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According to China Daily, China's aviation industry is working on the development of aircraft with short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities needed for an important role in the Chinese navy's future operations, military experts said. "Research and development on components of STOVL aircraft, such as the engine, have started," Wang Ya'nan, deputy editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told China Daily. Artist Impression ("Fan Art") of a J-26 STOVL Aircraft of the PLAN "The aircraft's principles are not new. They have been known for more than 40 years, so our aircraft designers should be able to develop the plane on their...

The Task Force offers a detailed and ambitious set of proposals that build on the recommendations adopted by the three governments at the Texas summit of March 2005.The Task Force’s central recommendation is the creation by 2010 of a North American community to enhance security, prosperity, and opportunity.Its boundaries will be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter within which the movement of people, products, and capital will be legal, orderly, and safe. Its goal will be to guarantee a free, secure, just, and prosperous North America. Shared challenge of uneven economic development. A fast lane...

Japan is hosting its first ever international defense industry trade exhibition and conference, further emphasizing the government’s sharp departure from a 70-year self-imposed ban on the export of defense-related equipment by Japanese firms as well as collaborations with foreign defense companies. […] Firms from the United States are much in evidence, inevitable given Japan’s close security alliance with its Pacific partner, but a number of German companies are testing the waters of a new and potentially lucrative market. […] Not all of Japan’s neighbors have welcomed what they claim is a return to the aggressive nationalism of the early decades...

big one, just listed 6.8 33km SE of Ofunato, Japan 2015-05-12 21:12:58 UTC

An earthquake has struck off the coast of Japan, less than 24 hours after a seismic movement in Nepal caused further devastation in the region. The US Geological Survey said the 6.8-magnitude earthquake occurred near northeastern city Morioka, Honshu and struck at 6.13am local time (7.13am AEST). No tsunami warning has been issued.

FDR UNMASKED New book exposes how he lied us into war – and kowtowed to Stalin Justin Raimondo Antiwar.com June 25, 2001 This year has been set aside by the Powers That Be for a "celebration" of America's role in World War II: America's political and cultural elites are looking back on that historical moment, sixty years later, with unabashed nostalgia. It was the necessary prelude to yet another "unipolar moment," as Charles Krauthammer describes the present post-cold war position of US global dominance, the moment when America stepped out onto the world stage with both feet and buried...

Spread over 6,500 miles of sparse scrub and alkaline soil, Millard County is one of Utah's poorest. But for five years, the cash-strapped county so remote it was the site of a Japanese American internment camp in World War II still found $1,000 to send to the American Lands Council. The Lands Council's goal is grand but simple: to wrest control of vast swaths of land from the federal government and turn them over to the states. At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions, that could be made off land administered by the federal government. The big-dollar...

Amid a volcanic alert, satellite data show that a 200-meter-diameter area of the Owakudani hot spring district at Mt. Hakone, south of Tokyo, has been lifted by up to 6 centimeters, the Geospatial Information Authority said Friday. The upthrust is believed to have occurred between April 18 and Thursday, said the GIA, which analyzed data from the Daichi-2 observation satellite, launched in May last year by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The satellite already observed a 10-centimeter land uplift in areas near craters of Mt. Ontake after the central Japan volcano erupted last September, leaving 57 people dead and six...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Saturday it has successfully test-fired a newly developed ballistic missile from a submarine in what would be the latest display of the country's advancing military capability. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally attended the test launching of what he described as a "world-level strategic weapon," the official Korean Central News Agency said. The report did not reveal the exact timing and location of the launch. Kim praised the test launch as an "eye-opening success" and declared that the North Korea now has a weapon capable of "striking and wiping out in...

Hundreds of people from Iran and around the world have submitted art for a “Holocaust cartoon contest,” an official from the competition said Monday. Secretary Masud Shojaei-Tabatabaii told Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency that 839 works had been submitted to the Second International Holocaust Cartoon Contest, a cynical sequel to a much derided 2006 competition making light of the slaughter of 6 million Jews in Europe during World War II. Organizers putting on the contest say it is designed to highlight the world’s double standard in defending caricatures of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, whose depiction is taboo in Islam. The...

WASHINGTON – The United States plans to sell 17 V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor military transport aircraft, associated equipment, parts and logistical support to Japan for an estimated cost of $3 billion, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Tuesday. The agency said it delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale. The associated equipment requested by the Japanese government includes 40 engines and 40 infrared radars, according to the agency. Japan plans to assign 17 Ospreys to the Ground Self-Defense Force by fiscal 2018.

A group of 187 scholars of Japanese and East Asian studies have called on Japan to accurately address its history of colonial rule and wartime actions, particularly the so-called “comfort women” who were forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels. In a letter sent Monday to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the group, including Pulitzer Prize-winning historian John Dower and Ezra Vogel, professor emeritus of history at Harvard University and author of the 1979 best-seller “Japan As No. 1: Lessons for America,” said the ability to celebrate 70 years of peace between Japan and its neighbors was being undermined by...

Okinawa's ground battle began April 1, 1945, when four American divisions simultaneously assaulted the 65-mile-long island. With two U.S. Marine and two U.S. Army divisions debarking, the attack was one of the Pacific theater's largest amphibious assaults. U.S. commanders, however, were planning another Pacific D-Day, one that would far exceed Okinawa and the Philippines' invasions in scope, complexity and -- yes -- casualties. That would be the war-concluding assault on Japan's home islands. Okinawa's 660 square miles provided America with a big logistics dump and staging area only 350 miles from Kyushu's Southern tip. Japanese leaders knew defeating the U.S....

China's recent deployment of a nuclear submarine for an antipiracy mission in the Gulf of Aden may have caused unease among its neighbours, but naval experts say the Type 091 vessel is unlikely to pose any real threat because of the noise it generates. The experts say the international community should instead keep an eye on China's quieter, more advanced diesel-driven submarines. CCTV's military channel last Sunday reported that a nuclear submarine from the People's Liberation Army Navy had completed a two-month escort mission in the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden, and returned to its base in Qingdao...

China has conducted the first test flight of a new, upgraded version of its J-11 fighter jet. According to Russian media outlets, which cited unnamed Chinese reports, on Wednesday the People’s Liberation Army Air Force conducted the first flight tests of its J-11D fighter aircraft. The plane is an upgraded version of the J-11B fighter jets, which themselves are copies of the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27. According to the reports, the new J-11D incorporates a number of technologies from China’s J-16 fighter jets. Both planes are manufactured by the Chinese company, Shenyang Aircraft Corp, and the J-16 is believed to have...

Japan Prime Minister Gives Speech at Stanford Amid Protests Over Country's Use of "Comfort Women" During WWIIJapan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered a speech at Stanford University Thursday amid demands by Korean-Americans and others that he apologize for the use of sex slaves by Japan's military during World War II. Abe's speech focused on innovation and partnerships between his country and Silicon Valley, which was followed by answering submitted questions, according to Stanford spokesman Brad Hayward. "I want the best, brightest Japanese talent with superb technology and high motivation to dive themselves into Silicon Valley," Abe said. "I also want...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered condolences Wednesday for Americans killed in World War II in the first address by a Japanese leader to a joint meeting of Congress, but stopped short of apologizing for wartime atrocities. Abe came to Capitol Hill after a morning visit to a Washington memorial to more than 400,000 American service members who died in the conflict. His remarks to a packed chamber a day after meeting President Barack Obama were warmly received by lawmakers. "My dear friends, on behalf of Japan and the Japanese people, I offer with profound respect my eternal...

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that, among other things, the arrival of Japan’s official delegation is an opportunity to celebrate the country’s cultural contributions to the United States, like karaoke and emojis. “Today is also a chance for Americans, especially our young people, to say thank you for all the things we love from Japan. Like karate and karaoke,” Obama said to laughter during remarks at an arrival ceremony with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “Manga and anime. And, of course, emojis,” he added.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sidestepped a question on whether he would apologize for the sexual enslavement of women by Japan’s army during World War II. Abe instead said he was “deeply pained” by the suffering of “comfort women.” He was using a euphemism for tens of thousands of Asian women who were forced to serve Japanese troops. …

The US commitment to the defense of Japan is "ironclad," top US diplomat John Kerry vowed Monday