I'll be breaking for lunch and will be taking in some soccer, so....
"Australia, Japan will collaborate on subs; Stealth system is primary goal" by Mari Yamaguchi | Associated Press June 12, 2014
TOKYO — Japan and Australia agreed Wednesday to jointly develop stealth submarine technology, as Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, pushes his country toward a more assertive global military role.
Submarine technology was a top item at talks in Tokyo and was part of a pact to step up cooperation on defense matters.
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The aim is to develop faster, quieter submarines with reduced water resistance, Japanese defense officials said this week. But the joint research will not necessarily lead to the sale of Japanese submarines to Australia, which is exploring purchasing submarines from Germany and France.
The research, however, widens the possibility of Japan’s supplying military technology overseas. The Abe government in April eased Japan’s self-imposed limits on military exports, paving the way for its largely domestic defense industry to go global. Japan has also agreed to develop hazardous- materials suits with Britain and is seeking to export search and rescue aircraft to India.
Abe says the US-Japan alliance remains central to his security policy, but he has widened defense cooperation with Britain, France, India, and several Asia-Pacific nations, particularly Australia, amid an expansion of Chinese military activities in the region and concern that budget pressures may reduce America’s presence.
On hold during the games:
"Both India and China have dismissed the idea that past tensions, particularly over a border dispute, should hold the Asian nations back from cooperating economically."
Also see: China cultivates India ties amid tension with neighbors
The path to WWIII?
He is trying to ease constitutional restraints so Japan’s military can use force not only in Japan’s own defense but also to defend foreign troops.
That makes some people in the neighborhood nervous given past history.
Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told a news conference Australia has a strong interest in Japan’s submarine technology. Australian Defense Minister David Johnston is expected to tour a Japanese Soryu-class submarine during his visit....
Strong intere$t indeed!
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Related: Japan Joins With U.S.
Also see:
China, Japan spar over disputed sea
Outspoken attorney arrested in China
Beijing asserts authority in Hong Kong
China executes 13 over terrorism, violent crimes
China uses attack to decry sects
I'm tired of propaganda being delivered by a pot-hollering-kettle pre$$. It's just not funny anymore.
Boeing, 5 Japanese suppliers ink 777X deal
Abe adviser urges ‘substantial’ coporate tax cut
What's going on at Fukushima?
Second game of the afternoon:
"Spanish lawmakers allow king’s abdication" by Raphael Minder | New York Times June 12, 2014
MADRID — Lawmakers in Spain overwhelmingly approved an abdication law Wednesday that paves the way for Crown Prince Felipe to ascend to the throne being vacated by his father, King Juan Carlos.
But the parliamentary debate also highlighted the political and territorial tensions that await King Felipe VI, with Catalan lawmakers abstaining from the vote and instead calling on the new king-to-be to endorse their plan to hold a referendum on independence. The debate was also disrupted by a handful of left-wing parliamentarians, who waved signs demanding a referendum on whether to maintain Spain’s monarchy.
Speaking in Parliament, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy praised Juan Carlos for serving as the “skillful pilot of a transition filled with risks,” having come to the throne in 1975, two days after the death of the dictator General Francisco Franco. Almost four decades later, Felipe was taking over with the clear backing of Spanish society, Rajoy said.
“Never in the history of the past two centuries has a succession taken place with such normality as this one,” he said.
That claim, however, was immediately questioned by some lawmakers who addressed Parliament after Rajoy. Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, parliamentary spokesman for Convergence and Union, the governing party in Catalonia, said that Catalans had recently been “excluded from the history of Spain” by the country’s mainstream parties, as well as by a king who refused to recognize Catalan demands for greater autonomy. Catalonia’s regional government is planning a November referendum on independence that Rajoy’s government has declared illegal and has vowed to prevent.
“I hope the new king will be sensitive to the demands of the Catalan citizenship,” Duran i Lleida said.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Spain last week after King Juan Carlos announced his abdication. In fact, 62 percent of Spaniards want a referendum on the monarchy, according to an opinion poll published last Sunday.
“Today’s debate is about whether we want to deepen Spain’s democracy or whether we want to continue with a system that is, at times, despotic,”Cayo Lara of the United Left party said Wednesday.
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Also see: Spain's King Quits
We will see if the Spanish team has by the end of the match.
