Berkeley the world's smallest semiconductor laser, which may have applications to the Air Force in communications, computing and bio-hazard detection. The semiconductor, called a plasmon, can focus light the size of a single protein in a space that is smaller than half its wavelength while maintaining laser-like qualities that allow it to not dissipate over time. "Proposed almost seven years ago, researchers had been unable to demonstrate a working plasmonic laser until our experiment," said Zhang. "It is an...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and the European Union said on Monday they feared the Iranian government may crack down on opponents during this week's anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Washington and the EU issued a rare joint statement on Iran, warning the country's leaders to live up to their international human rights obligations. "We are particularly concerned by the potential for further violence and repression during the coming days, especially around the anniversary of the Islamic Republic's founding on 11 February," they said. The Iranian opposition is expected to revive anti-government protests around the anniversary, raising the...

India's Arjun tank will battle for its life against a squadron of Russian T-90s in trials likely to determine the controversial vehicle's future. The long-awaited trials, which start in March, will pit the 14 indigenous Arjuns against the 14 T-90s, day and night for a month, according to the national Business Standard newspaper. The 24th Infantry Division stationed in Bikaner will conduct the trials in the rugged deserts of the northern state of Rajasthan, around the cities of Bikaner, Suratgarh and also Pokhran, the site of India's first nuclear bomb test in May 1974. The performance of tanks and their...

"3 accused of Taiping church-school arson acts plead not guilty" SNIPPET: "TAIPING, Feb 8 — Three men pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court here today to causing mischief by fire at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Convent and the All Saints Church on Jan 10. Andidi Rosidi, 22, Abdul Fattah Shaharuddin, 29, and Muhamad Ab. Wahab, 20, all self-employed and from Kamunting, were produced in the Magistrate’s Court last Tuesday but no plea was recorded then because the Sessions Court judge was on leave and they were not represented. Andidi is charged with committing the offence at SMK Convent in...

Development and operation of an effective missile defense system depends on a sound understanding of the threat—i.e., reliable models of how foreign missile systems look and operate. The most effective threat models are derived through close interaction between defense system designers and intelligence community experts. This interaction improves the designer's understanding of the intelligence driving the system requirements and the intelligence producer's understanding of which aspects of the missile threat are most important. The utility of a threat model may not depend on more degrees of freedom or decimals of precision, but rather, on a solid grasp of general target...

United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made some provocative remarks at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee last Wednesday. He said that as the U.S. military is deeply involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, it will not be able to come to South Korea in a timely manner, and that the Navy and Air Force will fill the vacuum left by a delay in committing ground forces in Korea in case of an emergency. Under “Operations Plan 5027,” a scenario for a war of aggression against North Korea, Washington is committed to dispatching some 690,000 troops to the...

North Korea yesterday threatened to take military action against South Korea for “anti-republic attempts to topple” the North Korean regime. Issued jointly by the Ministry of People’s Security and the National Security Agency, the threat came on the same day that the two Koreas discussed resuming suspended tours to Mount Kumgang and Kaesong north of the border. The two North agencies threatened to “mercilessly pulverize” those who attempt to damage the North’s national security by mobilizing all its troops and security forces. The statement criticized the South Korean Navy’s efforts to defend the Northern Limit Line, the disputed maritime border...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran started making higher-grade nuclear fuel on Tuesday, state television reported, a defiant move that may increase pressure for new international sanctions on the major oil producer.

If one had to read one columnist to appreciate the state of contemporary left-wing commentary, my nomination would be Frank Rich of the Sunday New York Times. No well-known leftist columnist better exemplifies the worst aspects of today's left. Virtually every piece is filled with anger, filled with ad hominem responses to arguments, filled with insults of opponents and at the same time devoid of intellectual arguments. A Frank Rich column is essentially a weekly tantrum meant to make his readers nod in agreement and reinforce their contempt for those who differ with them. I offer this past Sunday's column...

China's sovereign wealth fund has lifted the veil on its U.S. securities holdings, revealing more than $9.6 billion of holdings in about 60 U.S. companies. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday, China Investment Corp. said it had spread its investments among a wide variety of index funds and blue-chip companies such as Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Visa, Pfizer and Apple.

China, S.Korea Flex Naval Muscle as U.S. Wanes China and South Korea are expanding their submarine fleets as the U.S. Navy shrinks its own. The conservative Heritage Foundation in a report last Tuesday said that by 2025 the number of U.S. submarines in the Pacific Ocean will fall from 30 to 27 while China will have 78 submarines and South Korea 26. Mackenzie Eaglen and Jon Rodeback, who prepared the report titled "Submarine Arms Race in the Pacific" among a flurry of such papers issuing from the think tank, said the military strength of the U.S. and Russia is waning...

Loud laughter followed Palin’s references to “lame-stream media” and jeers accompanied every reference to global warming. Enthusiastic boos followed a reference to Nancy Pelosi. She endeared herself to the logging conference crowd by holding her hand up to show what was written on the palm of her hand: “Loggers rock!” - an apparent dig at “lame-stream media” who recently ridiculed her for writing memory prompts on her hand. And toward the end of her talk she complimented logging industry folks when she referred to an administration that talks about green jobs. “You guys were doing green jobs before green jobs...

What if Iran's hardline leadership emerges from the current confrontations at home strengthened and emboldened? If so, the nuclear issue will be back with a vengeance. And three recent war games focused on the Iranian nuclear weapons issue suggest that the prospects for halting the regime's progress toward nuclear weapons are not good. The games -- conducted by highly respected Western think tanks -- explored various strategies for preventing the Iranian nuclear threat from becoming real. The results, unfortunately, were uniformly negative. Given that these were serious games played by serious people, officials who deal with the nuclear problem as...

The Navy is willing to make trade-offs to pay for its strategic decision to move a nuclear aircraft carrier to Florida, according Rear Adm. Bill Burke, who ran the Navy’s portion of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Burke told reporters this week that the QDR, a sweeping review of military strategy and capability, reached the same decision the Navy reached a year ago, because it makes “good sense.” It also made “good sense” at the highest levels of the Pentagon, Burke added. To pay for the move, the Navy could have to make some tough financial decisions down the line....

As DD India reports, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Sunday said that New Delhi had a "stake" in Afghanistan as he sought "a stronger, more inclusive security coalition" of countries like India, China and Russia to tackle terrorism, cyber attacks, energy cut-offs, piracy and climate change. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Rasmussen said that a key lesson of the alliance's troubled mission in Afghanistan is that NATO "needs an entirely new compact between all the actors on the security stage." "India has a stake in Afghan stability. China too. And both could help further develop and rebuild Afghanistan....

TIJUANA, Mexico – Mexican federal police arrested two suspected gang leaders Monday, delivering another big blow to a brutal drug cartel that terrorized the border city of Tijuana for several years. The capture of Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental apparently wipes out the existing leadership of the cartel headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental, who was captured last month. Teodoro and Manuel Garcia are brothers. Lopez, known as "El Muletas," and Garcia, known as "El Chiquilin," were arrested Monday in La Paz, a city in the southern end of the Baja California peninsula, said Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for...

The UAE (United Arab Emirates) have bought a thousand American AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles. These cost about $160,000 each. The UAE is getting the infrared version, which works well at night or in bad weather. Maverick is a "fire and forget" missile. Once the pilot picks out the target on a TV screen, the missile continues to home in on the designated target without any continued pilot assistance. The 300 kg (660 pound) missile can carry a warhead of up to 138 kg (300 pounds). The UAE will most likely use the Mavericks from their F-16s, which train to attack...

In many ways, Barack Obama has taken a more cold-eyed approach to foreign affairs than George W. Bush. He’s emphasized realism over human rights, negotiation over regime change, the national interest over the promotion of democracy. But there’s been one great exception to this realpolitik revival: the realm of nuclear strategy. The American nuclear arsenal doesn’t encourage local arms races; it forestalls them. Remove our nuclear umbrella from the North Pacific, and South Korea and Japan would feel compelled to go nuclear in a hurry. If Iran gets the bomb, the protections afforded by American missiles may be the only...

Major Work Ahead On T-50 Stealth Fighter By David A Fulghum, Maxim Pyadushkin and Douglas Barrie Russia has begun flying a stealthy fifth-generation fighter to rival the U.S. F-22, but Western analysts question whether Sukhoi can develop and deliver the aircraft by 2015 as promised. Sukhoi’s T-50, which made its 47-min. first flight on Jan. 29 from the KnAAPO facility in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, is the prototype of the PAK FA “future front-line aircraft,” the first new-generation fighter for the Russian air force since the Su-27 Flanker entered service in 1984. India plans to co-fund development and co-produce the new aircraft. The...

Last week, Barack Obama snubbed the Europeans by refusing to attend next May’s European Union summit in Madrid. The Europeans are very upset. But that is not the worst of their problems, and neither is the looming bankruptcy of Greece. Analysts fear that Spain might sink the euro, the EU’s common currency, and with the euro also the dreams of greater political integration. At this point Europe is not even halfway its 100-day political “honeymoon” since the Treaty of Lisbon, which transformed the EU into a state in its own right, came into force. So far the honeymoon has been...

Girls as young as ten are falling pregnant, shocking new figures have revealed. Over the past eight years, no fewer than 15 girls found they were expecting when they were aged just ten. A further 39 found out they were pregnant when they were 11. Since 2002 there have been 63,487 pregnancies among under-15s in England and Wales: a total of 23 conceptions every single day among girls too young to legally have sex. Despite millions of pounds of funding, Labour still has not managed to turn round Britain's shameful record at the top of the teenage pregnancy league table...

Iran To Make 'Advanced' Attack Drones Iran has begun making 'advanced' unmanned drones capable of carrying out 'assaults with high precision'. 08 Feb 2010 Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian defence minister, opened two production lines for the manufacture of the aircraft, the Fars news agency reported. The drones would be able to carry out "surveillance, detection and even assaults with high precision", the report said. US Predator drones have killed hundreds of suspected terrorists in Pakistan in recent years. Iran's sworn enemy Israel uses drones for reconnaisance. But it was not immediately clear what purpose the Iranian drones would serve. In...

Former Engineer Sentenced To 15 years For Stealing Aerospace Secrets For China February 8 A Chinese-born aerospace engineer who had access to sensitive material while working with a pair of major defense contractors in Southern California was sentenced Monday to more than 15 years in prison for acquiring secret space shuttle information and other documents for China. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney in Santa Ana imposed a 188-month prison term on Dongfan “Greg” Chung, 73, a naturalized U.S. citizen who resides in Orange. At Monday’s sentencing, Carney declared that he could not “put a price tag” on national security...

One of the stranger behaviors of the ever-stranger Obama administration is its sudden adoption of the "wounded fawn" posture. No opposition was more stridently critical of a sitting president than was the anti-Bush Left. Barack Obama, as candidate and president, could not start a speech without saying "Bush did it." And have we forgotten the 2006–08 canonization of Michael Moore, the silence about the Nazi slurs, the award-winning assassination docudramas, the Knopf novel about killing George Bush, the "General Betray Us" ad, Al Gore's vein-bulging "brownshirts"outburst, and on and on? But suddenly, pundits and politicians have embraced a new gospel about...

WASHINGTON -- Failing to overhaul the nation's immigration system, currently a backburner issue for Congress and President Barack Obama, could play a pivotal role in key mid-term election races in November, according to a new study on Latino voting patterns. The report by America's Voice, which supports comprehensive new immigration policies, says revising the laws is the defining issue for Latino voters. The report says that progress - or the lack thereof - in revamping immigration laws and regulations could affect as many as 40 congressional races in areas with sizeable Latino populations, including the re-election bids of Senate Majority...

KABUL — Standing at the front of a narrow trailer with cardboard-covered windows that serves as a conference room at the Camp Eggers military base, Capt. Edgard Flores of the U.S. Air Force held up a sample of a men’s brown T-shirt and put a ruler to it. “It’s very simple,” he said, speaking slowly in American English that his translator quickly rendered into Dari for the Afghan businesswomen seated around a long wooden table. “You just measure it across. If it doesn’t measure 18 inches, it is wrong.” The session, held in mid-November, was part of an initiative to...