East Asia Analyst John Minnich discusses the escalating tensions between Taiwan and the Philippines as Taiwan tries to bolsters its maritime territorial claims without offending Beijing. For more analysis, visit: http://www.Stratfor.com
English: Embassy of the Philippines in the United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Good day friends, a greeting to every one of you from the Big House in Danao, Philippines. In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: it goes on. And jealousy is like a rifle with a plugged barrel – the backfire does greater harm than the shot. I hope this day bring to you peace and joy. All is quiet and peaceful here as we survive from the heat. Somehow or someway my wife keeps her good humor in the terrible heat. Today is a good day and hopefully tomorrow will a better one. I have found that most Filipino homes have a big plastic bucket of water in the C.R. I have found that in general, Filipinos stay quite clean in body areas; even in my area of Danao where there the water is shut off all day in my neighborhood.
English: Members of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering map. Français : Carte des membres du Groupe d’action financière sur le blanchiment de capitaux. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Philippines has been listed as a non co-operative jurisdiction for anti-money laundering by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2000. FATF is an intergovernmental body made of up of 31 countries. The Philippines was removed from this list of non-co-operative jurisdictions in February 2005. However, being on the list does not make it illegal to transfer money to Philippines, and there should be no reason why HSBC would stop this. UK and US banks do not make reports of large amounts to the serious fraud office. If a bank considers an activity to be suspicious for money laundering they still process the transaction and report to the National Criminal Intelligence Service. It’s the bank’s duty to check for terrorist funds, and not the SFO or the NCIS.
Now what is bad advice is this statement if you want to bring large sums to
the Philippines. “If you don’t want government organizations going through your
private business then bring cash with you or put up with high charges on small
amounts.”
If you bring in US$10,000 or its equivalent this has to be reported at
the Philippine customs, and not doing so would be illegal.
A slideshow presentation of some inspirational owners of Internet Cafe shop in Cebu gathered to spark motivation to viewers who dream of having their own Internet Cafe business.
Good morning folks, a big greeting to you all from the Big House here in Danao. I hope this day bring to you peace and joy. Junior has been a great help to my wife and me, I for one will miss him went he moves to the states and his future. I awoke this morning to sweet smile and a sweeter kiss from my wife, Belinda (aka Beng-Beng). There isn’t anything better than love from your love ones. All is quiet and peaceful here as we survive from the heat. Somehow or someway my wife keeps her good humor in the heat. The sky is blue without any gloom over the horizon and the birds fly as the gentle wind guides them… As far my book or novel goes, I have started rewriting the story because otherwise the story line would be as it in other story – to be honest with you I wanted to be different from other sorts of books. As most of you know my biggest concern today all the nuclear warheads pointed at one or another – friend or foe. It will be definitely suicide. I am sorry to say that I feel numb when I when I think about it.
A Chinese woman was caught here in the Philippines last year with close to $20,000. She was traveling with her husband and they arrested her and kept the money even though he pleaded that half was his thus they were under the limit. I also remember that someone was nabbed because the little metal strips in the bills for counterfeit measures added up to enough to set off the metal detectors or x-ray device.
CEBU INTERNET CAFE
It was a great business idea 10-15 years ago…got lots of them now, competing for lesser and lesser (in value) pesos. There is always a chance, slim as it may be that a vacuum could be found somewhere, but you can’t know for certain until you get your feet on the ground and do your own market survey and business plan.
Now there’s a business plan for you, there seem to be a lot of posters to LinP3 looking for business opportunities and who have no clue about what a business plan is. That might be a good vacuum to fill if you’ve got the savvy, but of course you’ll need to do a survey and make a business plan to find out! You get this idea for free, but then most advice you get for free isn’t worth more than you’ve paid for it…
Two Latinos manage to cross the US Border illegally through the Desert. They find a place with some food & water. Short Film written + directed by Florian Wyss, produced by Andy Svensson + Oscar Lauterbach. Starring: Julio Dominguez + Paul Alayo as Latinos. Updated with Engl. Subtitles V5 – 4. Dec. 2009.
A DESPERATE JOURNEY – Unlike many of the migrants who pass through Mexico on the way to the United States, Adolfo Herrera isn’t hoping for a new life. He’s returning to an old one. He’s going home. Produced by Marcelo A Salinas for McClatchy Newspapers Mexico Bureau
Hello fiends, a big hello from Danao to each of you wherever you’re at. The Sun is shining and the sky is blue with some cloud cover here and there. The neighborhood is quiet and so are we here in the Big House. I awoke this morning with a sweet kiss and my wife reminding it was time to get up and face the day. Concerning my first book or novel or whatever you want to call it, I am plugging away on it with 43 pages written so far. Some days the words fly while on other days the words or thoughts are slow and are not easy to come by. Recently I have written and posted Posts about what if there was a nuclear war, a war as such would have a zero out come. We all know the threat is there with someone somewhere with an itchy finger on the button. Since I live in a Third World country I’ve seen people struggle in their daily lives. But life is struggle wherever a person lives, a struggle to find the money to live. However, we all make to best of it come hell or high water. Recently we have learned about an enemy who is sophisticated, patient, disciplined and lethal. This enemy who rallies broad support in the Arab and Muslin world by demanding redress of political grievances.
Aerial view of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Taking advantage of America’s southern border, a corrupt Mexican government and the US government left leaning laws and policy, Iranian sleeper agents could position themselves near huge nuclear materials at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. There a continuous debate about the dangers of this southern border. All the data collected over the years show that other than Mexicans cross this border every year. Ten of thousands other than Mexicans cross this border yearly into the United States; many are from countries sworn enemies of the United States. While there is made “the great friendship” between Mexico and the United States, a totally corrupt Mexican government exists at every level, has everything but America’s interest at heart.
T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border
Patrol Council said, “Reliable intelligence that are living in South America, assimilating the culture and learning the language in order to blend in with the Mexicans crossing the border.”
“Love is like an earthquake-unpredictable, a little scary, but when the hard part is over you realize how lucky you truly are.” May the peace of the Lord be with you always.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS A Pentagon spokesman warns against connecting ship deployment to recent tensions South Korea warns North of “strong response” to any attack U.S. deploys F-22s to South Korea as part of joint military exercises North Korea said it was entering a “state of war” with the South
Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — The U.S. Navy is moving a warship and a sea-based radar platform closer to the North Korean coast in order to monitor that country’s military moves, including possible new missile launches, a Defense Department official said Monday.
The decision to move at least one ship, the destroyer USS John S. McCain, and the oil rig-like SBX-1 are the first of what may be other naval deployments, CNN has learned.
They follow weeks of belligerent rhetoric from North Korea, including threats to use nuclear weapons.
The United States and South Korea have gone ahead with joint military exercises despite the threats, and South Korea warned Monday that any provocative moves from North Korea would trigger a strong response “without any political considerations.”
U.S. intensifying look at North Korea
What happens if N. Korea declares war?
South Korea returns rhetorical fire
Public sentiment in North, South Korea
The United States has bolstered the exercises with shows of force that included overflights by nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers, massive Cold War-era B-52s and F-22 Raptor stealth fighters.
Read more: Threats of annihilation normal for South Koreans
“If there is any provocation against South Korea and its people, there should be a strong response in initial combat without any political considerations,” South Korean President Park Geun-hye said at a meeting with senior defense and security officials, according to her office.
Her comments came after North Korea rattled off fresh volleys of bombastic rhetoric over the weekend, declaring that it had entered a “state of war” with the South and labeling the U.S. mainland a “boiled pumpkin,” vulnerable to attack.
The two Koreas are technically still at war after their conflict in the early 1950s ended in a truce not a peace treaty.
The secretive regime of Kim Jong Un has delivered a steady stream of verbal attacks against South Korea and the United States in recent weeks, including the threat of a nuclear strike.
It has lashed out at the U.S.-South Korean military drills currently under way and at the tougher U.N. sanctions that were slapped on it after its latest nuclear test in February.
On Monday, Pentagon spokesman George Little warned against connecting the ship deployment to recent tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
“I would urge everyone to disconnect this ship deployment from recent military exercises in South Korea. We have regular ship movements in the Asia-Pacific region and we use our ship movements for any number of purposes,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
Analysts have expressed heavy skepticism that the North has the military capabilities to follow through on many of its melodramatic threats.
But concerns remain that it could carry out a localized attack on South Korea, as it did in November 2010 when it shelled Yeongpyeong Island, killing four people.
Displays of strength
The United States has sought to show its willingness to defend its South Korean ally by drawing attention to displays of its military strength during the drills taking place in South Korea.
Washington’s recent announcements concerning practice flights over South Korea by B-52 bombers and B-2 stealth bombers, both of which can carry both conventional and nuclear weapons, have not been lost on Pyongyang, which has described them as acts of U.S. hostility.
Read more: N Korea readying rockets to aim at U.S. targets
There was no immediate reaction on North Korean state media Monday to the U.S. statement saying the stealth fighters, F-22 Raptors, were sent to the main U.S. Air Force Base in South Korea to support air drills in the annual Foal Eagle training exercises there.
U.S. and South Korean officials have been trying to strike a balance between acknowledging that the North’s rhetoric is cause for concern and at the same time playing down the severity of the threat.
Park said Monday that she was “viewing the threat from North Korea in a serious manner.”
But a senior U.S. Defense Department official said late last week that there were “no indications at this point that it’s anything more than warmongering rhetoric.”
And Little, the Pentagon spokesman said Monday that recent U.S. activities with South Korea “have been about alliance assurance, about ensuring them that we are there to protect them.”
A South Korean checkpoint in the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Tensions between North Korea and South Korea have not improved since the signing of the armistice in 1953. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Deep in the underground tunnels of North Korea you’ll find the research and mentoring departments of that country. These departments mentor the national security of that nation’s nuclear preparedness. They serve as North Korea’s eyes and ears protecting twenty nuclear facilities at eighteen sites, including the Soviet built reactor at Yongbyon, their center of atomic science. This ultra secret facility with high the computers, and up to date projection screens are mounted on thick reinforced steel concrete walls.
Today North Korea is the most militarized army in the world with one million men under arms. This army is dedicated to maintaining national security at all costs, but its equipment is out dated and short of combat experience. The North Korean soldiers are short of ammunition and are malnourished. And most the army is occupying guarding the DMZ and costal approaches of the country. The North Korea stands alone as Russia and China openly trade with its nicer twin South Korea.
North Korea and weapons of mass destruction (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
America knows nothing about North Korea’s nuclear strategy – nothing at all. Until recently, America had never addressed the threat of their warhead/missile launch strike capability. Moreover the United States strives to maintain peace.
Obama accused of nuclear U-turn as guided weapons plan emerges –Plan to spend $10bn on updating nuclear bombs goes against 2010 pledge not to deploy new weapons, say critics 21 Apr 2013 Barack Obama has been accused of reneging on his disarmament pledges after it emerged the administration was planning to spend billions on upgrading nuclear bombs stored in Europe to make the weapons more ‘reliable and accurate.’ Under the plan, nearly 200 B61 gravity bombs stockpiled in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey would be given new tail fins that would turn them into guided weapons that could be delivered by stealth F35 fighter-bombers. “This will be a significant upgrade of the US nuclear capability in Europe,” said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons expert at the Federation of Nuclear Scientists. “It flies directly in the face of the pledges Obama made in 2010 that he would not deploy new weapons.”
A nuclear strike is unthinkable and doesn’t make sense.
Moscow had ordered the military to increase regular long-range nuclear flights of strategic nuclear bombers.
Russian and Chinese forces agree to increase the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) security, this includes monitoring and target other powers naval vessel and military bases with nuclear bombers and weapons.
U.S & Israel Split on approach as IRAN Tests Nuke Defense Missiles.
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Image of worldwide nuclear weapons programs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My biggest concern today is not the Russian Bear or the Chinese Dagon but the North Koreans launching warhead strike against Japan, South Korea and for good measure the American forces in Guam. My question is will the Russians, the Chinese, the South Koreans or the Americans panic first? We shouldn’t forget Taiwan in the strew. Another question will these countries start missile around like a kid tossing firecrackers? It will be definitely suicide. I am sorry to say that I feel numb when I when I think about it.
All of sudden there is Fallout, Refugees, Panic, Riots and Food Shortages.
Should a nuclear war occur you can depend that cities will be trashed; pretty much the government has been totaled. The hospitals and medical centers will be out and destroyed. Law and Order will be just a memory. There won’t be a single fire anywhere but several fires going at one time. The streets will be filled with wreckage of incinerated cars and fallen buildings – the streets will probably be totally blocked. Complete devastation.
Yes I am horrified to think of such thing as a terrible nuclear war, with no winners or losers.
A nuclear has five components; light, heat, blast, radiation and EMP. If you want more information, you can find in a text book at your local library. College kids have build nuclear bombs without the nuclear material to set one off. I am not sure if I approve this kind of information being freely available, but no one has ask me my opinion. Luckily, the material making the bomb go BOOM is quite hard to find than it sounds.
Iran’s relations with Russia have soured of late after Moscow cancelled a contract to deliver an advanced air defence system, the S-300. Much to Tehran’s anger, the deal was torn up following the UN Security Council‘s arms embargo. Russia meanwhile has been developing the project further with an even more sophisticated version of the weapon
Planes, helicopters and even ballistic missiles – name a flying target, and the S-400 Triumph missile system can probably locate it and hunt it down. The system recently demonstrated all its glory during a tactical exercise at Russia’s Alushuk base.
One of the strongest features of S-400 air defense system is its mobility. A full-scale air defense system can literally be created on the ground, anywhere, within minutes.
Each S-400 system consists of several crucial elements. In addition to the launcher, there is a command post and two radars.
One of the radars monitors the skies, searching for targets. After a target is identified, the second radar starts monitoring it, following its course. In the meantime the command makes the call on whether to eliminate the target.
The timespan between the detection of a target and receiving a green light, after which the system opens fire, varies from several seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on the situation and the initial orders, lieutenant colonel Dmitry Belyatsky, a missile regime commander at the Ashuluk firing range, told RT.
There are plans for S-400 to completely replace the S-300, the production of which has already been ended.
“The S-300 is capable of intercepting targets not higher than 30 kilometers, which is not enough since we’re only covering small areas,” said Vladimir Evseev, the director of the Russian Center for Social and Political Studies. “But when the altitude capacity is raised, we can protect larger territories.”
The recent conflicts in Libya and other parts of the world have shown how vital it is to have reliable defense, not only from threats from the skies, but from space as well, Evseev says.
“The Russian leadership has set the task of creating Air and Space Defense Forces,” said Evseev. “It requires appropriate systems, systems that allow not only anti-aircraft but also anti-ballistic missile defense.”
And this is what the S-400 is designed to do.
“The S-400 would allow us to defend both individual objects and large territories around them from ballistic missiles, and also increase the height of the interception,” said Evseev.
The S-400 Triumph is the latest generation of the long-range Russian air defense system developed by NPO Almaz-Antey. It is meant to defend crucial military and civilian areas from aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles.
It is capable of shooting down targets at a range of up to 400 kilometers, and altitudes of up to 60 kilometers, depending on the type of interceptor missile fired. A full division of S-400s can simultaneously track 36 targets and guide 72 missiles.
The Russian Defense Ministry cleared the S-400 for service in 2007. There are currently seven S-400 divisions in operation in Russia, with a total of 56 missile launchers deployed.
Although a version of the system for export purposes is currently in the works, there are no plans of selling it just yet, giving Russia an unprecedented advantage against any threat from the skies for at least the next 20 years.
The system will not hit the international market before Russia’s own demand for the regular version is met, commander of the Russian Air Forces Lt-Gen Viktor Bondarev reiterated last week.
tags:
GlobalCrisisNews 2012 Iran Syria Russian Russia soviet anti air missile rocket global defence security shield nuclear atomic chemical war ww3 III UN destruction weapons military army plains helicopters skies supremacy force Destruction Power Soldiers Navy Marines Forces union Moscow international national market economy mortgage sales selling import export demand ministry S-400 S-300 track targets guided service system government interceptor capitalwatch ballistic cruise aircraft space civilian conflict Libya world global crisis Triumph
