N. Korea blasts ‘aggressive’ US-S. Korean military exercises
Pyongyang has warned the US-South Korean military exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle will
“increase tensions on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia.” The
maneuvers are scheduled for February and March. Rodong Sinmun, the
ruling party’s newspaper, recalled on Tuesday the US demanded North
Korea
“to refrain from provocative actions.” But the scheduled large-scale exercises on the peninsula
“clearly testify to an aggressive nature,” the paper said, as cited by Itar-Tass. Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also stressed that the drills
“are held to achieve military superiority.”
Source: RT.COM
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U.S. to move 4,700 Marines from Japan to Guam: reports
By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, February 5, 2012 13:10 EST
TOKYO — Tokyo and Washington have agreed to move
4,700 Marines from the Japanese island of Okinawa to Guam in a bid to
revive a stalled plan for the realignment of US forces in Japan,
according to reports.
The two countries in 2006 agreed to the transfer of around 8,000
Marines from Okinawa to the US territory of Guam and the relocation of
an air base on Okinawa but the move has been delayed as Tokyo struggles
to convince Okinawans to accept the deal.
The US Defense Department is now considering shifting the remaining
3,300 Marines to elsewhere in the Pacific, such as Hawaii, Australia and
the Philippines, Kyodo News reported on Sunday, citing unnamed
diplomatic sources.
Senior Japanese and US foreign and defence officials will meet in
Washington on Monday, with the two governments expected to announce
details of the transfer on February 13, Kyodo and the Asahi Shimbun
daily said.
Tokyo has struggled to convince Okinawans to accept the plan to
relocate the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, part of the realignment
package.
Many Okinawans, angry at having for decades shouldered the burden of
hosting more than half of the 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan,
oppose the plan which would relocate the US base to another part of the
island.
They say another part of Japan should take the base, instead of
Henoko on the east coast of Okinawa, where Tokyo and Washington have
agreed to build a giant runway-on-stilts in the sea.
The move to transfer Marines to Guam may compromise Tokyo’s position
because Japanese government officials had used it as leverage to
convince Okinawa to accept the base relocation, the Asahi said.
read more:
RawStory
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Lawmakers suggest US consider arming Syrian rebels, as graphic videos emerge
Published February 07, 2012
| FoxNews.com
John McCain
and other lawmakers called Tuesday for the U.S. to consider arming the
Syrian opposition, as new videos emerged purporting to show the bloody
aftermath of the weekend's massacre in the Syrian city of Homs.
"The bloodletting has got to stop," McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona, said.
The Obama administration, though, pushed
back on the idea -- stressing instead the options of humanitarian
assistance and increased international pressure.
"We don't think more arms into
Syria is the answer,"
State Department
spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. "We think the answer is to get to a
national democratic dialogue, for the violence to stop, for the regime's
tanks to come out of the cities and then for monitors to be able to go
back in."
The debate in Washington comes in the wake of two major clashes over the weekend -- one at the
United Nations Security Council, the other in Homs. At the Security Council,
Russia and
China
blocked an Arab League proposal calling for Syrian President Bashar
Assad to step down. The Obama administration condemned the veto.
In Homs, Assad's forces were blamed for an
assault that activists say killed more than 200 people. Startling and
graphic YouTube videos began to surface by Tuesday claiming to show
on-the-scene footage from the aftermath of the attack.
Some videos showed the fighting from a distance, with smoke billowing from the burning buildings of the Homs skyline.
Others showed what appeared to be makeshift
medical quarters, where victims were spread out on the floors for
treatment or attempted resuscitation.
One video, which was aired on Al Jazeera,
appeared to show bloodied children, one of them crying out. Another
panned to show several wounded victims, though it was not always clear
whether the individuals shown were alive.
McCain, who supported U.S. intervention in
Libya,
told Fox News that "all options must be on the table" with regard to
Syria -- even when Fox News inquired about the use of drones.
McCain, though, said U.S. troops should not be sent into Syria.
The Obama administration has pushed back
against the prospect of outright military intervention. And without a
U.N. resolution, the U.S. may be further deterred from any deep
coordination with the Syrian rebels. The administration on Monday
announced that it was closing its embassy in Syria.
Nuland said Tuesday that the administration
would "never take anything off the table" but stressed that arming the
rebels is not the "right answer" at this point.
He said the administration is "exploring the
possibility of providing humanitarian aid to Syrians" and continues to
try to work with other nations to "ratchet up the pressure, ratchet up
the isolation on Assad and his regime."
Carney said the Assad regime is "not going to last."
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