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North Korea Says it Won't Warn South Korea Before an Attack

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Photo Credit: AP

By Jethro Mullen. North Korea is raising the temperature on its neighbors, saying in its latest threat that it would not give any advance warning before any attack on South Korea.

“Our retaliatory action will start without any notice from now,” Pyongyang said in a statement published Tuesday by its official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea said it was responding to what it called insults from the “puppet authorities” in the South, claiming that there had been a rally against North Korea in Seoul — a rally it called a “monstrous criminal act.”

The renewed menacing rhetoric came a day after North Koreans celebrated the birthday of their country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, who launched the Korean War.

Kim Min-seok, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry, said the latest threat from the North was regrettable. Read more from this story HERE.

North Korea, Marking Leader’s Birthday, Shows More Ire

By Eric Talmadge. After a day of festivities to mark the 101st birthday of its first leader, North Korea on Tuesday offered new prickly rhetoric against the United States and South Korea, which are watching closely for signs whether it will conduct a medium-range missile test in defiance of international concerns.

State media said the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army issued an ultimatum demanding an apology from South Korea for “hostile acts” and threatening that unspecified retaliatory actions would happen at any time.

The statement, relayed through the KCNA state media agency, came after a day of festivities in North Korea’s capital that featured art performances, public dances and crowds thronging to giant bronze statues to pay homage to the late leader Kim Il Sung,

The renewed rhetoric was sparked by a protest in downtown Seoul, where effigies of Kim Il Sung and his son and successor, late leader Kim Jong Il, were burned. Such protests are not unusual in South Korea and this one likely gave the North a pretext to react negatively to calls for joining in dialogue with its neighbors than an actual cause for retaliation.

The North’s statement said it would refuse any offers of talks with the South until it apologized for the “monstrous criminal act.” North Korea often denounces such protests, but rarely in the name of the Supreme Command, which is headed by Kim Il Sung’s grandson and North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong Un. Read more from this story HERE.

China points finger at U.S. over Asia-Pacific tensions

By Ben Blanchard. China’s defense ministry made a thinly veiled attack on the United States on Tuesday for increasing tensions in the Asia-Pacific by ramping up its military presence and alliances in the region, days after the top U.S. diplomat visited Beijing.

China is uneasy with what the United States has called the “rebalancing” of forces as Washington winds down the war in Afghanistan and renews its attention further east.

China says the policy has emboldened Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam in longstanding territorial disputes with Beijing.

China faces “multiple and complicated security threats” despite its growing influence, the Ministry of Defense said in its annual white paper, adding that the U.S. strategy meant “profound changes” for Asia.

“There are some countries which are strengthening their Asia Pacific military alliances, expanding their military presence in the region and frequently make the situation there tenser,” the ministry said in the 40-page document, in a clear reference to the United States. Read more from this story HERE.

Bird Flu Widens Reach in China, Worrying Public Health Officials Worldwide

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Photo Credit: Yahoo

Officials in Beijing confirmed today that a 7-year-old girl is infected with H7N9 avian influenza, widening the geographic spread of the virus that’s already killed 11 people.

The girl, whose parents sell live poultry, was admitted to the hospital Thursday with pneumonia and is the first case reported outside eastern China, where the virus was first reported in late March.

Government officials said the total number of new bird flu infections across the country rose to 47 today as the eastern province of Jiangsu reported two fresh cases and shanghai reported one, The Associated Press reported.

What is concerning about this latest report is the distance between Shanghai and Beijing. The virus was able to travel more than 750 miles without leaving a trail of dead birds.

Unlike the H5N1 bird flu that raised concerns starting in 2003, H7N9 does not seem to make birds very sick or sick at all. This makes tracking the movement of the virus and containing it to limited flocks of birds next to impossible.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Intel Chair: The Iranians, Russians and Chinese are Already on Your PC

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The House Intelligence Committee is warning that “time is running out” before the next major cyberattack: The Russians, Iranians, Chinese and others are likely already on your computer.

“You have criminal organizations trying to get into your personal computer and steal your personal stuff. And by the way, the Chinese are probably on your computer, the Russians are probably on your personal computer, the Iranians are already there,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers (R.-MI). told Fox News.

“They’re trying to steal things that they think are valuable or use your computer to help them steal from someone else,” he said. “That’s a real problem.”

Experts say Rogers may be stretching the truth: most people’s computers likely aren’t infected by agents of foreign governments.

“The Iranians, the Chinese, and the Russians are probably already on my computer? Sheesh … I guess it must be getting pretty crowded in there,” joked Graham Cluley, a consultant with U.K. Web security company Sophos. But the threat Rogers describes is certainly real, he pointed out.

Read more from this story HERE.

Governor Jerry Brown Heads to China to Beg for California Bail-Out

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Photo Credit: Washington Times

California Gov. Jerry Brown has designs on building some of the most expensive public works projects in the nation and wants to keep the state moving forward in its slow recovery from the recession.

Where better to go searching for the money to further those interests than the world’s second largest economy and a country that has piles of cash to invest around the globe?

The governor of the most populous U.S. state heads to China next week to begin a weeklong trade mission that he hopes will produce investments on both sides of the Pacific. Brown will lead a delegation of business leaders in search of what he calls “plenty of billions.”

“They’ve got $400 billion or $500 billion they’re going to invest abroad, so California’s got to get a piece of that,” Brown said in an interview last week ahead of his seven-day trip to China.

The governor and business leaders accompanying him are trying to rebuild the state’s official relationship with China after the state closed its two trade offices and others around the world a decade ago in a cost-cutting move. California finds itself playing catch-up to other states that have had a vigorous presence in China for years.

Read more from this story HERE.

China Flaunts Its Influence Over Golden Triangle in Capture of Drug Lord

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Photo Credit: Adam Dean

It was 100 miles downstream from China, on the banks of the Mekong River, where a notorious drug lord slipped ashore in the dusk into the hands of law enforcement.

Security officials from Laos arrested the trafficker, Naw Kham, but the international manhunt that led to his capture was organized in Beijing, by top Chinese government officials intent on making him pay for the killings of 13 Chinese seamen on the river, which has become a major trade route into China.

The bodies of the Chinese, the crew of two cargo boats, were found badly mutilated on the Thai side of the river in early October 2011. The killings, the worst slaughter of Chinese citizens abroad in recent memory, angered the Chinese public. Chinese investigators insist that Mr. Naw Kham was the mastermind of the murders.

China’s search for Mr. Naw Kham, overseen by its powerful Ministry of Public Security, was a hard-nosed display of the government’s political and economic clout across Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, the three countries of Southeast Asia that form the Golden Triangle. The capture shows how China’s law enforcement tentacles reach far beyond its borders into a region now drawn by investment and trade into China’s orbit, and where the United States’ influence is being challenged.

It took six months for China to catch Mr. Naw Kham, a citizen of Myanmar in his 40s, a man of many aliases who was at the center of the booming synthetic drug business in the Golden Triangle, once known for its opium.

Read more from this story HERE.

China-Australia Pact Could Lead to Dollar's Collapse

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Photo Credit: Zero Hedge

[T]he Australian [is] reporting that the land down under is set to say goodbye to the world’s “reserve currency” in its trade dealings with the world’s biggest marginal economic power, China, and will enable the direct convertibility of the Australian dollar into Chinese yuan, without US Dollar intermediation, in the process “slashing costs for thousands of business” and also confirming speculation that China is fully intent on, little by little, chipping away at the dollar’s reserve currency status until one day it no longer is.

That said, this latest development in global currency relations should come as no surprise to those who have followed our series on China’s slow but certain internationalization of its currency over the past two years…

And while previously the focus was on Chinese currency swap arrangements, the uniqueness of this weekend’s news is that it promotes outright convertibility of the Yuan: something China has long said would happen but many were skeptical it ever would. That is no longer the case, and with Australia setting the precedent, expect many more Asian countries (at first) to follow in Australia’s footsteps, because while the developed world is far more engaged in diluting its currency as a means to spur “growth”, Asian and developing world nations are still engage in real, actual trade, where China is rapidly and aggressively becoming the world’s hub…

Why is this so very critical? For the simple reason that the free lunch the US has enjoyed ever since the advent of the US dollar as world reserve currency, may be coming to an end as other, more aggressive alternatives – both fiat, and hard-asset based – to the USD appear. And since there is no such thing as a free lunch, all the deferred pain the US Treasury Department has been able to offset thanks to its global currency monopoly status will come crashing down the second the world starts getting doubts about the true nature of just who the real reserve currency will be in the future.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S., China Cyber Battle Intensifies

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The United States and China appear locked in a cybersecurity war — of mostly words — that’s beginning to escalate.

Both the White House and Capitol Hill now explicitly criticize Beijing for failing to subdue the hackers and spies thought to reside within the country’s borders. And there are real punishments on the horizon, as the U.S. government eyes trade penalties and other restrictions on China and its top technology firms.

There needs to be “a little pain and pinch,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) in an interview this week with POLITICO. The lawmaker, a longtime China critic on cybersecurity, was referring to both Beijing and the growing slate of other countries accused of spying or stealing from U.S. businesses.

The consensus in Washington is that China has become a hub for cyberhackers, who have targeted top U.S. businesses for trade secrets and other corporate or political intelligence. A controversial report from cybersecurity firm Mandiant even pegged some of the most significant attacks to an arm of the Chinese military, though the country’s top representatives have denied the accusations.

The political tensions, though, are reaching an unprecedented level.

Read more from this story HERE.

After A Decade Long Wait, China And Russia Ink ‘Super Jet’ Military Deal (+video)

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A recent official visit to Moscow brought back some new souvenirs for the Chinese military. How about a reported 24 Sukhoi SU-35 fighter jets, and four submarines from Russia.

China‘s new president Xi Jinping was in Russia this week to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Both sides agreed to two arms-sale contracts in which China will buy Russian Sukhoi made fighter jets, Xinhua and Agence France Press reported on Monday.

China has been itching to buy the planes since the 1990s and has been in hot pursuit since last March.

Russia’s Interfax confirmed the existence and date of that agreement back in February, but didn’t speculate on sales numbers. This month, official talks trimmed the order down to 24 planes from an initial discussion of 48 Sukhoi Super Flankers. The Russians are said to have more confidence that China can’t copy their engines, and are also said to need the SU-35 orders because Russia’s Defense Department is ordering follow-on buys of new upgraded Sukhoi SU-35s instead.

The deals raised concern among some regional defense players — namely India. China Central Television reported on Sunday that the purchase deals were signed before President Xi Jinping’s ever stepped foot into Russia. The military deal marks the first time in a decade that China had bought large military technological equipment from Russia, according to official television.

Watch video here:

Read more from this story HERE.

Mother Victimized By China’s One-Child Policy Commits Suicide

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

In another tragic case, a 42-year-old mother took her life last week inside a local Family Planning Office after two botched forced sterilizations.

Yang Yuzhi, the mother of four, was forced to undergo sterilization surgery in 1995. However, the operation failed, and she was forced again in 2006 to undergo a second sterilization surgery. The surgery failed and led to infections in her intestines, leading to chronic pain and requiring regular doses of medication. Due to the financial burdens, Ms. Yang frequently petitioned the Family Planning Commission (FPC), but to no avail.

At around noon on March 13, 2013, Ms. Yang left home in a normal mental state and went to the local FPC office. Her son, Zhang Zhaofa, later recounted to the media: “The Family Planning Officials told us that while they were discussing Ms. Yang’s case with the village mayor, some workers found her already dead, having hanged herself at the top of the stairs. They secretly called the ambulance to move her body to the hospital, but didn’t inform the family in a timely manner.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Landrieu Angrily Confronts Cruz Over Abortion Amendment

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Photo Credit: John Orrell

Ted Cruz’s effort to tie United Nations funding to China’s abortion policy provoked a sharp, private rebuke from Mary L. Landrieu on the Senate floor Saturday morning.

Shortly before 4 a.m., the Louisiana Democrat strode from her desk on the Democratic side of the chamber all the way to the Texas Republican’s desk on the far side to give him a piece of her mind after Cruz insisted on a roll call vote on his amendment to the Senate budget resolution. Cruz wanted to create a new point of order against funding the United Nations as long as any of its member nations have a policy of involuntary abortions.

“I suggested to him that a more direct and a more effective route might be for Texas to stop all exports to China or to stop any financial exchanges between Texas and China,” Landrieu told CQ Roll Call after she voted on the budget shortly before 5 a.m.

“That would have had a much more direct effect on what he was trying to do than take money from the U.N. … I thought he might like the idea. He should try it next time,” Landrieu said. After a cross-looking Landrieu left to return to her desk, a bemused Cruz smirked and chatted with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who voted for the amendment.

The amendment had zero chance of passing — it was defeated 38-61 — but like many of the other amendments considered well after midnight, it appeared to be aimed at putting senators in a politically difficult position: either they go on record whacking the United Nations or they face the potential for attack ads saying they voted to protect forced abortions in China.

Read more from this story HERE.

News Editor’s Note: Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski sided with the Democrats (including, of course, Sen. Mark Begich) in voting against Cruz’s anti-abortion amendment.