Venezuela says rogue officers captured, military bases under control

CARACAS: Venezuela has captured a group of military officers who stole weapons and kidnapped four officials, the government said in a statement on Monday, hours after a social media video showed a sergeant demanding the removal of President Nicolas Maduro.

Protesters burned trash and a car outside the National Guard outpost where the officers were arrested in a sign of growing tensions following Maduro’s inauguration to a second term that governments around the world have called illegitimate.

Though the incident signals discontent within the armed forces, it appeared to involve only low-ranking officers with little capacity to force change in the hyperinflationary economy as many people suffer from shortages of food and medicine.

“The armed forces categorically reject this type of action, which is most certainly motivated by the dark interests of the extreme right,” the government said in a statement read out on state television.

Maduro was inaugurated on Jan. 10 under an avalanche of criticism that his leadership was illegitimate following a 2018 election widely viewed as fraudulent, with countries around the world disavowing his government.

Opposition leaders and exiled dissidents have called on the armed forces to turn against Maduro, which the president has denounced as efforts to encourage a coup against him.

https://www.nst.com.my/world/2019/01/453011...s-under-control

Wing Commander Abhinanthan has been handed over to the Indian High Commission in Pakistan. Expected to be brought back to India at Wagah crossing later this afternoon.

Kashmir shelling resumes after release of captured Indian pilot

Indian and Pakistani artillery fire near the Line of Control killed seven in the disputed region, officials say.

Indian and Pakistani soldiers again targeted each other's posts and villages along their volatile frontier in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing at least five civilians and two soldiers, and wounding several others, officials on both sides said on Saturday.

Fighting resumed overnight into dawn on Saturday, leaving two siblings and their mother dead in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The three died after a shell fired by Pakistani soldiers hit their home in Poonch region near the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the Himalayan territory of Kashmir between the two nuclear-armed rivals, police said.

The children's father was critically wounded and has been admitted to hospital.

In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a man and a boy were killed by Indian shelling in Nakiyal, said Nasrullah Khan, a hospital official. Khan said a man was also wounded in the Tatta Pani area.

The Pakistani army said in a statement that two of its soldiers were killed in Nakiyal in an "exchange of fire while targeting Indian posts undertaking firing on civilian population".

Separately, a police official in Rawalakot, speaking to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, said that a man had been wounded and three homes destroyed in the Indian shelling overnight.

Also in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, government official Umar Azam said the Indian troops with heavy weapons "indiscriminately targeted border villagers" along the LoC.

Both countries' officials used the routine description for the military confrontations, saying their soldiers retaliated "befittingly" and blamed the other for "unprovoked" violation of the 2003-ceasefire accord at several sectors along the Kashmir frontier, targeting both army posts as well as villages.

Tensions have been running high since Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday, carrying out what India called pre-emptive raids on the camps of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), which claimed a suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed at least 40 Indian troops last month.

Rebel groups have been fighting Indian rule since 1989 and demand that Kashmir be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the region, and most people support the rebels' cause against Indian rule while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/kash...2065456135.html

Thus apart from information sharing and annual exercises, does it provide any effective protection or guarantee for us when shtf?

If I'm not mistaken, apart from NATO, FPDA is one of the few, if not the only cold war alliance/security arrangement that survived to this day. SEATO, Baghdad pact, Warsaw pact.. All withered away.

Actually wrote a research proposal about that (the enduring nature of fpda in post cold war era and its new role) when my superior delegated me to something else maybe for the better though my curiosity persists

He asked whether there are any "commitments" or "guarantees"

Answer: none

Some people will downplay anything. Some people will also "upplay" anything. Also remember that not all FPDA members are equal, so it might be more useful to look at bilateral relations to gauge common interest rather than the whole arrangement at face value.

Compare also with other bilateral relationships, NATO and EU Articles, etc

Sure people have died for the arrangement in the past. But look at the past in the context of the past. The future could be - IS - way different.

I dunno, but some people see it the other way - blame UK for everything including the recent few wars, praise France for postcolonial management eg in Africa and Caribbean... Just saying there's an alternative view

Oh I remember. NAM was a joke from the start and we are the jokiest NAM of all because we are still stupidly trying to go solo, which is how we end up with rojak fleet and zero fucking clue what to buy next

I don't deny FPDA's previous utility to us but nor am I duped that it wasn't beneficial to the supers as well as a tool to fight The Red Menace

Remember that anti-communism was one of the few geopolitical stances where we actually took a fucking stance instead of being a wishy washy NAM bodoh with delusions of grandeur, that was the full buy-in that secured the commitment of the others as well. If we looked as if we were the slightest bit pro-communist, like fuck they would have helped defend us post-independence

Fats forward to today

Right now the challenges facing the FPDA of the future are Red Menace: Far East Expansion Pack, and Islamic State SEA DLC. And guess what? We are still happy participants of OBOR and jumping headfirst into Islamic ultraconservatism, not to mention a strong history of making common cause with the Enemy of FPDA Indonesia Brader Kite against our nominal Brother in FPDA Singapore Kafir Zionist Lahanat!

Any sane other member of FPDA will look at this situation and decide we can't be trusted to do the right thing. But they're not going to say it out loud or dump the arrangement of course, so let it stay first, no need to ragequit. Meanwhile diorang pergi make new chatgroup with Singapore and Australia and US and maybe even Japan where they can talk cock about those nice new F-35s amongst known and trusted friends.

And that's sekian for our FPDA as far as serious defence is concerned.

Fuck I am bitter today... Need coffee...

didn't the army already tested Caesars and some other SPH sometime ago? I remember reading about it on Perajurit or Tempur magazines some years ago

also, didn't we accepted 29 refurbished M109 SPH last year? still not enuff SPH issit

Exactly what I'm saying. We were lucky we picked the right side of the Commie war, that's all. And we made a firm commitment to it. No nonsense like catch and release terrorists or declaring any kind of brotherhood with Commie countries. Contrast with now.

Aussie carry NZ is like German carry Dutch, or US carry UK on a larger scale. It's clear who's the tauke and there's a close abang-adik relationship. Even if the NZs are being idiots they work closely together.

(It's what MY/SG could have been if we had a more healthy relationship... but oh well...)

Yes so far we are still considered moderate Muslims, but you can see the rumblings on the horizon as well as I do I'm sure. We are the only FPDA member with a strong stance against Israel plus as I noted, we have buddied up with Indon to provoke SG in the past.

Brits tolerate Brunei because he minds his own business, they know the Sultan just uses conservatism to control his people, he doesn't harbour terrorists and they would certainly know since they are literally in control of Brunei's defences. (Not to mention he funds their Gurkhas and their base.) Yet they would rather do business with SG I think. (They're good buddies with Oman and Jordan too).

Whereas 1 way or another we're perceived as a hotbed for terrorist activity.

Did SG support OBOR?

China to sell an aircraft carrier to Pakistan

China, as part of its recent military and foreign policies, has planned to upgrade on a large scale its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, to sell it to Pakistan, its ally, in order to compete with India. This selling is to increase Pakistani Navy's strength, facing India equally and making of Pak a better ally for China.

An official media report separately disclosed that China has planned to carry out a “large-scale upgrade” of China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and “sell it to Pakistan to compete with India”! It described Pakistan “as the best destination for it” and said that by then the Liaoning, which was commissioned into the PLAN in September 2012, will have served the Chinese Navy for about 18 years. Gwadar and Karachi are already described by Chinese Navy strategists as a “logistics base” and “PLA Navy (PLAN) base” respectively. This does mean that the carrier could be sold to Pak by 2020.

https://www.navyrecognition.com/index.php/n...o-pakistan.html