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The US Indo-Pacific commander has urged America’s strategic decision-making body to increase financial investment in the region to counter China’s expanding economic and military influence. “Through fear and coercion, Beijing is working to expand its form of ideology in order to bend, break and replace the existing rules-based international order,” Admiral Phil Davidson told a panel at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday. “In its place, Beijing seeks to create a new international order led by China and with ‘Chinese characteristics’ – an outcome that displaces the stability and peace of the Indo-Pacific that has endured for over...

Good morning. The latest from President Trump on the border wall funding talks is that there was a "productive meeting" between his representatives led by Vice-President Mike Pence and the representatives of the Congressional Democrats...... An 18-year old Saudi Arabian woman is holed up in a hotel room at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand resisting efforts to force her back to Kuwait where she says she will be forced back to Saudi Arabia..... The Google translation reads: "Macron you're screwed, chicks are in the street" That was part of the banner held by hundreds of women yellow vests protesters on...

The islands of Polynesia were first inhabited around 3,000 years ago, but where these people came from has long been a hot topic of debate amongst scientists. The most commonly accepted view, based on archaeological and linguistic evidence as well as genetic studies, is that Pacific islanders were the latter part of a migration south and eastwards from Taiwan which began around 4,000 years ago. But the Leeds research -- published February 3 in The American Journal of Human Genetics -- has found that the link to Taiwan does not stand up to scrutiny. In fact, the DNA of current...

Research led by the University of Leeds has discovered genetic evidence that overturns existing theories about human migration into Island Southeast Asia (covering the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysian Borneo) - taking the timeline back by nearly 10,000 years. Prevailing theory suggests that the present-day populations of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) originate largely from a Neolithic expansion from Taiwan driven by rice agriculture about 4,000 years ago - the so-called "Out of Taiwan" model. However an international research team, led by the UK’s first Professor of Archaeogenetics, Martin Richards, has shown that a substantial fraction of their mitochondrial DNA lineages (inherited...

There are two links for this story. I started linking to the short video which I originally watched. It is from Asia Times. Basically it is almost an advertisement for the article. Runs about a minute and a half, although it mentions the major points from the article. Then there is an actual article in the Asia Times. I will also include a link to that article, for those who want to read the full thing.

A LITTLE NOTICED organizational change in China's maritime patrols is causing increasing anxiety among Western military officials and their allies in the region, who fear Beijing is seeking new leverage to advance its goals and raising the likelihood that an accidental encounter could escalate into conflict. The U.S. confirmed earlier this year that China has reorganized its coast guard to serve as a military branch rather than answer to law enforcement authorities. Militarizing the formerly civilian organization provides China with the firepower to harass and intimidate vessels from other countries who dispute China's claims to waterways. The change, which Beijing...

PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA — For the first time in its 20-year history, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit ended in disarray Sunday when the 21 member countries could not reach consensus on a joint statement because of objections by one member — China. When the summit failed, to the disgust of the other diplomats, Chinese officials broke out in applause. But that was only the final incident in a week during which China’s official delegation staged a series of aggressive, bullying, paranoid and weird stunts to try to exert dominance and pressure the host nation and everyone else into...

BELGIUM, THE NETHERLANDS and Taiwan are the best countries in the world to be an atheist, according to a new report. The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) launched its seventh annual Freedom of Thought Report this morning. For the first time, it contains a full ranking of every country in the world, according to its level of discrimination against atheists, humanists and the non-religious. Belgium, the Netherlands and Taiwan came in joint first place as the best countries in the world to be an atheist. Nauru, France, Japan and Sao Tomé and Príncipe came in joint fourth place. Meanwhile,...

The missing MH370 flight has been captured by Google Maps on multiple occasions since it disappeared in March 2014, according to tech expert Ian Wilson, who is planning an expedition to confirm his findings... But Mr Wilson, told Dailystar.co.uk exclusively he believes he has spotted the aeroplane crashed in the Cambodian jungle on Google Maps and the company's time stamps may reveal when the pictures were taken. The latest copyright data is listed as the year 2018, with recent imagery data listed as March 2017. However, last week the app listed the imagery data as December 2015. The same image...

KUALA LUMPUR: No more knocks on the door in the middle of the night and no more breaking down of doors by the religious authorities investigating reports of khalwat or other alleged wrongdoings. Instead, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa insists that what Muslims do behind closed doors is none of the government’s business. “Let’s say you commit something within your personal, individual sphere – I will not interfere. “For example, consumption of alcohol is wrong for a Muslim, but if you consume it within your sphere, then as part of the government, I will...

In a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis in June, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed that Bejing “cannot lose even one inch of the territory” in the South China Sea. That’s about as plain a warning as one gets: China will defend, militarily, it’s outsized claims in a body of water through which one-third of all global trade passes. The U.S. would have little difficulty in taking out militarily significant targets on any of the islands in question. But that’s not really the point. Through the construction of these artificial islands-turned-military bases, China acted brazenly but in a calculated...

Tech expert Ian Wilson is to be airlifted to an area three miles from where he claims he has pinpointed the Malaysian Airlines flight using Google Maps. He will then need a guide to lead him through the two-day jungle mission through the mountainous terrain west of Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. It comes after Andre Milne – who previously declared Wilson's spot "significant" – called an earlier helicopter mission to find the missing MH370 flight "useless" because it wasn't on foot. Milne – a private investigator and founder of Unicorn Aerospace – exclusively told Daily Star Online: "Flying over in a...

In 2nd century AD Egypt, the legendary Greco-Roman scientist Claudius Ptolemy put the extent of the known world onto paper. From his home in Alexandria, he gathered reports from sailors who had made perilous journeys to India and possibly beyond. Though details were sparse, a voyager named Alexander described a distant port called Kattigara on the Sinus Magna (Great Gulf) to the east of the Golden Chersonese peninsula - widely considered to be mainland Malaysia. Halfway across the world around the same time, the bustling seaport Oc Eo was part of the flourishing Funan Kingdom, the earliest known pre-Angkorian civilisation...

Two Malaysian Muslim women convicted under Islamic laws of attempting to have sex were caned Monday in a rare public whipping that was slammed by lawmakers and rights activists as a form of torture. Lawyers and activists said the women, aged 22 and 32, were seated on stools facing the judges and given six strokes from a light rattan cane on their backs by female prison officers. More than 100 people witnessed the caning in a Shariah courtroom in northeast Terengganu state, they said. Muslim Lawyers' Association deputy president Abdul Rahim Sinwan said unlike caning under civil laws, the punishment...

Beloved I AM your Kingdom for ALL resides in me, Therefore I AM your Being "Zion" Do You see? For I AM the Movement within You I speak you do, It is just this simple ~ Zion living and moving through you, I AM your innate Being ALL You need to see, I reside in and through you The Wellspring you set free, I AM your true existence My Kingdom can not lie, Just let go of your existence and in me rely, Not just in steps or breathing but in each beat of your heart, For its desire must...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly investigating whether a fugitive Malaysian businessman paid a team of American lawyers, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and an attorney who represents President Trump, from tens of millions of dollars in laundered funds. The DOJ is pursuing a criminal investigation into Jho Low, who has U.S. assets, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper reported that the DOJ filed civil lawsuits in July 2016 and last year to recover assets from Low and others that were allegedly purchased with money embezzled from a Malaysian fund,...

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said it was unwise for Asean, including Malaysia, to take a confrontational stance against China. "That is why Malaysia has a slightly different attitude towards this. We accept that China is a powerful nation and we cannot go to war with China. "So we need to have some diplomatic ways of negotiating with China," he said in an interview with ThaiPBS on wide-ranging international issues. Asked if this includes US warships, Mahathir said yes, stating there should be no distinction. However, he noted the US' penchant to provoke China, a position Malaysia does not favour....

The spasm of Hamas-provoked violence that gripped the Gaza Strip and parts of southern Israel last week has temporarily halted for the time being. According to credible reports, Israel informed Cairo that it would begin targeting Hamas leaders and commanders if Hamas failed to rein in its assorted thugs and gangsters. Hamas heeded the call, and for good reason. Over the years, Israel’s various security branches have developed a penchant for liquidating dangerous enemies who seek to inflict harm on the Jewish State. Hamas is keenly aware of this fact having recently lost two of its operatives – Mohammad Zawari and Fadi...

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia — A Malaysian-led independent investigation report released Monday, more than four years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, highlighted shortcomings in the government’s response and raised the possibility of “intervention by a third party.” The report, prepared by a 19-member international team, reiterated Malaysia’s assertion the plane was deliberately diverted and flown for over seven hours after severing communications. Chief investigator Kok Soo Chon said the cause of the disappearance cannot be determined until the wreckage and the plane’s black boxes are found. He said there was no evidence of abnormal behavior or stress in the two pilots...

De Niro started on-off affair with Helena Springs when he followed her car down a Los Angeles boulevard and asked her out to dinnerShe became pregnant and he 'threatened and intimidated' her in bid to convince her to abort their childDaughter, Nina, was born in 1982 but when she sued for maintenance 10 years later tests showed he was not the father. . .