China’s top military newspaper warned the United States on Saturday that U.S.-Philippine military exercises have fanned risks of armed confrontation over the disputed South China Sea.

The commentary in China’s Liberation Army Daily falls short of a formal government statement, but marks the harshest high-level warning yet from Beijing about tensions with the Philippines over disputed seas where both countries have recently sent ships to assert their claims.

This week American and Filipino troops launched a fortnight of annual naval drills amid the stand-off between Beijing and Manila, who have accused each other of encroaching on sovereign seas near the Scarborough Shoal, west of a former U.S. navy base at Subic Bay. [Read more...]

North Korean women attend a grand chorus event in Pyongyang to mark Kim Il-sung’s 100th birthday [Reuters]

As the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK) heralds an imminent rocket launch from the Tongchang-ri site, its neighbours anxiously await the fallout.

While the North says the send-off is merely to put a civilian satellite into space, the country’s adversaries have denounced what they describe as provocation by Pyongyang. [Read more...]