Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Crash of Air Asia 8501


Last UPDATE: January 4 / 12, 2015



Latest news: Already 6 bodies recovered in Air Asia crash.
Another search of bodies and debris will continue today at
daylight. On Sunday, Dec. 28, Air Asia flight 8501 crashed
into the Java Sea south of Borneo. [Source: CNN / BBC]



UPDATE for January 4, 2015:

According to different media sources, 31 bodies have been recovered from Air Asia flight 8501 that perished with 162 people on board in shallow waters off the coast of South Borneo. Weather was the “triggering factor” in the crash with icing likely causing engine damage, Indonesia’s meteorological agency said on Sunday. Bad weather still continues to hinder rescue efforts which already brought about five large pieces of Air Asia's Airbus A 320-200 while the plane's black box is still missing.

UPDATE for January 12, 2015:

Essential parts of the plane have now been discovered, including the flight and voice recorder.






A visitor to this site coming from German air traffic control DFS
which is located near Frankfurt International Airport at Langen.


Thursday, December 25, 2014

Russia Sanctions - Chinese Evaluation


A comprehensive article, published on December 23, 2014, in People's Network, Beijing, and referring to China's press agency Xin Hua 新华, is discussing certain aspects of western sanctions recently put into effect against Russia as far as they might hint at a possible crack between the U.S. and their allies in Europe. Here some quotations from that article in the English translation:

西方“反俄同盟”出现裂痕?

Title: Is there a Crack in the Western Alliance against Russia ?


“如果危机完全失控,这不符合我们的利益,”德国外长针对欧盟对俄罗斯制裁如是质疑。

" If the crisis runs completely out of control, this doesn't accord with our interests ", Germany's foreign minister [said], thus hinting at EU sanctions for Russia when that question was raised.

近日,在俄罗斯遭受油价和卢布汇率暴跌的威胁之际,欧美对俄罗斯发起了新一轮的制裁。其中,欧盟进一步限制对克里米亚和塞瓦斯托波尔进行贸易和投资活动,美国 禁止投资克里米亚或对这一地区进出口货物、技术和服务。

Recently, on the occasion of Russia suffering from a steep fall of the oil price and the rouble exchange rate, the European - U.S. alliance launched a new round of sanctions against Russia. In that frame, the European Union placed further restrictions on trade and investment activities regarding Crimea and Sevastopol, [while] the United States prohibited investment in Crimea [including] import and export of goods, technology and trade from that area.

今年以来,在美国的施压下,欧盟谨慎地一步步升级对俄制裁措施。对俄罗斯的连番经济打击,在令俄经济处境困难的同时,德国也坐不住了。德国外长似乎唱起了 反调,称试图通过经济手段迫使俄罗斯妥协同时强化欧洲地区安全形势是错误的想法。而德国总理默克尔更是公开表示,德国愿与俄罗斯共同应对国际安全挑战, 双方往来应继续深化,德方会维护与俄方的伙伴关系原则。作为欧盟核心大国,德国的抱怨似乎暴露了西方“反俄同盟”离心离德的一面。

From this year on and due to U.S. pressure, the European Union will step by step carefully escalate its punishing measures towards Russia. Joint economic attacks against Russia at the same time of an unfavourable and difficult situation in Russia cannot leave Germany sitting still any longer. Germany's foreign minister has seemingly sung an opposing tune, calling a wrong idea the circumstances of an attempt to adopt economic measures that would force Russia to compromise and, at the same time, strengthen Europe's regional safety. And German chancellor Merkel even more publicly shows that Germany is hoping to answer all challenges to international safety together with Russia. .....

站在欧盟的对面,强硬的普京并非莽撞之辈,给了欧盟大国一定的台阶下。在备受关注的法俄“西北方”级两栖攻击舰交易问题上,法国在压力之下,一再推迟向俄方交付已经建造好的军舰,俄方曾就此威胁法方将赔付巨额违约金。然而,普京本月6日却大方地表示,希望法国能履行合同内容,不过,即使法国不交付战舰,俄方也不会索赔,但希望法方如数退还定金。

Opposing the EU's position, a tough Putin, not being the crude and impetuous guy, [turned down] the big countries of the EU.
While being fixed on the matter of a French-Russian "North-Western" amphibious warship deal, France is [now] under pressure. Another delay of delivery to Russia of already built warships, [and] the Russian side [might] threaten France to compensate for a huge sum of money for violating the treaty. When on December 6, Putin stepped back from a manifestation of generosity, he expected France to be able to fulfill the contract's content. If not [and] even if France doesn't deliver the warships, Russia would not be able to claim damages, but would expect France to exactly return the prefixed sum of money.

美国远在天边可以隔岸观火,与俄罗斯相邻却是欧盟无法回避的宿命。围绕乌克兰危机进行的“反俄斗法”,欧盟同样付出了不小的代价。欧盟国家还能否继续亦步亦趋 地伙同美国保持“反俄同盟”的团结,将是俄罗斯密切留心的微妙话题。(文/刘小军)(来源:新华国际)

America being far away, can watch a fire from the other side of the ocean. The European Union, however, is incapable of evading fatalism while being Russia's neighbour. With an "anti-Russian way of contest" underway and which is centered around the Ukrainian crisis, the EU has equally paid [its] price, which was far from being low. Whether or not the countries of the European Union can still continue imitating every move [while] rallying around the "anti-Russian alliance" maintained in league with America, is a delicate topic, closely and carefully [observed] by Russia.





Russian visitor to "blueprint news" from the region bordering Ukraine.


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Kurdish Peshmerga Chasing ISIS




العراق.. معارك ضد "داعش" في تلعفر وبيجي وسنجار

Iraq ... Fightings against ISIS in Tal Afar, Baiji and Sinjar.

البيشمركة تسيطر على الطريق الرئيسي وجبل سنجار وتحاصر المتطرفين في الأحياء

Peshmerga [now] control the main road [as well as] Mount Sinjar and [...] besiege the extremists.


[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on December 23, 2014]




Tuesday, December 16, 2014

ISIS Preparing Deadly Weapon




سلاح داعش الجديد.. صهاريج متفجرة يقودها انتحاريون

New Weapon for ISIS - Explosive Tanker Guided by Suicide Bombers


التصفيح يمر عبر مراحل: المرحلة الأولى يتم فيها تصفيح الصهريج من الجهات الأربعة بمادة الصفائح الحديدية، وبمقياس قدره 5 سنتيمترات. والمرحلة الثانية شبيهة بالمرحلة الأولى، لكن ما بين المرحلتين يتم تشكيل فجوة هوائية مقياسها ما بين 5 سنتيمترات إلى 10 سنتيمترات، وتُملأ هذه الفجوة بالمواد الرملية و الكرات المعدنية.ـ

Progressive all-around armour plating: The first [layer] of armour plating for the tanker [stretching] on four sides [consists of] sheet metal measuring 5 cm. The second [layer] is resembling the first, however, there is no air left in the space between both [layers] which is measuring between 5 and 10 cm. Instead, it is filled with sand-like material and a metallic [load].

الصهريج سيكون مُحملا بما لا يقل عن 10 براميل من المواد المتفجرة والكيمياوية، وسيُسمع دوي انفجاره على بعد 30 كيلومترا بوضوح، وسيكون سلاحا قاتلا.ـ

The tanker ... will be able to transport 10 barrels of explosive material and chemicals ... [that will be exploded] after 30 km ... and will be a deadly weapon.


It has been warned that such armed tanker cannot be fought neither with an RPG-7 nor any other coventional weapon like the Kalashnikov. Instead, the vehicle needs to be destroyed by an airborne attack. [The RPG-7 (Russian: РПГ-7) is a portable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher which is widely used in the area.]

[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on December 15, 2014]

The following video has been distributed by some third party on the internet:



Sunday, December 14, 2014

Libya - Competing Governments At War


Only one day after news from Benghazi indicating some kind of normalization in the capital of the one Libyan government that enjoys recognition by an international community, there is renewed fighting between militias belonging to the opposing governments in Benghazi and Tripoli. This time it's about military control of the border crossing to Tunisia at Ras Jdir.




اخبار ليبيا 13-12-2014 العاجلة الان
اعادة فتح اقسام وسجون مدينة بنغازي الليبية للمرة الاولي منذ اكثر من عام


Libya News from December 13, 2014, at local time:
Reopening of offices and prisons in the Libyan town
of Benghazi for the first time since more than a year.


[Source: Watny Net جريدة وطني الأخبارية on December 13, 2014]



Fighting near Libya's main border crossing to Tunisia

[Quotation of today's news report published by Reuters,
including some clarifying annotations made by Ulysses.]


" Tripoli / Tunis - Fighting between armed factions allied to Libya's competing governments broke out on Sunday [i.e. December 14] near the country's main border crossing to Tunisia, Libyan and Tunisian officials said.

The OPEC oil producer is caught in a conflict between two governments and parliaments since a group called Libya Dawn seized Tripoli in the summer.

The recognized government has been forced to work out of the east [from Benghazi]. In recent weeks it has sought to regain ground in the west with air strikes and the use of allied troops from the Zintan area who are calling themselves the Libyan National Army (LNA).

Omar al-Sanki, interior minister of the recognized government, said his forces had seized the western Ras Jdir border crossing, the main gateway into Tunisia.

But a Libyan border official and the mayor of Zuwara, a town east of Ras Jdir, denied this.

"Our forces...are still in control of Ras Jdir and it is not true that the borders have been taken by the army of tribes -LNA," said the mayor, Hafed Juma.

He said war planes belonging to the eastern-based government had attacked their positions, killing four people.

A Tunisian security source said there was fighting in the Libyan area of Boukamech near Ras Jdir. The border station was open, though Tunisia had advised its citizens to avoid the crossing. [A news report from Al-Arabiya and which appeared later today is indicating that Ras Jdir border station has now been definitely closed.]

In another setback for travelers, two Libyan state carriers said they had halted flights out of Tripoli and Misrata to Istanbul after the European Union imposed an overfly ban last week.

Egypt and Tunisia had already banned flights from western Libya, leaving Libyans with few options to travel abroad.

Western powers fear the conflict between former rebels who helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 will spiral out of control.

On Saturday a force allied to the Tripoli government tried taking the eastern Es Sider oil export port, triggering air strikes from the eastern government and a shutdown of the terminal. "


[Source: Reuters on December 14, 2014]


For more news refer to a related article, published on the same day of December 14 by The Financial Times: Civil war threatens Libya’s eastern oil facilities

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Recent visitors to "blueprint news" coming from Benghazi and Tripoli.


Friday, December 05, 2014

Russia's Putin - Riding the Tiger




Speech to the Nation: President Putin urges Russian resilience for hard times - BBC News





虎普京骑虎难下

Brave Putin is riding the tiger, finding it difficult to get off.


On December 3, 2014, People's Network in China published an article that is referring to Vladimir Putin's activities to save the Siberian tiger from extinction. It's therefore that he recently visited China's border province Hei Long Jiang where a population of such tigers is known to exist. Much earlier, he had already participated in the tagging of tigers to facilitate research of those rare predators.

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Last ten visitors to "blueprint news" from the Moscow region.