south korea asks U.S for nuclear support

A South Korean lawmaker said that nuclear supportfrom the United States is needed in order to protect against North Korea'scontinued aggression and unpredictability, but also to keep its larger neighbor in check.

During a trip to the United States, a powerful South Koreanpolitician has suggested that his country...

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WikiLeaks: Vatican dismissed Pinochet massacre reports as ‘communist propaganda’

Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship was responsible for the deaths of as many as 3,200 people in Chile in the 1970s, but the Vatican dismissed reports of bloodshed at the time as “communist propaganda,” according to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks on Monday.
Pinochet came to power in 1973 as the head of a military coup against democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende. The right-wing junta that subsequently ruled the country from 1973 to 1990 was responsible for the murders of as many as 3,200 people, as well as the arrest of tens of thousands more, many of whom were tortured.......

In a 1973 diplomatic cable addressed to Henry Kissinger, then serving as the United States’ Secretary of State, high-ranking Vatican official Giovanni Benelli was quoted as relaying “his and the pope’s grave concern over successful international leftisf campaign to misconstrue completely realities of Chilean situation.” Benelli dismissed reports of massacre as “unfounded” and “possibly [the] greatest success of Communist propaganda,” while explaining away whatever violence had occurred as “unfortunately natural following coup d’etat.”
The cable was written five weeks after the coup, during the reign of Pope Paul VI, with reports already surfacing that political opponents of the regime were being arrested and killed.
“The cables also showed the Vatican later realized the full extent of the abuses being carried out,” according to AFP, “but refused to criticize Pinochet’s regime openly and continued with normal diplomatic relations.”

Chinese tanker takes in 2 million barrels of crude at Iranian terminal. But the Baboon said “embargo”

A Chinese supertanker with the capacity to carry two million barrels of crude has docked and embarked at an Iranian port, the first such move since the European Union imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil in July. 

According to data from HIS Fairplay, a research company based in England, the Chinese vessel, belonging to the country’s biggest shipping company China Ocean Shipping, was seen at Kharg Island, Iran’s largest export terminal, on March 21, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. 

Since July 2012, when the EU imposed new bans on Iran to prevent its member states from purchasing, trading and insuring the Iranian oil, it is the first time that a Chinese tanker has visited a port in Iran, the company said...

Over the past six months, China has depended on National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) for the delivery of Iran’s crude oil to its refineries. 

Official figures show that China imported nearly 410,000 barrels of crude from Iran in January and February this year, up two percent from a year ago. 

“As far as I can see, this is the first confirmed visit to an Iranian port by a Chinese-owned crude oil carrier since the ban,” said Richard Hurley, senior maritime data specialist at IHS Fairplay. 

The ship has been insured by Skuld, a company based in Oslo, for protection and indemnity risks, according to the insurer. The company said its cover for any vessel would terminate if it had to face sanctions due to EU laws regarding Iran’s oil. However, Skuld did not verify if its cover for the Chinese oil carrier has been excluded. 

“We insure ships on a yearly basis and do not usually know what particular activity a ship is engaged in at any one time,” Skuld said in its statement. “In general we only become aware of a particular ship’s location and cargo if there is an incident giving rise to a claim. An owner is not obliged to inform Skuld about the trade he is conducting with the vessel.” 

China has frequently announced its opposition to the unilateral sanctions that the US and the EU have imposed on Iran over allegations that the Persian Gulf country is seeking to militarize its nuclear technology, a claim Iran has vehemently rejected. 

“China maintains normal and transparent energy cooperation with Iran in accordance with its own energy requirements,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei said at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday. 

“We obviously oppose some country imposing sanctions against another country according to their own domestic laws,” he added. 

US Navy Deploys Laser Weapon near Iran

The US Navy announced on Monday it is going to sea for the first time with a laser attack weapon that has been shown in tests to disable patrol boats and blind or destroy surveillance drones.

The prototype Navy Laser Weapons System (LaWS) is being fitted to the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport and docking ship that is due to become operational this year and take up station off Iran during 2014......

The Navy released video and still images of the laser weapon burning through a drone during a test firing.

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert said the LaWS was able to take out targets at a tiny fraction of the cost of other weapons.

A nonpartisan study for Congress found that the new high-energy laser “could provide Navy surface ships with a more cost-effective means of countering certain surface, air and ballistic missile targets.”

But Navy officials acknowledge that the first prototype weapon to be deployed is not powerful enough to take on jet fighters or missiles on their approach.