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File photo shows a J-10C fighter jet in a training. China's new multi-role fighter jet J-10C began combat duty Monday, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force announced. It is China's third-generation supersonic fighter and made its debut when the PLA marked its 90th anniversary in July 2017 at Zhurihe military training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Equipped with an advanced avionics system and various airborne weapons, the domestically-developed fighter has airstrike capabilities within medium and close range and is capable of precisely striking land and maritime targets. (Xinhua/Xi Bobo) BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China's new multi-role fighter...

MANILA, Philippines – About 300 Filipino government officials, military officers, businessmen, diplomats, and journalists boarded a massive US aircraft carrier in Manila Bay Friday night, April 13, for a reception hosted by US ambassador Sung Kim. The USS Theodore Roosevelt, the flagship of US Navy Carrier Strike Group 9, arrived in Manila on April 11, the same day China began drills in the South China Sea. The reception aboard the carrier was held only hours after China ended the drills with a large naval parade that Chinese President Xi Jinping himself witnessed. Two Australian warships and a Japanese destroyer also...

Researchers have found a deposit of rare-earth minerals off the coast of Japan that could supply the world for centuries, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal Nature on Tuesday, says the deposit contains 16 million tons of the valuable metals. Rare-earth minerals are used in everything from smartphone batteries to electric vehicles. By definition, these minerals contain one or more of 17 metallic rare-earth elements (for those familiar with the periodic table, those are on the second row from the bottom).

Japan was given a preview of the stealthy JASSM-ER “standoff” missiles that it is considering purchasing after U.S. officials said air force B-1B strategic bombers launched the weapons Friday for the first time in combat during strikes on the Syrian regime. The new Lockheed Martin Corp. air-launched cruise missile made its battlefield debut in the strikes, when 19 of the missiles were fired outside Syrian airspace by two B-1Bs that had targeted the Barzah Research and Development Center located on the outskirts of Damascus. The firing of the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSMs), was first reported by The...

Enzymatic liquid membrane design and mechanism of carbon dioxide capture and separation. The Sandia/University of New Mexico membrane is fabricated by formation of 8-nanometer diameter mesopores. Using atomic layer deposition and oxygen plasma processing, the silica mesopores are engineered to be hydrophobic except for an 18-nm-deep region at the pore surface which is hydrophilic. Through capillary condensation, carbonic anhydrase enzymes and water spontaneously fill the hydrophilic mesopores to form an array of stabilized enzymes with an effective concentration greater than 10 times of that achievable in solution. These catalyze the capture and dissolution of carbon dioxide at the upstream surface...

Cape Town is in the unenviable situation of being the first major city in the modern era to face the threat of running out of drinking water. However, the plight of the drought-hit South African city is just one extreme example of a problem that experts have long been warning about - water scarcity. Despite covering about 70% of the Earth's surface, water, especially drinking water, is not as plentiful as one might think. Only 3% of it is fresh. Over one billion people lack access to water and another 2.7 billion find it scarce for at least one month...

RENAULT unveiled the EZ-GO, a concept for a robotaxi, at the Geneva motor show, which opened on March 5th. Nissan, in conjunction with DeNA, a Japanese software firm, recently began trials of driverless taxis in Japan. The two companies are pursuing their own paths towards the future of mobility. Yet both are bound together in a close alliance, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next year. In 2016 they were joined by Mitsubishi. Last year the trio sold 10.6m cars between them, one in every nine worldwide. It is a unique carmaking liaison, neither a full merger nor as loose as...

Japan on Saturday activated its first marine unit since World War Two trained to counter invaders occupying Japanese islands along the edge of the East China Sea that Tokyo fears are vulnerable to attack by China. In a ceremony held at a military base near Sasebo on the southwest island of Kyushu, about 1,500 members of the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB) wearing camouflage lined up outside amid cold, windy weather. "Given the increasingly difficult defense and security situation surrounding Japan, defense of our islands has become a critical mandate," Tomohiro Yamamoto, vice defense minister, said in a speech....

The British government last year gave £20 million to Palestinian schools teaching a curriculum that a watchdog group says embraces jihad, omits references to peace agreements with Israel, and encourages martyrdom, the Sunday Times reported. A review by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found that study material from the Palestinian Authority textbooks “exerts pressure over young Palestinians to acts of violence.” Among the ideas taught to pupils are the physics behind slingshots used to hurl rocks at Israel soldiers, the glorification of martyrs, and images that infuse ideas of war. “The curriculum exerts...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday over his criticism of Israel's resonse to the protests on the Gaza border over the weekend. "The most moral army in the world will not be lectured by someone who for years is bombing civilian populations indiscriminately," Netanyahu said in a statement. "Apparently that’s how they mark April 1 in Ankara." Erdogan said in Istanbul on Saturday that he “strongly condemns the Israeli government for its inhumane attack," referring to the killing of 15 Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border on Friday. “Israel will imprison Palestine under its...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday lashed out at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the two exchanged accusations over Palestinian and Kurdish civilians killed by the two countries respective armies. “The most moral army in the world will not be lectured by those who have indiscriminately bombed civilian populations for years,” Netanyahu said, seemingly referring to Ankara’s decades-long military campaign against Kurds in Turkey and now those in Syria. “Apparently, this is how April Fool’s Day is celebrated in Ankara,” a statement by the Israeli PM’s office on Facebook read.

An expedition in the South Pacific ocean funded by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen has discovered the wreckage of a famous US warship that was attacked by the Japanese during the second world war, claiming more than 600 lives. The billionaire’s personal search team located the remains of the USS Juneau off the coast of the Solomon Islands on St Patrick’s Day. The Juneau was sunk by Japanese torpedoes in November 1942, claiming the lives of 687 men, including five brothers known as the Sullivans from Waterloo, Iowa. The men became navy heroes and had a destroyer named after...

OSAKA (Kyodo) -- Yokozuna Kakuryu's awkward win kept him atop the standings with Brazilian maegashira Kaisei on Monday, the ninth day of the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament. The yokozuna was nearly blown out of the ring by a powerful but uncontrolled final charge from No. 4 maegashira Shodai (5-4), but Kakuryu made his escape tip-toeing along the ring's straw-bale border as Shodai thundered out. The Mongolian could barely control his smile after snatching victory from defeat. He had opened brightly, but Shodai repulsed his charge and seized the initiative. Everything was going the youngster's way until his failed attempt to...

A remark made by U.S. President Donald Trump, that Japan drops bowling balls on U.S. cars during inspection to shut them out of the market, later described as a joke by the White House, has left Tokyo perplexed. During a fundraising speech in Missouri on Wednesday that was transcribed by The Washington Post on Thursday, Trump criticized Japan for conducting unfair inspections on U.S. cars to keep them out of the Japanese market. “It’s called the bowling ball test, do you know what that is? That’s where they take a bowling ball from 20 feet up in the air and...

Dog mistakenly sent by United to Japan returning home to his owners After a mix-up with United that resulted in a family's dog being sent to Japan instead of Kansas by mistake, Irgo the German shepherd is returning home. According to his owners, Irgo will be traveling by private charter Thursday on a nearly 12-hour long flight, leaving Narita International Airport in Tokyo at 10:30 p.m. local time and arriving back home in Wichita, Kansas around 8:25 p.m. Irgo ended up in the foreign country mistakenly when his owner, Kara Swindle, was moving with her family and pet from Oregon...

A team of scientists says it has created a pig that can be used in transplantations in humans. According to the team, which includes researchers from Meiji University and Kyoto Prefectural University, the animal is the first to be developed for transplantation based on national guidelines for xenotransplantation, in which animal organs and cells are transplanted into humans. The team will present its findings at a forum of the Japanese Society for Xenotransplantation in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, on Saturday, and plans to jointly supply the pigs with a private company early next year.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met senior South Korean government officials for the first time and said it is his “firm will to vigorously advance” inter-Korean ties and pursue reunification, the North’s official news agency said on Tuesday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets members of the special delegation of South Korea's President in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 6, 2018. A 10-member South Korean delegation led by National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong traveled to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on Monday in hopes of encouraging...

The reactor at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex continues to show signs of operation, suggesting that the country may be resuming the production of weapons-grade plutonium, a U.S. institute monitoring the site said Monday. Steam vapor plumes were seen emanating from the 5 megawatt reactor facility and nearby river ice was melting, based on commercial satellite imagery from Feb. 25, the U.S.-Korea Institute of Johns Hopkins University said on its 38 North website. (Photo supplied by Airbus Defense & Space/38 North) The findings could overshadow a recent diplomatic thaw between the two Koreas. "While vapor plumes have been noted a...

Japan's Coast Guard says 4 Chinese patrol ships temporarily entered Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Friday. Coast Guard officials said the ships breached the territorial waters off Uotsuri Island in Okinawa Prefecture shortly after 10 AM. Foreign Ministry officials lodged a protest with the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo. They said intrusions into Japan's waters are an infringement of its sovereignty, and demanded that the vessels leave the area at once. The 4 ships stayed in Japan's waters for about 90 minutes before moving away. Japan controls the Senkaku Islands. The Japanese government...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged Tokyo on Thursday to act on the basis of remorse and reconciliation when managing bilateral ties and acknowledge the historical truth about women forced to provide sex for Japanese troops before and during World War II. Amid tension between Seoul and Tokyo over the future of a 2015 bilateral agreement on the “comfort women” issue, Moon described the women’s treatment as an inhumane crime and said that Japan, “the perpetrator, must not declare (that the issue) is over.” Moon made the remarks in a speech at an annual ceremony commemorating a movement for Korean...