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Iran Launches Overhauled Heavy Submarine


Fars News Agency
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 01:47 UTC
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© Fars News Agency
The Iranian Navy officially launched a heavy submarine after the subsurface vessel was overhauled by the country's experts.

Tareq 901 submarine was launched in Iran's Southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Tuesday at the order of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander in Chief Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

In May, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari lauded Iranian experts' success in repairing heavy submarines, saying their outstanding capabilities and mastery of the hi-tech used in naval vessels display the failure of enemy sanctions and pressures.

He said the submarine, called Tareq, is now fully ready to be dispatched to the high seas.

He pointed to the Supreme Leader's recent alarming remarks that enemies are trying to display Iranians as an incapable nation, and said, "Today we show that 'We Can', and that our ability is way beyond the enemy's imaginations."

Last year, the Iranian Navy's Tareq-class submarine, 'Younus', managed to set a new record in sailing the international waters and high seas for 68 days.

Iran's Younus submarine, sailing alongside warships of the 14th fleet of the Iranian Navy, returned home in early June 2011 following an over two-month-long mission in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The deployment of the Iranian submarine in the Red Sea was the first such operation by the country's Navy in far-off waters.
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Boat

Iran's Navy Launches Radar-Evading Missile Destroyer


Fars News Agency
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 02:19 UTC
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© Fars News Agency
Iran on Tuesday launched a home-made missile destroyer at the order of the Commander in Chief, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Sahand (IRI Sahand) missile destroyer was officially launched by the Iranian Navy in Iran's Southern port city of Bandar Abbas minutes ago.

Also today, the Iranian navy launched a heave submarine, named Tareq, after the subsurface vessel was overhauled by the country's experts.

In June 2012, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said the country plans to build new vessels and submarines in a bid to further boost its naval capabilities.

"New surface and subsurface vessels will join the Islamic Republic of Iran's Navy fleet in the near future," Sayyari told FNA at the time, adding that the Navy is due to build new vessels.
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Rocket

War Games: U.S. and Japan agree to deploy second missile defense shield


BBC News
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:52 UTC
The US and Japan have agreed to set up a second missile defence system on Japanese soil in an effort to counter the ballistic missile threat from North Korea, officials say. US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta made the announcement in Tokyo with Japan's defence minister. But the exact location of the system has not yet been determined.

While both sides insist the system is not aimed at China, analysts say the decision is bound to a
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Mr Panetta (R) met with Mr Morimoto in Tokyo
nger Beijing. Mr Panetta's trip comes amid fresh tensions between Japan and China over disputed islands known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, after Japan sealed a deal to buy three of the islands.

Japan and the US have worked on a joint missile defence system over the years. This new system would enable Japanese ships to cover other parts of the region, officials say.

"[It] will enhance the alliance's ability to defend Japan, our forward deployed forces and the US homeland from a ballistic missile threat posed by North Korea," Mr Panetta said.

In April, North Korea conducted a failed long-range rocket launch that it said was an attempt to put a satellite into orbit. Critics said the launch was a disguised test of missile technology, banned under UN resolutions.
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Stormtrooper

Saber-Rattling: U.S. Defense Secretary warns Japan-China territorial spat could lead to war


Inquirer News
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:48 UTC
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© AP/Larry Downing, PoolU.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, left, listens to a question from U.S. military personnel stationed at Yokota in Japan Monday, September 17, 2012.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called for diplomatic efforts to resolve a worsening territorial spat between Japan and China on Monday, the day after warning disputes could draw East Asia into war.

Speaking after meetings in Tokyo with senior Japanese figures, Panetta urged "calm and restraint on all sides" in a row over disputed islands that has rapidly escalated in the last week into sometimes violent protests in China.

"Obviously we're concerned by the demonstrations and the conflict over the Senkaku islands," Panetta said, referring to the Japanese-administered archipelago that China claims and calls Diaoyu.

"It is extremely important that diplomatic means on both sides be used to try to constructively resolve these issues," he said, adding a resolution of the dispute has to be based on "clear principles" and international law.

"It's in everybody's interest for Japan and China to maintain good relations and to find a way to avoid further escalation," said Panetta, pounding the podium for emphasis.

Panetta arrived in Tokyo on Sunday evening after days of anti-Japanese protests had rocked cities across China, with diplomatic missions being targeted in some instances.
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Syringe

Cattle Call: U.S. Plans Trial Distribution of Anthrax Vaccine in Early 2013

Diane Barnes
Global Security Newswire via Yahoo News
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 08:54 UTC
The United States could move forward early next year with a planned trial initiative to offer anthrax vaccine to select nonmilitary emergency personnel, a senior Homeland Security Department official told lawmakers last week.

The plan, details of which were reported by Global Security Newswire in April, would give participating state and local emergency personnel the option of accepting a course of anthrax vaccination doses from the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile of medical countermeasures. The project would examine the potential to more widely distribute the countermeasure to first responders on a voluntary basis.

The department is putting the "final touches" on preparations for "soliciting groups who would be interested in participating in this pilot project," Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Alexander Garza said on Thursday at a joint hearing convened by two House Homeland Security subcommittees.

Garza said that the department was still fielding questions on the project from state agencies, local offices, and nongovernmental groups. Homeland Security was working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recruit two federal offices and two state offices in the trial initiative, according to earlier reporting.
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Stormtrooper

50 US Troops Deployed in Sana'a, Yemen


Press TV
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 05:39 UTC
The Yemeni government says the United States has deployed 50 Marines in Sana'a to boost security at the US Embassy in response to the recent violent upheavals over an anti-Islam movie.
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Yemeni riot police stand guard during a demo at a crossroad leading to the US Embassy in Sana’a.
"We would not accept any foreign forces, but the unit in the US Embassy is an exceptional case," the government said in a statement issued late on Sunday.

The statement added that the Marines will leave the country as soon as the security situation improves.

On Friday, the Pentagon announced that it had sent Marines to Yemen after demonstrators stormed the US Embassy in Sana'a in protest over an anti-Islam film made in the US.
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Bomb

Propaganda Alert! 9 Foreign Civilians Among 12 Killed in Kabul Bus Bombing

Eltaf Najafizada
Bloomberg Businessweek
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:35 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse/Getty Images/Massoud HossainiAfghanistan investigators inspect the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on September 18, 2012. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said a bomber struck on the main highway leading to the airport and that there were no military casualties.
A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a minivan near the airport in Afghanistan's capital Kabul today, killing nine foreign civilians and three Afghans, according to police.

The Hizb-e-Islami, a militant group led by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and allied to the Taliban, carried out the attack in retaliation for an anti-Islam video that has triggered deadly protests across the Muslim world, Zubair Siddiqi, a spokesman for Hizb-e-Islami, said by phone. He said the bombing was carried out by a 22-year-old woman named Fatema.

General Mohammad Zahir, the head of Kabul police's crime investigation department, confirmed in a phone interview that foreigners had been the target of the attack. Those who died worked at the international airport, Associated Press reported, citing Zahir. Ayub Salangi, Kabul's police chief, said the dead may include citizens of South Africa, France and Russia.

Militants have threatened to step up their attacks in Afghanistan after the movie that ridicules the Prophet Muhammad was posted to the Internet. Hizb-e-Islami's fighters are mainly based in Afghanistan's northeast. Its chief, Hekmatyar, is a former Afghan prime minister and Mujahideen leader during the country's civil wars of the 1990s when he helped end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan with support from Pakistan.
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Arrow Down

Walmart's Human Trafficking Problem

John Sifton
Human Rights Watch
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 00:00 UTC
Walmart
© Dystopos
Americans love shrimp, there's no doubt about it. Per capita consumption in the United States stands at about four pounds a year, the country's most consumed seafood. The popularity stems from multiple qualities: its durability when frozen, ease of cooking, and culinary versatility, articulated famously by Bubba in the movie Forrest Gump: "pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp."

Shrimp is also very easy to farm. Although there was a time when most shrimp consumed in the United States was caught by shrimpers working the coast of Louisiana, today most of it comes from aquaculture farms in Asia. According to the USDA, the leading country of origin is now Thailand, and the United States is Thailand's largest export market.

But the American appetite for shrimp now poses challenges for U.S. companies that import it.
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Dollar

Financial parasitism and looting are the "new normal:" Latest moves by Fed and European Central Bank

Nick Beams
World Socialist Web Site
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:44 UTC
Ben Bernanke
© REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstU.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announcing new indefinite round of quantitative easing.
Financial parasitism and looting are the "new normal."

The decision by the US Federal Reserve Board to provide indefinite support to financial markets under a third round of so-called quantitative easing (QE3), announced last week, coupled with the earlier decision by the European Central Bank (ECB) to intervene in the bond markets, marks a new stage in the breakdown of the global capitalist economy that began with the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The moves by the world's major central banks to pump more money into the global financial system signify that four years after financial markets stood on the brink of collapse in September 2008, there is no prospect of a return to what were once considered "normal" conditions.

Far from lessening its support to the banks and financial institutions, the Fed is increasing it. The earlier interventions were implemented with time limits. In its latest decision, the Fed has given an indefinite commitment. As the headline of one article in the Financial Times put it, "Fed Sets Its Sights on Infinity and Beyond."
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Dollar

Best of the Web: Behind the Curtain: Romney Caught Expressing His Thinking on Secret Video from Fundraiser

David Corn
Mother Jones
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:23 UTC

During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don't assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them. Fielding a question from a donor about how he could triumph in November, Romney replied:
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what...These are people who pay no income tax.
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