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Typhoon Sanba With 170-mph Winds to Threaten Japan
Satellite image of Super Typhoon Sanba Friday afternoon, local time, Sept. 14, 2012, is from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC).Super Typhoon Sanba poses a growing threat to southwestern Japan and South Korea.
As of Friday evening, local time, Sanba remains a super typhoon, the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, according to The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). A super typhoon is a storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph or higher.
The Japan Meteorological Agency estimates Sanba’s central pressure to fall to 26.58 inches (900 mb), which would allow Sanba’s strength to rank in between Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina from the Atlantic. Only one typhoon in the western Pacific, Super Typhoon Megi, had a lower pressure in the past 10 years.
Sanba’s movement to the north and northwest is expected to continue through at least Saturday.
The projected path brings Sanba close to Okinawa, Japan, by Saturday night, local time. While the island is well-prepared for typhoons, damage, power outages and flooding are likely.
“It will be a life-threatening situation for the Read more…
China Lashes Talk of Asian Missile Shield
A senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official on Wednesday lashed potential U.S. plans to collaborate with partner nations in developing a ballistic missile shield covering Asia, China Daily reported (see GSN, March 27).
U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary Madelyn Creedon in March said the Obama administration was discussing cooperative missile defense with Australia, Japan and South Korea, according to earlier reporting. Any antimissile system for the region would be based on the developing U.S. “phased adaptive approach” program to deploy land- and sea-based missile interceptors around Europe, Creedon told lawmakers.
“The Chinese government always insists that (countries) should start by maintaining global strategic stability and promoting strategic mutual trust between major powers to handle the issue of missile defense prudently,” according to Luo Zhaohui, Asian affairs chief for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
“Building a missile defense system in the Asia-Pacific region will have negative effects on global and regional strategic stability, and go against the Read more…
Military spending in South-East Asia
THE tiny island-state of Singapore, home to just over 5m people, has a well-deserved reputation as a quiet, clean-cut hub for banking, lawyering and golf. Yet beyond the fairways it bristles with weapons.
According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Singapore is now the fifth-largest arms importer in the world, bested only by some obvious behemoths—China, India and Pakistan—plus South Korea. Singapore accounts for 4% of the world’s total spending on arms imports. Its defence spending per head beats every country bar America, Israel and Kuwait. This year $9.7 billion, or 24% of the national budget, will go on defence.
These are striking figures, but then Singapore has been one of the Read more…
N. Korea says it is ready for both dialogue and war
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) visits a unit under the Command of the Korean People's Army 4th Corps stationed in the southwestern sector of North Korea, in this undated picture released by the North's KCNA in Pyongyang February 26. KCNA/REUTERS
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) — North Korea said Monday it is fully ready for both dialogue and war as South Korea and the United States kicked off joint military drills that Pyongyang claims are rehearsals for a northward invasion.
The Key Resolve, which will last through March 9, involves about 200,000 South Korean troops and 2,900 U.S. troops, according to the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.
Separately, the two allies plan to hold the Foal Eagle joint military exercise from March 1 to April 30.
South Korea and the U.S. regularly hold military exercises to bolster their readiness against a possible North Korean invasion. Seoul and Washington say the exercises are defensive in nature.
However, the North, which has a track record of military provocations against South Korea, routinely condemns the military drills in the South as precursors for an invasion.
“The big exercises for Read more…
U.S., South Korea Begin Drills; North Warns of War
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea and the United States launched a massive joint military exercise on Aug. 16, prompting the North to condemn the maneuvers as provocative and warn that war could erupt.
The two allies have described the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise as defensive and routine, but the North habitually terms such joint drills a rehearsal for invasion and launches its own counter-exercises.
“The exercise started this morning,” a spokesman of the U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command (CFC) told AFP, referring to the annual computer-assisted simulation command-post exercise.
All of CFC’s major units are taking part, involving more than Read more…
Central Banks Continue Buying Gold To Diversify Portfolios
Gold purchases by South Korea and Thailand this summer continue a trend in which central banks are net purchasers of the metal as they look to diversify their foreign-exchange reserves.
“So far in 2011, central banks in the emerging markets have already bought more than double the gold they bought in all of 2010, and we’ve got almost five months to go for the rest of the year,” said Jeff Clark, senior precious-metals analyst with Casey Research.
This buying has occurred despite historically high prices. “So apparently, central banks don’t regard the gold price as too high,” Clark said.
For the year to date, net purchases by the world’s central banks are 203.5 metric tons, which already is a 168% increase from 76 tons for all of 2010, said Natalie Dempster, director, government affairs, with the World Gold Council.
Most of the data is gleamed international financial statistics released by the International Monetary Fund at the beginning of each month. Additionally, some central banks—such as Read more…
Hackers target 72 organisations in ‘biggest cyber attack in history’
Security experts have discovered the biggest series of cyber attacks to date, involving the infiltration of the networks of 72 organisations including the United Nations, governments and companies around the world.
Security company McAfee, which uncovered the intrusions, said it believed there was one “state actor” behind the attacks but declined to name it, though one security expert who has been briefed on the hacking said the evidence points to China.
The long list of victims in the five-year campaign include the governments of the United States, Taiwan, India, South Korea, Vietnam and Canada; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); the International Olympic Committee (IOC); the World Anti-Doping Agency; and an array of companies, from defence contractors to high-tech enterprises.
In the case of the United Nations, the hackers broke into the computer system of the UN Secretariat in Geneva in 2008, hid there unnoticed for nearly two years, and quietly combed through reams of secret data, according to McAfee.
“Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators,” McAfee’s vice president of threat research, Dmitri Alperovitch, wrote in a 14-page report.
“What is happening to all this data Read more…
Gold Prices Spike on Safe-Haven Appeal, South Korea Buy to $1660.10
NEW YORK (TheStreet ) — Gold prices hit record highs Tuesday as the Bank of Korea bought more gold and as the Senate passed the debt ceiling deal.
Gold for December delivery popped $22.80 to close at $1,644.50 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price has traded as high as $1,646.80 and as low as $1,618.80 while the spot gold price was skyrocketing almost $30, according to Kitco’s gold index.
Silver prices added 78 cents to close at $40.09 an ounce. The U.S. dollar index was up 0.22% at $74.48 while the euro was down 0.36% vs. the dollar.
With the debt-ceiling issue basically behind U.S. markets, investors are now looking at the health of the economy and the picture isn’t bright. Worries of slowing global growth were the main factors boosting gold prices.
Not only have quarterly growth numbers been anemic and July’s manufacturing index was barely above the critical 50 growth-mark, but the debt plan aims to Read more…
Indonesia, South Korea Launch Stealth Jet Project
Seoul. South Korea and Indonesia are launching a partnership today to develop a new stealth fighter jet which has been delayed for years by technical and budget problems.
Defense and procurement officials from the two countries will mark the beginning of their partnership with the opening today of a new joint research center in Daejeon, about 160km south of Seoul, reported Yonhap news agency yesterday.
Noh Dae Rae, head of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (Dapa), and Eris Herryanto, secretary-general of the Indonesian defense ministry, will attend the event, said the administration.
Referring to the so-called KF-X project, Mr Noh said in a statement: ‘It will be a strategic project that will be responsible for the development of defense industries and national security in both countries.’
He said the KF-X project has been made possible because of ‘consistent exchange and cooperation in the defense industry and defense procurement’ by both sides.
South Korea launched the Read more…
South Korea landslides kill 18
A South Korean driver pushes his truck through flooded street in southern Seoul on July 27, 2011. Heavy rain hit the central part of the Korean peninsula, triggering landslides that killed 18 people. – AFP Photo
Landslides triggered by torrential rain in South Korea have killed a total of 18 people, police and a rescue agency said Wednesday.
They said 12 people died when a mudslide hit an inn and three homes in the mountainous Chuncheon area 100 kilometres (60 miles) east ofSeoul. Five people were killed in a mudslide in southern Seoul and one elsewhere in the city.
Wild weather has battered the peninsula since late Tuesday, causing Read more…
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