Free Republic

Explosions reported after an air raid warning in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa... US politics a Reuters/Ipsos poll out on the Democrat and Republican Presidential contests... Changes in the French cabinet relatively minor... The "Wall Street Journal" reports Chinese hackers got into the email account of the US Ambassador in China... A US F-16 fighter targeting a Russian warplane in Syria... "Dame Alison Rose's apology is a start, but it is no more than that" British media host and political activist Nigel Farage... A tense situation in Baghdad following the early morning torching of the Swedish Embassy... Opponents of...

A high-level executive in Russia’s energy sector has died after apparently falling off a boat over the weekend, becoming the latest Russian powerbroker to perish under mysterious circumstances. Ivan Pechorin, 39, managing director of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (ERDC), was sailing off the coast of Russky Island in the Sea of Japan on Saturday when he fell overboard from the speeding vessel. His body was recovered from the water on Monday following an extended search. Only days earlier, Pechorin had attended the Eastern Economic Forum, which was hosted by President Vladimir Putin in Valdivostok. “Ivan’s death is...

A US surveillance aircraft has flown over South Korea, an aviation tracker said Wednesday, on an apparent mission to monitor North Korea just days after the communist nation fired what are believed to be two short-range ballistic missiles. The US Navy's EP-3E was spotted in skies above South Korea on Tuesday, Aircraft Spots tweeted. The operation came two days after North Korea fired two projectiles from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan toward the East Sea, marking the fourth major weapons test the North has conducted this year. The United States flew the same type of plane over the peninsula...

An unsettling mystery has washed up on Japan’s shores. Over the past two months, at least eight wooden boats have been found in the Sea of Japan on or near the coast, carrying a chilling cargo — the decaying bodies of 20 people, Japan’s coast guard told CNN. ll of the bodies were badly decomposed and “partially skeletonized” — two were found without heads — and one boat contained six skulls, the coast guard said. The first boat was found in October, then a series of boats in late November. Coast guard officials are now trying to unravel the riddle...

According to the Joint Staff for Japan's Self-Defense Forces, its air force responded to 149 alerts against Russian aircraft in the April-September period, up 80% on the year. Japanese jets responded to a total of 186 alerts, up 30% from the year-earlier 146, with Russian aircraft drawing about 80% of such responses, known as scrambling in military terms. Chinese aircraft sent Japanese fighters scrambling 24 times, with Taiwanese planes drawing four responses. Russian planes have been spied over the disputed islands off Hokkaido, but have not been confirmed to have violated Japanese airspace elsewhere. Russia conducted a major military exercise...

A major US-South Korean military exercise involving about 20 ships, 200 planes and 8,000 personnel will start Sunday in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) to deter North Korea, the US military said on Tuesday. The July 25-28 drill will highlight the resolve of the two countries "to face any threat North Korea may pose", the US-led United Nations Command said in a statement. The war games are a response to the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year, which Seoul and Washington blame on North Korea. The announcement followed talks between visiting US Defense Secretary Robert Gates...

Recently, Roger McDermott, a regular contributor to this publication, offered an excellent overview of the operational-strategic exercise being conducted in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East by the Russian armed forces (EDM, July 6). McDermott correctly pointed to the role of the exercise in testing concepts associated with the “new look” reforms and called attention to the exercise’s testing the speed of deployment of brigades, their combat readiness, and capacity to engage in combined-arms combat in an air/land battle, and their logistical support to sustain combat actions. He also noted that while the scenario dealt with a wide range...

The United States studied a plan for a nuclear strike on North Korea in 1969 but advisers to then-president Richard Nixon concluded it was best to remain calm, declassified documents showed Wednesday. The documents, obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, foreshadow present-day US frustration on how to handle Pyongyang following its nuclear tests and the sinking of a South Korean ship. In 1969, North Korea shot down a US spy aircraft over the Sea of Japan (East Sea), killing the 31 personnel on board. Despite US outrage, the new Nixon administration chose not to retaliate other...

Russia will hold large-scale naval exercises near North Korea next month that were planned before the current stand-off on the Korean peninsula, naval officials said on Thursday. Tensions between the two Koreas are at their highest level in years, a week after international investigators accused the North of torpedoing a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors. Moscow, which maintains ties with North Korea, has issued repeated calls for calm and restraint from both sides to prevent tension from bubbling over into armed conflict. The Kremlin says it wants more information about the accusations that a North Korea torpedo...

A mixed task force from the Russian Pacific Fleet started on Wednesday a series of anti-submarine warfare (ASW) drills in the Sea of Japan, a fleet spokesman said. "Two task forces comprising missile destroyers and diesel-powered submarines are taking part in the drills in line with a regular training program," Capt. 1st Rank Roman Martov said. The exercises involve a number of search-and-destroy missions, simulated torpedo attacks and live-fire drills with on-board artillery and air defense systems. The Admiral Tributs and Admiral Vinogradov destroyers, which carried out patrol missions in the Gulf of Aden as part of international efforts to...

Video footage (clip) of SM-3-armed Japanese AEGIS destroyers putting to sea, heading out for possible confrontation with North Korean ICBM missile in the next few days.Go here, hit arrow on the orange box, just below the aerial photo of the crafts leaving port here in Japan.

(Top News):North Korea, observed through various methods of investigation, has now completed all launch preparations for the 3,500 mile-range Taepodong-2.Japanese TV (Window Media Player 300k streams below), report on (16) that the multi-staged rocket has been positioned on the launch pad in Musudan-ri, along North Korea's northeast Coast on the Sea of Japan. Refueling of the Taepodong-2 ICBM, capable of hitting US territory, has been completed. Japan is on alert and US bases in Korea and Japan are also in a heightend state of observation. The rocket test could occur as soon as in a few days' time. Other...

China National Offshore Oil Corporation is considering a nearly $14bn (£7bn, €10.6bn) takeover of Unocal of the US. Sinopec, another Chinese state-controlled oil group, has struck a $70bn deal to buy Iranian crude oil and liquefied natural gas over three decades. China has sent $6bn to Rosneft, the Russian company that bought the main production unit of the embattled Yukos oil group, as advance payment for oil supplies. India has just reached a $40bn agreement to import LNG from Iran and develop Iranian oilfields, and is promoting pipeline projects to bring oil and gas across neighbouring countries to supply its...

WASHINGTON - The military has begun a series of exercises with its national missile defense system to move it a step closer to activation. The exercises involve testing crews and activating the network of sensors and command centers to ensure they transfer information properly, Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, said Friday. "No problems have cropped up," he said. Although five ballistic missile interceptors are in their silos at Fort Greely, Alaska, they are not yet operational because their arming pins have not been removed, so the system is not considered "on alert" yet, Lehner said. The...

WASHINGTON, March 7 — The North Korean fighter jets that intercepted an unarmed American spy plane over the Sea of Japan last weekend were trying to force the aircraft to land in North Korea and take its crew hostage, a senior defense official said today. One of the four North Korean MIG's came within 50 feet of the American plane, an Air Force RC-135S Cobra Ball aircraft, and the pilot made internationally recognized hand signals to the American flight crew to follow him, presumably back to his home base, the official said. The American crew members ignored the gesture commands,...

7:20 p.m. Eastern Time, Wednesday NiteBy ticker, with specific news to follow. Ticker: "USA Warns of Possible Nodong Missile Test Launch by North Korea" ("Kita chosen no missairu no nodong shisha wo keikai, bei seifu")It is unclear who was warned but most certainly must be Japan and South Korea. It does not say when the Nodong test launch may occur. Other interpretations of the operational verb are: "on guard against, worried, warning, keeping an eye on." Just appeared briefly and is still up on the Japanese Kyodo website (link above). More details should come in soon. It might point to...

The evening paper "Nikkan Fuji" in Tokyo (local time, Monday night) reports that the Korean daily "Choson Ilbo" has run a story that the US and South Korea are considering a dispatch to the Sea of Japan of the Yokosuka, Japan-based US 7th Fleet's Aegis destroyer(s), to pre-position it/them in the event of any launch by North Korea of their long-rage TAEPODONG-2 missile (which threatens S. Korea, Japan and the US West Coast).(Link, above, to the original Japanese-language article). (OPEN SOURCE INFORMATION)The conclusion by US military planners was apparantly reached with the reality that in the event of a...