WWI prisoner of war postcard found

The postcard was sent from Limburg an der Lahn in Germany on April 30 1918

A postcard sent home by a captured WWI soldier has come to light 95 years after it was sent from a German prisoner of war camp.

Charles Jeffries sent the card from Limburg an der Lahn on April 30 1918 to let his family in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, know he had been taken prisoner.
His granddaughter, Pat Nicholls, 78, of Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, had the card in a file of family memorabilia.
She is trying to find out more about the role he played in the conflict.
The card gives Mr Jeffries' regiment as the Royal Naval Division but does not indicate whether he was wounded.
It has been stamped in German and Mr Jeffries - born in 1890 - wrote his personal details and home address in pencil.
The card, which Mrs Nicholls has handed over to historians in Shepreth, is printed in a mixture of German and English and headed "I am a prisoner of war in Germany."
'Not talked about' Mrs Nicholls said she was a teenager when Mr Jeffries died of lung cancer in 1953.
"I remember him well. I wish I'd asked him about the war. But people didn't talk about it," she said.
"He was a waterworks inspector and worked for the Southend Waterworks Company.
"I know that when he was taken prisoner the shock paralysed by grandmother, Mabel.
"I've checked the handwriting on the card. It's definitely his."

Source BBC

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Posted in: Entertainment,Society,war

Japan marks 'return of sovereignty' day

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko gave added weight to the event

Japan has for the first time marked the anniversary of the end of the allied occupation, which followed its defeat in World War II.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the "restoration of sovereignty day" would give Japan hope for the future and help it become "strong and resolute".
The event is seen as part of Mr Abe's nationalist campaign.
He is also pushing for a revision of Japan's pacifist constitution to ease tight restrictions on the armed forces.
It was during last year's election campaign that Mr Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) proposed the event to mark the day in 1952 when the San Francisco Peace Treaty took effect, formally ending WWII and the allied occupation.
"I want to make this a day when we can renew our sense of hope and determination for the future," the 58-year-old said in front of officials gathered in Tokyo.
"We have a responsibility to make Japan a strong and resolute country that others across the world can rely on," he said.
Protests It was the latest in a series of events and remarks that have angered Japan's Asian neighbours.

Mr Abe infuriated China and South Korea when he suggested he may no longer stand by the wording of an apology issued in 1995 for Japan's war-time aggression, saying the definition of "aggression" was hard to establish.

China also strongly objected to the visits by several cabinet members and 170 MPs this month to the Yasukuni war shrine, which is seen as a symbol of Japan's imperialistic aggression.
Sunday's ceremony was also controversial with some Japanese. Thousands of people on the southern island of Okinawa took to the streets to denounce the event as a betrayal.
Okinawa was invaded by US marines in 1945 and was not returned to Japan until 1972.
Nearly three-quarters of US troops stationed in Japan under a bilateral treaty are based in Okinawa.

SOURCE BBC

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Posted in: Asia,war

BBC 'used LSE students as human shield' in North Korea

The BBC has refused to drop a Panorama programme on North Korea after a students' union said it used students "as a human shield" to film there.

Three BBC journalists accompanied 10 London School of Economics students and spent eight days in the country.

The LSE students' union's Alex Peters-Day said Monday's programme should be dropped because students were lied to and could not give informed consent.

But the BBC said the students had been properly warned ahead of the trip.

Head of news programmes Ceri Thomas said the North Korean government was the only party the BBC had deceived.

"We have a duty to give enough information to people on a trip like this so they can give us fully informed consent," he said.

"There were 10 students. We told them there would be a journalist on the trip and, if that journalist was discovered, it could mean detention and that it could mean arrest."

Nine of the students were aged 21-28 while one was 18, he said.

'Student welfare'

The LSE complains the students had not been told there was an undercover team of three, filming a high-profile documentary.

Panorama reporter John Sweeney spent eight days undercover inside North Korea for the programme, travelling with his wife and a cameraman.

Mr Thomas admitted they had initially been told it was one journalist but that, when they were in Beijing before they flew into Pyongyang, they were told there would be three journalists.

He said North Korea was "one of the most oppressive regimes on the planet which is threatening nuclear war in the Korean peninsula".

The "public interest arguments" for making and showing the programme were "overwhelming", he added.

He said three of the students had since asked "that their images be taken out" and that they would be "pixellated or blobbed".

LSE students' union general secretary, Ms Peters-Day - who was not on the trip - told the BBC News Channel: "One of the students made it absolutely clear that she was not made aware of what happened.

"For us, this is a matter of student welfare - students were lied to, they weren't able to give their consent."

She said all LSE's future research was "now at risk".

"I think the trip was organised by the BBC as potentially a ruse for them to get into North Korea and that's disgraceful.

"They've used students essentially as a human shield in this situation."

LSE pro-director Prof George Gaskell said students had been put in a "potentially extremely dangerous" situation.

The university had been told last week that the BBC had used the party as cover for Panorama filming during the eight-day trip, he added.

He said he was glad LSE staff had not been left "wondering about how we were going to get these students out of solitary confinement in some North Korean jail".

"I think there is less danger to students than there is to my colleagues," he added.

"Some of my colleagues at the present are in Africa, China and various other sensitive countries.

"If their independence and integrity is challenged, they may find themselves in considerable risk."

'Extreme censorship'

Meanwhile Universities UK, the umbrella body for UK universities, said it regretted "the BBC's approach in this matter".

"Universities must be able to work with integrity and operate in sensitive areas of the world," chief executive Nicola Dandridge said.

She added: "The way that this BBC investigation was conducted might not only have put students' safety at risk, but may also have damaged our universities' reputations overseas."

Panorama reporter John Sweeney said the majority of the students he had travelled with supported the programme.

"What the LSE is saying we dispute," he told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme.

He added: "All of those students could have dobbed me in, they didn't."

He described North Korea as a "Nazi state" that practised the "most extreme form of censorship".

He added: "It's more like Hitler's Germany than any other state in this world right now. It's extraordinarily scary, dark and evil."

Source: BBC

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Posted in: Asia,Korea,Politics,war

Brazil beefs up air defenses with German guns for sports events

People check the Maverick, an internal security vehicle, at the Defence and Security International Exhibition Latin America Aero and Defence (LAAD) trade show for the defence and security industry in Latin America, in Rio de Janeiro April 9, 2013.

BRASILIA, April 11 – Brazil plans to buy 34 used anti-aircraft tanks from the German army to help bolster air defenses as it prepares to hold two global sporting events and host a visit by Pope Francis.

The Brazilian army said the contract to buy the self-propelled Gepard 1A2 anti-aircraft guns would be signed in the next few days and included ordnance, maintenance and training. The value is still being negotiated, an army statement said, adding the first lot would arrive by June.

The Flakpanzer Gepard, as it is known, is armed with two 35 mm guns mounted on a rotating turret atop a Leopard 1 tank chassis. It was phased out three years ago by the German army and replaced with missile systems.

Brazil has spent little on defense since civilian rule replaced military dictatorship almost 20 years ago. The emerging South American economic power is now seeking to modernize its armed forces to defend its new offshore oil resources, protect is porous Amazon and western border from drug traffickers and take on international peacekeeping missions.

It is also trying to beef up internal security and anti-terrorism capabilities before hosting the World Cup soccer tournament next year and the 2016 Olympic Games.

In two months, the South American country will host the Confederations Cup, a dress rehearsal for the 32-nation world soccer tournament a year later.

The Brazilian army officer in command of anti-aircraft artillery, General Marcio Heise, told Globo's G1 news service that the first eight Gepards would arrive in June.

He said they would be deployed in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, where the Confederations Cup kicks off on June 15, and in Rio de Janeiro, where the tournament ends on June 30, and also for the papal visit to Rio in July.

Brazil agreed in February to purchase Russian medium-range surface-to-air Pantsir S1 combined missile and artillery batteries and Igla-S shoulder-held missiles.

The Brazilian air force plans to replace its fleet of aging fighter planes, but has delayed a decision on the purchase of 36 new jets, a coveted defense contract worth $4 billion initially. Boeing Co, France's Dassault Aviation SA and Sweden's Saab are in the running for the deal.

The rearmament plan is also aimed at helping boost local defense and technology industries. Brazil is building five submarines in partnership with France in a $3.95 billion program that includes a nuclear-powered submarine. The reactor is a Brazilian design.

Local aircraft maker Embraer SA is developing the KC-390 military transport for Brazil's armed forces and to compete against the Lockheed-Martin C-130 Hercules transport.

Embraer recently won a contract to supply the U.S. Air Force with ground attack Super-Tucano aircraft, which will be provided to the Afghan armed forces.

Source tuoitrenews.vn

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Posted in: Politics,Sport,war

Pentagon: Inaccurate to Say N. Korea Has Nuclear-Armed Missiles

North Korean missile launch (2012)

The Pentagon late Thursday said North Korea does not have nuclear-armed missiles, playing down an intelligence report leaked earlier in the day which said Pyongyang had the capability to build atomic warheads that could be fitted on missiles.

Pentagon spokesman George Little says it would be inaccurate to suggest the North has fully tested, developed, or demonstrated the nuclear capability mentioned in the report.

Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn surprised Pentagon officials during a routine budget hearing Thursday by reading what he says was an unclassified paragraph from a U.S. military intelligence report. Lamborn said intelligence officials are moderately confident the North has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles.

U.S. officials have been saying that they know little about North Korea's intentions and have to assume the worst.

U.S. President Barack Obama says it is time for North Korea to end its "belligerent approach."

The president said during White House talks with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Thursday that no one wants to see a war on the Korean peninsula.  But Mr. Obama said the United States will take all necessary measures to protect itself and its allies.

U.S. and South Korean forces are on heightened alert for a possible North Korean missile test. South Korea's Defense Ministry said Thursday it is fully prepared to deal with a North Korean launch.

Source: VOANEWS.COM

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Posted in: Korea,nuclear,Politics,USA,war

North Korea: US urges China to rein in Pyongyang

The US says it is urging China to use all its leverage to help rein in North Korea's "destabilising" actions.

North Korea says its armed forces are a war footing

US officials travelling with Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington wanted Beijing to evoke "a sense of urgency" in its talks with Pyongyang.

North Korea has ratcheted up tensions in the region, threatening nuclear strikes against South Korea and the US.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has denied a report suggesting Pyongyang is able to mount nuclear warheads on missiles.

Earlier, a US Congressman leaked details of a Defense Intelligence Agency study that, he said, assessed "with moderate confidence" the North could fire a nuclear-armed missile, though with "low reliability".

Pentagon spokesman George Little said later: "It would be inaccurate to suggest that the North Korean regime has fully tested, developed or demonstrated the kinds of nuclear capabilities referenced in the passage."

Although the North has carried out nuclear tests, it had been thought it lacked the ability to make the weapons small enough to place in a ballistic missile.

South Korea is currently on a high state of alert amid indications that the North is preparing for a missile test.

Pyongyang has moved two Musudan ballistic missiles to its east coast. Estimates of their range vary, but some suggest the missiles could travel 4,000km (2,500 miles).

That would put US bases on Guam within range, although it is not known whether the Musudan has been tested before.

Mr Kerry is travelling to Seoul on his first trip to Asia since becoming secretary of state.

A senior administration official told reporters on board his plane: "It is no secret that China has most leverage, most influence, with North Korea and I think fundamentally we would want them to use some of that leverage because otherwise it is very destabilising and it threatens the whole region."

The official added that, although Washington was not privy to conversations between China and North Korea, "we would want China to bring a sense of urgency, the need to stop this escalation, into that debate".

"China has a huge stake in stability and the continued North Korean pursuit of a nuclear armed missile capability is the enemy of stability. That gives us and the Chinese a very powerful objective in common, namely denuclearisation," the official said.

North Korea has increased its warlike rhetoric following fresh UN sanctions imposed after its third nuclear test in February and joint military manoeuvres by the US and South Korea.

The North says it will restart a mothballed nuclear reactor, has shut an emergency military hotline to the South and has urged countries to withdraw diplomatic staff, saying it cannot now guarantee their safety.

However, in the past few days North Korea's media appear to be in more of a holiday mood, due to the approach of Monday's celebrations marking the birth of national founder Kim Il-sung - a potential launch date for a new missile test.

Source: bbc

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Posted in: Asia,Korea,Politics,violence,war