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Hillary Clinton will order a "full review" of the United States' strategy on Syria as a "first key task" of her presidency, resetting the policy to emphasise the "murderous" nature of the Assad regime, foreign policy adviser with her campaign has said. <-SNIP-> Speaking on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention, Mr Bash, who is advising the party's presidential nominee, said a Clinton administration would seek to bring "moral clarity" to the US strategy on the Syrian crises. <-SNIP-> Mr Bash describes a foreign policy more hawkish than that of the current administration. He said there were a "lot...

"There is no stipulation anywhere that requires a security clearance for a presidential candidate. The fact that they're a candidate qualifies them," says James R. Clapper Jr., the director of National Intelligence. Donald Trump will begin to get intelligence briefings now that he is the official GOP candidate for president. Both Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will get briefings as soon as next week, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of National Intelligence, said Thursday during the Aspen Security Forum. Although Trump is a notorious tweeter and Clinton has been on the hot seat for her email server, Clapper...

Mainland state media confirmed for the first time yesterday that a home-grown, carrier-based J-15 jet fighter crashed during training in April. The crash could deal a blow to the development of the fighter jet and cast a shadow over the PLA Navy’s blue sea strategy and aircraft carrier programme. J-15s are the core jet fighters for the mainland’s aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and other more advanced domestic carriers reportedly under construction. At the critical moment, Zhang tried his best to save the aircraft. When the pushrods failed, he ejected and died as a result of an injury on landingCNR REPORT...

Seventy-five years ago, the world blew up in just six months. World War II ostensibly started two years earlier, when Germany invaded Poland. In truth, after the rapid German defeat of Poland in September 1939, the conflict was mostly confined to Western Europe for nearly the next two years. By summer of 1940, only Britain had survived Hitler's European victories. The dormant European war only went global on June 22, 1941, when Germany suddenly surprise-attacked the Soviet Union, its former partner. America and Asia were still not directly involved in the 1941 expansion of the war until the Japanese attacked...

The Western Pacific “island chains” are a persistent feature of Asia’s maritime geography. While their underlying fundaments remain constant, their specific strategic importance has evolved over time. Different major powers have thus interpreted, then re-interpreted and re-evaluated, the value of particular islands, the role they play in national military strategy, and their operational significance in a warfighting context. Chinese naval strategists such as former naval commander Admiral Liu Huaqing have devoted considerable attention to the island chains since the mid-1980s, examining how and where the island chains can hinder or support China’s maritime goals. Yet Chinese strategists are hardly unique...

A knife-wielding man stabbed and killed 19 people as they slept at a facility for the disabled in a town near Tokyo early on Tuesday, a senior government official said, Japan’s worst mass killing in decades. At least 25 other residents of the facility were wounded in the attack. […] Police have arrested Satoshi Uematsu, 26, a former employee at the facility in Sagamihara town in Kanagawa Prefecture, about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Tokyo, a Kanagawa official said. At least one media report said Uematsu had called for euthanasia of the severely disabled. …

A knife-wielding former employee killed 19 people and injured 25 at a care centre for the mentally disabled in Japan on Tuesday, in the country's worst mass killing in decades. The 26-year-old man later turned himself in at a police station, admitting to officers: "I did it." He reportedly also said: "The disabled should all disappear." Authorities identified the attacker as Satoshi Uematsu and said he had worked at the facility in Sagamihara, a city of more than 700,000 people west of Tokyo, until February.

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The first AG600 amphibious aircraft rolls off a production line in Zhuhai, in south China's Guangdong Province. The aircraft will be used to fight forest fires and perform marine rescue missions. (Xinhua photo) GUANGZHOU, Xinhua --- China has completed production of a massive amphibious aircraft that it plans to use to fight forest fires and perform marine rescue missions. The AG600 rolled off a production line in the southern city of Zhuhai on Saturday, in what aviation observers see as a milestone for the country. The aircraft has a maximum take-off weight of 53.5 tonnes, a maximum cruising speed of...

Based on pictures that have been just released by Chinese spotters, it appears that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN or Chinese Navy) next in-line Type 052D Destroyers (NATO reporting name Luyang III class) will be fitted with the H/PJ-11 close-in weapon system (CIWS) instead of the smaller H/PJ-12 currently fitted on existing vessels of the class. The H/PJ-12 seven-barreled 30mm CIWS (sometimes referred as Type 730 which is the export designation.) is present on the first four destroyers in the series already commissioned (as well as on a few other hulls currently at various stages of completion). It is...

A North Korean short wave radio station abruptly returned to the airwaves last Friday after a sixteen year absence. The mysterious broadcast has South Korean intelligence agents scrambling to figure out what its message means-and whom the message was intended for. The transmission, which began at approximately 12:45 on Friday, was made by an unnamed female announcer and began with, "From now on, I will give review work for the subject of mathematics under the curriculum of a remote education university for exploration agents of the 27th bureau." The announcer went on to say, "On page 459, question number 35,...

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which the Soviet Union and the United States signed in 1987, prohibits conventional and nuclear-armed land-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 km. The U.S. Department of State concluded in 2014 that Russia is in violation of its treaty obligations, raising doubts about the treaty's durability and how the United States should respond. At the moment, U.S. policy remains committed to the treaty and seeks to encourage Russia to return to compliance by eliminating prohibited systems, but attempts to revive the treaty could take several years and might not succeed....

BEIJING has sent the US a message in the skies above the South China Sea: Anything you can do, we can do too. It’s just flown a nuclear-capable bomber over Scarborough Shoal. The United States has conducted several B-52 bomber ‘freedom of navigation’ flights over the contested waterway in recent months, along with flights by surveillance and patrol aircraft. Beijing on Friday returned the favour. The People’s Liberation air force (PLAAF) at the weekend released photographs of one of its newest H-6K long-range nuclear-capable bombers overflying Scarborough Shoal on China’s Weibo social media service. The aircraft, based on a 1950s...

A U.S. Navy sailor was sentenced Friday to two-and-a-half years hard labor for raping a Japanese tourist in Okinawa. Justin Castellanos, 24, who was based in the district's Camp Schwab, pleaded guilty in May to raping the 40-year-old victim in his hotel room in Naha, south Japan on March 13. The serviceman had found the woman, who was drunk and asleep in the hotel lobby, and taken her up to his room where he assaulted her. 'I am sorry for what I have done,' he told the court. 'My heart is filled with regret,' Stars and Stripes reports.

The Japanese Emperor Akihito, who has spent much of his time on the throne trying to heal the wounds of the second world war, intends to abdicate in a few years’ time, public broadcaster NHK has reported, a step that would be unprecedented in modern Japan. The 82-year-old monarch, who has had heart surgery and been treated for prostate cancer in recent years, expressed his intention to the Imperial Household Agency, NHK said. It did not cite a reason and officials at the agency could not immediately be reached for comment. Kyodo news agency, quoting a government source, said Akihito...

An influential political lobby in Japan will do its utmost to capitalize on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s election victory and push for the constitution to be revised to allow a more active military, the group’s chairman said Wednesday. […] Tadae Takubo, chairman of Nippon Kaigi, or Japan Conference, said the war-renouncing constitution that makes Japan’s defense “defective” needs to be corrected. […] Founded in 1997, Nippon Kaigi has strived to revise the constitution to restore traditional gender roles, increase imperial worshiping and put public interest before individuals. The group is believed to be behind Abe’s comeback in 2012 and has...

Japan’s Emperor Akihito has expressed his intention to retire and relinquish his title in the next few years, the country’s public television said Wednesday. NHK said the 82-year-old Akihito did not wish to remain emperor if he had to reduce his official duties. […] It was not known if he had a timeline to relinquish his title to Crown Prince Naruhito. …

Japan's Emperor Akihito has announced his intention to abdicate in the coming years, public broadcaster NHK reports. The 82-year-old, who has had health problems in recent years, did not cite a reason for his decision.

Japan, the third world economy, has virtually no gas and oil reserves. The situation is somewhat paradoxical since no country can prosper without oil and gas. Thus, the Land of the Rising Sun has been successfully coping with the situation by importing oil in tankers from the Middle East, liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and that same Middle East. Japan also needs coal for its CHP plants, which it purchases from Australia, Indonesia and China. Recently the country held its hopes high for nuclear power industry. After the tragedy at Fukushima 1 in 2011, however, nuclear power...

Myth or Reality? Russian Missiles on Kurils in Response to THAAD in S Korea Military & Intelligence 16:03 09.07.2016(updated 12:48 10.07.2016) Russia may deploy additional missile systems to the Far East, including on the Kuril Islands, in response to the plans of the United States to deploy missile defense complexes in South Korea, Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, told RIA Novosti. The expert commented on recent reports citing a source in the Russian Foreign Minister. In particular, the source said that Russian military planning will take into account Seoul’s decision to deploy US THAAD missile systems...