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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel sent more troops to the Gaza border Wednesday, rapidly moving forward with preparations for a possible ground offensive as the next stage of its military assault on the coastal territory’s Hamas rulers.
Israel rebuffed calls by world leaders for a truce, and Hamas also was cold to a cease-fire.

Instead, both intensified their fire. Israel bombed a mosque that it said was used to store rockets as well as vital smuggling tunnels along the Egyptian border, and the Islamic militants hammered southern Israeli cities with about 60 rockets.

Israeli troops trudged between dozens of tanks in muddy, rain-sodden fields outside Gaza, assembling equipment, cleaning weapons and scrubbing out tank barrels. Their commanders moved forward with preparations for a ground operation, said an Israeli defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled emergency consultations Wednesday night to discuss an Arab request for a legally binding and enforceable resolution to ensure an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said he was on instructions from Arab League foreign ministers who met in Cairo.

Diplomatic efforts by U.S., European and Middle Eastern leaders appeared to be having little effect. A French proposal for a 48-hour cease-fire to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza failed to gain traction. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the time was not ripe to consider it.

A separate proposal by Turkey and Egypt, two of Israel’s few allies in the Muslim world, also seemed to be attracting little serious study in Israel or Gaza, where Hamas leaders dismissed talk of a truce.

With a shrinking number of targets to hit from the air and top Hamas leaders deep in hiding, a ground operation seemed all the more likely. In five days of raids, Israeli warplanes carried out about 500 sorties against Hamas targets and helicopters flew hundreds more combat missions, a senior Israeli military officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

The government has approved the call-up of more than 9,000 reserve soldiers. Heavy rain clouds cover that could hinder ground forces were expected to lift Thursday.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said the death toll was estimated at 320-390 and the number of injured at 1,500-1,900. Between 20% and 25% of the dead are either women or children, said Karen Abu Zayd, U.N. Relief and Works Agency commissioner.

Hamas says some 200 uniformed members of its security forces have been killed, and the U.N. says at least 60 Palestinian civilians have died.

In Israel, three civilians and a soldier have been killed by rocket fire, which has reached deeper into Israel than ever. The sites of the missile hits have drawn curious crowds.

In the Negev desert city of Beersheba, people visited a school where a rocket made a direct hit Tuesday evening, slamming through the ceiling and showering debris on students’ desks. A visitor illuminated by a shaft of light through the hole in the roof said with some astonishment, “This is my daughter’s seat.”

In Gaza, the sites of airstrikes have also attracted the curious and the defiant, including a Palestinian man who planted a green Hamas flag atop a mound of debris at a flattened mosque, its minaret still thrusting toward a stormy sky.

The Israeli military, which leveled the mosque Wednesday, said that it was being used as a missile storage site and that the bombs dropped on it set off secondary explosions. It was the fifth mosque hit in the campaign.

The chief of Israel’s internal security services, Yuval Diskin, told a government meeting that Hamas members had hidden inside mosques, believing they would be safe from airstrikes and using them as command centers, according to an Israeli security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to share the information.

Other militants were hiding in hospitals, some disguised as doctors and nurses, Diskin said, according to the official.

Echoing Israel’s cool response to truce proposals, a senior Hamas leader with ties to its military wing said that now was not the right time to call off the fight. Hamas was unhappy with the six-month truce that ended just before the fighting began because it didn’t result in an easing of Israel’s crippling economic blockade of Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said that although Hamas leaders had been driven underground, the Gaza government was functioning and had met in the past few days.

“What our people want is clear: an immediate stop to all kinds of aggression, the end of the siege by all means, the opening of all border crossings, and international guarantees that the occupation will not renew this terrorist war again,” Nunu said.

Israel’s latest airstrikes concentrated on crushing the many smuggling tunnels under Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. They provide a crucial lifeline, not just for Hamas rulers, but also for bringing in food and fuel for Gaza’s people.

Holmes, the U.N. humanitarian chief, expressed concern about the fighting’s impact on civilians. He said hospitals were struggling to cope with casualties and the lack of fuel deliveries had forced Gaza’s power plant to shut down Tuesday.

But U.N. officials said the major need was grain and other food. Holmes said the Kerem Shalom crossing remained open and 55 trucks got through Tuesday and about 60 on Wednesday, mainly carrying food. He said Israel had been “cooperative in principle about these supplies, but we need to see more results.”

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said U.S. officials were seeing “a good flow” of medical and food supplies into Gaza.

Israel and Egypt blockaded Gaza after Hamas fighters violently seized control of the territory in 2007 and the two nations have opened their borders only to let in limited humanitarian aid.

On Wednesday, several wounded Palestinians were taken across the Israeli and Egyptian borders for treatment, including a child bundled in blankets.

Gaza’s southern smuggling zone was hit again in morning airstrikes that left vast craters over the collapsed underground passages.

Diskin, the Israeli security chief, told a Cabinet meeting that the tunnel network had been badly damaged. Israel said more than 80 tunnels were destroyed. Several hundred tunnels ran under the border before Israeli warplanes began striking.

Hamas was trying to smuggle some of its activists to Egypt through still-passable tunnels, Diskin said.

Israel fears that opening border crossings would allow Hamas — which remains officially committed to Israel’s destruction — to further strengthen its hold on the territory.

Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Hamas rival who controls only the West Bank, suggested he would not continue peace talks with Israel at any price. He said on Palestinian TV that the stalled talks had become useless and were not reaching any of the goals — namely the creation of a Palestinian state.

“Negotiation is not a goal by itself; it’s a tool,” Abbas said. “Unless it is a tool to achieve peace … there is no need for it to continue.”

Gaza’s militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel on Wednesday evening, including one in the city of Ashkelon that was caught on video. It showed a man on a sidewalk ducking for cover along a wall as the missile exploded in a cloud of smoke a few steps behind him.

The city of 120,000 people 11 miles north of Gaza has been a frequent target.

Israel’s rescue service said it had responded to 250 rocket attack scenes since Saturday and treated 48 wounded, most of whom had light injuries.

School was canceled in much of Israel’s south because of the rocket threat. The 18,000 students at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, southern Israel’s only university, were also told to stay home.

Beersheba, 19 miles from Gaza, had never before been within range of Gaza rockets, reflecting the increasing sophistication of what started out as homemade weaponry.

Now militants are firing weapons made in China and Iran that have dramatically expanded their range and put more than one-tenth of Israel’s population in their sights, defense officials said.

In Gaza, two Palestinian medics were killed and two others were wounded when an Israeli missile hit next to their ambulance east of Gaza City, Palestinians said. The Israeli military said it did not know of the incident.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

SEOUL, Jan 1 (AFP) Jan 01, 2009
Space War

North Korea called Thursday for a stronger military and lashed out at South Korea’s “treacherous” conservative government in a policy-setting New Year editorial message.

The hardline communist state, however, reaffirmed its commitment to denuclearisation and regional peace. It omitted any criticism of the United States in the run-up to the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama.

After a year marked by persistent speculation about the health of leader Kim Jong-Il, the joint editorial stressed the country’s purported political stability under what it called “a great strategist and peerless statesman.”

It acknowledged economic shortcomings and hardships, calling for efforts to put production on what it called a normal track.

“A radical turn should be brought about in the efforts to improve the people’s living standard,” said the joint editorial in the newspapers of the ruling party, army and youth league.

“To relieve scarcity of food is a pressing problem.”

The editorial stressed the Songun (army first) policy, which prioritises the welfare of the 1.1 million-strong military over civilians.

“The habit of giving priority to arms, military affairs, should be established more thoroughly in the whole of society,” the editorial said, according to excerpts on the English service of the official Korean Central News Agency.

“Great efforts should constantly be put to the development of the defence industry as required by the line of economic construction in the Songun era and everything necessary be provided for it on a preferential basis.”

Six-nation negotiations on scrapping the North’s nuclear weapons programme are stalled by a dispute over how the North’s disclosures of its atomic activity should be checked.

Relations with South Korea worsened after conservative President Lee Myung-Bak took office in February and promised to take a firmer line in cross-border relations.

Lee said he would link major economic aid to progress in denuclearisation, a stance which enraged Pyongyang. It has cut off almost all official contacts with Seoul and in December imposed tight new border controls.

The editorial slammed Lee’s government for failing to commit to summit accords signed between Pyongyang and previous liberal administrations in Seoul.

Seoul’s rulers, it said, seek to “restore the era of fascist dictatorship and are hell-bent on inter-Korean confrontation.”

The editorial exhorted South Koreans to “make more dynamic efforts to put an end to the fascist rule of the sycophantic and treacherous conservative authorities and remove the danger of war.”

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

DATE:30/12/08
SOURCE:Flightglobal.com
By Stephen Trimble

The US Air Force has awarded a notionally $468 million contract to Northrop Grumman to launch low-rate initial production (LRIP) of the B-2 radar modernization programme (RMP).

The contract award means the five-year-old effort to upgrade the B-2’s radar antenna to an active electronically scanned array in a new frequency band can shift from development into early production.

The award also indicates that Northrop’s redesign of the array, which required an extra year to complete, meets the USAF’s standards. The USAF has not disclosed why the redesign was necessary.

Northrop officials were unavailable to comment immediately about the USAF announcement.

22 Dec 2008 | Ref. 301/2008
BAE Systems

ADELAIDE, South Australia - BAE Systems has completed its acquisition from Tenix Pty Limited (“Tenix”) of 100% of Tenix Toll Defence Logistics Pty Limited (TTDL), formerly a joint venture company of Tenix and Toll Holdings Limited, for A$24 million in cash, after receiving all required approvals.

TTDL manages the Defence Integrated Distribution System (DIDS) contract which provides warehousing, maintenance and distribution services to the Australian Defence Force (ADF). TTDL has approximately 1,000 employees deployed across more than 20 sites and will be integrated within BAE Systems Australia’s Land Business Unit.

The acquisition expands BAE Systems Australia’s operations significantly and will take employee numbers in excess of 6,500.

Jim McDowell, Chief Executive of BAE Systems Australia, said, “The acquisition of TTDL adds great value to our company and what we offer our major customer.The DIDS contract provides a strong basis on which BAE Systems can work with the ADF to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its logistics services.”
In June 2008 BAE Systems completed the acquisition of Tenix Defence. This acquisition significantly enhanced the depth and breadth of the company’s capabilities in Australia and made BAE Systems Australia the largest in-country supplier to the ADF.

About BAE Systems:
BAE Systems is the premier global defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With approximately 100,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems’ sales exceeded £15.7 billion (US $31.4 billion) in 2007.

For further information contact:
Simon Latimer, BAE Systems Australia
Tel: +61 (0) 8 8480 8759, Mob: +61 (0) 401 674 110
simon.latimer@baesystems.com

Lindsay Walls, BAE Systems plc
Tel: +44 (0) 1252 383074
24 hr media hotline: +44 (0) 7801 717739
lindsay.walls@baesystems.com

Agence France-Presse | Dec 30, 2008
Defence Talk

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistan on Tuesday cut off supplies to NATO and US forces in Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass as security forces launched a major operation against militants there, an official said.

The operation comes after a series of spectacular raids by suspected Taliban militants on foreign military supply depots in northwest Pakistan earlier this month in which hundreds of NATO and US-led coalition vehicles were destroyed.

Pakistani security forces sent tanks, helicopter gunships and artillery units into the lawless Khyber tribal region on the Afghan border before dawn, the area’s administrator Tariq Hayat told reporters in Peshawar.

“We have launched an operation against militants and armed groups in Jamrud,” the gateway to the Khyber Pass, Hayat said.

The main highway linking Peshawar to the border town of Torkham has been shut down until the operation is complete, he said, adding: “Supplies to NATO forces have temporarily been suspended.”

“This is a giant operation. It will continue until we achieve our objective,” Hayat said, adding that the operation could be expanded beyond the area near Jamrud — located between Peshawar and Torkham — if necessary.

The Khyber tribal area official said the operation was aimed at putting a stop to attacks on NATO supply vehicles, as well as a spate of kidnappings for ransom in the tribal badlands, where Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants are active.

“We have 26 targets — we will eliminate their hideouts,” Hayat said, adding that three people had been injured so far, including a security official.

The bulk of the supplies and equipment required by NATO and US-led forces battling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is shipped to Pakistan’s largest port, Karachi, in the south.

From there, the containers of food, fuel, vehicles and munitions are taken by truck to depots outside Peshawar before being transported to Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass.

But the fabled road passes through the heart of Pakistan’s lawless tribal zone, where extremists sought refuge after Afghanistan’s hardline Taliban regime was ousted in a US-led invasion at the end of 2001.

Two weeks ago, several haulage companies in Pakistan refused to ply the 50-kilometre (30-mile) route, saying the security of their drivers could not be ensured.

But the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) downplayed the significance of the move by the Khyber Transport Association, saying it was continuing to receive supplies.

“We continue to monitor the impact of that. It is not our only means of (getting) supplies,” an ISAF spokesman, British Royal Navy Captain Mark Windsor, told AFP.

Senior Pakistani officials said last week that some troops had been redeployed from the tribal areas to the country’s eastern border with India, amid simmering tensions with New Delhi over the Mumbai attacks.

The move sparked concerns that the fight against extremists in the rugged border region could suffer.

<---End of Quote--->

Related Article:
U.S. Seeks More Supply Routes for Afghanistan

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
Global Security

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31, 2008 – As Pakistani troops apply renewed pressure on militants who have threatened a major supply line, military transportation officials are seeking alternate routes for supplying U.S. and NATO troops deployed in Afghanistan.

Pakistani forces yesterday renewed offensive operations targeting militants who, in recent weeks, have attacked some supply convoys that transit the Khyber Pass.

That supply route runs hundreds of miles from the Pakistani port city of Karachi to Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan and then through the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. The Khyber Pass route provides about 75 percent of the U.S. supplies to troops in Afghanistan.

The Pakistanis’ action, which caused a temporary closure of the Khyber Pass supply route, was hailed in a joint statement issued by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan.

“We are pleased with the operation to clear out the insurgents in the areas adjacent to the pass, so that our supplies can get through unhindered,” the statement said. “This temporary delay will result in long-term gains for all that use that passage route.

“There is no immediate impact on our ability to provide supplies to the troops,” the statement concluded.

Still, military officials have been looking for other options. U.S. Transportation Command’s top officer, Air Force Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, traveled to several Central Asian countries in November to explore options for establishing added supply routes for Afghanistan operations, Transcom spokeswoman Cynthia Bauer said today during a telephone interview with American Forces Press Service. Transcom is based at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

Bauer declined to mention specific countries, but Central Asian nations north of Afghanistan include Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan allows U.S. military cargo flights to use its airfields.

“We’ve been looking at alternate distribution routes for a while,” “[It’s] just good business practice and U.S. Transcom’s responsibility,” Bauer said, especially given the unpredictability of war.

“This is a comprehensive enterprise to bring supplies to the troops in Afghanistan, accomplished through teamwork with commercial partners and working relationships with other governments,” Bauer said.

Transcom would use private contractors for supply distribution, Bauer said, noting this process would provide potential economic benefits for Central Asian countries and Eurasia’s Caucasus region. Local purchase of supplies needed in Afghanistan is another possibility, she added.

Contractors crossing the Khyber Pass from Pakistan are trucking mostly nonmilitary items such as food and other basic needs to troops in Afghanistan, Bauer said.

“You’re not seeing MRAPs” going through the Khyber Pass, she said, referring to the acronym for the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles used in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. forces in Afghanistan also have stockpiled supplies, Bauer pointed out, noting there’s no danger they’ll run out.

By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY

BAGHDAD — As 2008 ends, U.S. troop deaths for the year in Iraq and Afghanistan are the lowest combined total since the Iraq war began in 2003.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, warned against complacency as the Americans hand off security to Iraqi forces in the new year and more U.S. forces head to Afghanistan.

“In military terms, transitions are always the most dangerous,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure we don’t have any seams in our transition.”

In December, at least 15 U.S. servicemembers died of combat and non-combat injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lowest combined monthly toll since the Iraq war began, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Pentagon data. The previous low was 18 in November.

Deaths for the year as of Tuesday were 467 in both wars, lower even than the partial year of 2003, when fighting in Iraq began in March.

Odierno said brewing tensions in Iraq between Arabs and Kurds in the north, interference by Iran and simmering internal political tensions pose potential for large-scale attacks against U.S. forces.

Plus, the Pentagon plans to send as many as 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan by summer.

The next test will be elections Jan. 31 for provincial councils. “Al-Qaeda will try to exploit the elections because they don’t want them to happen. So I think they will attempt to create some violence and uncertainty in the population,” Odierno said. “The next 60 days are a critical period.”

Bombings remain a daily threat in Iraq, mostly hurting civilians. Military deaths have gone down significantly in Iraq since the buildup of U.S. troops in 2007 and a push to recruit former Sunni insurgents into Iraq’s security forces.

The so-called surge in troops quieted al-Qaeda and Iranian-backed “special groups,” said Col. Bill Buckner, a U.S. military spokesman. “We aggressively pursued their leadership and networks, significantly disrupting their activities.”

For now, major military operations are limited, he said. Iraq attacks in 2008 dropped to an average of 10 a day from nearly 180 a day in 2007, the Pentagon said. “If you look back to a year or two ago, it would have been unthinkable that we’d be where we are right now,” said Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq.

The drop in deaths also stems from U.S. troops turning over more responsibility to Iraqi security forces to lead patrols and anti-insurgent operations.

Starting Thursday, the 146,000 troops in Iraq will operate under a new security agreement that gives Iraq a stronger role. The pact requires U.S. troops to leave the country by Jan. 1, 2012.

Iraq added more than 39,000 police and 30,000 soldiers in 2008, Buckner said. In May, coalition forces conducted 50% to 60% of patrols. By December, up to 70% were led by Iraqi Security Forces.

Dec 30, 2:55 PM EST

By SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press Writer
Journalnow.com

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — The Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip has unleashed outrage across the Middle East - but the anger is being vented as much against Egypt as it is at Israel.

Protesters have attacked Egyptian embassies, accusing Cairo of helping Israel’s longtime blockade of the territory and even giving a green light for the offensive - a sign of the gulf between an Arab public and some U.S.-allied governments that dislike Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Demonstrators broke into the Egyptian consulate in the Yemeni city of Aden on Tuesday, trashing the interior, throwing computers out windows and burning the Egyptian flag on the roof. More than 500 protesters massed outside Egypt’s embassy in Syria, as others did days earlier in Lebanon.

During a demonstration in the Lebanese city of Sidon this week, people chanted slogans denouncing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as “a pig” and a “collaborator” with Israel.

Mubarak, whose nation is one of only two Arab states to have peace treaties with Israel, on Tuesday accused his critics of seeking “political profit” from the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

His government vehemently denied backing Israel’s attack. And the foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, announced that Egypt was working with Turkey, which has strong ties with Israel, on an initiative to stop the offensive, restore a truce and open Gaza’s borders under international supervision.

Egypt already had angered many Arabs by largely closing its Rafah border crossing into Gaza since the Islamic militants of Hamas violently took over the territory in 2007. Rafah is the sole access to Gaza that does not go through Israel, which has imposed a suffocating economic blockade on the coastal strip.

Embarrassing for Egyptian officials, Mubarak met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni only a day before Israel launched its assault, and the foreign minister - though he urged Israel to show restraint - was photographed smiling and shaking hands with her at a news conference.

Now, with television across the region showing the destruction and death in Gaza, Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah - both allies of Syria and Iran - are stoking the anger against Egypt by accusing it of giving an OK to Israel to end Hamas rule in Gaza.

“We do not accept that the attack on Gaza be announced from the heart of Cairo,” Mohammed Nazzal, a Hamas senior leader, shouted on Al-Arabiya television Sunday, referring to the Livni visit.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah charged that Egypt’s government was “taking part in the crime” against Palestinians and called on Egyptians to rise up and force the Rafah crossing open.

The anger could severely damage the key role Egypt has played as a mediator between Hamas on one side and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel on the other.

Egypt has been in a tough position because of Hamas’s control of Gaza.

It worries Hamas rule is boosting Iran’s influence in the region and could fuel Islamic militancy on its own soil. And it is under pressure from Israel, Abbas and the U.S. not to make any concessions that would bolster Hamas.

Yet, Egypt’s leaders don’t want to be seen as fueling a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Egyptian television gave heavy coverage to several truckloads of medical and other supplies that Egypt sent in through Rafah and 36 wounded Palestinians who were brought out to Egyptian hospitals.

But on Tuesday, Mubarak insisted Egypt would not fully open Rafah unless Abbas’ Palestinian Authority controls the crossing and European monitors required under a 2005 agreement are present. Otherwise, he said, opening the crossing would “deepen the breach” between Hamas and Abbas, who Egypt’s government calls the legitimate leader of the Palestinians.

Aboul Gheit, the foreign minister, initially seemed to blame Hamas for provoking the Israeli offensive, saying soon after it began Saturday that “those who didn’t listen” to warnings carry the responsibility.

Such talk put Egypt in the uncomfortable position of echoing the arguments of Israel, which says it acted to halt Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns. Since then, Egypt has been more vocal in its calls for Israel to stop the bombardment without conditions.

On Tuesday, Aboul Gheit denied that Egypt did not do enough to prevent the Israeli offensive, saying Mubarak warned Livni not to attack Gaza “because it will have repercussions on the region.”

But the clamor over Gaza has underlined an increasing divide in the Middle East that pits pro-Western countries like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia against Syria and Iran and their allied militant groups, Hamas and Hezbollah.

In an unusually vocal criticism for an Egyptian politician, Abdullah Kamal, a member of Egypt’s ruling party, denounced Hamas on Monday as a pawn of Iran, saying Iran and Syria are trying to make “Iran as the leader of the region through its militias, whether Hezbollah or Hamas.”

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-30 23:52:29

DESTROYER WUHAN, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) — A Chinese naval fleet en route to the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia for an escort mission against pirates completed its first replenishment at sea Tuesday.

The fleet, two destroyers and a supply ship, has entered the Indian Ocean after a four-day voyage which set sail from China’s southernmost island province of Hainan.

In the afternoon, the supply ship Weishanhu successfully refueled the two destroyers Wuhan and Haikou with several hundred tons of oil, an operation that an official for fleet support described as “highly efficient.”

The fleet will cruise for about 10 days before arriving in the Gulf of Aden to join a multinational patrol in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes endangered by surging piracy.

The recent pirate attack on a Chinese fishing vessel has raised great concern of the Chinese government and people. Statistics showed that some 1,265 Chinese commercial vessels have passed through the gulf so far this year and seven have been attacked.

The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions calling on all countries and regions to help patrol the gulf and waters off Somalia since June. The latest resolution authorized countries to take all necessary measures in Somalia, including in its airspace to stop the pirates

12/12/2008
By Cpl. Aaron Rooks, 2nd Marine Logistics Group
Military Spot

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — For roughly two to three minutes while the rainfall poured down and the humidity constantly rose, the Marines saw a taste of what combat fitness is like. Within a split second of hearing the word go, every thought was solely about when it would come to an end. Exhaustion immediately kicked in, muscles quickly began to cramp and cringe, and keeping a breath became an afterthought.

Although the Marine Corps’ new Combat Fitness Test cannot truly show its men and women what combat is really like, it’s definitely a good start. The test, which is currently implemented as a pass or fail event until Sept. 30, 2009, is designed to measure the physical fitness of Marines using tests that reflect operational demands.

The CFT did just that for the Marines of Headquarters and Service Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), here, Dec. 10. The test not only served as a good measurement for the new exam’s quality, but it measured how prepared these individuals are for their upcoming yearlong deployment to Iraq.

“It’s a good benchmark for them to test themselves to see where they’re at physically before going into a deployed environment,” said Capt. George Camia, the H&S Company (Fwd) commanding officer. “This tests all their core strength that they’ll need when they go into harms way.”

ALMAR 032/08 identifies the changes to the Marine Corps physical fitness program. The message, released Aug. 8, states that the CFT is a three-part test with universal application developed around operational vignettes that may represent a Marine’s combat experience.

The three parts consist of an 880-yard boots and utilities run to contact, a 30-pound ammunition can lift for two minutes and a 300-yard maneuver under fire course. In this final segment, which is commonly identified as the toughest, Marines perform a series of combat related tasks to include a combat low and high crawl, an ammunition re-supply, a body drag, a casualty carry and a grenade throw.

The only words that 21-year-old disbursing clerk Cpl. Matthew Nagel could say when he completed the CFT was “tired,” repetitively. A few minutes later, the Coventry, R.I. native said this was the third time he negotiated the course. He added that the course has only become tougher each time.

“I was dying at about the middle of the fireman’s carry,” Nagel said, still struggling to catch his breath. “You get this severe burn feeling in your thighs and your feet. By the time you pick up those ammo cans, you feel like collapsing.”

Nagel is approaching his first deployment in the Marine Corps. Even though he has yet to step foot outside the states into a combat environment, he is sure the pain he felt is something that can be compared to what Marines must feel in combat.

Cpl. Katherine Meyer, a landing support specialist from Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd MLG (Fwd), brought a different perspective to the CFT. The native of Cleveland is nearing her second combat deployment to Iraq. She experienced multiple combat engagements while serving as a 240-G medium machine gun operator for convoys throughout her previous tour from August 2007 to March 2008.

Remembering her experiences in Iraq, she said the CFT is an accurate gauge for combat. She said a Marine who can’t move fast enough and has little core endurance could possibly lose their life.

“We spent all day lifting and running, and this is a good way to train for that,” Meyer said. “The fact is that anyone can be engaged in combat, so everyone needs this level of physical conditioning.”

The common opinion of the CFT matched that of Lance Cpl. Alex Fuller, a 27-year-old disbursing clerk with 2nd MLG. The Virginia Beach, Va. native said the test “clearly shows where Marines need to improve before they go to Iraq or anywhere else.

Nagel pointed out another aspect that makes the CFT even tougher for Marines to conquer. Just like in combat, the CFT forces Marines to think quickly on their feet. They have to determine when the right time is to drop to the ground, how much strength they must put into their throw and when and what direction to move from point to point. He said the test also forces Marines to remember proper technique for many of the movements.

He also added that if any of the Marines fail to correctly perform the movements stated above, they will lose time on their scores, but more importantly, they could lose their life in a real world scenario.

“The CFT is a good way to show Marines that they have to keep a calm, clear mind through combat,” Nagel explained. “In order to reach success, they have to be fully aware.”

The Marines agreed that the test will help level the promotion field as well. Common thought says that the smaller Marines always perform better in the original physical fitness test, consisting of pull-ups, crunches and a 3-mile run, than more muscular Marines.
In contrast, that thought says those same muscular Marines would usually perform better at the CFT events. The CFT fails to discriminate in size or weight classes, proving that every Marine has to reach the common goal of being combat ready.

“You’re never going to run three miles in PT gear when you’re in combat,” Meyer proclaimed. “This is more realistic.”

Camia said the results of the CFT clearly show that the Marine Corps is moving into more of a combat ready mindset, something Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway is looking for.

“You combine the CFT with the Combat Marksmanship Program, Combat Hunter, the Predeployment Training Program … This will help make a more well-rounded Marine and get them ready for combat,” Camia said, looking on as the Marines continued to negotiate the obstacles.

The Marines agreed. Meyer said the CFT will continue to push fellow comrades toward the standard that Marines have always lived to. She said in time, she hopes the Corps will beef up the CFT, suggesting that adding a rifle, then flak jackets will add more positive results and combat effectiveness.

Dec 30, 7:50 PM EST

By RAY LILLEY
Associated Press Writer
Journalnow.com

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Air New Zealand has tested a passenger jet powered partially with oil from a plum-sized fruit known as jatropha, in efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and cut its fuel bill.

With its test flight Tuesday, the airline became the latest carrier experiment with alternative fuels, partly due to the threat of rising oil prices but also to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from aviation, which are projected to rise by up to 90 percent by 2020 according to European Commission projections.

Air New Zealand said the two-hour flight from Auckland International Airport was the first to use what are known as second generation biofuels to power an airplane. Second generation biofuels typically use a wider range of plants and release fewer emissions than traditional biofuels like ethanol.

One engine of the Boeing 747-400 airplane was powered by a 50-50 blend of oil from jatropha plants and standard A1 jet fuel.

“Today, we stand at the earliest stages of sustainable fuel development and an important moment in aviation history,” Air New Zealand Chief Executive Rob Fyfe said shortly after the flight.

Along with investing in new technology to replace outdated fleets and new designs that reduce weight and air resistance, the International Air Transport Association says airlines are experimenting with a range of plant materials in an effort to find the jet fuel of the future.

The association, which represents 230 airlines, said it wants 10 percent of aviation fuel to come from biofuels by 2017 as part of a broad climate change plan. Air travel now generates only 2 percent of global carbon emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming, but the industry’s high growth rate has raised concern about future emissions.

“There are very promising biojet fuels, and jatropha is one of them,” association spokesman Anthony Concil said Tuesday, adding that the industry is also looking at switch grass, algae and salt-tolerant plants called halophytes.

Jatropha is a bush with round, plum-like fruit that has been found in parts of South America, Africa and Asia. Seeds from jatropha are crushed to produce a yellowish oil that is refined and mixed with diesel.

Tuesday’s flight was a joint venture by Air New Zealand, airplane maker Boeing, engine maker Rolls Royce and biofuel specialist UOP Llc, a unit of Honeywell International.

In February, Boeing and Virgin Atlantic carried out a similar test flight that included a biofuel mixture of palm and coconut oil - but that was dismissed as a publicity stunt by environmentalists who said the fuel could not be produced in the quantities needed for commercial aviation.

Continental Airlines has said on Jan. 7 it will operate a test flight out of Houston using a special blend of half conventional fuel and half biofuel with ingredients derived from algae and jatropha plants.

Simon Boxer, of environmental group Greenpeace New Zealand, said it was inevitable that airlines would show greater interest in sustainable biofuels as travelers become more aware of the harm that air travel causes the environment.

But he said it wasn’t clear whether jatropha was really sustainable. He questioned what the environmental impact would be if jatropha grew popular and more land and resources were needed to produce it on a commercial scale.

Ken Morton, a Boeing spokesman, said he expects more airlines will embrace biofuels as countries introduce emission taxes and emission trading schemes that will impact the industry.

“It makes a lot of commercial sense to invest in these biofuels,” said Morton, who was on hand for the New Zealand flight. “Certainly, it is what the public wants.”

Jatropha on first glance appears to have many of the attributes demanded from the industry.

It grows almost anywhere, so it wouldn’t compete with food crops as corn-based ethanol does and has a lower freezing point than traditional biofuels like palm oil.

India appears to be most bullish on jatropha, with plans to plant 30 million acres (12 million hectares) by 2012. Already, the Indian government says it has successfully run dozens of trucks and buses on jatropha-based biodiesel and 18.5 million acres (7.4 million hectares) of jatropha saplings are growing along the country’s railroad tracks.

While Air New Zealand heralded Tuesday’s flight as successful, Group Manager Ed Sims cautioned that it will be at least 2013 before the company can ensure easy access to the large quantities of jatropha it would need to use the biofuel on all its flights.

“Clearly we are a long, long way from being able to source commercially quantifiable amounts of the fuel and then be able to move that amount of fuel around the world to be able to power the world’s airlines,” Sims told New Zealand’s National Radio.

—-

Associated Press Environmental Writer Michael Casey in Bangkok contributed to this report.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Page last updated at 18:35 GMT, Tuesday, 30 December 2008
BBC News

A Scottish missionary and his wife, who pleaded guilty to sedition charges in Gambia, have been sentenced to one year in prison with hard labour.

David and Fiona Fulton were arrested last month after sending e-mails to groups and individuals which criticised the country’s government.

The couple changed their original not guilty plea last week.

Mr Fulton, 60, is from Troon in Ayrshire. His 46-year-old wife is from Torquay in Devon.

Last week the couple pleaded guilty to charges of sedition against the government of President Yahya Jammeh.

Hard labour
They issued a public apology but their remorse did not mollify the judge.

The Fultons admitted publishing e-mails with seditious comments with intent to bring hatred or contempt against the president or the government.

Presiding magistrate Idrissa Mbai said: “I found the offences of the accused party to be very shocking and they have shown no respect for the country, the government and the president of the republic. I will send a clear message to the offenders.

“I therefore sentence you to a fine of 250,000 dalasis (about £6,250) and mandatory jail time of one year with hard labour.”

If the couple do not pay the fine they face an additional six months in prison.

They can lodge an appeal within 20 days, but it was not clear if they would do so.

Karen Hill, who is a friend of the couple, said she was horrified by the sentence.

She told the BBC: “I am really shocked and very worried about them. I think they were hoping that they would get sent home, perhaps.

“They’ve never said anything bad about anybody. They’ve just asked us to pray for people out there that they’re working with.

‘Seeking clarity’
“Fiona worked with people who were terminally ill and Dave worked among people that he could reach in the villages on his boat - and in my emails, that I had, there was never anything said bad, so it’s very hard to believe they could have done anything wrong really.”

The tiny west African country inside Senegal, has been criticised in recent years for its human rights record.

Mr Jammeh, an outspoken military officer and former wrestler, has ruled the former British colony since seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1994.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said consular staff had been providing assistance to the Fultons.

He said the Foreign Office was “seeking clarity” over what hard labour meant “in this context”.

He added that it was a decision for the Fultons with their legal representative as to whether they appealed against the judgement.

The spokesman said that the couple’s two-year-old daughter was being cared for by a family friend in the family home.

Dec 30, 9:31 PM EST

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
Delaware Online

WASHINGTON (AP) — When the first of many loud alarms sounded on the space shuttle Columbia, the seven astronauts had about a minute to live, though they didn’t know it. The pilot, William McCool, pushed several buttons trying to right the ship as it tumbled out of control. He didn’t know it was futile. Most of the crew were following NASA procedures, spending more time preparing the shuttle than themselves for the return to Earth.

Some weren’t wearing their bulky protective gloves and still had their helmet visors open. Some weren’t fully strapped in. One was barely seated.

In seconds, the darkened module holding the crew lost pressure. The astronauts blacked out. If the loss of pressure didn’t kill them immediately, they would be dead from violent gyrations that knocked them about the ship.

In short, Columbia’s astronauts were quickly doomed.

A new NASA report released Tuesday details the chaotic final minutes of Columbia, which disintegrated over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003. The point of the 400-page analysis is to figure out how to make NASA’s next spaceship more survivable. The report targeted problems with the spacesuits, restraints and helmets of the Columbia crew.

Many of the details about the astronauts’ deaths have been known - they died either from lack of oxygen during pressure loss or from hitting something as the spacecraft tumbled and broke up. However, the new report paints a more detailed picture of the final moments of the Columbia crew than the broader investigation into the accident five years ago.

Astronaut Pam Melroy, deputy study chief, said the analysis showed the astronauts were at their problem-solving best trying to recover Columbia, which was starting to crack up as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere with a hole in its left wing, damage that had occurred at liftoff. “There was no way for them to know that it was going to be impossible.”

The crew had lost control of the motion and direction of the spacecraft. It was pitching end-over-end, the cabin lights were out, and parts of the shuttle behind the crew compartment - including its wings - were falling off.

“It was a very disorienting motion going on,” NASA deputy associate administrator Wayne Hale said in a telephone conference call. “There were a number of alarms going off simultaneously. The crew was trying very hard to regain control. We’re talking about a brief time in a crisis situation.”

The NASA study team is recommending 30 changes based on Columbia, many of them aimed at the spacesuits, helmets and seatbelts for both the shuttle and the next space capsule NASA is building. Since the accident, NASA has quietly made astronauts put more priority on getting their protective suits on, Melroy said.

NASA’s suits don’t automatically pressurize, “a basic problem of suit design and it is one we intend to fix with future spacecraft,” Hale said.

Had the astronauts had time to get their gear on and get their suits pressurized, they might have lived longer and been able to take more actions. But they still wouldn’t have survived, the report notes.

The report lists events that were each potentially lethal to the crew: Loss of cabin pressure just before or as the cabin broke up; crew members, unconscious or already dead, crashing into objects in the module; exposure to a near vacuum at 100,000 feet; and crashing to the ground.

Killed in the Columbia disaster along with pilot McCool, were commander Rick Husband, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon.

Columbia was the second space shuttle NASA has lost. The hole in its wing was caused by a piece of foam insulation that broke off the fuel tank and slammed into it at launch. The shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after liftoff on 1986, also claiming seven lives. Investigators in both accidents pointed to a NASA culture of ignoring problems that later turned fatal.

Dr. Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon and husband of Laurel Clark, praised NASA’s leadership for the report “even though it says, in some ways, you guys didn’t do a great job.”

“I guess the thing I’m surprised about, if anything, is that (the report) actually got out,” said Clark, who was a member of the team that wrote it. “There were so many forces” that didn’t want to produce the report because it would again put the astronauts’ families in the media spotlight.

Some of the recommendations already are being applied to the next-generation spaceship being designed to take astronauts to the moon and Mars, said Clark, who now works for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Kirstie McCool Chadwick, sister of William McCool, said a copy of the report arrived at her Florida home Tuesday morning but she had not read it.

“We’ve moved on,” Chadwick said. “I’ll read it. But it’s private. It’s our business … Our family has moved on from the accident and we don’t want to reopen wounds.”

NASA held the report till after Christmas at the request of the families.

John Logsdon, who was a member of the original Columbia accident investigation board, questioned the need for the report, saying, “Those people are dead. Knowing in specifics how they died should be a private matter.”

But for friends of the astronauts working on the investigation, confirming that the crew didn’t suffer much “is a very small blessing,” Melroy said.

–

Correspondent Mike Schneider in Orlando, Fla., contributed to this report.

—

On the Net:

The NASA report: http://www.nasa.gov/news/reports/index.html

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

<---End of Quote--->

Related Article:
NASA says Columbia crew had no chance to survive

Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:49pm GMT

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts on the shuttle Columbia were trying to regain control of their craft before it broke apart in 2003, but there was no chance of surviving the accident, a NASA report said on Tuesday.

From the crew’s perspective, the shift from what appeared to be a normal descent on February 1, 2003, into disaster happened so fast that the astronauts didn’t even have time to close the visors on their helmets.

Columbia broke apart about 12 miles over Texas as it headed for landing at the Kennedy Space Center. The cause of the accident was traced to a hole in one of the shuttle’s wings, which was hit by a piece of falling foam insulation during launch 16 days earlier.

Seven astronauts, including Israel’s first astronaut Ilan Ramon, were killed when superheated atmospheric gases blasted inside the breach like a blow torch, melting the ship’s structure.

The crew cabin broke away from the ship and started spinning rapidly. Analysis of the wreckage indicated the crew members had flipped cockpit switches in response to alarms that were sounding. The astronauts had also reset the shuttle’s autopilot system, the report said.

“We have evidence from some of the switch positions that the crew was trying very hard to regain control. We’re talking about a very brief time in a crisis situation,” said NASA’s deputy associate administrator, Wayne Hale.

But rapid depressurization caused the Columbia crew to lose consciousness, and medical findings show that they could not have recovered, said the report, which took four years to compile.

“This report confirms that although the valiant Columbia crew tried every possible way to maintain control of their vehicle, the accident was not ultimately survivable,” said Hale, who oversaw the shuttle program during its return to flight after the accident.

TRAUMATIC INJURIES

Analysis shows the astronauts’ shoulder harnesses failed and their helmets did not adequately protect their heads. The lack of safety restraints caused traumatic injuries.

The investigation also found problems with the shuttle’s seats and parachute landing system, which requires astronauts be conscious to operate manually.

Even if the safety gear had worked, the astronauts would have died due to the winds, shock waves and other extreme conditions in the upper atmosphere.

Designing spacesuits that are more automated and integrated into future spaceships is among 30 recommendations made in the report.

“I call on spacecraft designers from all the other nations of the world, as well as the commercial and personal spacecraft designers here at home to read this report and apply these hard lessons which have been paid for so dearly,” Hale said.

Also killed in the accident were shuttle commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool and astronauts Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark.

Much of what is in the report was discovered by the Columbia accident investigation team, which released a series of findings and recommendations six months after the disaster.

The panel advised retiring the space shuttles as soon as NASA finishes using them to complete construction of the International Space Station, a $100 billion project of 16 partner countries that has been under way for more than a decade. The shuttle Challenger broke apart in 1986.

Since the accident, NASA has flown 11 shuttle missions and has nine left in its schedule. A 10th mission to fly a physics experiment to the space station is under consideration.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Cynthia Osterman)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.

Source: Xinhua
Sulekha.com

Washington, Dec 31 (Xinhua) US President George W. Bush Tuesday signed a nuclear inspection agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that will boost global monitoring of nuclear activities, the White House said in a statement.

Bush signed the ‘instrument of ratification of the protocol additional to the agreement between the US and the IAEA’ to implement nuclear safeguards, the statement said.

The protocol was signed in Vienna June 12, 1998, and the US Senate approved it March 31, 2004. Till date, 118 countries have signed the protocol with the IAEA and 89 countries have ratified, the White House said.

The pact improves the IAEA’s ability to detect clandestine nuclear weapons programme in non-nuclear weapon states, it said.

The US as a nuclear weapons country and party to the Nonproliferation Treaty was not obligated to accept IAEA safeguards on its nuclear activities, it added.

But wide acceptance of the protocol would contribute significantly to US nonproliferation objectives, the statement said.

Wed Dec 31, 2008 3:46am GMT

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Foreign powers stepped up calls on Israel and Hamas on Tuesday to halt hostilities after four days of Israeli air attacks on the Gaza Strip and rocket salvoes by the Islamist militants deep inside the Jewish state.

The Quartet of Middle East peace brokers — the United Nations, United States, Russia and European Union — urged an immediate cease-fire, a U.N. spokeswoman said after telephone consultations by the group’s foreign ministers.

Israeli warplanes destroyed Hamas targets for a fourth day, including five ministerial buildings and a structure belonging to the Islamic University in Gaza City.

Medical officials put Palestinian casualties since the aerial onslaught began on Saturday at 384 dead and more than 800 wounded. A U.N. agency said at least 62 of the dead were civilians. Four Israelis have been killed.

Israeli media quoted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying the Gaza offensive, launched by his centrist government six weeks before an election that opinion polls predict the opposition right-wing Likud party will win, was in “the first of several stages.”

Israel says its air bombardments are aimed at ending rocket attacks launched from Gaza, which have caused panic for months in areas where one-eighth of its population lives.

Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit the city of Beersheba on Tuesday, 42 km (26 miles) inside Israel, police said — the deepest such attack yet by militants, who have launched more than 400 rockets across the border since Saturday, according to an Israeli military assessment.

Three Israelis were killed by rockets on Monday but there were no reports of serious casualties inside Israel on Tuesday.

FOOD AND POWER LOW

In Gaza, basic food supplies were running low and power cuts were affecting much of the territory. Hospitals lacked at least 80 essential medicines as well as scores of instruments, Health Ministry official Muawiyah Hassanein said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner proposed Israel accept a 48-hour truce to allow aid into Gaza. France said it would host Livni on Thursday and an Israeli official said French President Nicolas Sarkozy might visit Jerusalem next Monday.

EU foreign ministers called late on Tuesday for an immediate and lasting truce and for humanitarian aid to be let into Gaza.

The EU said it would work with other members of the Quartet, and send a delegation of ministers to the region shortly.

Turkey, Egypt and several other Arab governments are also pursuing their own initiative calling for a cease-fire and reopening of Gaza’s crossings with Israel, diplomats said.

Olmert met Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni late on Tuesday to discuss the initiatives, Israel Radio said.

Olmert’s spokesman Mark Regev said Israel supported the idea of letting aid into Gaza.

“We want to see convoy after convoy of humanitarian support and we are willing to work closely with all relevant international parties to facilitate that goal,” he said.

“At the same time, it is important to keep the pressure up on Hamas, not give them a respite, time to regroup and reorganise.”

About 1.5 million Palestinians live in Gaza, which has one of the highest population densities and growth rates in the world. Most Gazans live on less than $2 a day and up to 80 percent are dependent on food aid, according to aid groups.

Hamas seized Gaza from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s secular Fatah faction in fighting in June 2007. The Islamists have rejected international demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals.

“VICTIM AND JAILER”

Hamas was cool to the idea of a truce. It said the onus was on Israel to stop firing and lift the blockade of Gaza.

“You can’t equate the victim and the jailer,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told reporters. “What is required at this time is an Arab and international effort to stop the (Israeli) aggression and open the (border) crossings.”

The White House said President George W. Bush had spoken to Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday to discuss how to end the violence.

According to internal Israeli assessments, the air offensive has destroyed a third of the Hamas rocket arsenal but the faction’s guerrilla army remains largely intact, Israel’s Channel 10 television reported.

“None of us can say how long it will take,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said after being briefed at the Defence Ministry about Israel’s deadliest Gaza campaign since the 1967 Middle East war, when the territory was captured from Egypt.

Barak said he would seek Israeli cabinet approval for the mobilisation of 2,500 army reservists, compounding an earlier call-up of 6,500 reservists for the garrison on the Gaza border.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was due in Syria and Jordan on Tuesday. Al Arabiya television said he would meet Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas leader living in Damascus, although Erdogan’s office said no such meeting was scheduled.

Palestinian officials said Abbas would meet Erdogan in Jordan in the evening.

In northern Gaza, two Palestinian sisters were killed in an air raid near their home, medical workers said. The area has been a launching ground for cross-border rocket attacks.

“We are living in horror, we and our children. The situation is not just bad, it is tragic,” said Gazan Abu Fares, standing outside his home near the rubble of a building bombed overnight.

(Additional reporting by Adam Entous and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Andrew Dobbie and Kevin Liffey)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.

Source: Prensa Latina
Sulekha.com

Mexico City, Dec 31 (Prensa Latina) Mexico will introduce harsher punishments to take on the country’s organised drug cartels as well as government officials having links with the underworld, officials said.

The Secretariat of National Defence (SEDENA), responsible for the country’s security, has proposed to increase prison term up to 60 years, for former or serving officers in the army and the police accused of links with the underworld.

The Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies Board of Directors, Cesar Duarte, expressed his backing on the new proposal. ‘This measure is adequate in the context of violence witnessed in the country,’ said Duarte, a legislator of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party.

In the past, many army and police officers had been accused of links with the drug cartels, and cases of officers being killed by the drug mafia have also been on the rise, officials said.

National Human Rights Commission President Jose Luis Soberanes said the current security model is not adequate to carry out specialised operations against the country’s drug mafia.

Each year hundreds of people, including security officials, are killed in drug related violence in Mexico.

updated 11:45 a.m. EST, Tue December 30, 2008

Story Highlights
Britain feared it would have been overwhelmed in Soviet attack, papers reveal
Papers were released by the National Archives under the 30-year rule
Prime Minister James Callaghan called the situation a “scandal”

CNN.com

LONDON, England (CNN) — Britain feared that it would have been overwhelmed in the event of a Soviet attack because of the depleted state of its armed forces, according to secret files made public on Tuesday.

Papers released by the National Archives, under the 30-year rule, reveal that Royal Air Force fighter jets only had sufficient ammunition for two days of combat and the Royal Navy would fail to defend the country from Russian submarines.

The army would have been too over-stretched to cope with a widescale campaign of sabotage and subversion by Soviet special forces, the papers show.

Prime Minister James Callaghan called the situation a “scandal” when he discovered the scale of the problem and demanded resignations among the military.

“Heaven help us if there is a war!” he scrawled on one note. But ministers could do little until the Tornado fighter plane became available in the mid-1980s along with other military hardware.

The problem became clear when senior intelligence officers warned in late 1977 that, in the event of a conventional war, the Russians could unleash up to 200 bombers and 18 submarines against the UK.

The assessment of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was that British forces would be unable to cope.

“UK forces cannot match the threat postulated by the JIC assessment,” the chiefs noted in January 1978 in a document marked Top Secret UK Eyes Alpha.

“Air defenses would be outweighed because aircraft would be outnumbered and stocks of air defense munitions would sustain operations for only two or three days.

“Maritime forces need better anti-submarine weapons, and face a massive threat from submarine and air-launched missiles and also from mines; the most serious deficiency is in numbers.

“The army in the UK would, until mobilization is complete, have insufficient forces to meet its commitments; after mobilization of the reserves, a process taking between 15-20 days, the Army would be able to counter the currently assessed Soviet land threat during the initial stages of the war but, lacking supporting arms and logistic support, it would be inadequate to deal with any more significant threat, including sabotage or subversion on a wide scale.”

19:16 | 29/ 12/ 2008

MOSCOW, December 29 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia is moving tanks and armored vehicles closer to the border with South Ossetia, the Georgian breakaway republic said Monday.

“According to intelligence reports, Georgia has moved 28 tanks to Gori, where a tank battalion is stationed. In addition, Cobra armored vehicles have been spotted in the village of Nikozi near the South Ossetian border,” the state committee on information and press said in a statement.

The European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) said last Friday it was concerned over the deployment by Georgia of Cobra armored vehicles in areas close to the South Ossetian and Abkhazian borders.

Georgia’s Interior Ministry has confirmed reports of Cobra vehicles being in a number of villages and said the EU has been informed of that.

The head of the ministry’s analytical department said the vehicles are employed to patrol and control the situation.

“We brought Cobra vehicles to border villages, including Nikozi, two weeks ago,” Shota Utiashvili said.

Georgia attacked South Ossetia on August 7-8 in an attempt to regain control over the republic, which, along with Abkhazia, split from Georgia in the early 1990s.

In response Russia launched a military operation to repel Georgia’s troops from the region, which concluded on August 12, ending up deep in Georgian territory.

In accordance with a French-brokered peace deal, Russia withdrew its forces from Georgian buffer zones ahead of an October 10 deadline. The peacekeepers were replaced by a 200-strong EU monitoring mission to Georgia.

Upgrade significantly reduces lifecycle cost, provides greater reliability and extends the life of the radar to 2030

Raytheon

FULLERTON, Calif., Dec. 22, 2008 /PRNewswire/ — ThalesRaytheonSystems has been awarded a $217 million U.S. Army firm-fixed-price contract to provide production modification kits and power amplifier modules as part of the Reliability Maintainability Improvement program for the AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder weapon locating radar.

This contract follows the April 2008 initial production award. Combined, the AN/TPQ-37 RMI production contracts total more than $285 million.

The Firefinder RMI program addresses needs specifically identified by the user and integrates new technology that protects the warfighter from today’s increasingly sophisticated threats. The program enhancements include a modular, aircooled transmitter and new common radar processors that will be applied to the Army’s entire fleet of AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder radar systems as well as to the fleet of agile AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder radars.

These upgrades will significantly reduce lifecycle costs and provide higher system availability, extending the expected life of the radar to year 2030. The RMI program could potentially save the U.S. Army more than $5 billion.

The AN/TPQ-37 is the world’s premier long-range weapon locating radar, deployed worldwide by the U.S. Army and 11 international customers. It locates the position of hostile artillery, rockets and mortars so friendly forces can quickly and accurately return

fire.

“This contract award underscores the Army’s confidence in the AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder and its value to Army warfighters,” said Kim Kerry, chief executive officer of ThalesRaytheonSystems, U.S. operations. “ThalesRaytheonSystems is proud to provide the Army and our allies with an innovative solution that will further extend the radars life and availability.”

ThalesRaytheonSystems will procure, build, integrate and test upgrade kits for the AN/TPQ-37 radar, which will then be delivered to and installed by the U.S. Army Depot at Tobyhanna, Pa., as part of a planned upgrade program for AN/TPQ-37 radars in the U.S. Army’s fleet.

About ThalesRaytheonSystems

ThalesRaytheonSystems is an equally owned transatlantic joint venture between Raytheon Company and Thales Group. ThalesRaytheonSystems is a worldwide supplier of air defense command and control systems, including sensors and ground-based battlefield radars. The company’s annual revenue is in excess of $800 million U.S., and it employs more than 1,600 people.

Note to Editors:

The Defense Department originally announced this contract award Oct. 17, 2008.

Contact:

In the United States:
Krista Roos
714.446.4600

In Europe:
Karen Thomas
33.1.69.75.50.98
SOURCE: Raytheon Company

Web site: http://raytheon.com//

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/149999.html

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/742575 .html

SAAB

Saab recently received two serial production orders for the Integrated Defensive Aids Suite (IDAS) for the Indian Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv.

12/22/2008 | The combined value of these orders from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is approximately SEK 196 million.
The IDAS will be installed on India’s weapon systems version of Advanced Light Helicopter, also known as Dhruv, to provide these platforms with Electronic Warfare self-protection. The helicopter features a modern glass cockpit with which the IDAS system is fully integrated.

A long-term relationship
“We are proud of being a supplier for this advanced helicopter and look forward to continuing our cooperation and long term relationship with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited,” says Micael Johansson, Managing Director for Saab Avitronics.

These two production orders follow initial orders for development and prototype deliveries as well as the first series production order received earlier this year for the Indian Dhruv helicopter.

The development and production will take place at Saab Avitronics in Centurion, South Africa.

IDAS is the world’s most comprehensive integrated Electronic Warfare suite for airborne platforms and has been the choice for the Denel Rooivalk and Oryx, NH Industries NH90, Agusta Westland Super Lynx 300 and A109, Boeing CH47 Chinook, Eurocopter Cougar and Super Puma.

IDAS – A fully integrated system
When countering the highly unpredictable threats of the modern battlefield, Saab’s Integrated Defensive Aids Suite (IDAS) greatly enhances your chances of mission success.

Designed from the outset as a fully integrated modular system, IDAS combines radar, laser, UV missile approach warning and countermeasures dispensing functions in a single system controller.

Its modular system architecture allows IDAS to be configured for any one or any combination of the three sensor types.

Agence France-Presse | Dec 29, 2008
Defence Talk

Beijing: China will seriously consider building an aircraft carrier to ensure the nation’s maritime security and safeguard the sovereignty of its coastal waters, a defence official said Tuesday.

“An aircraft carrier is a symbol of overall national strength and a symbol of the competitiveness of the nation’s naval force,” defence ministry spokesman Huang Xueping told journalists.

“The Chinese government will take into overall account the relevant factors and seriously consider the relevant issue,” he said, when asked when the Chinese navy would acquire an aircraft carrier.

Huang was speaking at a rare press conference in which he briefed journalists on the dispatch of three Chinese naval ships to the Gulf of Aden to fight piracy there.

China has reportedly been considering either building or buying an aircraft carrier for over a decade but so far the plans have not materialised.

However, Huang insisted that such a warship would help the navy fulfil its task of protecting the nation’s huge coastline.

“China has vast oceans,” Huang said. “It is the solemn responsibility of China’s armed forces to ensure the country’s maritime security and uphold the sovereignty of its coastal waters and maritime rights and interests.”