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The Russian Orthodox Church says it is severing ties with the main protestant churches of France and Scotland over the issue of same-sex unions. The Moscow Patriarchate said on June 3 that "formal contacts" with the two institutions were pointless after France's United Protestant Church last month voted to allow pastors to bless same-sex marriages and the Church of Scotland approved ordaining clergy in same-sex civil unions. "We regretfully acknowledge, that today we have a new divide in the Christian world, not only regarding theological subjects, but regarding moral issues as well," the patriarchate said in a statement. The Moscow...

Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan due to pressure from China. Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. However it is a member of the Asian Development Bank under the name of Taipei, China. China views Taiwan as a renegade province and has not ruled out the use of force to bring it under its control. However, since Taiwan's current president Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, enmity has declined considerably and the two sides have signed a number of trade and investment deals. The AIIB...

This is from a YouTube posting of a Flash Mob in Taipei, Taiwan and a Lunar New Year Celebration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHnAkbB-IYs&feature=youtu.be

A Russian Orthodox Church official in the Siberian region of Tomsk sparked controversy after publishing an article calling unwed mothers “whores.” Maxim Stepanenko, head of the Missionary Department of the Tomsk Diocese penned an article titled “So many whores in the land of Tomsk! We have no future!” The article, published on k-istine.ru on December 4 and since deleted, pointed to federal statistics saying that 28 percent of children in the Tomsk region were born to unwed mothers in 2012. According to a cached version of the original, Stepanenko also called on the “rehabilitation of the word ‘blyad’,” The word...

Kiev, July 27, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church Synod has called on the authorities of Kievan Rus countries to mark anniversaries of Kievan Rus' Christianization as state holidays or even make them days off. "Bearing in mind the exclusive importance of Kievan Rus' Christianization for the history of countries within the area of canonical responsibility of the Russian Orthodox Church, to appeal to the administrations of the countries, which have not made this decision, for making anniversaries of Kievan Rus' Christianization state holidays and, wherever that is possible, days off," says a resolution of the Synod, which convened in...

Moldavian bishop Marcellus of Beltsy and Faleshty (Russian Orthodox Church) called on the Moldavian MPs to revoke the bill on equal rights. As the Moldavian media reports his statement, in the opposite case he’ll propose excommunication of the MPs. He said he had granted the MPs one-month term for the decision, “hoping that it’ll be enough to understand there’re other moral values apart from those which the EU is pressing”. The law adopted on May, 25 2012, has split the Moldavian society for two fractions. The country has adopted it since the EU had put it as a condition to...

Taiwan’s Navy Gets Stealthy News that Taiwan is set to get some stealthy fast patrol boats is welcome. But without some daring personnel, it might come to nothing. Huzzah! The Taipei Times’ J. Michael Cole broke the story this weekend that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan has levied funds to field a squadron of between seven and eleven stealthy Hsun Hai (Swift Sea) fast patrol boats by 2014. Computer generated images depict a sleek catamaran that resembles a smaller sibling of USS Independence, a variant of the U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship. Each new craft will reportedly displace around 500 tons...

Navy to embark on submarine program TAKING THE DIVE:：After several years of prevarication, the navy is to develop its own unique prototype, while US companies have been told to stay away from the program By J. Michael Cole / Staff Reporter Tue, Feb 21, 2012 - Page 1 After more than a decade of delays and reversals, the navy has confirmed that it will embark on a domestic submarine program next year, with a prototype to be delivered within three to four years. Taiwanese and US sources told the Taipei Times earlier this month that officials from the Republic of...

Although scholars of the history of the NY Times Op-Ed pages may be able to find a more vile Op-Ed, I dare them. From Paul Kane, a suggestion that the United States sell-out Taiwan to China in exchange for forgiveness of $1.14 trillion in debt, To Save Our Economy, Ditch Taiwan. http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/11/sell-out-taiwan-for-debt-foregiveness-possibly-the-most-vile-ny-times-op-ed-ever/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6uNWzzt-n3s

Taiwan is considering new missile tests after a series of failures in a drill this week earned the top brass rare criticism from an irate President Ma Ying-jeou, media and an official said Thursday. Six out of the 19 missiles missed their targets or failed to explode during a live-fire manoeuvre Tuesday, prompting Ma to publicly tell the military that he was "not very satisfied", urging it to practice some more. Although the military insisted the result was acceptable, it now plans to re-test three types of missile that failed during the drill, the Liberty Times said, without citing its...

President Ma Ying-jeou presided Tuesday over the unusually public test firing of 19 surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles, but about a quarter missed their targets, earning his dismay and raising new questions about Taiwan's readiness to defend itself against Chinese attack. The exercise followed last week's successful test flight of China's next generation J-20 stealth aircraft, a system expected to further widen its growing edge over Taiwan's own equipment-starved air force. Ma's presence at the base in southern Taiwan where the missile test was conducted was meant to underscore his commitment to the maintenance of an effective Taiwanese deterrent, but the...

Taiwan on Wednesday welcomed the confirmation of its purchase of a fleet of advanced US attack helicopters, saying it would boost its defences even as it seeks improved ties with mainland China. The US Department of Defense announced Tuesday that defence contractor Boeing acquired the contract to sell 30 Apache AH-64D Longbow helicopters to Taiwan, and that it was required to deliver them in 2014. The deal "will certainly help beef up Taiwan's naval, anti-landing and ground-warfare capabilities," Defence Ministry spokesman Yu Sy Tue told AFP, adding that the deal was evidence of Taiwan's determination to defend itself

Taiwan's high hopes to get advanced weapons to boost its defense capabilities, the United States remains undecided over whether or not to sell F-16 C/D fighters to Taiwan, Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu said Monday. "The purchase of the high performance jet fighters is a politically sensitive issue due to the U.S.' efforts to maintain a strong presence in the Pacific and to its political difficulties with Beijing, " Kao said when answering questions from Legislator Lin Yu-fang at a legislative hearing. Lin's question came after William A. Stanton, director of the Taipei Office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT),...

Taiwan is developing a potent missile system that can strike airfields and harbours on the mainland, in a bid to nip a Chinese invasion in the bud, local media said Tuesday. The "Wan Chien" or "Ten Thousand Swords" missile system, which so far has cost nearly three billion Taiwan dollars (97 million US), passed an initial operating test earlier this year, said Defence Technology Monthly. Each missile carries more than 100 cluster bomb warheads capable of blowing dozens of small craters in airport runways, making them impossible to use, the magazine said. The missile is also designed to target harbours,...

Taiwan is allocating money for possible U.S. help to ugrade its fleet of F-16 fighter jets, a military spokesman said Wednesday, two days after a senior Taiwanese official warned that China's threat against the island is growing. Any American decision to improve Taiwan's defensive capabilities would almost certainly anger China, which considers the island part of its territory and opposes U.S. arms sales as interference in its domestic affairs. The comments from air force spokesman Pan Kung-hsiao came amid Taiwanese media reports that the Obama administration has agreed to upgrade the island's fleet of American-made 146 F-16A/Bs, which it received...

China says arms sales to Taiwan are the cause of Sino-US defence tensions. But even if they stopped now, ties would be chilly. The poor state of Chinese-US military ties were laid bare earlier this month at a leading Asian security conference. In his June 5 speech to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates expressed annoyance at the refusal of the government in Beijing to allow him to visit the People’s Republic of China during his trip to Asia. He went on to express regret that the United States and China hadn’t managed to establish a...

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended US arms sales to Taipei on Wednesday, citing China's "extraordinary" deployment of cruise and ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan. Both Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged concern over China's suspension of military contacts with the United States because of the arms sales. But the secretary said the US arms sales were in keeping with the Taiwan Relations Act, and suggested the improvement in relations between Beijing and Taipei had not diminished the need for them. "We certainly applaud the growing links between Taiwan and the Peoples Republic,"...

Taiwan might have to wait until the end of next year before the United States approves the sale of F16C/D jets, reports said Sunday. The government has been asking Washington for 66 of the more sophisticated C/D versions of its existing F16A/B fighters, but the Obama Administration has so far not given the go-ahead for the deal. The current visits by American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt and by three U.S. Senate Democrats – Dianne Feinstein of California, Mark Udall of Colorado and Kay Hagan of North Carolina – have led to more speculation about progress on the arms...

The U.S. is considering an ROC request to purchase 66 F-16 C/D jet fighters, according to Legislative President Wang Jin-pyng June 3. Wang said American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond F. Burghardt, who arrived on the island this week, told him Washington is giving the matter its “utmost consideration.” Burghardt is visiting Taiwan to discuss economic and defense issues with President Ma Ying-jeou, Vice President Vincent C. Siew, Premier Wu Den-yih and Wang, as well as Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party officials. Wang said Burghardt expressed concern about whether the budget for the arms deal with the U.S. would meet...

China's rapid development of ballistic and cruise missile forces is altering the balance of power in Asia and threatens U.S. forces in a conflict over Taiwan and beyond, according to a forthcoming report. "Driven in large measure by a Taiwan scenario, China's capacity to conduct a successful aerospace campaign to quickly gain a decisive advantage in the air is growing faster than the defenses that its neighbors, including Taiwan, Japan, perhaps India, and even U.S. forces operating in the Western Pacific, can field," stated the report by the Project 2049 Institute, a private research institute, that highlighted "significant advances" in...