Lawrence Colburn dies; helped end Vietnam’s My Lai massacre

I met Larry Colburn in 1998 when he and Hugh Thompson returned to Viet Nam for the first time since the war. They met with victims of the My Lai Massacre, including survivors whose lives they helped to save during those awful hours of March 16, 1968.  They were welcomed and embraced by villagers who shed tears of gratitude for their intervention that day, when they turned the guns of their helicopter against American soldiers to halt the carnage, at least temporarily, and allow life-saving evacuation of some of the victims.  The meeting was emotional.  Larry and Hugh wept as villagers thanked them for their actions that day.

At a time when the term “heroes” is misused and cheapened, Larry and Hugh, and their fellow crew member Glenn Andreotta, were true heroes in the finest sense of the word.  More importantly, they were decent human beings who clearly understood the difference between right and wrong.

Chuck Searcy

MILITARY TIMES

December 16, 2016

Lawrence Colburn dies; helped end Vietnam’s My Lai massacre

By: Chevel Johnson
The Associated Press

Lawrence Manley Colburn, a helicopter gunner in the Vietnam War who helped end the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese villagers by U.S. troops at My Lai, has died. He was 67.

Lisa Colburn, speaking with The Associated Press on Thursday evening, said her husband of 31 years was diagnosed with cancer in late September and died Tuesday. Tiếp tục đọc “Lawrence Colburn dies; helped end Vietnam’s My Lai massacre”

China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier conducts first ever live-fire drill as Beijing shows off military might

Japan  Times

China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier conducts first ever live-fire drill as Beijing shows off military might

by

Staff Writer, Dec 16, 2016

China’s first and only aircraft carrier battle group has carried out its first-ever live-fire drills — a show of force amid ongoing tensions in the region — the Defense Ministry has announced.

The drills, which took place “days earlier,” were conducted in the Bohai Sea and involved the Liaoning carrier and dozens of ships and aircraft — including J-15 carrier-based fighter jets carrying live ammunition. Tiếp tục đọc “China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier conducts first ever live-fire drill as Beijing shows off military might”

Lost lives: China’s invisible children fight to recover their missed years

Japan Times

Lost lives: China’s invisible children fight to recover their missed years

by

Thomson Reuters Foundation Dec 16, 2016

Living in Beijing for 23 years, Li Xue has never attended school, not even for a day.

China provides a free, nine-year education to every child but Li was not included. For the past 23 years, she has had no access to any form of social welfare. She has not been allowed to get married, find a job, or open a bank account.

Li was the second child born to her parents. Due to the nation’s one-child policy that ran from around 1978 until 2015 to curtail population growth, she didn’t exist in the Chinese government’s database. Tiếp tục đọc “Lost lives: China’s invisible children fight to recover their missed years”

U.S. withholds aid to Philippines after Duterte boasts of looking for people to kill

Japan Times

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AP

The United States said Thursday it is withholding a major aid package to the Philippines and is deeply troubled by a boast from the nation’s leader that he used to drive around looking for criminals to kill.

It was the latest sign of strain in U.S.-Philippine relations since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a crackdown on illegal drugs has led to thousands of deaths in police gunbattles. Tiếp tục đọc “U.S. withholds aid to Philippines after Duterte boasts of looking for people to kill”

Myanmar ‘Callous’ Toward Anti-Rohingya Violence, U.N. Says

Myanmar police officers patroled along the border fence between Myanmar and Bangladesh in Maungdaw, Rakhine State, Myanmar, in October. Credit Thein Zaw/Associated Press

GENEVA — The top human rights official for the United Nations condemned the Myanmar government’s handling of violence in Muslim areas bordering Bangladesh on Friday, saying it risked creating a breeding ground for violent extremism.

Continue reading on  New York Times

China seizes US naval drone in South China Sea

ALJAZEERA Dec. 16, 2016

US officials demand return of the drone they say was testing salinity and temperature in international waters.

 The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have competing claims in the South China Sea [AFP]

A Chinese Navy warship has seized an underwater drone deployed by an American oceanographic vessel in international waters in the South China Sea, triggering a formal diplomatic protest from the US and a demand for its return, a US defence official said. Tiếp tục đọc “China seizes US naval drone in South China Sea”

‘I Cannot Lie,’ Rodrigo Duterte Says, Confirming He Did Kill People as Mayor

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines on Friday in Singapore. Officials loyal to Mr. Duterte have tried to soften his boasts of having killed people, saying he has a tendency to exaggerate. Credit Wong Maye-E/Associated Press

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines confirmed on Friday that he had personally pulled the trigger and killed three people as mayor of Davao City, doubling down on boastful comments he made this week, which loyalists had tried to deny.

Conitnue reading on New York  Times

Bangladesh Is Vanishing The Opposition

Bangladesh Is Vanishing The Opposition

When the plainclothes police came for Mir Ahmad bin Quasem, they didn’t even give him time to put on his shoes. According to his wife, at around 11 p.m. on Aug. 9, the young lawyer was dragged down the steps of their first-floor apartment in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, and into an unmarked van. Their two young daughters ran behind, screaming. Tiếp tục đọc “Bangladesh Is Vanishing The Opposition”

China Appears to Confirm It Has Militarized Disputed Spratly Islands

Satellite images released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington this week showed “large antiaircraft guns and probable close-in weapons systems” on its outposts in the Spratlys.

Tiếp tục đọc “China Appears to Confirm It Has Militarized Disputed Spratly Islands”

China’s New Spratly Island Defenses

 
CSIS AMTI
Published: December 13, 2016

China appears to have built significant point-defense capabilities, in the form of large anti-aircraft guns and probable close-in weapons systems (CIWS), at each of its outposts in the Spratly Islands. AMTI began tracking the construction of identical, hexagon-shaped structures at Fiery Cross, Mischief, and Subi Reefs in June and July. It now seems that these structures are an evolution of point-defense fortifications already constructed at China’s smaller facilities on Gaven, Hughes, Johnson, and Cuarteron Reefs.

Gaven Reef

Tiếp tục đọc “China’s New Spratly Island Defenses”

Philippine lawmakers file criminal case against Duterte critic

Reuters Dec 13, 2016 Japan Times

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies in Congress on Tuesday filed a criminal complaint against a senator who has been an outspoken critic of a surge of extrajudicial killings unleashed by the president’s campaign against drugs. Tiếp tục đọc “Philippine lawmakers file criminal case against Duterte critic”

Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte says he personally killed people

AFP-JIJI Japan Times Dec 14, 2016

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he personally killed suspected criminals when he was mayor of a southern city to set an example for police.

Duterte made the comments in a speech to businessmen on Monday night as he discussed his campaign to eradicate illegal drugs, in which police and unknown assailants have killed thousands of people since he became president on June 30. Tiếp tục đọc “Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte says he personally killed people”

For Taiwan, a Dilemma Over Identity, Economy and China

President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan addressed naval officers in July, about two months after she took office. Some fear Ms. Tsai’s recent phone call with President-elect Donald J. Trump will destabilize United States-China relations, while others see a welcome rethinking of Washington’s ties to Taiwan. Credit Office of The President Taiwan, via European Pressphoto Agency

Tiếp tục đọc “For Taiwan, a Dilemma Over Identity, Economy and China”

Pageant Silences Beauty Queen, a Critic of China, at U.S. Contest

Anastasia Lin in Toronto last year. The Chinese authorities later blocked her from attending the Miss World pageant in China. Credit Ian Willms for The New York Times

After the Chinese authorities blocked the Canadian beauty queen Anastasia Lin from attending the 65th annual Miss World pageant in China last year, the event’s British organizers offered her a consolation prize, of sorts: They promised to allow her a chance to compete in the 2016 finals, which are currently underway in suburban Washington.

Tiếp tục đọc “Pageant Silences Beauty Queen, a Critic of China, at U.S. Contest”