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Chinese Su-27s Fly Mock Combat in Turkey Posted by David A. Fulghum at 9/30/2010 10:29 AM CDT An unexpected military cooperative exercise between China and Turkey has caught the eye of Washington-based analysts. The two air forces were involved in a joint air exercise in the central Anatolian province of Konya, the first such exercise involving the air forces of China (People’s Liberation Army Air Force – PLAAF) and NATO member Turkey. Part of the significance is that the PLAAF recently demonstrated major advances in long-range strike during their own “Peace Mission 2010.” The latest joint exercise, “Anatolian Eagle,” in...

Tunisian authorities have reportedly arrested nine soldiers for allegedly planning attacks on visiting American military officers. The arrests were made under the Tunisian anti-terrorism law, lawyers said. The detainees, two of whom are officers in the Tunisian Air Force, planned to assassinate American military officers who visit the country periodically for military training and joint exercises with the Tunisian army, the German Deutsche Press Agency (DPA) reported. Dr. Jack Kalpakian, a political expert at Morocco’s Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, said he was not surprised to hear news of the terror sweep. “Tunisia’s government has followed a very secularist policy and...

Washington - The US Federal Reserve in a joint effort with the European and Swiss central banks on Friday expanded lending to banks struggling to raise capital amid an ongoing financial crisis. The Fed increased its offering through a bi-weekly Term Auction Facility - first created in December to help investment banks boost liquidity - from 50 billion dollars to 75 billion dollars. The European Central Bank (ECB) boosted its own bi-weekly auction offering from 15 billion dollars to 25 billion dollars. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) said it would begin offering bi-weekly auctions of up to 6 billion dollars....

Banking is one of our economy's most important players, financing the aspirations of everyone from homeowners to private-equity titans. Since last summer, the weakening collateralized debt market has mired the banking industry in one of the stickiest spots it's seen in decades. So when Fed chairman Ben Bernanke was faced with the possibility that panic in the banking industry might turn an ugly problem into an outright catastrophe, he sprung into action in ways we've never seen. A bit of background Banks must keep specific amounts of cash on hand, called required reserves, to ensure that they can meet customers'...

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