Posts tagged region

13 killed in clashes in Russia’s volatile Caucasus (AP)

By on January 29, 2012

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia ? Russian officials say an Islamist warlord, seven militants, four officers and one civilian have been killed in three separate incidents in Russia’s violence-plagued southern Caucasus region.

Russia’s Anti-Terrorist Committee spokesman Nikolai Sintsov said the leader of Islamist separatists in the province of Ingushetia was killed in a shootout Friday in the village of Ekazhevo along with two other militants.

Also Friday, police spokesman Vyasheslav Gasanov said four Russian military officers and five militants were killed in the neighboring province of Dagestan.

In another restive Russian province, Kabardino-Balkariya, three masked militants stormed into a school and stabbed a volleyball player in the gym, police spokesman Andrey Ushakov said.

An Islamic insurgency has spread across Russia’s southern Caucasus region since two separatists wars against Russia were fought in Chechnya beginning in the 1990s. The insurgents now launch regular attacks on authorities who they blame for the abductions, torture and extra-judicial killings across the region.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_caucasus_violence

kevin durant nicole scherzinger josh turner dip al gore cornel west cesa

This entry is filed under wonderful post and tagged .

No big U.S. naval buildup in Asia, top officer says (Reuters)

By on January 11, 2012

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama’s decision to reorient the U.S. military’s focus to the Asia-Pacific region will not lead to a major naval buildup there, the top U.S. Navy officer said on Tuesday, adding that the United States already has a robust presence in the area.

Obama last week unveiled a new military strategy shifting attention to Asia over the next decade while downsizing the overall force, moves that will accommodate significant cuts in projected U.S. defense spending.

But the Pentagon has not yet revealed what that plan will mean concretely for the deployment of U.S. military forces and equipment to different regions of the world. More details are due in the coming weeks during the rollout of the annual U.S. federal budget proposal.

China’s military did not wait for details before issuing statements accusing the United States of trying to contain China.

Addressing a forum in Washington, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, put forward a chart showing that the U.S. Navy has about 50 ships and submarines deployed today in the western Pacific, compared with about 30 in the Middle East.

Greenert said the Navy would review Obama’s strategy and “adjust accordingly.”

“But my first assessment is that we’re in good shape in the Navy where we stand in the western Pacific,” he told a forum hosted by the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington.

Asked about a possible buildup in naval forces and equipment in Asia, Greenert appeared to play down speculation about a major change in the deployment of forces there and in the Middle East.

“My point is, it’s not a big naval buildup in the Far East. We’re there, we have been there, we will continue to be there,” he said.

“And that I see the same proportion in the (Middle East), I don’t see a naval movement” from there, he said.

Greenert spoke at a panel launching a report by the Center for a New American Security on dealing with potential conflict in the South China Sea, where maritime territorial disputes pit China against Vietnam and others.

‘A DECLINING POWER’?

The report urges the United States to build a worldwide naval force of up to 346 ships – far more than the fleet of 250 vessels envisioned after budget cuts and the retirement of older ships.

The center’s Patrick Cronin said that if the United States did not use this decade to expand its fleet, “whatever we say, we’re going to be seen as a declining power” in Asia.

“What I’m worried about is the idea that we may be shrinking rather than growing our Navy,” said Cronin.

The shift in focus to Asia comes amid increasing concern at the Pentagon over China’s strategic goals as it begins to field a new generation of weapons that U.S. officials fear are designed to try to prevent U.S. naval and air forces from projecting power into the region.

The People’s Liberation Army’s newspaper said on Tuesday the United States was “laying out forces across the Asia-Pacific region in advance to contain the rise of China.”

Part of the U.S. strategy includes shoring up U.S. alliances across the region, and Greenert acknowledged deepening ties with countries including longtime allies such as Japan and Australia and emerging relationships with others, like Vietnam.

He also stressed the need to deepen dialogue with the People’s Liberation Army Navy.

China’s Ministry of Defense on Monday warned the United States to be “careful in its words and actions” after announcing the new strategy.

Asked about the comments, Greenert responded: “I appreciate the advice.”

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120110/pl_nm/us_usa_asia_military

per winnipeg air conditioner sports illustrated portable air conditioner call of duty elite lrg

This entry is filed under wonderful post and tagged , , .

Obama seeks to reassure Asia of US interest

By on November 14, 2011

President Obama’s nine-day trip to Asia seeks to?reassure America?s Asian allies and partners that the US is committed to strengthening its economic and security ties to the region.

With America?s military presence in Iraq winding down by the end of the year yet with jobs dominating the domestic political picture, President Obama is redirecting his attention to the world?s rising economic power house ? Asia ? with a nine-day trip to the East.

Skip to next paragraph

Beginning Saturday the president will host Asia-Pacific leaders in Hawaii ? where trade and economic development will be a key topic ? before heading to Australia and Indonesia.

The trip?s two-fold purpose: reassure America?s Asian allies and partners that the US is committed to strengthening its economic and security ties to the region, while messaging the American public (and voters) that America?s economic future depends in large part on its ties to the vibrant and fast-growing Asian economies.

Since taking office, Obama has repeated that this will be America?s ?Pacific century.? But until now the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tumult in the Middle East, and even the threat of a financial meltdown in Europe have kept the administration?s attention to Asia sporadic.

But in a speech at the East-West Center in Honolulu Thursday, in the run-up to the weekend?s APEC summit, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton insisted that the administration is turning its attention to Asia in earnest.

Noting that world events have ?lined up in a way that helps make this possible, Secretary Clinton pointed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

?After a decade in which we invested immense resources in those two theaters,? she said, ?we have reached a pivot point.?

?We now can redirect some of those investments to opportunities and obligations elsewhere,? she added, ?And Asia stands out as a region where opportunities abound.?

But is Obama?s Asia focus coming a bit late and leaving the US playing a game of catch-up? Some US foreign policy experts who have visited the region recently say leaders there wonder if the US, despite Obama?s ?Asia century? rhetoric, is really intent on building up its Asia presence.

?All the countries in Asia can see China?s weight and influence growing in their everyday life, and their question to America is, ?What are you doing to respond to that, what is your strategy??? says James Lindsay, director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. ?They wonder if America is in fact in retreat.?

Clearly Clinton has heard some of these same rumblings coming out of Asia, because she addressed the doubters of America?s staying power head-on in her East-West Center speech.

?To those in Asia who wonder whether the United States is really here to stay, if we can make and keep credible strategic and economic commitments and back them up with action, the answer is: Yes, we can, and yes, we will.?

Saying the US will step up its involvement in Asia ?because we must,? she noted that ?in the 21st century, the world?s strategic and economic center of gravity will be the Asia-Pacific, from the Indian subcontinent to the Western shores of the Americas.?

Yet even as Clinton seems focused on convincing Asian countries ? including an ever-more-powerful China ? that the US is around to stay, the emphasis at the White House appeared to be on convincing Americans that Obama?s long sojourn in Asia and his focus on the region more broadly have at their core a strategy for maintaining and expanding US economic power, and for creating jobs.

?When the American people see the president traveling in the Asia-Pacific, they will see him advocating for US jobs and US businesses,? said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, in a briefing with reporters this week. ?He will be trying to open new markets, and he will be trying to achieve new export initiatives.?

Underscoring just how important Obama sees Asia in America?s economic prosperity, Mr. Rhodes noted that the president?s goal of doubling US exports by 2015 relies substantially on boosting US business to the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for over half of the world?s gross domestic product, and over 40 percent of world trade.

?Nearly all of the efforts we?re going to be making towards that export goal,? he said, ?take place in this part of the world.? ?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Bn73duGqDQE/Obama-seeks-to-reassure-Asia-of-US-interest

dexter season 6 homeland homeland andy rooney 60 minutes andre johnson andre johnson arrested development

This entry is filed under wonderful post and tagged , , .