Mubarak to Step Down Tonight

choi

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Strong signs that Egypt's Hosni Mubarak will step down tonight. Christian Science Monitor.

Egypt armed forces pledge support in transfer of power.


---------------------------Separately  
(1) UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) just announced that it would sell HMS Invisible for £2m to Turkish scrap company Leyal Ship Recycling.

My comment:
(a) HMS Invincible (R05)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Invincible_(R05)
(aircraft carrier; Commissioned 1980; Decommissioned 2005)

The empty hulk is 10,000 tonnes of steel.
(b) A British-based businessman Kin Bong Lam bade £5m to turn it into a floating restaurant of sorts, either in China or--if MoD insisted--in Liverpool. MoD passed over the offer

(2) Andre Salvail, U.S. adviser DeFrancia discusses China maritime policy. Aspen Times, Feb 10, 2011.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20110210/NEWS/110209819/1077&ParentProfile=1058

My comment:
(a) It is curious how a real estator can be a military advisor at the same time.
(b) Mr Jim DeFrancia says, "The Indians are a longstanding, you might almost say traditional, enemy of the Chinese; they've had two armed conflicts in the last 50 years * * * We in turn, want to be able to move as close to the Chinese coast as suits us, when it suits us, and we've concluded that we're probably better off doing that with increased submarine forces and less surface forces because of their increased missile defenses.”

I know of only one war, of 1962. For all that, it is news to me that India is a "longstanding"--even "traditional" enemy vis-a-vis China. Weren't they comrades-in-arms in Non-Aligned Movement (where China was an observer)?

Also, China's anti-submarine warfare (ASW) is no good?

(3) Antony copes with a Chinese unguided missile; Chinese journalist Li Miao. Deccan Herald, Feb 9, 2011.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/136395/antony-copes-chinese-unguided-missile.html

Note:
(a) That is A K Antony, current Minister of Defense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_K_Antony
(b) Deccan Herald
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan_Herald
(Format Broadsheet; Founded 1948; Headquarters Bangalore, India; Circulation 214,797 Daily)

(i) Deccan Plateau
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan_Plateau
(The name Deccan is an anglicised form of the Prakrit word dakkhin, itself derived from the Sanskrit word dákṣiṇa, meaning "south")

(4) China Makes It Last. Strategy Page, Feb 10, 2011.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htsurf/articles/20110210.aspx

Type 053 frigate, whose NATO code-name is Jianghu 江湖 class
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_053_frigate

(5)
(a) Paul Mozur, Taiwan General Suspected of Spying for China. Wall Street Journal, Feb 10, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703716904576134021277936048.html
("the arrest could complicate further U.S. military sales to Taiwan, according to Chih-cheng Lo, president of the Taiwan Brain Trust, a think-tank that advocates independence for the island * * * 'China has been very aggressive lately in its efforts to penetrate Taiwan's military,' Mr. Lo said. 'This isn't an isolated case, there are most likely more,' he said. 'It's likely now we're in a time when the U.S. is thinking about sending F-16 C/D fighters. If Taiwan can't rectify some of these problems, the U.S. may reconsider some of its lines of exchange with Taiwan.'")

Note: Chih-cheng LO, president of Taiwan Brain Trust
羅致政執行長| 新台灣國策智庫
http://www.braintrust.tw/en/people1.php?people_id=4

(b) Edward Wong, Taiwan Says It Arrested a General Who Is Accused of Spying for China. New York Times, Feb 10, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/world/asia/10taiwan.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=taiwan&st=cse
("Some newspapers in Taiwan reported that General Lo had been based in the United States when he was recruited by China, but a military official said at a news conference in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, on Wednesday that the general was working in Thailand when he fell under the sway of China, according to a report by the official Central News Agency.")

My comment: There is no need to read the rest of this report.


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