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Monday, April 28, 2014

Obama says Philippine pact promotes Asia security 28/04/2014

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Barack Obama said a 10-year agreement signed Monday to give the U.S military greater access to Philippine bases will help promote regional security, improve armed forces training and shorten response times to humanitarian crises, including natural disasters.

The deal was signed as Obama arrived in the Philippines, ending a weeklong, four-nation Asia tour on something of a high note. The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement will give American forces temporary access to selected military camps and allow them to preposition fighter jets and ships and is being seen as an effort by Washington to counter Chinese aggression in the region.

Concerns about the U.S role military role here led to recent clashes outside the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Manila between police and more than 100 left-wing activists who protested Obama's visit and the new security arrangement. Activists say the agreement reverses democratic gains achieved when huge U.S. military bases were shut down in the early 1990s, ending nearly a century of American military presence in the Philippines, a sensitive issue in this former U.S. colony.

Obama sought to allay those concerns, saying in an interview that the deal is not about U.S. dominance over the Philippines.

"Greater cooperation between American and Filipino forces would enhance our ability to train, exercise and operate with each other and respond even faster to a range of challenges, including humanitarian crises and disasters like Typhoon Yolanda," Obama told ABS-CBN News in a written interview with the Philippine news outlet. The White House released the interview before Obama arrived in the Southeast Asian island nation to highlight the pact.

"It would also help the Philippines continue to build its defense capabilities, and it would help us promote security cooperation across the region," he said.

Filipino facilities would remain under Philippine control and U.S. forces would rotate in and out for joint training, as some already do, and not be based in the country, he said. The Philippine Constitution bars permanent U.S. military bases, although hundreds of American military personnel have been deployed in the southern Philippines since 2002 to provide counterterrorism training to Filipino soldiers fighting Muslim militants.

Many details, including the size and duration of the U.S. military presence, remain to be worked out with the Philippine government. The White House has declined to say which places are being considered under the agreement, but that the long-shuttered U.S. facility at Subic Bay could be one of the locations.

U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg and Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin signed the agreement at the main military camp in the capital, Manila, shortly before Obama's arrival in the country.

Economic and security cooperation were among the issues on the agenda for Obama's private talks with President Benigno Aquino on Monday, the first day of the U.S. president's overnight visit. Obama was to be the honored guest at a state dinner at Malacanang Palace later Monday. On Tuesday, he planned to pay his respects at the U.S. military cemetery at Fort Bonifacio and address hundreds of troops stationed there before Air Force One brings him back to Washington.

The Philippines was the final leg of Obama's Asia tour, a trip aimed at reaffirming U.S. defense commitments and shoring up relations with allies in the region. He arrived from Malaysia, following earlier stops in Japan and South Korea, and immediately rode his helicopter to the palace for a cannon salute greeting as a military band played "The Star-Spangled Banner."

At each stop along his tour, Obama reaffirmed the U.S. treaty commitments to defend its Asian allies, including in their territorial disputes with China.

With its anemic military, the Philippines has struggled to bolster its territorial defense amid China's increasingly assertive behavior in the oil- and gas-rich South China Sea, which Obama flew over on his way here, according to the Air Force One cockpit. Manila's effort has dovetailed with Washington's intention to shift its focus away from the Middle East, after years of heavy military engagement there, to the economically booming Asian region, partly as a counterweight to China's growing clout.

In the interview, Obama reiterated his view that maritime and territorial conflicts should be resolved peacefully, instead of through force.

Chinese paramilitary ships took effective control of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground off the northwestern Philippines, in 2012. Last year, Chinese coast guard ships surrounded another contested offshore South China Sea territory, the Second Thomas Shoal.

While in the Philippines, human rights groups say Obama should press the government to fulfill pledges to improve its record. They say Obama should use future U.S. military cooperation as an incentive for the government to investigate and prosecute abuses.

Source: YAHOO NEWS
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and JIM GOMEZ

Friday, February 28, 2014

Doha gas blast kills and injures dozens

DOHA (Reuters) - Twelve people including two children were killed on Thursday when a gas tank exploded at a Turkish restaurant in the Qatari capital Doha, authorities in the Gulf Arab state reported. About 30 others were injured in the blast at the Istanbul Restaurant that one security source said was accidental. Another security source at the scene said two Asian children were among the dead. Major General Saad bin Jassim al-Khalifi, Qatar's head of public security, said non-Qatari Arabs, Asians and one Qatari were among the dead and wounded. Preliminary investigations suggested a gas tank exploded, setting off a fire and causing part of the building to collapse, he told a news conference. But investigations were continuing to discover why the gas tank exploded. "It was a very big blast," he said. "It blew away cars and shrapnel was scattered 50 to 100 meters away." Chunks of masonry, metal debris and shattered glass lay outside the restaurant in a northwestern district of the city. Cars nearby were apparently crumpled by the explosion.

The incident was the deadliest in Qatar since May 2012, when at least 19 foreign nationals, including 13 children, were killed by a fire in an upscale shopping mall. In a separate incident on Thursday, medics and security sources at the Hamad medical city in Doha said dozens of people were hurt in the afternoon due to a gas leak at a chemical plant in an industrial area near Doha. They gave no figures or details on their condition, but said helicopters were despatched to fly victims of the leak to the Hamad medical center quickly as ambulances had been caught in heavy traffic caused by the restaurant incident. The gas- and oil-rich Gulf Arab state with an estimated national population of at least 200,000 has one of the highest standards of living in the world. The bulk of the 2 million population of Qatar are foreigners. Description Toggle Deadly blast rocks restaurant in Qatar. A gas cylinder explosion in the Qatar's capital Doha killed and wounded several people on February 27, 2014. The explosion tore through a restaurant attached to a mall in Doha, according to Qatari Television which said it could not be immediately clear if the blast was accidental. (AFP). The restaurant is on the outskirts of the capital near Landmark mall, a well-known shopping complex usually usy with families. "I was eating in a restaurant close by and suddenly heard a big (blast) and everything around me exploded," Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Kareem, an Indian driver, told Reuters at Hamad hospital. "I have too much damage now, my legs are broken and my head is (wounded)."

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

California couple finds $10 million $$$$$$

Monday, February 24, 2014

Why Do We Have Body Hair

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Saudi Arabia ‘seeking Pakistani arms for Syrian rebels’

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia is in talks with Pakistan to provide anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets to Syrian rebels to try to tip the balance in the war to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, a Saudi source said Sunday.

The United States has long opposed arming the rebels with such weapons, fearing they might end up in the hands of extremists, but Syrian opposition figures say the failure of Geneva peace talks seems to have led Washington to soften its opposition.

Pakistan makes its own version of Chinese shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, known as Anza, and anti-tank rockets -- both of which Riyadh is trying to get for the rebels, said the source, who is close to Saudi decision-makers, requesting anonymity.

The source pointed to a visit to Riyadh earlier this month by Pakistan's army chief of staff, General Raheel Sharif, who met Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz.

Prince Salman himself last week led a large delegation to Pakistan, shortly after Saudi's chief diplomat Prince Saud al-Faisal visited the kingdom's key ally.

Jordan will be providing facilities to store the weapons before they are delivered to rebels within Syria, the same source said.

AFP could not obtain confirmation from officials in Saudi, Pakistan or Jordan.
The head of the Syrian opposition, Ahmad Jarba, promised during a flying visit to northern Syria last week that "powerful arms will be arriving soon."
"The United States could allow their allies provide the rebels with anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons following the failure of Geneva talks and the renewed tension with Russia," said the head of the Gulf Research Centre, Abdel Aziz al-Sager.
Providing those weapons to the rebels "relieves pressure on the US in the short-term," said Simon Henderson, director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Programme at the Washington Institue for Near East Policy.
"But the long-term political worry is that Manpads (Man-portable air-defence systems) will leak and be used to bring down a civilian airliner somewhere in the world."
Rebels have long said that anti-aircraft rockets would help them defend themselves against Syrian warplanes, which regularly bomb rebel-held areas with barrels loaded with TNT and other ordinance.
The nearly-three-year conflict in Syria has torn the country apart, killing more than 140,000 people, including some 50,000 civilians, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Rising Saudi influence
Saudi Arabia has a strong influence on Syria's southern front, where it coordinates with Jordan, and has helped unite the rebel fighters in the area, according to Syrian opposition sources.
On the other hand, Qatar and Turkey are responsible for coordinating with the rebels on the northern front, said an official of the Syrian opposition, requesting anonymity.
Saudi Arabia has come to eclipse Qatar as the main supporter of the Syrian rebels, a development illustrated by the election last July of Ahmad Jarba, who has strong Saudi links, to lead the Syrian National Coalition, the main umbrella opposition group.

The trend appeared to continue with the dismissal last week of General Selim Idriss, the top commander of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, who was considered close to Qatar, according to an opposition source.
The main criticism of Idriss was "bad distribution of weapons" and "errors in battle," said another opposition source.
Idriss, who has refused his dismissal, has been replaced by Brigadier General Abdel Ilah al-Bashir, the leader of the rebel military council for the region of Quneitra in southern Syria.
On its internal front, Saudi Arabia has sidelined intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who had been leading Riyadh's efforts concerning Syria, according to a Western diplomat.
Diplomats have said that the file has been passed to the interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, known for his successful crackdown on Al-Qaeda following a wave of deadly attacks in the kingdom between 2003 and 2006.
Bandar's management had triggered American criticism, diplomats said.
The Saudi royal himself has reproached Washington for its decision not to intervene militarily in Syria, and for preventing its allies from providing rebels with much-needed weapons, diplomats added.