China criticizes U.S. position on the South Sea

China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to the press release issued last Friday (3rd) by the U.S. State Department over the South China Sea, said the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, on Saturday (4th).

The United States confirmed they would monitor the area to "to avoid an abusive imposition of power by China towards other countries." Besides China itself, the Sea bathes most of Southeast Asia. This question is one of the major diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Washington.

The statement "completely ignores the facts, deliberately confusing right and wrong, and sent a very wrong signal, which is not conducive to efforts to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea and the Asia-Pacific," said Qin .

The spokesman adds that China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. In his statement, Qin says that China has established offices in the Xisha, Nansha and Zhongsha Islands, pertaining to the province of Guangdong in 1959, to administer the three islands and their adjacent waters. "It is necessary to point out" - the statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said - "that China and the countries of the region have worked to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, and safeguard freedom of navigation and commerce in the last 20 years."

According to the statement of 2002, China and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the Sea, which states that the sovereign states directly concerned should resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means and through friendly consultations and negotiations, and there should not be any movements that lead to the worsening of disputes.

For the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, it is worrying that some countries do not respect and comply with the Declaration. "This has created difficulties for the negotiation of the Code of Conduct. Therefore, China, while maintaining an open attitude to the negotiation of the Code of Conduct with ASEAN countries, argues that the parties should comply strictly with the Declaration, so as to create the necessary conditions and environment for negotiation of the Code of Conduct," said Qin.

The United States expressed on last Friday concerns about the growing tensions in the South China Sea, and criticized the establishment of a Chinese garrison in the city (island) of Sansha.

The spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, meanwhile, questions: "Why does the USA pull the wool over their eyes at the fact that certain countries opened a series of oil and gas blocks and passed national laws to appropriate the islands and the waters?

Why did the U.S. avoid talking about the threat of warships of certain countries to Chinese fishermen and unjustified claims about the rights of Chinese sovereignty over the islands? And why did the U.S. suddenly decide to express their concerns and interfere with the issue at a time when countries in the region are improving communication and dialogue and trying to resolve conflicts and defuse the situation? "

The Chinese Foreign Ministry statement concludes by stating that the Asia-Pacific region is a relatively stable economy in the world, an important engine for global economic recovery and that the U.S. should follow the trend of the times, respect the common aspirations of the countries of the region to maintain peace and stability and promote development, respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and give more contributions to peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific.

Qin stressed that China and the ASEAN countries have established the largest free trade area among developing countries since they began a dialogue for over 20 years.

China and the ASEAN countries have together faced the challenges of Asian the economic and financial crisis, the worldwide financial crisis, as well as natural disasters, and have made progress in cooperation in all areas. According to Qin, China attaches great importance to friendly cooperation with ASEAN, supports the ASEAN integration process and the important role of the block on cooperation in East Asia, noting that China is ready to work with ASEAN countries to eliminate disorders and promote the development of bilateral strategic partnership.

In the summit last month, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) has discussed the issue, and there was no consensus to resolve the issues of sovereignty in at least six points of the South China Sea.

The South China Sea has an annual trade of about U.S. $5 trillion and represents one of the most intense areas of maritime transport in the world.

With information from the China Daily and international agencies

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China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third World War

On November 21st, America, UK and Canada announced more sanctions against Iran. France also proposed to adopt new sanctions to force Tehran to stop it's nuclear project. On Nov 23rd, the spokesman of Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s Foreign Ministry said in a regular press conference held in Beijing that China is opposed to unilateral sanctions against Iran.

Scholars believe that, being isolated, China and Iran need mutual support. Meanwhile, the CCP government, with internal and external difficulties, may express an even tougher diplomatic "voice".

"Reuters" reported on Nov 23rd: "The United States, UK and Canada have announced new sanctions against Iran in the areas of energy and finance. France proposed 

'unprecedented' new sanctions, including freezing the assets of the Central Bank of Iran and suspending the purchase of Iran's oil.

Earlier, the "International Atomic Energy Agency" (IAEA) ad issued a report that Iran may be secretly developing nuclear weapons.

On Nov 23rd, the CCP's Foreign Ministry expressed opposition to the imposition of unilateral sanctions against Iran.

In this regard, Xia Ming, a political professor from "City University of New York" in America, believes that since the Cold War, the United States and Western 

society's biggest challenges have been seen as being from China and Iran. They are both isolated by the United States and the West. Therefore, China's policy is foreseeable.

Xia Ming says: "China and Iran are facing strong Western challenges within politics, economy and culture. So these two countries basically have a kind of coordinatio 

on the international stage, to support each other. So we can see that China and Iran coordinate a lot, with a lot of cooperation in matters of energy, arms and so on."

"Associated Press" also reported on Nov 23rd: "Since 2006, the United Nations have carried out 4 rounds of sanctions against Iran. But with export of energy, Iran has not been severely affected by the sanctions."

"AFP" said: "China supports Iran and purchases large quantities of oil from Iran. Meanwhile, China is Iran's biggest trading partner. Their bilateral trade totals up to $ 30 billion.

"Voice of America" reported, according to Chinese customs' data, this year (2011) Iran could become China's second largest crude oil supplier.

However, Iran disdains the new round of sanctions. Israel and Washington said in the event that other efforts were not effective, the possibility of military action would not be ruled out.

It's puzzling to some that Major General Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor from the Chinese National Defense University, said China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third World War.

Professor Xia Ming: "Zhang Zhaozhong said that not hesitating to fight a third world war would be entirely for domestic political needs. To some extent though, this would be completely ridiculous to encourage"

Professor Xia Ming pointed out that the United States and Western societies may deal with Iran by a method of "Jasmine Revolution", similar to what happened in Libya. From the perspective of the Libya model, NATO could not possibly involve itself in large-scale military action, and it would be impossible to start a new war.

In fact, a senior European diplomat with anonymity in Tehran said that the Iranian government was actually very worried about a military strike. Analysts also say that ordinary people don't worship their leaders so much any more.

But Professor Xia Ming said that the CCP regime itself is facing a much bigger crisis than Iran. The CCP regime not only faces challenges from Southeast Asia, the South China Sea, South Asia countries and so on, but also faces the pressure from America for the RMB exchange rate, export, and human rights issues, as well as the pressure of domestic issues meanwhile.

Professor Xia Ming says : "China is facing pressure from America. Meanwhile, current domestic pressure is also very considerable. In particular, we can see in civil society, the challenge to the Chinese government and resistance forces are growing. Therefore, the Chinese government is indeed facing the arrival of a big power shift in the 18th session. So, China may express a tougher diplomatic voice. On the one hand, it is a reaction to pressure from America. On the other hand, it needs to meet the demand of domestic nationalist groups.

Russia is another ally of Iran, with similar policy to that of China. Toward Iran.

Source: YouTube

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A New World - by Anonymous

What it is, the demand the 1% can’t comprehend, is us. It is the individuals and villages, the cities and peoples across the world who are seeing each other on the far side of appeals and petition. It is the world we are becoming.

Establishment polls confirm what everyone in the street already knows: a clear majority of New Yorkers, three of every four, support the occupation and get the “demand” in their gut. The epicenter of the October 15 international day of action was Times Square, barricaded by police insistent to demonstrate their control. But our town is only one center. The world is round.

In the south, thousands streamed onto the avenues of Buenos Aires and Santiago. In Brazil, Peru and Colombia, in more than 20 cities of Mexico and all through our Americas, people came out. There was noise. More like a song.

In the East, demonstrators supporting the occupation emerged on the streets of Hong Kong and Seoul, Manila and Jakarta, Auckland and Melbourne. Days earlier, astonishingly, a solidarity rally in Zhengzhou, China supported the “Great Wall Street Revolution.” China has rallied for our human rights. Imagine.

In Africa, protestors gathered in Nairobi and Johannesburg. The heroes of Tahrir Square in Cairo have returned to battle the military regime that did not follow Mubarak into infamy.

Germany and Greece, ruled by the same banks, rose up with Spain and a lost generation of Europeans to claim a future from the dust of faded empire. Everywhere the lack of demands let us see each other clearly. Across the world, as if for the first time.

And in our own backyard, in thousands of backyards, from Augusta and Jackson, Springfield and Sioux Falls, Vegas and Santa Rosa and Green Bay: Americans celebrated the occupation in its infancy. Jobs with dignity. Housing fit for families. Education. Health care. Pensions. The very air we breathe. What can those who want democracy demand from the king, except his crown? Regime change is in the air. America is looking at itself, it’s place in the world and who we are to be.

This is not a demonstration. It’s participation. Creation. This is a movement where we can be ourselves, together. In Liberty Square. In New York City. In America. A new world.

Source: AnonOps

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China's Great Wall eaten away by mining

LAIYUAN, China (Reuters)- China's Great Wall is falling victim to development as legal and illegal mines tear vast chunks out of the hills below the landmark, conservationists warn.

Voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the 6,400 km (4,000 mile) wall snakes its way across 11 Chinese provinces and draws millions of tourists every year, mostly to restored sections near the capital, Beijing.

Away from the tourist trail, however, some parts of the wall are being allowed to crumble away.

About 200 km (124 miles) southwest of Beijing, in rural Laiyuan county in Hebei province, dozens of small mines are threatening the stability of the centuries-old wall as prospectors dig for copper, iron, molybdenum and nickel, state news agency Xinhua reported. Some mines have excavated within 100 meters of the wall.

But since many of these mines have legal permits, there is nothing conservationists can do, said Dong Yaohui, Vice Chairman of the Great Wall Society.

"The exploitation of the mineral resources falls under the jurisdiction of the Land Resources Bureau, so if the bureau issues mining permits to the mining companies, they can legally extract the mineral resources within areas designated in the contract," Dong said.

"But in this process the Land Resources Bureau does not take into consideration the Great Wall as a factor, or consult the opinion of the Department of Cultural Heritage as there is no rule requiring a consultation as such. So this creates the mess in organization."

The Laiyuan Land Resources Bureau blames the destruction on small, illegal mines, and Xinhua quoted them as saying that operators of such mines use sophisticated communication devices to dodge law enforcement.

Each year, the department of Cultural Heritage is given funds to repair damaged segments of the wall, but Dong said it cannot prevent that damage from taking place.

"Money is not the major issue in the protection of the Great Wall. If you just put down a rule requiring that mining cannot take place within a specific distance from the Great Wall, would that cost money?" he said.

"No, it wouldn't cost anything."

This is not the first time the Great Wall has come under threat.

Bomb attacks during the Sino-Japanese War, from 1937-1945, destroyed large sections, and residents in surrounding villages looted bricks to build roads and houses in the 1950s and 1960s.

China's State Council issued a ban on vandalism of the Great Wall in 2006, but critics say it has not been enforced in the more remote areas.

Cultural protection experts say that more than 70 percent of the Wall lies in ruins, with just a little over 20 percent of it in good shape, Xinhua said.

In Laiyuan county, residents who previously relied on agriculture have turned their land over to the miners. This is evident in the trucks rumbling along the rural roads, carrying away their excavated spoils.

"Our village is empty, the whole southern area is empty. In the North, they've dug a hole going all the way through to Tielingzi and even 1.5 kilometers beyond that to a place called Geziling," said 60-year-old resident Ding Qingzhong.

Another resident said she disagreed with the idea of making money at the expense of preservation.

"Ancient landmarks should be restored, and at the same time resources should also be extracted," said Tong Zhongrong.

"But don't destroy the ancient landmark just for the sake of mining and for selfish profit. That is wrong."

Source: Reuters

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China police fire on Tibetans, nun burns to death

Chinese police shot and injured two Tibetan protesters in southwestern China last Sunday, and a Tibetan nun burned herself to death the following day, a group advocating self-determination for Tibet said, the latest in months of protests.

The self-immolation and the protests signal that anger is swelling in Aba county, a mainly ethnic Tibetan part of Sichuan province that has been the centre of defiance against Chinese control.

Rights groups say the unrest could provoke Beijing to stage a renewed crackdown in Aba, which erupted in violence in March 2008 when Buddhist monks and other Tibetan people loyal to the exiled Dalai Lama, their traditional religious leader, confronted police and troops.

The condition and whereabouts of the two casualties, Dawa and Druklo, are unknown, the London-based Free Tibet group said.

Elsewhere in Sichuan, a 20-year-old nun, Tenzin Wangmo, set fire to herself on Monday afternoon outside a nunnery, three km (1.8 miles) from Aba county, the ninth self-immolation this year in the Tibetan parts of China, Free Tibet said.

She had called for religious freedom in Tibet and for the return of the Dalai Lama as she set herself alight, the group said.

Her death comes seven months after a Tibetan Buddhist monk, Phuntsog, 21, from the restive Kirti monastery, burned himself to death. That prompted a crackdown, with security forces detaining about 300 Tibetan monks for a month.

A Sichuan government propaganda official surnamed Yuan told Reuters that she knew "nothing about the two cases so far".

Free Tibet said that it was not known why security personnel opened fire on Dawa and Druklo, adding that one was shot in the leg and the other, in the torso. It did not specify who suffered what injury.

"Information from Tibet suggests there are more who are willing to give their lives, determined to draw global attention to the persistent and brutal violations Tibetans suffer under Chinese occupation," Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said in a statement sent late on Monday.

"The acts of self-immolation are not taking place in isolation, protests have been reported in the surrounding region and calls for wider protests are growing."

Brigden said that the group has "grave concerns that greater force may be deployed if protests spread".

Nine ethnic Tibetans, eight of them from Aba prefecture, have burned themselves since March to protest against religious controls by the Chinese government, which labels the Dalai Lama a violent separatist, charges he strongly denies.

However, the protests have yet to spread to what China calls the Tibet Autonomous Region, which Beijing has controlled since Communist troops marched in 1950. It says its rule has bought much needed development to a poor and backward region.

Source: Reuters

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World Day Against the Death Penalty: Too many Troy Davises

People around the world and in Taiwan will be celebrating the 9th World Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October by calling on governments still using the death penalty to stop executions and join the global trend toward abolition.

Some people will be carrying on the fight in the name of Troy Davis who, in spite of worldwide campaigns and support, was executed in the United States on 21 September 2011. In a conversation with Amnesty International shortly before his death, he reminded us “the struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me.”

Taiwan's resumption of executions runs counter to the 

global trend ©Amnesty International

Taiwan’s Chiou Ho-shun may be one of these Troy Davises. Like Troy, he has spent more than 20 years on death row. Like Troy, there is also doubt in the case against him.

Troy Davis was sentenced to death in 1991 for the murder of off-duty police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. The case against him primarily rested on witness testimony. Since his 1991 trial, seven of key nine witnesses recanted or changed their testimony, some alleging police coercion.

Chiou Ho-shun may not have the public profile of Troy Davis but his case is no less significant.  He and his co-defendants say that they were held incommunicado for the first four months of their detention and they were tortured to make them confess to the kidnapping and killing of Lu Cheng and the murder of Ko Hung Yu-Lan. They later retracted their confessions.

In 1994, after an official investigation, two public prosecutors and 10 police officers handling the case were convicted of extracting confessions through torture.

The death penalty is irrevocable. Taiwan knows this all too well. In February this year President Ma Ying-jeou apologized for the execution of an innocent man in 1997, former air force private Chiang Kuo-ching.

More countries realize every year that the only way to ensure mistakes like this are not made is to abolish the penalty. 139 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Of the remaining 58 retentionist countries, only 23 executed in 2010.

In 2010 more states than ever before voted at the UN in favour of a worldwide moratorium on executions. And in 2011, in the United States, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty.

In Taiwan the four executions in 2010 and the five in 2011, stand in stark, disturbing contrast to the rising tide of world opinion in favour of abolition.

Countries that insist on using the death penalty continue to claim that they use it only in accordance with international law. But most of their actions blatantly contradict these claims.

It is often imposed after unfair trials and based on confessions extracted through torture. It is often used against political opponents, poor people, and other marginalized groups. It is sometimes even used against people who allegedly committed crimes when they were under 18 or who have significant mental impairments.

Worryingly, death sentences are handed down for acts such as fraud, sorcery, apostasy, drug-related offences or sexual relations between consenting adults, which fall far short of the legal threshold of ‘most serious’ crimes. In just the last year, death sentences were imposed for drug-related offences in China, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Yemen.

Taiwan also acts contrary to international law as it provides no procedure that would allow people under sentence of death to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence – a right recognized by International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Taiwan has legally committed to implement.

Taiwan was once considered a leader in the move to abolish the death penalty in Asia, but the recent executions are a step backwards. If Taiwan is really committed to ending executions, it should start by commuting the death sentences of all people currently threatened with execution.

The struggle for abolition does continue, in the name of Troy Davis, in the name of Chiang Kuo-ching and in the name of Chiou Ho-Shun and all others facing execution around the world.

Source: Amnesty International

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A true story of Mother’s Sacrifice

This is a true story of Mother’s Sacrifice during the China Earthquake.

After the Earthquake had subsided, when the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman’s house, they saw her dead body through the cracks. But her pose was somehow strange that she knelt on her knees like a person was worshiping; her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supporting by an object. The collapsed house had crashed her back and her head.

With so many difficulties, the leader of the rescuer team put his hand through a narrow gap on the wall to reach the woman’s body. He was hoping that this woman could be still alive. However, the cold and stiff body told him that she had passed away for sure.

He and the rest of the team left this house and were going to search the next collapsed building. For some reasons, the team leader was driven by a compelling force to go back to the ruin house of the dead woman. Again, he knelt down and used his had through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement,” A child! There is a child! “

The whole team worked together; carefully they removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3 months old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket under his mother’s dead body. Obviously, the woman had made an ultimate sacrifice for saving her son. When her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.

The medical doctor came quickly to exam the little boy. After he opened the blanket, he saw a cell phone inside the blanket. There was a text message on the screen. It said,” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” This cell phone was passing around from one hand to another. Every body that read the message wept. ” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” Such is the mother’s love for her child!!

Source: Internet

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Chinese state media say 16 dead in train accident

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese bullet train lost power after being struck by lightning and was hit from behind by another train, knocking two of its carriages off a bridge, killing at least 16 people and injuring 89, state media reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency said four cars on the second train also derailed, but it did not say how serious that was.

The first train was traveling from the Zhejiang provincial capital of Hangzhou when the accident occurred in Wenzhou city at about 8:30 p.m. (1230 GMT), Xinhua said.

RETRANSMISSION FOR ALTERNATIVE CROP - Emergency workers and people work to help passengers from the wreckage of train after two carriages from a high-speed train derailed and fell off a bridge in Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang province Saturday July 23, 2011. A Chinese news agency says there is no immediate word on casualties.(AP Photo) CHINA OUT

It said one carriage from the first train fell about 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters). Pictures on the Internet showed one badly damaged car lying on its side by the bridge and the second car leaning against the bridge after landing on its end..

Xinhua quoted an unidentified witness as saying "rescuers have dragged many passengers out of the coach that fell on the ground."

The trains involved are "D'' trains, the first generation bullet train with an average speed of about 95 miles (150 kilometers) per hour and not as fast as the new Beijing-Shanghai line.

Xinhua said the train hit by lightning was "D3115." It said the Ministry of Railways confirmed that it was hit from behind by train "D301."

China has spent billions of dollars and plans more massive spending to link the country with a high-speed rail network. Recently, power outages and other malfunctions have plagued the showcase high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai since it opened on June 30.

Official plans call for China's bullet train network to expand to 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of track this year and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.

The huge spending connected with the rail expansion also has been blamed for corruption, and Railways Minister Liu Zhijun was dismissed this spring amid an investigation into unspecified corruption allegations.

No details have been released about the allegations against him, but news reports say they include kickbacks, bribes, illegal contracts and sexual liaisons.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Ghost city appears above Xin'an River

Tall buildings miraculously appeared on the normally clear Xin'an River. Picture: ITN

• City appears over Chinese river
• Residents think it's a "vortex"
• Scientists say it's a great mirage

IT looks like any other city skyline with skyscrapers, a few mountains and trees - except it isn't real.

The giant mirage appeared across the skyline near in East China earlier this month after heavy rainfall and humid conditions along the Xin’an River.

As mist settled over the river at dusk, tall buildings appeared to rise from nowhere, leading residents in nearby Huanshan City to speculate that the vision may be a "vortex" to a lost civilisation.

Scroll down to see amazing footage of the ghost city

"It's really amazing, it looks like a scene in a movie, in a fairlyland," one resident told UK news channel ITN.

The mysterious city had vanished just as quickly as it had come.

Scientists have quashed the vortex theory and, as per usual, have a simple explanation for the incredible sight.

They believe it may have been a mirage, caused when moisture in the air becomes warmer than the temperature of the water below.

When rays of sunlight cross from the colder air into the warmer air they are refracted or bent – creating a reflection in the air that looks similar to a reflection in water.

It's a common sight for many travellers on Australian roads. But we Australians tend to see puddles of water that disappear when you get close, not entire cities floating on rivers.

Don’t get it? Here’s a scientist to explain

Source: News.com.au

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Lhasa, roof of the world, gets first five-star hotel

For decades, the hardy travellers that braved the icy roads and 1,200 mile drive to Lhasa from Sichuan have been greeted with austere monasteries filled with crimson-robed monks and the terrible taste of butter tea.

St Regis Lhasa Resort is the first international luxury hotel in Tibet Photo: RALF TOOTEN - TOOTEN PHOTOGRAPHY

But the Chinese government, which defends its mandate to rule over Tibet by claiming to have brought economic prosperity to the region, is determined to make life more luxurious for today's pampered tourists by opening Tibet's first five-star hotel – The St Regis Lhasa.

Guests arriving at Lhasa airport are now whisked away in a Mercedes-Benz limousine to one of the hotel's 150 suites or 12 private villas.

Personal butlers escort guests to their rooms and give tips on surviving Lhasa's 12,000ft altitude. Guests are told not to shower on their first day, since hot water is believed by the Chinese to open up blood vessels and suck oxygen away from the brain. Each room, meanwhile, is equipped with tanks of oxygen, just in case.

Downstairs at the hotel, owned by the same group as the Lanesborough in London, there is a spa, a swimming pool, a restaurant boasting Cantonese and Sichuan delicacies, including yak meat, and a wine bar with hundreds of bottles specially flown in, including Chateau Lafite-Rothschild.

Any guests wanting to taste "more basic Tibetan fare, such as yak butter and boiled noodles" will have to leave the premises, the hotel's website flatly states. "They can be found nearby at the Tromzikhang market".

Tourism is now responsible for almost 15 per cent of Tibet's economy, and 6.82 million tourists visited last year, a near 22 per cent rise.

Four more five-star hotels, including a Shangri-La and an Intercontinental, are scheduled to open in the next four years, according to the local government. In addition, Beijing is planning to finally introduce a luxury train service to Tibet this summer with tickets costing as much as £6,000 a head. Even the former home of Ling Rinpoche, a tutor to the 13th Dalai Lama in the 19th century, has been turned into a boutique hotel.

"This hotel has filled a gap in the market for high-end travellers and ends Tibet's history of having no luxury hotels," said Wang Songping, the deputy head of the Tibetan Tourist Bureau.

He Shuying, a spokesman for the St Regis Lhasa, said guests had appreciated the warmth of a Tibetan welcome, and that she expected to be fully booked over the summer tourist season, but that there had been some hiccups during the hotel's trial period.

"We are flying in all of our food and daily supplies, because you cannot get them here in Lhasa," she said. "But we did once run out of lobster and Australian beef, and we got an earful from our guests.

"Also we sometimes have power cuts up here on the Tibetan plateau. There's nothing we can do about that – the whole city goes dark."

Source: Telegraph

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WordPress.com DDoS Attacks Primarily From China

After recovering from the largest Distributed Denial of Service attack in the service’s history (“multiple Gigabits per second and tens of millions of packets per second”) yesterday morning, blog host WordPress.com was attacked again very early this morning, finally stabilizing its service at 11:15 UTC (around 3:15 am PST).

WordPress.com serves 18 million sites, many of them news sites like our own,  which lead someto conjecture that the attacks had come from the Middle East, a region experiencing its own Internet issues at the moment. Not so says Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg, who tells me that 98% of the attacks over the past two days originated in China with a small percentage coming from Japan and Korea.

According to Mullenweg one of the targeted sites was a Chinese-language site operating on WordPress.com which also appears to be blocked on Baidu, China’s major search engine. WordPress.com doesn’t know exactly why the site was targeted and won’t release the name until it does. Based on the extent of the attacks Mullenweg tells me that they appear to be politically motivated.

“WordPress.com was hit with a another wave of attacks today (the fourth in two days) that caused issues again. This time we were able to recover more quickly, and also determined one of the targets to be a Chinese-language site which appears to be also blocked on Baidu. The vast majority of the attacks were coming from China (98%) with a little bit of Japan and Korea mixed in.”

While Mullenweg tells me that DDoS attacks are fairly common at WordPress.com but its the strength of its infrastructure (distributed across three data centers in three cities) usually prevents anyone from noticing. The recent attacks have impacted not just WordPress.com sites, other servers in the same part of the network causing the outages. WordPress.com is collaborating with upstream providers to shift the attacks.

Says Mullenweg, “Right now there are huge asymmetric risks on the internet because any bad actor, for a few tens of thousands of dollars, has the online equivalent of a dirty nuke and can bring even the largest sites to their knees and silence millions of voices.”

WordPress.com isn’t the only one suffering from recent DDoS attacks, a slew of South Korean sites also took a hit during the same time period.

Update: Mullenweg tells me that after closer scrutiny the attacks don’t seem to be politically motivated, “it doesn’t look like attacks were politically motivated, likely more business-oriented given the targeted site, though we still haven’t heard back from the owner.”

Source: TechCrunch

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China challenges US predominance in Asia-Pacific

WASHINGTON (AP) — When China launched threatening war games off Taiwan 15 years ago on the eve of an election on the self-governing island, the U.S. deployed two aircraft carriers, and China quickly backed down.

FILE - In this July 26, 2010, file photo rleased by China's Xinhua News Agency on July 29, 2010, a warship launches a missile during a live-ammunition military drill held by the South China Sea Fleet of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy in the South China Sea. During the past two decades, China has developed air, naval and missile capabilities that appear focused on undercutting America's superiority in China's backyard. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Pu Haiyang) NO SALES.

Things don't seem so one-sided any more.

China's military has been on a spending spree at a time that the debt-ridden U.S. government is looking to cut defense costs. On Friday, China announced a 12.7 percent hike for this year, the latest in a string of double-digit increases.

That trend has triggered worries in Congress and among security analysts about whether the United States can maintain its decades-long military predominance in the economically crucial Asia-Pacific.

While the U.S. military has been drained by 10 years of costly conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, China has developed air, naval and missile capabilities that could undercut U.S. superiority in China's backyard.

China is still decades away from building a military as strong as the United States. It has not fought a major conflict since a border war with Vietnam in 1979 and is not a Soviet-style rival threatening American soil.

But the shift raises questions about whether the U.S. can meet its commitment to maintain a strong presence in the Asia-Pacific for decades — a matter not just of global prestige but also seen as critical for safeguarding shipping lanes vital for world trade and protecting allies.

China already has an innate geographical advantage in any conflict in the west Pacific. One expert posits that with its military buildup, China could conquer Taiwan by the end of the decade even if the U.S. military intervenes.

China regards Taiwan as part of its territory. Relations between the two, long seen as a potential flash point, have warmed in the past two years. But China's assertion of territorial claims in the South China Sea, which it has declared as a "core interest" — essentially something it could go to war over — has spooked its neighbors and fortified their support for a strong U.S. presence in the region. Even former enemy Vietnam is forging military ties with the U.S.

Last week, the Philippines deployed two warplanes after a ship searching for oil complained it was harassed by two Chinese patrol boats in the South China Sea. Japan scrambled F-15 fighter jets after Chinese surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft flew near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

"As China's military has gotten more capable and China has behaved more aggressively, a number of countries are looking at the U.S. as a hedge to make sure they can maintain independence, security and stability," said Abraham Denmark, director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.

But those allies question whether the U.S. can retain its freedom to operate in the region, and whether its economy — highly indebted to China and struggling to recover from a recession — can sustain its high level of military spending, said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center of Strategic and International Studies think tank.

The U.S. Pacific Command has 325,000 personnel, five aircraft carrier strike groups, 180 ships and nearly 2,000 aircraft. Tens of thousands of forces stay on China's doorstep at long-established bases in South Korea and Japan.

China's defense spending is still dwarfed by the United States. Even if China really invests twice as much in its military as its official $91.5 billion budget, which some analysts believe, that is still only about a quarter of U.S. spending. It has no aircraft carriers and lags the U.S. in defense technology. Some of its most vaunted recent military advances will take years to reach operation.

For example, China test flew its stealth fighter in January, months earlier than U.S. intelligence expected, but U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says China will still only have a couple of hundred of these "fifth-generation" jets by 2025, when the United States should have 1,500.

But China's growing array of aircraft, naval and submarine vessels, ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-satellite and cyber war capabilities already enable it to project power beyond its shores. It plans new submarines, larger naval destroyers and transport aircraft that could expand that reach further.

Roger Cliff, a respected defense researcher who recently testified before a congressional hearing on China, says many of the missiles and strike aircraft have a range of about 900 miles, which put them within attacking distance of virtually all U.S. air and naval bases in the region. They include the DF-21D missile which is designed to target aircraft carriers. It employs technology that no other U.S. rival has mastered. It does not appear to have been tested yet against a maneuvering target at sea.

Cliff said if trends continue, China should have sufficient missiles and precision bombs by the end of the decade to render inoperable for a week or more all airfields on Taiwan and U.S. air bases in Okinawa, Japan, and possibly others farther away. He said there are between 40 and 50 Chinese air bases within 500 miles of Taiwan, each generally hosting a squadron of 24 aircraft, which could overwhelm superior U.S. aircraft through sheer numbers. If China acquired amphibious landing vehicles, he forecast it could conquer Taiwan.

If U.S. military planners are worried about that possibility, they aren't showing it. They say plans to cap defense spending within five years won't derail modernization plans. Pacific Command chief Adm. Robert Willard said last month that while the U.S. carefully watches China's growing military capabilities — and urges greater openness from China about them — the United States does not need to change its strategy.

China maintains it does not have offensive intentions, and analysts say that military action in the region would hurt its export-driven economy which could threaten what its government prizes above all else — domestic stability. The U.S. military presence may also benefit China as it restrains neighbors like South Korea and Japan from seeking nuclear weapons.

As U.S. and Chinese forces increasingly rub up against each other in the west Pacific, the U.S. says it wants to promote military ties with China to prevent a chance skirmish and for China to develop as a "responsible major power." To date, China has been reluctant to engage meaningfully after the recent restoration of military ties that were cut over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

"This is not the Cold War with two rival camps facing each other," said Michael Schiffer, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia. "We are seeking a military-military relationship that is broad and deep enough to manage our differences while expanding on areas of common interest."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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10 Fascinating International Facts That Are Wrong

1. Russia

The Error: The former Soviet Union celebrated the October Revolution in October.

Although the Bolsheviks took control over October 25-26, 1917, this was under the Old Style (Julian) calendar. One of the first things the Communists did was to modernize their calendar to the Gregorian Calendar – thereby pushing the day ahead 13 days (into November). This was a major holiday in the Soviet Union, mostly because with the official ban on religion the biggest holidays were civil holidays such as May Day and the October Revolution.

2. Germany & Britain

The Error: The British king George I of Hanover used English or German when speaking with his cabinet.

I don’t know that this is so much a misconception as “it’s obvious” that a British monarch would speak English. Those who know history and realize George I was a German prince who spoke no English may then think that “it’s obvious” he and his advisors spoke German. The reality is that since his cabinet did not speak German, the lingua franca in the meetings was French.

3. Britain & France

The Error: The Titanic was the first ship known to use the distress code “SOS”?

Although British ships preferred the traditional distress call “CQD”, most of the other European countries used the International Conference on Wireless Communication at Sea standard set in 1908 of “SOS”. The French ship Niagara is known to have used “SOS” well before the Titanic did. Incidently, in CQD, the CQ was a general call on a telegraph line with the D standing for Distress. In James Cameron’s “Titanic”, he did get it right that the radio operator tried both CQD and SOS after the new distress call was suggested to him.

4. Lebanon

The Error: John Kennedy was the first to say “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

Yes, the misconception is American but the backstory is international. American politicians are renowned for plagiarizing their best lines from foreign sources. For example, Abraham Lincoln took the phrase “a government of the people, by the people and for the people” from the preface of John Wycliff’s 1384 edition of the Bible and current Vice-President Joe Biden cribbed a few speeches while in the Senate from Labour Party MP Neil Kinnock. This quote thought by many Americans to be pure Kennedy was actually from Lebanese writer Khalil Gibran in an article advocating his Lebanese brethren to rebel against the occupying Ottoman Turks.

5. Australia & Scotland

The Error: Alexander Fleming invented the antibiotic “penicillin”.

Many will disagree with this since it is more a question of semantics than a misconception. Although Alexander Fleming DISCOVERED that the mold Penicillium notatum has antibacterial properties, he was not a chemist and growing and culturing the mold was difficult for him. Howard Florey with the assistance of Ernst Chain was able to purify the penicillin and put it in a form for use in humans, thereby INVENTING penicillin as a true antibiotic.

6. Switzerland and Britain

The Error: Watson and Crick discovered DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).

Again, people on Listverse will say “everyone knows that” but many people learn the simplified version that James Watson and Francis Crick discovered DNA, probably because they won the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. The true discoverer was Friedrich Miescher was analyzing pus cell nuclei in 1868 when he discovered nuclein. He was able to analyze this further and discovered an acid component which he called deoxyribonucleic acid. Scientists Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty were the first to show a link between DNA and heredity in 1943 and Rosalind Franklin did the first X-ray diffraction pattern study of DNA. What Watson & Crick did was to develop a model of DNA that accounted for all of the previous research discoveries.

7. France

The Error: Mouton-Rothschild is a top-grade Chateau claret.

The five growths (classes) of red Bordeaux were determined in 1855. Four were considered First Class Lafite-Rothschild, Latour, Margaux, Haut-Brion. Mouton-Rothschild did not like being place in second class so their motto is “Premier ne puis. Second ne daigne. Mouton suis.” (First I cannot be. Second I do not deign to be. I am Mouton.) All I know is I certainly would not turn down a glass of it.

8. Scotland and Italy

The Error: The fax machine was invented after the telephone.

Scottish inventor Alexander Bain had invented the electric clock back in 1841. In 1843 he used his work on electric clock to patent a device that could be synchronized with a twin over telegraph lines, which according to some stories he did so he could transmit a picture of a new-born calf (if true it would need to be a daguerreotype which seems very unlikely for just a cow). Frederick Bakewell patented a better fax machine in 1848, two years before Bain updated his and in 1861 an Italian Giovanni Caselli invented the first high quality fax. All of this was done before both Alexander Bell and Elisha Gray independently filed for the telephone patent on 14 February 1876.

9. Germany

The Error: Albert Einstein was a poor student.

The myth that Einstein was a poor student started when an American researcher mistranslated some of Einstein’s report cards by not taking into account the grading system at the time. While Einstein was in school, students were given grades 1 to 6, 1 being the best. This was reversed (1 was worst) the year after Einstein graduated. Further research has uncovered a letter from Albert’s mother to his aunt complimenting his grades, but I guess the image of Einstein going from failing school to being a top physicist is too good to be changed because of the truth.

10. China

The Error: Pandas eat only bamboo.

The reason that pandas eat so much bamboo is that it doesn’t run away. They are omnivores that have adapted to a primarily bamboo diet but they will eat anything they can catch like small animals and carrion. The problem is that they are so slow from the fact that bamboo doesn’t provide a lot of energy that it is hard to catch anything else – a vicious cycle. There are a couple of great articles by National Geographic about the pandas from the 1980’s

Bonous Not the United States

The Error: The United States is the only country that measures things by feet, gallons, pounds, and degrees Fahrenheit.

To demonstrate how out-of-date the U.S. is from basically everyone else in the world, it is pointed out by scientists and metricians that we still use the archaic English system. It may be true, but we are not the only ones. Liberia uses the same system which is not a surprise considering that the country was started by former American slaves who named their capital after American president James Monroe and it was only recently that Liberia’s president was not a descendent of the original American emigrants. And there is a third country that uses the system – Myanmar (pictured above). As a former British colony, they of course adopted the English system. After gaining their independence, the country changed its name from Burma but not how it measured things.

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