Israel soldier killed in 'friendly fire' at Gaza border

An Israeli soldier has been killed and four others injured by so-called friendly fire near to the Gaza border, the Israeli military says.

The incident happened while the soldiers were involved in a clash with Palestinian militants in Gaza.
The army said the group had been trying to plant explosives underneath the security fence along the border.
The clash follows a month of increased tension along the Gazan border with frequent exchanges of fire.
Witnesses in Gaza earlier told news agencies they had heard loud explosions close to the border, a short distance from the Nirim kibbutz on the Israeli side.
The Israeli military initially said four soldiers had been injured.
But they later said the men, who were part of a group patrolling the border, had been hit by Israeli fire. It also said one had died.
"The soldiers were hit by a stray mortar shell fired by Israeli forces as they engaged with Palestinian militants along the border," an army spokesman said.
The army said it was investigating the incident.
Increased activity Earlier this week, two Palestinian men were shot dead at the Gaza border - Israel said they had been attempting to break through the security fence but this could not be independently verified.
In recent weeks there has been an increase in activity around the border area, with Palestinians firing rockets into Israel, and the Israeli army carrying out regular air strikes on Gaza.

Israel says it holds Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, wholly responsible for all of the rockets fired across the border.
But the BBC's Jon Donnison in the West Bank says many of the attacks are carried out by smaller militant groups, and it is unclear whether Hamas has the power to prevent them.
Earlier on Friday, Israeli soldiers shot dead an elderly Palestinian man in his bed, in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Amr Qawasme, who was in his 60s, was killed in what is thought to have been a case of mistaken identity during a series of raids to capture members of Hamas.
He was neighbour of a Hamas member who had been released from prison the day before.
Israel said Mr Qawasme was innocent and that it regretted the incident. An investigation is being carried out.

North Korea renews South overture

The North said it would reopen a liaison office near the border

North Korea says it wants to reopen talks with the South - the latest in a series of conciliatory gestures.

The North's reunification committee issued a statement calling for "unconditional and early" talks.
Seoul officials said they would review the latest

North Korea says it wants to reopen talks with the South - the latest in a series of conciliatory gestures.

The North's reunification committee issued a statement calling for "unconditional and early" talks.
Seoul officials said they would review the latest proposals from Pyongyang. The South dismissed a similar offer earlier this week as "propaganda".
The sinking of a Southern warship last March sparked a dramatic rise in tension on the peninsula.
The Cheonan was apparently sunk by a Northern torpedo, with the loss of 46 lives. The North denies the attack.
Since then, the South has irked the North by holding large-scale military exercises close to the maritime border.
On 23 November, the North infuriated the South by shelling one of its islands and killing four people.
But in the past week, the North has shifted away from statements threatening war and retaliation, to issuing offers of talks and peace overtures.
"The South Korean authorities should discard any unnecessary misgiving, open their hearts and positively respond to the North's proposal and measure," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said on Saturday.
The committee suggested that the talks should take place later in January or early February.
The committee also said the North would reopen a liaison office with the South at a joint factory-complex just north of the demilitarised zone that divides the peninsula.
In response, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told the Associated Press news agency that the statement would be considered, but noted that no formal request had been received.

Chinese businessman bids £5m for UK's HMS Invincible

Invincible is the sixth ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name

A UK-based Chinese businessman has bid £5m for the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible, which is being auctioned.

Lam Kin-bong - who owns restaurants in the West Midlands - has said he wants to turn the former warship into an international school in China.
He said if he was not allowed to tow it to China he would instead try to berth the stripped-out carrier in Liverpool.
Several bids have been received since Invincible was put up for sale on a government internet auction website.
The vessel, which saw action in the Falklands War, Gulf and Balkans and was based in Portsmouth, was decommissioned in 2005. It was put up for sale on the edisposals website and was expected to fetch about £2m.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Invincible's engines and many other parts had been salvaged and it was expected to be sold for scrap. The carrier has been stripped of anything that might be of military use and the blueprints of the ship will not be sold with it.
'Purely commercial' Mr Lam, who began as a chef and now owns the Wing Wah chain of Chinese restaurants, is also a lawmaker in the city of Zhuhai, in southern China.
He told the South China Morning Post that the bid - entered via his Zhuhai-based company Sunway Yacht Limited - was purely commercial.
If successful in buying the carrier he told reporters he wanted to tow the vessel to Zhuhai and berth it at a marina he is building in the city. He said it would cost £11m to buy the Invincible, tow and convert it.
"My intentions are purely commercial and have nothing to do with the military," he told the English-language newspaper.
If the vessel could not be taken to China his second preference would be to base it in Liverpool and turn it into a school "to boost the understanding of China and the Chinese in Britain".
Mr Lam said he had spoken to the Chinese Embassy in London about the bid and received a supportive response.
The restauranteur moved to London nearly 20 years ago, then to Birmingham where he helped set up the Wing Wah chain of restaurants, which he runs with his wife.
Earlier this week the MoD confirmed a "number of bids" had been received for the carrier and a preferred bidder would be announced once terms had been agreed.
Invincible was laid down at Vickers' shipyard in Barrow in 1973 and launched by the Queen in 1977.
The ship served in the 1982 Falklands War, deploying Harrier fighter aircraft against Argentine forces.
It is one of the navy's three Invincible class anti-submarine warfare carriers, along with HMS Ark Royal and HMS Illustrious.
Ark Royal is to be decommissioned this month and HMS Illustrious in 2014.
The ships will be replaced by two new carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, which are expected to enter service by the end of the decade.

China military modernisation gathers pace

The leaked pictures of China's stealth plane have once again put the spotlight on China's military modernisation.

The US has the world's only operational stealth fighter, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, and has been playing down the images that appear to show a working prototype.
But they are yet another sign of the shifting balance brought about by the rise of the country's economic power.
Their emergence coincides with a Chinese general's call to double official military spending, against a background of wider cuts in military budgets in industrialised countries caused by the global financial crisis.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates - who is due to start his long-delayed visit to Beijing on Sunday - says the Pentagon wants to make further cuts of nearly $80bn (£51bn) over the next five years.
The US and its allies have played down any possibility of the early deployment by China of such an advanced aircraft.
But they have sounded the alarm about the expansion of Beijing's military capabilities, especially its Air Force, Navy and the Second Artillery Corps that controls China's ballistic missiles and nuclear arsenal.
Japan last month defined China as its main military concern, citing Beijing's increased assertiveness in the East and South China Seas.
More spending Beijing insists its military modernisation poses a threat to no one.

China has increased military funding as its economy has grown

The older generation of China's military used to take pride in having seized power from the ruling Kuomingtang Party in 1949 with "millet and rifles".
But three modern wars in other parts of the world have hardened the resolve of China's top brass to catch up militarily.
The conflict between the UK and Argentina nearly 30 years ago pushed the late leader Deng Xiaoping to slash one million army personnel so as to use the then limited military budget on improving hardware.
The two Gulf Wars further demonstrated the technological superiority of the US and its allies, and spurred Chinese leaders on a new drive to "informatise" the military by integrating new technology into equipment and operations.
China's official military budget quadrupled between 1999 and 2009 as the country's economy grew.
Last year, China announced a smaller-than-usual 7.5% increase to $76.3bn, causing quite a backlash among China's hard-line generals.
'Special requirements' To be sure, the US defence budget is still the biggest in the world at around $700bn, but China's is the second largest and the rate of increase may well go up this year.
In an article published in a Chinese Communist Party publication this week, General Jiang Luming, head of the military economics unit at China's National Defence University, called for "maximising national interest" by doubling China's military funding to 2.8% of GDP, which he said was the average of 132 countries since the end of the Cold War.
He said this was needed to meet "special security requirements" - an apparent reference to preparing for eventual reunification with Taiwan, safeguarding key interests overseas and offshore, and China being a socialist country without any military allies.
This last issue is compounded by the arms embargo imposed by the European Union following the military crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989. The Chinese government has been lobbying to get the sanctions lifted without success.
On various occasions, Chinese officials have said the 21-year-old EU arms embargo forces China to invest more in its own military research and development.
Perhaps Russia is the only country China could turn to for advanced military and space technology. But China seems to be learning very fast.
Some analysts believe the pupil is overtaking the teacher in many areas

China stealth plane still 'years away', says Pentagon

Photos of a possible Chinese-made stealth aircraft were discussed in China's state-run media

The US is playing down pictures that appear to show a working prototype of a Chinese stealth aircraft, invisible to radar.

The images - first published on websites - show what looks like a stealth fighter on a taxi run.
Beijing has not commented on whether the pictures - published ahead of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates' visit later this week - are genuine.
The Pentagon says China is still years away from deploying a stealth aircraft.
In late 2009 the deputy head of China's air force, General He Weirong, said the country's stealth fighter would be ready sometime between 2017 and 2019, reports said.
But US director of naval intelligence Vice Admiral David Dorsett said that it would be "years" before China's new fighter would be operational.
"Developing a stealth capability with a prototype and then integrating that into a combat environment is going to take some time," he said.

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The leaked photos of the prototype aircraft first appeared on military websites and blogs. They were said to have been taken at the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute.

The images were then discussed in the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper, in both its Chinese and English-language editions, although no comment was made on their authenticity.
Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper said China could begin test flights of the stealth jet as soon as this month, citing unidentified Chinese military sources.
Military build-up The world's only operational stealth fighter is the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, but Russia is also known to be working on its own prototype.
BBC defence correspondent Nick Childs says the aircraft certainly bears a superficial resemblance to the latest US stealth designs - and that may spook some in Washington.

And it will add to the concerns of those who have been warning especially of the increasing reach and capabilities of China's air force and navy, he adds.

The US has been watching closely as China increases its military capacity - in particular, its development of a so-called "carrier killer" missile, a land-based system which could sink an aircraft carrier from up to 1,800 miles (2,900km) away.
US battle groups - including aircraft carriers - are stationed in the South China Sea.
And in August, the Pentagon reported that China had been expanding its nuclear arsenal and submarine force, as well as upgrading its land-based missiles.

Gates cutting Pentagon budget by $78bn over five years

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has announced a $78bn (£50.3bn) military budget cut, to be achieved in part by scrapping a $14bn amphibious vehicle.

The cuts over the next five years come in addition to $100bn in internal savings already announced.
The cuts are the largest since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
The defence budget was more than $700bn last year - representing the largest portion of the US federal government's discretionary budget.
While troop levels will shrink by 6% and some of the most expensive military hardware will be cancelled, funding for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - at a price tag of one trillion dollars and rising - will not be cut.
Cuts to weapons programmes are certain to encounter fierce opposition from members of Congress.
Senior positions cut Much of the roughly $178bn in defence cuts will come through reduced administrative costs, new organisational efficiencies, and slashed personnel costs, which the defence department called a "vigorous scrub of bureaucratic structures".The Pentagon's budget is expected to be $553bn in 2012, reflecting roughly 3% growth. After that, growth would slow and would be essentially flat in 2015 and 2016, the Pentagon said.

Mr Gates said much of the savings would be achieved by eliminating more than 100 general and flag officer positions, more than 200 top civilian defence positions, by cancelling redundant programmes and through reduced administrative costs.
As much as $100bn in savings would not be sliced from the overall budget, Mr Gates said, but would be reinvested in shipbuilding, missile defence, intelligence, reconnaissance, healthcare for wounded soldiers, and other programmes.
Among the major weapons systems set for the scrap heap is the amphibious Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), made by General Dynamics Corporation. In addition, the Pentagon will end an army surface-to-air missile programme.
Mr Gates has been sceptical about whether large military vehicles, like tanks and EFVs, will continue to be crucial military instruments as engagement in modern warfare changes.

Programmes marked for new investment

• Repair and refurbishment of Marine Corps equipment used in Iraq and Afghanistan
• New unmanned aircraft
• New ships, including a destroyer, a littoral combat ship and an ocean surveillance ship
• Updating the army's tank fleet

He has previously said the enemy has developed sophisticated weapons capable of attacking ships waiting close to shore.

Other cost-cutting measures announced by Mr Gates include plans to cut orders for the F-35 joint strike fighter over the next three to five years to compensate for repeated delays in development and testing.
He said he wanted to end the post-9/11 Pentagon's "culture of endless money where cost was rarely a consideration".
The major weapons programmes cuts are likely to encounter opposition from US congressmen and senators in whose constituencies the arms are manufactured.
"I'm not happy," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard McKeon told reporters. He said the cuts were greater than defence companies had been expecting.

UAE To Restart Rafale Talks

UAE To Restart Rafale Talks

UAE To Restart Rafale Talks | AVIATION WEEK

By Michael A. Taverna

PARIS — The United Arab Emirates has signaled that negotiations to acquire France’s advanced Rafale combat aircraft can restart, French press reports say.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and commander of the UAE armed forces, requested that Paris renew its proposal to sell up to 60 Rafales to the UAE during a visit to Paris in mid-December, the reports say.

The Emirates broke off talks last summer, seemingly piqued over the premature disclosure of details and other issues, and requested information from Boeing on a possible F/A-18 buy.

French Defense Minister Alain Juppe — speaking in the margins of a New Year’s address by President Nicolas Sarkozy at St. Dizier air base in eastern France, home of the first two Rafale air force squadrons — confirmed that the UAE proposal is again “on the right track.”

Juppe added that negotiations with Brazil, another potential Rafale customer, also are still active

The resumption of discussions with the UAE also may have been facilitated by a French decision, announced Jan. 3, to clear the acquisition of 200 Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles.

Defense budget constraints had caused concern that the production award for the missile, which is thought to be high on the list of Rafale equipment items desired by the UAE, might be deferred or reduced (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 5).

The UAE wish list also is said to include upgraded M88 engines better suited to Middle East conditions, active electronically scanned radar, the Damocles targeting pod and Reco NG reconnaissance pod.

A partial squadron of Rafale F3 multirole aircraft equipped with the Reco NG and Damocles is standing up at a new French base in Abu Dhabi to show off the aircraft’s capabilities, backed up by a naval and air force deployment in the Afghan theater begun last month.

However, significant hurdles remain, including UAE demands that France find a buyer for 60 Mirage 2000 fighters currently in its inventory.