Free Republic

Republican strategist Karl Rove says the GOP should quit while it's not as far behind as it could be. Appearing Tuesday on Fox News Channel's "On the Record," Rove said Republicans fighting for concessions on Obamacare and entitlements are weakening their position the longer they hold out. "At some point you have to focus on, as Ronald Reagan said, getting as much of the pie as you possibly can get," Rove said. Republicans aren't even going to be able to get 80 percent of what they want now, he said, because they have been weakened over the last two months...

Indian inflation unexpectedly accelerated to a seven-month high in September, adding to the case for a further increase in the benchmark interest rate. The wholesale-price index rose 6.46 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 6.1 percent advance in August, the Commerce Ministry said in New Delhi on Monday. The median of 33 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 6 percent climb. Gov. Raghuram Rajan, who took over at the Reserve Bank of India last month, raised the repurchase rate to 7.5 percent after vowing to tame inflation, which was almost 10 percent in September based...

The war on climate change has produced many dubious “innovations.” Intermittent wind and solar energy sources, carbon markets that buy and sell “hot air,” and biofuels that burn food as we drive are just a few examples. But carbon capture and storage is the Edsel of energy policies. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), also called carbon capture and sequestration, is promoted by President Obama, the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for coal-fired power plants. In September, the EPA proposed a limit of 1,100 pounds of CO2 emissions per megawatt-hour of electricity produced, a regulation that...

DAEGU, SOUTH KOREA – From oil to nuclear power, via gas, coal and renewables, Asia’s economic growth is increasingly steering the path forward for the global energy industry. “It’s clear that Asia’s emerging economies have entered a historic phase of industrialization and urbanization,” Peter Voser, chief executive of energy giant Shell, said at the ongoing World Energy Congress in Daegu, South Korea. “The pace of change is almost inconceivable.” Shell estimates that energy demand across Asia will double over the next 50 years, with China and India the main growth drivers for at least the next two decades. “This is...

Typhoon Wipha brought strong winds and heavy rain to the Tokyo metropolitan area early Wednesday, shutting down large portions of the region’s transportation network. On Izu Oshima Island in the Pacific about 120 km south of Tokyo, at least 13 bodies were found and around 20 people were missing after several houses collapsed amid record rainfall of 122.5 mm per hour, according to local authorities and police. In Machida, Tokyo, a woman believed to be in her 40s died after being swept away by a swollen river, police said. Several bullet-train runs on the Tohoku, Yamagata, Joetsu, Nagano and Tokaido...

Speculation is mounting whether the government has agreed a deal with Washington to take part in the U.S.-led missile defense program in exchange for another delay in the handover of full control of South Korean troops. Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin fanned speculation Monday by telling a National Assembly audit that the military is hoping to buy SM-3 interceptor missiles that could destroy North Korean ballistic missiles. The SM-3 missiles constitute the core of the U.S.-led missile defense shield. All the signs are that the government is growing less reluctant to join the missile defense program, which China is extremely wary...

The first subway running from Shanghai to Kunshan City, east China's Jiangsu province, started its trial operation this morning. The subway is actually an extension stage of Shanghai Metro Line 11, which combined 3 subway stations in Kunshan to the original metro line. After it begins operation, it will only take about 70 minutes to travel from Huaqiao Station in Kunshan to Xujiahui Station in downtown Shanghai, which only costs 7 yuan. The subway will make the journey between the cities easier for residents. It is known that transit cards in Shanghai can be used in the 3 stations in...

(Reuters) - The death toll from a strong earthquake in the central Philippines has risen to almost 100, officials said on Wednesday, and rescuers were digging through the rubble of a church and a hospital in search of more victims. At least 10 people were missing under the collapsed public hospital, church and a home in the town of Loon on Bohol island, 630 km (390 miles) south of Manila, which bore the brunt of the 7.2 quake on Tuesday. The quake caused landslides and widespread damage to infrastructure in Bohol and nearby Cebu, with close to three million people...

(Reuters) - Japan plans to start up 14 new gas and coal-fired power plants by the end of 2014, allowing a switch away from pricey oil, as Tokyo struggles with a shutdown of nuclear reactors and energy imports drive a record trade deficit. Regional power monopolies will construct 12 gas-fired units next year, while two new coal power plants will be completed by December 2013, according to a Reuters survey of utilities. The new power plants will buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal to scale back on the use of expensive crude and fuel oil plants. They will also...

AFP - South Korea's unemployment rate fell in September to a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent, led by new jobs in service industries, state data showed Wednesday. The latest jobless rate compared with 3.0 percent reported in August and 2.9 percent in September of last year, Statistics Korea said. The health and social welfare service sector added 172,000 jobs, up 12 percent from a year earlier, while the restaurant industry employed an extra 83,000 people, up 4.3 percent, over the same period. The total number of employed people also rose by 463,000 to reach 25.46 million in September -- the biggest...

DAEGU, South Korea — Asia’s large-scale gas importers, long saddled with premium prices, say a cheaper alternative lies several thousand feet below North American soil, where companies are unlocking enormous gas reserves from shale rock. The shale boom has already revolutionized the gas market in the United States and Canada, giving both countries not only a reliable domestic supply but also the ability to sell overseas. Asian utility and gas company executives, speaking this week at a global energy forum here, have said that North America’s gas wealth could prove nearly as transformative across the world, leading to the first...

A Panamanian-registered cargo ship carrying 19 people sank in South Korea's southeast Pohang harbor amid a storm at around 21:30 local time on Tuesday, leaving 10 people dead and one missing, according to the Chinese Consulate General in Busan. An official from the Chinese Consulate General confirmed that among 19 people aboard the ship, 18 were Chinese citizens and the remaining one was Vietnamese. Eight people have been rescued and 10 bodies recovered by far, while one person is still missing, according to the South Korea's coast guard who conducts the rescue operation. They said the ship CHENGLU15 set off...

(Reuters) - Chinese authorities in the northern city of Tianjin have punished 13 medical workers for taking bribes from Danone S.A. to recommend the French food maker's infant formula, the local government said on Monday. The move comes after the official China Central Television (CCTV) reported in September that Danone bribed doctors and nurses to recommend its Dumex milk powder brand at one Tianjin hospital. The CCTV report led to Tianjin's government and police launching an investigation into the bribery charges. Danone also said it had launched an investigation. The "serious violators" received penalties ranging from cancellation of medical licenses...

If we think of the gigantic progress made by the "gay liberation" movement in just a few decades or even years, we are astonished. The idea of homomarriage would have been unthinkable 20-30 years ago when homosexuals themselves were declaring their opposition to this institution, and even 5 years ago it would have been difficult for it to become part of the UK law. It has required a social re-education programme of vast proportions, a cultural war for general sexual freedom, of which homosexual "liberation" is part. One method of crucial importance and psychological effectiveness employed by the homosexual...

The human race has prospered by relying on forecasts that the seasons will follow their usual course, while knowing they will sometimes be better or worse. Are things different now? For the fifth time now, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claims they are. The difference, the IPCC asserts, is increased human emissions of carbon dioxide: a colorless, odorless, non-toxic gas that is a byproduct of growing prosperity. It is also a product of all animal respiration and is also essential for most life on Earth, yet in total it makes up only 0.0004 of the atmosphere. --------------- (snip) ------------------...

The criminal homicide rate for the general population has been added to more accurately compare to the murder plus manslaughter rate for those with a Minnesota carry permit. Minnesota is one of a few states that track crimes committed by Concealed Carry permit holders.  When the Minnesota law was passed, an annual report of crimes committed by permit holders was required.  The Minnesota permit is simply a permit to carry, the law does not discriminate between carrying concealed and carrying openly.  Reports for the law are available for 2003, and 2005-2012 in pdf files.   The number of people...

MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called for increased protection for Russian weapons manufacturers’ intellectual property rights on the global arms market. “The world arms market is rife with examples of illegal copying of others’ designs, and we have encountered these problems on past occasions,” Putin said at a meeting of the Russian Commission for Military-Technological Cooperation with Foreign States. “Our task is to ensure a high level of protection for our science-intensive goods and intellectual property, and defend the rights of Russian producers, companies and inventions’ creators,” Putin said. The president also urged...

WASHINGTON, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – A US-funded laboratory in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, accused by a prominent Russian official Monday of developing biological weapons, has been repeatedly touted by US officials as a key tool in guarding the region against dangerous infectious diseases. “This laboratory has the potential to become a regional center for disease surveillance, research, as well as biosafety and security,” US Sen. Richard Lugar said in a speech last year at the christening of the laboratory that bears his name in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, several months before he retired from the Senate....

Coal, propelled by rising use in China and India, will surpass oil as the key fuel for the global economy by 2020 despite government efforts to reduce carbon emissions, energy consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said on Monday. Global coal consumption is expected to rise by 25 percent by the end of the decade to 4,500 million tons of oil equivalent, overtaking oil at 4,400 million tons, according to Woodmac in a presentation at the World Energy Congress. The two Asian powerhouses will need the comparatively cheaper fuel to power their economies, while demand in the United States, Europe and the...

A Russian court has rejected bail requests from the American captain of a Greenpeace ship and two other foreign activists involved in a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic. Skipper Pete Wilcox, 60, and campaigners David John Haussmann, 49, and Camila Speziale, 21, had appealed against a pre-trial detention order. They are among 30 people being held in the city of Murmansk on piracy charges. A bail hearing is due to take place on Tuesday for Briton Frank Hewetson. Mr Hewetson, 45, who was a logistics co-ordinator on the ship, will appear alongside Swiss activist Marco Weber and Cristian...

Japan has approved the sale of engine parts for use by the British Royal Navy, saying it would not violate arms exports by Tokyo, press reports said Monday. The gas turbine parts manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries will be produced for Rolls-Royce which will then supply them to the Royal Navy, the business daily Nikkei and Kyodo News said. The government said the parts were not deemed weapons as they are used in civilian aircraft and emergency generators as well as naval ships, the reports said. No official was immediately available for comment at Kawasaki Heavy on Monday, a public...

As investment in alternative energy rebounded in 2011, U.S. wind and solar companies found stiff new competition — Chinese firms dominating the green industries that American officials looked to for growth. Supporting those Chinese companies was a surprising patron: the World Bank, a Washington-based development agency whose steady counsel and financing have helped China challenge U.S. economic dominance, and in this case may have cost the United States jobs. Sometimes criticized as a tool of U.S. foreign influence, the bank’s 30-year engagement in China may actually tell an opposite tale — of an institution that helped lay the foundation for...

The UK Chancellor George Osborne said this morning that Britain tends to view China as a "sweatshop on the Pearl River". In reality, he told the Today programme, "it's at the forefront of medicine and hi-tech and computing". An official tweeted a picture of him, headphones on, gazing out at the grey urban landscape of Beijing. To coincide with his visit - and that of science minister David Willetts - a new report calls for China to be seen as a land of scientific opportunity not a black hole of intellectual theft and cybercrime. The study is by Nesta, a...

The government is mulling legislation that would open the door wider for foreign IT specialists that seek a job in the country. A brainchild of the Communications and Press Ministry, the bill would allow IT companies to skip some of the burdensome foreign labor rules. Currently, Russian law gives some leeway to all companies that offer their potential hires dubbed as "high-skilled foreign employees" at least 2 million rubles ($64,000) in annual compensation. If the ministry-sponsored bill becomes law, it will amend the legislation to reduce the threshold by half for IT companies. "The ministry wants to make it easier...

DUBAI/VIENNA -- Iran on Sunday rejected the West's demand to send sensitive nuclear material out of the country but signaled flexibility on other aspects of its atomic activities that worry world powers, ahead of renewed negotiations this week. Talks about Iran's nuclear program, due to start in Geneva on Tuesday, will be the first since the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who has tried to improve relations with the West to pave a way for lifting economic sanctions. Rouhani's election in June to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has raised hopes of a negotiated solution to a decade-old dispute over Iran's...

NEW YORK – The radiation doses workers received in the initial phase of the Fukushima disaster may have underestimated by 20 percent, a report by a U.N. panel says. The U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation said in a summary report on its website that the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., known as Tepco, used tests that failed to take into account some types of radiation released by the three meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant in March 2011. The report said the committee analyzed the doses received by some 25,000 people working...

Military authorities here worry about intelligence reports that North Korea is developing a new ground-to-ship ballistic missile with a range of 300 km which would be impossible to intercept with current weapons. "The North is developing a new ground-to-ship ballistic missile with a range of 200-300 km, an improved version of the KN-02 ground-to-ground ballistic missile," whose range is 140 km, a military source said Friday. "We're trying to verify the report." The North already has surface-to-ship cruise missiles like the KN-01 with a range of 160 km and the Silkworm missile with a range of 100 km. But ballistic...

Singapore's economy posted 5.1 per cent on-year growth for the third quarter, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry in advanced estimates, while the Monetary Authority of Singapore has forecast continued economic expansion into 2014. SINGAPORE: Singapore's economy posted a 5.1 per cent on-year growth for the third quarter of 2013, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry in advanced estimates released on Monday. This is compared to the 4.2 per cent recorded in the preceding quarter. The market was expecting a 3.8-per cent growth. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the economy contracted by 1.0 per cent, compared to...

Nine members of the US Congress have issued statements or certificates congratulating the Republic of China on its 102nd National Day, with some saying that Taipei and Washington should sign a bilateral investment agreement (BIA) soon, given Taiwan’s importance to the US in the Asia-Pacific region. Some Congress members also proposed that Taiwan be included in the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and that the two countries conduct more mutual visits by Cabinet members. Representative to the US King Pu-tsung (金溥�) expressed his gratitude to the Congress members for their congratulations and their support on important issues related to Taiwan-US ties...

(Reuters) - South Korea should reduce its reliance on nuclear power in view of public discontent with corruption in the industry and Japan's difficulty tackling the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, a group weighing up the problem said on Sunday. The Energy Ministry published the findings of a study group of 60 representatives from industry, academic institutions and civic bodies that recommended reducing to between 22 percent and 29 percent the portion of electricity that can be generated by nuclear power. That compares to 41 percent proposed in a government plan for 2030. Asia's fourth-largest economy currently generates one third...

Seoul. The world’s leading energy officials will meet this week in South Korea to discuss the sector’s major challenges, ranging from climate change to the rise of fracking and nuclear power’s uncertain future. The 22nd World Energy Congress begins Monday in the southeastern city of Daegu, which has set its sights on becoming a model for the use of renewable energy, particularly solar. With over 5,000 participants from 93 countries, the conference, which takes place every three years, is considered the most important meeting of the sector and has been dubbed the “Energy Olympics”. Some 50 ministers and other senior...

(Reuters) - China's monthly data spray is likely to show a pick-up in the world's second-largest economy but precious little evidence of a shift in growth towards consumption from credit-fuelled investment. Rebalancing in China is one of three major preconditions of sustainable global growth in the longer term. The others are a plan to rein in and finance U.S. entitlement spending and, in the euro zone, the construction of a solid institutional foundation for the single currency, including a banking union. Frustratingly little progress is being made on any of these fronts. Wrangling in Washington over a new budget and...

Good Evening, I hope everyone's enjoying this Saturday. I'm in the market for a laptop. The hard drive on our pc gave up the ghost. We've replaced/installed another HD, but it's time to purchase another notebook. We purchased a MacBookPro for our child for college. Naturally, we loved it, but our family will not be investing in another Mac in the near future. I'm trying to avoid Windows 8 like the plague. I'm interested in hearing your anecdotes. We never used a Dell laptop, but our friends like it. Another tech recommended Acer, but I'm not sure about that. Thanks...

Oh what it was like. “Mission Control, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” “America on the moon.” “Godspeed, John Glenn.” “Come on and light this candle.” “A-OK.” “Four 3, 2, 1, and liftoff, we have liftoff.” Oh, we did. Those are words and phrases of America’s space program, especially the Mercury program, one of whose astronauts died this week, 88-year-old Scott Carpenter. In 1962 he became the second American to orbit the Earth. He was the one they couldn’t find for a while, when he missed his splashdown point by about 250 miles. It’s tempting to write that all...

The image above is borrowed from the ad campaign “This is Your Brain on Drugs” that is indelibly etched in most of our minds. Piggy-backing on this, the phrase “Your Brain on Porn,” has gained popularity. Google that phrase and you will bring up a multitude of websites and videos from Christian and non-Christian sources. This is because pornography use—especially via the internet—has been demonstrated to be extremely destructive and habit forming. In fact, Cambridge researchers reported last month that the brain scans of heavy porn users were similar to the brain scans of drug addicts. This brings us to...

As the Global Warming gang has done in recent years, over the centuries the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW) have destroyed the lives of perhaps millions of people with their bogus “predictions” of the end of the world. Both have fooled people into radical changes in their lives to avoid the phony Armageddon they have been preaching. It has been painful to watch and listen to these poor deluded people regardless of which hoax was destroying them. Nevertheless, as destructive as the JW’s phony predictions have been to individuals at least the rest of us have not been forced by some government...

CHICAGO, October 7, 2013 — Climate scientists are obsessed with carbon dioxide. The newly released Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims that “radiative forcing” from human-emitted CO2 is the leading driver of climate change. Carbon dioxide is blamed for everything from causing more droughts, floods, and hurricanes, to endangering polar bears and acidifying the oceans. But Earth’s climate is dominated by water, not carbon dioxide. Earth’s water cycle encompasses the salt water of the oceans, the fresh water of rivers and lakes, and frozen icecaps and glaciers. It includes water flows within and between...

OSAKA – The Defense Ministry carried out a ballistic missile interceptor drill Wednesday night at Expo Park in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, the third such exercise in a public space and the first in western Japan. The drill, which was open to the press, involved the Air Self-Defense Force’s Patriot Advanced Capability-3 system, which is designed to shoot down missiles that elude interceptors launched at sea from Maritime Self-Defense Force Aegis destroyers. Similar exercises were conducted in two Tokyo parks. About 50 Self-Defense Forces personnel and 20 vehicles from the ASDF’s Hakusan post in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, were mobilized for the...

Only 8 percent of Japan’s marine products exceed radiation standards, according to a Tokyo’s official response to Korea’s questions about contamination from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, said a Korean lawmaker. Democratic Party Representative Park Byeong-seug, vice speaker of the National Assembly and member of its Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee, yesterday revealed that Tokyo responded to Korean inquiries by saying that 8 percent of its marine products exceeded its allowed amount of radioactive cesium of 100 becquerel per kilogram. That level alone, Park said, justified Seoul’s import restrictions on Japan’s fishery products. The official response said that...

As Australia moves to scrap its pioneering carbon-pricing scheme, China is expected to have seven pilot pricing systems in place no later than 2015, followed by a national scheme, according to a new survey from the Australian National University. The survey, a joint initiative between the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy in the university's Crawford School of Public Policy and Beijing-based NGO China Carbon Forum, collected the opinions of 86 China-based carbon pricing experts. The survey found strong confidence that China will introduce carbon-pricing mechanisms in coming years, that the price of emitting carbon will rise over time and...

Health bureau says registration is to improve detection and management Zhengzhou health centers do have a quota to fill for registering people with severe mental health problems, but it is not compulsory, authorities said on Thursday. Communities are required to register 0.2 percent of the population as mentally ill and add them to a national monitoring network, as stipulated by the city health bureau last year. But doctors throughout the Henan provincial capital complained this week of being unable to meet the quota. "We have 35,398 residents, which means, according to the quota, we should have found at least 71...

The clinical trial of the world's first artificial biological cornea has proved successful in China. The artificial biological cornea was developed by Chinese scientists. The breakthrough of this technology may bring great hope to many visually impaired people throughout the country. Li Dong has the details. According to statistics, visual impairment for one forth of China's blind population was caused by problems with the cornea. For these people, a cornea transplant is the only hope they have of seeing again. In the past, cornea transplants relied solely on donation, making corneas is a scare resource. Scientists around the world have...

A spokesperson from China's Health and Family Planning watchdog says no comments to the recent report concerning Russia's free health care, as the situation differs greatly from country to country. Media reports which said that Russia is to announce free health care for its entire population have aroused concerns among Chinese netizens that domestic health care needs a change. Spokesperson Deng Haihua claims that Chinese media misread the source information relating to Russia's health care. "Health care reform is a worldwide difficulty," Deng said. China has been speeding up the establishment of a universal health care system, which can cover...

HA NOI: The task to reduce non-performing loans (NPLs) and increase charter capital as well as complete basic ownership structure of weak credit institutions would be given priority in the period of 2013-14. The advice was made by Le Xuan Nghia, member of the government advisory board and former deputy chairman of the National Financial Supervisory Committee. Addressing the conference entitled "Movements of macro-economy and prospects of Vietnam's bank restructuring process" held in Ha Noi yesterday, Nghia said the basic task for bank restructuring last year was to fundamentally ensure liquidity and handling weak credit institutions. "After two years of...

(Reuters) - A funeral parlor switches into gold mining; a steel trader turns into a property developer; and a food packaging firm ventures into resources. Reverse takeovers and shifting corporate business strategies on Singapore's stock market have come under the spotlight in the wake of a recent collapse in the share prices of three companies listed on Southeast Asia's biggest bourse. One of the companies, Blumont Group Ltd (BLUM.SI), lost as much as S$6.2 billion ($4.96 billion) in market value in the past week. Prior to that, Blumont had surged as much as 12-fold this year, making it Singapore's top...

(Reuters) - South Korea has indicted 100 people, including a top former state utility official, of corruption in a scandal over fake safety certifications for parts in its nuclear reactors, authorities said on Thursday. Asia's fourth largest economy has faced a series of shutdowns of nuclear reactors due to fake documents going back to late 2012. Of its 23 reactors, six remain offline, including three halted in May to replace cables supplied with bogus certificates. "We hope the so-called nuclear mafia style behavior would be rooted out if strict investigations and law enforcement and system reforms continue," Kim Dong-yeon, a...

Minnesota is one of a few states that track crimes committed by Concealed Carry permit holders.  When the Minnesota law was passed, an annual report of crimes committed by permit holders was required.  The Minnesota permit is simply a permit to carry, the law does not discriminate between carrying concealed and carrying openly.  Reports for the law are available for 2003, and 2005-2012 in pdf files.   The number of people with Minnesota permits that commit murder or manslaughter is remarkably low.  Only three instances are recorded in the Minnesota Carry Permit annual reports for the nine years reported....

SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has increased jamming satellite navigation signals in South Korea in recent years, a ruling party lawmaker said Wednesday, a move that has raised safety concerns for civilian flights and ships. North Korea disrupted global positioning system (GPS) signals for several days in each year in 2010-12, said Kim Gi-hyeon, a lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, citing government data. GPS is a satellite-based navigation system widely used by planes, ships and the military as well as ordinary drivers. In 2010, the North jammed satellite signals for four days in August, which affected only...

Hundreds of documents meant to ensure the safety of South Korea's nuclear reactors have been forged, a top official said Thursday. Kim Dong-yeon, a minister at the Prime Minister's Office, said government officials combed through about 22,000 test results for parts used in 20 reactors that are currently online. Among the test results, 277 documents or 1.2 percent were fabricated, said Kim. A separate probe of 218,000 out of 275,000 test results for eight other reactors also showed that 2,010 documents or 0.9 percent were forged, said Kim. The eight reactors include five reactors that are being built and three...

North Korea has numerous underground missile silos around Mount Paektu, according to South Korean government sources. Several South Korean government sources confirmed yesterday that the North has numerous underground missile launch facilities around 2,000 meters (2,190 yards) south of Mount Paektu. The silos, they said, were constructed in the mid-2000s and were determined to have been completed recently. “Since there are many places where the silos have been constructed, it is unclear whether all of them are launch-capable facilities or whether some are emergency facilities in case of attack,” said a government official. “Based on the size and location of...