An armada of US and British naval power is massing in the Persian Gulf in the belief that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s covert nuclear weapons programme. Battleships, aircraft carriers, minesweepers and submarines from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war. Western leaders are convinced that Iran will retaliate to any attack by attempting to mine or blockade the shipping lane through which passes around 18 million barrels of oil every day, approximately 35 per cent of the world’s petroleum traded by sea. A blockade would have a catastrophic effect on the fragile economies of Britain, Europe the United States and Japan, all of which rely heavily on oil and gas supplies from the Gulf.
Category: Japan
Isle protest staged at embassy in Beijing Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012 BEIJING — A group of about 20 young Chinese activists staged a demonstration Wednesday in front of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing to protest…
Associated Press/Ng Han Guan – Chinese protesters kick the barricades during an anti-Japan protest outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing, Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012. Tensions between the two countries flared A total of six…
While Ben Bernanke’s announcement that the Federal Reserve will embark on an open ended scheme to purchase $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities each month has been touted by the establishment media as the beginning of “QE3″ it is in fact nothing less than another banker bailout in disguise. While many have rightly attacked the Fed’s policy of printing money as a band aid that does little to solve the economy in the long term, this new move isn’t even about that. The policy announced yesterday will merely see the Fed use taxpayer money to purchase more bad debt in the form of junk mortgage-backed derivative based securities that have been sold over and over again. This has nothing to do with getting the economy going again and will only serve as yet another huge wealth transfer from the middle class to the elite. While the fed claims the move will facilitate more lending it will do nothing of the sort. As the China Securities Journal reports today, “QE3 is not likely to result in more loans.”
Six Chinese ships entered Japanese waters near a group of disputed islets claimed by both Beijing and Tokyo early on Friday, ignoring the Japanese coast guard’s orders to vacate its territorial waters. The first two…
Two Chinese patrol ships have been dispatched to a group of disputed islands following Tokyo’s announcement that it would purchase the isles from private owners. Beijing has vowed “reciprocal measures” should the situation escalate. Two…
Pyongyang, September 13 (KCNA) – Japanese Prime Minister Noda and other political heavyweights persistently insist that there is no evidence that Japanese imperialists forced women into sexual slavery in the past. The chairman of the…
Pyongyang, September 13 (KCNA) — The head of the delegation of the Institute for Disarmament and Peace of the DPRK Foreign Ministry on Sept. 7 called for ensuring the vitality of the comprehensive test ban…
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) — China reiterated its stance on the Diaoyu Islands in a meeting with a senior Japanese diplomat on Wednesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday. Luo Zhaohui, director-general of the Chinese…
So it’s very common to see this moronic rhetorical question used against anyone that is criticizing aspects of the US or supporting aspects of China. It’s really just the “love it or leave it” trope…