Tuesday, March 22, 2011

DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Rare Earths ~ Why China Is Cutting Exports Crucial To Western Technologies

Asian Defense News: DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Rare Earths ~ Why China Is Cutting Exports Crucial To Western Technologies
**The key to hundreds of modern technologies, from iPhones to smart-bombs, lies in the little-known rare earth metals, 95 per cent of which are mined by China. Its decision to slash exports has left the West scrabbling for alternative supplies
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 22, 2011:

The Inner Mongolian city of Baotou is like an LS Lowry painting come to life: a faded industrial landscape of chimney-stacks and coal depots, shunting yards and steel plants. But amid the outskirts of this north China steel town there is one clutch of buildings that are noticeably more modern than the rest. They are home to a research institute that has suddenly become the envy of the world.

The showpiece headquarters of the 'Pioneering Rare Earth Hi-Tech Development Zone' is home to 400 research scientists who specialise in a group of 17 metals known as 'rare earths'. Until recently, most people had never even heard of these obscure elements.

New Generation Aircraft Concept of Chinese People

New Generation Aircraft Concept of Chinese AVIC

However, they are the magic ingredient in almost everything that makes modern life possible. They may have exotic-sounding names such as terbium, europium, dysprosium and lutetium, but they also have decidedly everyday applications; from BlackBerrys and iPhones to catalytic converters and low-energy lightbulbs.

Known in China as 'industrial vitamins', rare earths are an essential component in green technologies such as electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines. Rare earths are not only essential for civilian life; the world's hi-tech armies also need rare earths for a host of applications from toughening tank armour to guiding smart-bombs and powering night-vision goggles.

Given their global application, it may come as a surprise to know that 95 per cent of world rare earths production is controlled by a single country – China. Last year China's ministry of commerce announced drastic cuts in the amount of rare earths it would make available for export. Quotas were cut by more than 70 per cent for the second half of 2010 to only 8,000 tons, compared with 29,000 tons for the same period the previous year, at a time when global demand for rare earth elements (REEs) was picking up fast.

Analysts say quotas are expected to shrink by a further 11 per cent this year. Rare earths demand has tripled in the past decade to an estimated 136,000 tons this year. By 2014 some analysts are now predicting a 20,000-ton shortfall in key metals.

Prices of the most sought-after rare earth metals and oxides have spiked in the international markets, with some dealers reporting that neodymium (used in computers and lasers) is now impossible to obtain outside China. At $72 a kilo, cerium oxide, used in polishing glass and lenses, is now 15 times more expensive than it was a year ago; neodymium has more than tripled in value to $115 over the same period. Analysts do not expect them to cool off for at least two years.


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Monday, March 21, 2011

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Pakistan Forges Ahead With New Fighters, Upgrades

Asian Defense News: DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Pakistan Forges Ahead With New Fighters, Upgrades
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 21, 2011:

Pakistan has inducted its new Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 52+ fighters, while its first two full-strength squadrons of Chengdu/Pakistan Aeronautical Complex JF-17 Thunders are also on the verge of becoming fully operational.

The Pakistan air force inducted 17 F-16 Block 52+ fighters into its 5 Sqn on 11 March, the service says. The final aircraft in the 18-unit deal is still in the USA undergoing testing and will arrive in another month.

Pakistan's new batch of aircraft comprises 12 single-seat C-model versions and six two-seat F-16Ds. The air force says it is also in negotiations with the USA for additional Block 52+ aircraft, with its original deal having contained an option for another 18.

Pakistan's new F-16s are powered by Pratt & Whitney F100-229 engines, with other systems understood to include Northrop Grumman's mechanically scanned APG-68(V)9 radar and ITT's ALQ-211(V)9 advanced integrated defensive electronic warfare suite.

A proposed weapons package outlined by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in 2006 included 500 Raytheon AIM-120C5 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles and 200 short-range AIM-9M-8/9 Sidewinders, plus 500 Boeing joint direct attack munitions, 1,600 enhanced GBU-12/24 laser-guided bombs and 700 BLU-109 penetrator bombs.

A mid-life upgrade of 34 F-16A/B Block 15 aircraft is also under way, with some being upgraded in Pakistan and some in Turkey. The project is likely to be completed next year, and will see the aircraft equipped with modern sensors and weapons.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's first full-strength squadron of 18 JF-17s is likely to become operational next month, with a second unit of the same strength likely to follow within two months.

At Air Show China in Zhuhai last November, Zeng Wen, vice-president of the China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation (CATIC), said Pakistan had 50 firm orders for the JF-17, but could end up buying 200.

Pakistan will use the JF-17 to replace a number of types, such as the Chengdu F-7, Dassault Mirage III and Mirage 5 and the Nanchang A-5. All A-5s will be decommissioned by early April, says the Pakistan air force.

China and Pakistan jointly developed the JF-17. Pakistan began indigenous assembly in 2009, and could incorporate Western avionics, radars and other systems into the type from 2012.

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DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Google Accuses China Of Blocking Gmail

Asian Defense News: DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Google Accuses China Of Blocking Gmail
(NSI News Source Info) HONG KONG - March 21, 2011:

Google Inc on Monday accused the Chinese government of making it difficult for Gmail users to access the service in the country, the latest development in a rocky relationship between the two.

Google said any difficulty users in China may have faced in the past few weeks accessing its email service was likely to be the result of government blocks, a Google spokeswoman said in a statement.

"There is no issue on our side, we have checked extensively," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."

Gmail users in China said they were still able to log in to their accounts, but were unable to perform tasks such as sending email and accessing their address books.

Google's run-ins with the Chinese government began in January 2010, when the company said it was no longer willing to censor search results in the country. Previously, the company included a disclaimer on its China service that searches may not be complete because of local laws.

Searches for terms deemed sensitive by Chinese censors are routinely blocked. Chinese search engines such as that offered by Baidu Inc already voluntarily filter searches.

This is not the first time Google has accused China of interfering with its services. In January, Google said it had uncovered sophisticated China-based attacks on human rights activists using its Gmail service around the world.

The months-long censorship dispute that Google had with the Chinese government was a diplomatic flashpoint in Sino-U.S. Relations in 2010.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed inquiry.

Censorship of Web content has intensified in China following calls on foreign websites for a "Jasmine Revolution", which are anti-government gatherings inspired by demonstrations in the Middle East and North Africa.

(Reporting by Kelvin Soh in Hong Kong, Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Chris Lewis)

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DTN News - LIBYA UPRISING: Western Strike Hits Gaddafi Compound, Tripoli Says

Asian Defense News: DTN News - LIBYA UPRISING: Western Strike Hits Gaddafi Compound, Tripoli Says
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 21, 2011:

Western forces launched a second wave of air strikes on Libya overnight and officials in Tripoli said a missile intended to kill Muammar Gaddafi had destroyed a building in his fortified compound.


"It was a barbaric bombing," said government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, showing pieces of shrapnel that he said came from the missile. "This contradicts American and Western (statements) ... that it is not their target to attack this place."

There was no comment on the strike from attacking forces.

The first air strikes on Saturday halted the advance of Gaddafi's forces on the rebel-held eastern city of Benghazi and had targeted Libya's air defences in order to let Western warplanes patrol the skies of this oil-producing north African desert state.

The second wave of Western air strikes also hit Gaddafi's troops around Ajdabiyah, a strategic town in the barren, scrub of east Libya that rebels aim to retake and where their fighters said they need more help to take the fight to the enemy.

"If we don't get more help from the West, Gaddafi's forces will eat us alive," rebel fighter Nouh Musmari told Reuters.

The U.N.-mandated intervention to protect civilians caught up in a one-month-old revolt against Gaddafi drew criticism from Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who questioned the need for a heavy bombardment, which he said had killed many civilians.

Moussa said on Monday however that the League respected the U.N. resolution while stressing a need to protect civilians.

The United States, carrying out the air strikes in a coalition with Britain, France, Italy and Canada among others, said the campaign was working and dismissed a ceasefire announcement by the Libyan military on Sunday evening.

STRIKES "FOR A LITTLE WHILE"

Henri Guaino, one of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's closest aides, said the strikes were not aimed at ousting the autocrat who has ruled Libya for 41 years but told RMC radio that they were likely to last "a little while".

Britain's Defence Ministry said one of its submarines had again fired Tomahawk cruise missiles as part of a second wave of attacks to enforce the U.N. resolution but that one air force mission was called off because of civilians in the target area.

"As the RAF GR4 Tornados approached the target, further information came to light ... As a result the decision was taken not to launch weapons," a ministry spokesman said, adding this underlined the British commitment to protecting civilians.

The Libyan government urged people in towns, cities and tribes to join a march from Tripoli to Benghazi "so we could exchange condolences, ... announce forgiveness ... and then we could sit down as one family ..."

The intervention in Libya is the biggest against an Arab country since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Withdrawal of Arab support would make it much harder to pursue what some defence analysts say could in any case be a difficult, open-ended campaign with an uncertain outcome.

Asked about Moussa's concerns about the conduct of the campaign, Michele Flournoy, Under Secretary at the U.S. Department for Defense, told the BBC:

"I think that may be the case that people don't understand the military dimensions of what was required to establish the no-fly zone but I can tell you that we continue to have ... statements of support from a number of Arab countries."

Italy said it had warplanes in the air, after U.S. and British warships and submarines launched 110 Tomahawk missiles on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the U.S. military's Joint Staff, told reporters there had been no new Libyan air activity or radar emissions, but a significant decrease in Libyan air surveillance, since strikes began Saturday.

BENGHAZI NOT FREE FROM THREAT

Benghazi was not yet free from threat, said Gortney, but Gaddafi forces in the area were in distress and "suffering from isolation and confusion" after the air assaults.

Late on Sunday night, Libyan officials took Western reporters to Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli, a sprawling complex that houses his private quarters as well as military barracks, anti-aircraft batteries and other installations, to see what they said was the site of a missile attack two hours earlier.

A short walk from a brightly lit tent where Gaddafi receives his guests, the three-storey building stood in ruins, and a circular hole was visible on its gutted facade. The United States says it does not have Gaddafi on its target list.

A Libyan military spokesman announced a new ceasefire on Sunday, saying that "the Libyan armed forces ... have issued a command to all military units to safeguard an immediate ceasefire from 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) this evening".

Both before and after he spoke, heavy anti-aircraft gunfire boomed above central Tripoli.

Outside Benghazi, smouldering, shattered tanks and troop carriers from what had been Gaddafi's advancing forces littered the main road. The charred bodies of at least 14 government soldiers lay scattered in the desert.

But with Gaddafi having vowed to fight to the death, there were fears his troops might try to force their way into cities, seeking shelter from air attacks among the civilian population.

In central Benghazi, sporadic explosions and heavy exchanges of gunfire could be heard in the streets late on Sunday evening. A Reuters witness said the firing lasted about 40 minutes.

In Misrata, the last rebel-held city in western Libya, a rebel spokesman said pro-Gaddafi forces were bringing in civilians from nearby towns to use as human shields and that those forces killed seven people there on Sunday.

Residents said water supplies were cut off and Libyan troops had encircled the town.

A Libyan government health official said 64 people were killed by Western bombardment on Saturday and Sunday, but it was impossible to verify the report independently.

ARAB SUPPORT CRUCIAL

Arab support for a no-fly zone provided crucial underpinning for the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution last week that paved the way for Western action to stop Gaddafi killing civilians as he fights an uprising against his 41-year rule.

The U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the no-fly zone was now in place.

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States would not have a "pre-eminent role" in maintaining it, and expected to turn over "primary responsibility" within days, perhaps to Britain or France.

U.S. officials, eager to avoid similarities to the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein, have been playing down Washington's role and emphasising that overthrowing or killing Gaddafi is not the goal of the attacks on Libya.

Mullen told CBS television the endgame of the campaign was "very uncertain" and acknowledged it could end in a stalemate.

Gates told reporters: "I think this is basically going to have to be resolved by the Libyans themselves."

In Brussels, NATO envoys failed to agree on any alliance involvement in enforcing the no-fly zone.

NATO members Turkey and Germany have spoken out against the zone, and diplomats said France had argued against involvement by an alliance whose reputation in the Arab world had been tainted by its involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

French planes fired the first shots of the intervention on Saturday, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles near Benghazi.

France sent an aircraft carrier towards Libya and its planes were over the country again on Sunday, defence officials said. Britain said its planes had targeted Libya's air defences, mainly around the capital Tripoli.

Other countries, including Qatar, also dispatched aircraft to participate in the operation, U.S. officials said.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas and Angus MacSwan in Benghazi, Maria Golovnina and Michael Georgy in Tripoli, Hamid Ould Ahmed and Christian Lowe in Algiers; Tom Perry in Cairo, John Irish and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, Missy Ryan in Washington, Matt Spetalnick in Rio de Janeiro; Writing by Peter Millership; Editing by Giles Elgood)


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