BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Defence Ministry on Thursday accused the United States of "militarizing" the South China Sea by staging patrols and joint military drills there, ramping up the rhetoric ahead of a key regional security meeting in Malaysia next week.

China has repeatedly urged Washington not to take sides in the escalating maritime dispute over the area, where the Asian giant last year stepped up its creation of artificial islands, alarming neighbors and provoking U.S. criticism.

Washington has demanded China halt land reclamation and militarization of the disputed area and pursue a peaceful resolution according to international law.

China has been angered by U.S. navy and air force forays through waters it claims as its own, especially this month, when U.S. Navy Admiral Scott Swift said he joined a routine surveillance flight.

The United States has also stepped up military contacts, including drills, with regional allies such as the Philippines, which also has claims in the South China Sea.

The United States was hyping up the "China threat" and attempting to sow discord between China and other claimant countries, Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told a monthly news briefing.

"China is extremely concerned at the United States' pushing of the militarization of the South China Sea region," he said.

"What they are doing can't help but make people wonder whether they want nothing better than chaos."

For a long time, the United States had carried out frequent, widespread, close-in surveillance of China, by sending ships and aircraft to the region, he added.

"Recently they have further increased military alliances and their military presence, frequently holding joint drills."

But if certain U.S. officials wanted to take civilian flights over the South China Sea to "enjoy its beauty", China had no problem with that, he said.

China's own drills there are a normal part of its routine military exercises and not aimed at any third party, Yang said.

But he expressed concern at reports that Filipino fishermen had found buoys with Chinese markings near the disputed Scarborough Shoal and towed them back to shore northwest of Manila.

"If these reports are correct, then certain people have elbowed their way into somebody else's home, and taken others' possessions."

The South China Sea is likely to feature prominently at next week's security meeting in Malaysia, attended by Southeast Asia and Chinese foreign ministers and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, but Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and others have overlapping claims.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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The Taliban has announced that a new emir and two deputy emirs have been chosen to lead the organization following the confirmation of Mullah Omar’s death. 

The Taliban’s new emir is Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, a longtime deputy to Omar. Mansour previously served as the minister of civil aviation and transportation during the Taliban’s rule from 1996 to 2001 and as the group’s shadow governor for the Kandahar province. 

Mansour’s importance within the Taliban has long been well-known. The West has sought to negotiate a peace deal with Mansour, thereby recognizing him as one of the Taliban’s chief power players during Mullah Omar’s reign. US, NATO, and Afghan officials even believed at one point that they were directly negotiating with Mansour, only to learn they had been duped by an impostor. 

According to the Taliban, Mansour’s top deputies are Moulavi Haibatullah Akhunzada, a “religious scholar” who previously headed the Taliban’s judiciary branch, and Sirajuddin (Siraj) Haqqani, the son of the “renowned jihadi and scholarly figure” Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Mansour and Siraj Haqqani are both allied with al Qaeda. Mansour recently described al Qaeda’s leaders as the “heroes of the current jihadist era.” 

Siraj’s dossier is filled with ties to al Qaeda. For instance, files recovered in Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound show that he was working closely with bin Laden’s lieutenants in the months leading up to the al Qaeda master’s death. Siraj’s father, Jalaluddin, is a legendary jihadist figure and was one of Osama bin Laden’s most important backers in South Asia. 

The new “Amir-ul-Momineen”

The Taliban’s statement describes Mansour not just as the group’s new leader, but also as the “Amir-ul-Momineen,” or the “Emir of the Faithful.” The title has profound ramifications in the jihadists’ world. Mullah Omar was first given this honorific, which is usually reserved for the ruler of an Islamic caliphate, or caliph. Al Qaeda and other jihadists repeatedly venerated Omar as their “Emir of the Faithful.” 

However, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the Islamic State’s emir, claims to be the caliph and his supporters refer to him in the same fashion. As the rivalry between the Islamic State and al Qaeda reached a boiling point last year, the two sides argued over who deserved the title more. This is crucially important to the jihadists because the “Emir of the Faithful” is supposedly owed the loyalty of all Muslims. Baghdadi has explicitly made this claim, which has been rejected by both the Taliban and al Qaeda.

On June 16, Mansour released a statement chastising the Islamic State for dividing the jihadists’ ranks in Afghanistan. Baghdadi’s followers have repeatedly clashed with the Taliban’s men since the beginning of the year. And Mansour warned that the infighting could severely damage the jihadists’ cause. [See LWJreport, Taliban chastise Islamic State for dividing jihadist ranks in Afghanistan and beyond.] 

While arguing that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (as the Taliban’s refers to itself) is the only legitimate jihadist entity in Afghanistan, Mansour noted that top al Qaeda leaders have based their activities in the country. He went so far as to describe Osama bin Laden as the “leader of mujahideen.”

“The heroes of the current jihadist era — the prayer leader of mujahideen, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam; the leader of mujahideen, Sheikh Osama bin Ladin; the defeater of crusaders, Abu Musab al Zarqawi; and the defeater of atheists, Khattab — had the privilege to be students of jihadist seminaries in Afghanistan,” Mansour said, according to a translation obtained by The Long War Journal.

Azzam is widely considered the godfather of global jihad. He co-founded al Qaeda with bin Laden and also co-founded Lashkar-e-Taiba. Azzam was bin Laden’s mentor until he was killed in 1989. Zarqawi ran a training camp for jihadists in Afghanistan and was the founder of al Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor to Baghdadi’s current Islamic State. Zarqawi was killed in Iraq in 2006. “Khattab” is Ibn Khattab, the leader of al Qaeda’s International Islamic Battalion in Chechnya before he was killed in 2002.

Mansour counted a radical Saudi cleric who supported al Qaeda as one of the Taliban’s chief ideological boosters. And he also mentioned bin Laden’s endorsement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In fact, both bin Laden and his successor, Ayman al Zawahiri, swore an oath of allegiance to Mullah Omar.

“The country’s 1,500 Ulema [the religious council of scholars in Afghanistan] have chosen, and pledged allegiance to, the leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in accordance with sharia, and famous religious scholars of the world like Sheikh Hamud bin Uqla al Shuaybi [a Saudi ideologue who supported the Taliban, al Qaeda, and the 9/11 attacks], may God have mercy on him, and famous jihadist leaders like Sheikh Osama, may God have mercy on him, have announced their support and allegiance to the lawful Emirate,” Mansour said.

Thus, Mansour used al Qaeda’s endorsement to argue in favor of the Taliban’s ideological legitimacy. Mansour’s argument that the Taliban has the appropriate jihadist credentials has been used by al Qaeda’s members and others to undermine the Islamic State. Their belief is that Abu Bakr al Baghdadi did not properly consult with or receive the endorsement of recognized jihadist figures before declaring himself to be the caliph.

This is in direct contrast to Omar and now Mansour, who claim to have the backing of well-established jihadist authorities around the globe.

Osama bin Laden’s files underscore al Qaeda’s close relationship with Siraj Haqqani 

Siraj Haqqani’s tight working relationship with al Qaeda has been reported by multiple sources. But files recovered in Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound reveal the depth of the collusion.

In a memorandum to bin Laden dated June 19, 2010, Atiyah Abd al Rahman described al Qaeda’s paramilitary presence in Afghanistan [See LWJ report, Osama Bin Laden’s Files: ‘Very strong military activity in Afghanistan.’] 

“We have very strong military activity in Afghanistan, many special operations, and the Americans and NATO are being hit hard,” Rahman wrote. Rahman, who was al Qaeda’s general manager at the time, made a point to highlight al Qaeda’s ongoing cooperation with Siraj. 

“The last special operation we participated in,” Rahman explained, “was (the Bagram operation), in summary: We cooperated with Siraj Haqqani and another commander down there (Kabul/Bagram).” The plan was to “sneak into the Bagram base with the infiltrators unit wearing explosives vests, a good amount of Kalashnikov ammunition, some with Beka [PK machine gun, called BKC in Arabic], and some with R.P.G.” Rahman claimed the attack as a success.

The joint operation with Siraj described in Rahman’s memo is the May 19, 2010 suicide assault at Bagram Air Base in the central and normally peaceful province of Parwan.

Rahman mentioned Siraj again in a July 2010 memo describing complex negotiations involving al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, the brother of Pakistan’s current prime minister, and Pakistan’s intelligence service. [See LWJ report, Osama bin Laden’s Files: The Pakistani government wanted to negotiate.] 

“We let slip (through Siraj Haqqani, with the help of the brothers in Mas’ud and others; through their communications) information indicating that al Qaeda and Tahreek-i-Taliban [the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan] have big, earth shaking operations in Pakistan, but that their leaders had halted those operations in an attempt to calm things down and relieve the American pressure,” Rahman wrote to bin Laden.

“But if Pakistan does any harm to the Mujahidin in Waziristan, the operations will go forward, including enormous operations ready in the heart of the country,” Rahman continued. This is the message al Qaeda “leaked out through several outlets,” including Siraj. In response, “they, the [Pakistani] intelligence people … started reaching out to” al Qaeda through Pakistani jihadist groups they “approve of.” Rahman, who was subsequently killed in an August 2011 drone strike, goes on to explain the meetings took place.

In his role as a prominent jihadist leader, Siraj has sat at the nexus of the Taliban, al Qaeda and the Haqqani Network. Both he and his father are ideologues who worked with Sheikh Issa al Masri, an influential al Qaeda thinker who helped radicalize thousands of jihadists by indoctrinating them with al Qaeda’s version of Islam.

Siraj has served as the operational commander of the Haqqani Network, as well as the leader of the Miramshah Regional Military Shura, one of the Afghan Taliban’s four regional military commands. The Haqqani Network operates primarily in the Afghan provinces of Khost, Paktia, and Paktika, and also has a presence in several other provinces.

In October 2007, the US military identified Siraj as a growing threat when it issued a press release describing his importance to the Taliban. The US military offered a reward of $200,000 for information leading to Siraj’s capture. In March 2008, the US State Department listed Siraj as a specially designated global terrorist. In March 2009, State upped the US military’s ante and offered a bounty of $5 million for information on Siraj’s whereabouts. 

Since Siraj’s designation by the US government in 2008, 12 additional senior Haqqani Network leaders have been added to the list of global terrorists. All of them have ties to al Qaeda. [See LWJ report, US adds 3 senior Haqqani Network leaders to terrorism list.]

US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal that Siraj is a member of al Qaeda’s Shura Majlis, or top council, and has actively recruited foreign terrorists to serve in the Haqqani Network. Siraj’s “extended reach brings foreign fighters from places like Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Turkey and Middle Eastern countries into Afghanistan,” Major Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the US military, said in October 2007.

The US military and the the CIA have targeted Siraj in numerous raids, conventional airstrikes, and drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan since identifying him as a major threat. Several senior Haqqani Network leaders, including one Siraj’s brothers, Badruddin, have been killed in CIA drone strikes in Pakistan. Additionally, some of al Qaeda’s top leaders, such as Abu Laith al Libi, were killed in strikes in areas under Haqqani Network control.

Indeed, the US drone campaign has focused heavily on Haqqani-controlled turf in northern Pakistan. Multiple al Qaeda plots against the West have been traced to the Haqqani’s territory.

SEE ALSO: Taliban leader Mullah Omar once cold-called the State Department to demand President Clinton's resignation

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For the last few months, Burundi has been the center of a nerve-racking political drama, with the future of a country of 10 million people on the line.

First, Burundi's president, Pierre Nkurunziza, violated both the constitution and a peace agreement by seeking a third term in office — which led to a failed military coup, followed by a flawed and undemocratic election.

Many feared that war would break out after that election and the weeks of tension building up to it. The country isn't at war, but the crisis is nevertheless unfolding within the ominous context of Burundi's checkered and often violent recent history.

Burundi is a small, landlocked Central African nation, and the eighth-to-last country in the UN's Human Development Index.

Its economy is mostly based on agriculture, with coffee and tea as the country's leading exports. This leaves the country at the mercy of an unpredictable harvest. The nation lacks manufacturing infrastructure and sound educational institutions. As a result, 42% of Burundi's national income comes from foreign aid. It's also in an unstable region, as it borders both Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, countries that have been the site of devastating conflicts over the past 25 years.

After its own bloody and ethnically charged civil war, which started in 1993 and only formally ended in 2005, Burundi actually made modest gains in its economy, seeing 4% GDP growth from 2006 to 2014.

Like neighboring Rwanda, Burundi is a former Belgian colony composed of two major ethnic groups, the Tutsi and the Hutu. Shortly after gaining Independence in 1962, the Hutu president was assassinated by a Tutsi gunman, and the nation became engaged in a bloody civil war that culminated in the 1972 slaughter of around 100,000 Hutus, mainly from the educated elite.

Today, Burundi's crisis of governance isn't along ethnic lines — most Burundians appear to oppose Nkurunziza's power grab, and it's overly simplistic to say that the country is lapsing back into its previous conflict.

But the nation's complicated past is a reminder that there's still a real potential for widespread violence.

On April 25, Nkurunziza declared that he would run for a third term in office, something that would be in direct violation of Burundi's constitution and the peace treaty that ended the civil war. Burundians from across the country's ethnic divide weren't happy about the illegal power grab.

Protests erupted in May. Several high-level military officers decided that they only way to defuse the situation was to depose Nkurunziza. A military coup was launched on May 13 but was crushed a mere two days later with the arrest of army general Godefroid Niyombare.

Though the Nkurunziza administration downplayed the coup, protests continued over the coming months, gradually increasing in violence as the parliamentary and presidential elections approached.

Participants in the coup were then hunted down and tried in court. Some were severely beaten and in some cases were dragged out of hospitals. Ndayirukiye is said to have been abused particularly badly.

Nkurunziza violently struck back against his civil-society opponents as well. Throughout June, machete-armed gangs on both sides of the political divide hunted down and assassinated protest leaders, with 80 people killed in acts of political violence that month. Intellectuals fled the country amid the crackdown, while neighboring countries demanded an election delay.

Despite the protests, elections took place on July 21, with Nkurunziza winning a third term in office. But more violence appears likely and may be unavoidable.

The voting itself was far from credible. The UN called the elections"deeply flawed," adding that the "overall environment was not conducive for an inclusive, free and credible electoral process."

Nkurunziza took the election by a wide margin, capturing 69.41% of the vote. His opponents boycotted the elections and encouraged their supporters to do the same in order to avoid legitimizing an illegal poll. The result was a sweeping victory for the incumbent.

The situation threatened to unravel after Nkurunziza's landslide victory. Violence had erupted in the week before the election, and many international observers feared that another civil war could be imminent.

The US came out against Nkurunziza as well. In his remarks to the African Union on July 28, President Barack Obama said, "When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife."

Obama directly cited Burundi, saying that breaking constitutional terms limits was "often just a first step down a perilous path."

The EU's foreign-policy chief also expressed concern over the elections, stating that they were prepared to sanction six Burundian government officials should the situation deteriorate. For a country so dependent on foreign aid, sanctions like those discussed by the EU could be disastrous, even if they're aimed at preventing Burundi's crisis from entering an even more dangerous phase.

With sanctions looming and Nkurnziza in a dominant position after the crushing of the coup attempt and his persecution of opposition leaders, his remaining opponents are starting to realize they may have little practical choice beyond participating in a political process that many of them consider to be illegal.

On July 30, Agathon Rwasa, the leader of the party opposing Nkurnziza, was elected deputy head of the national parliament, despite being an outspoken advocate of a boycott of the elections. Rwasa explained to Reuters that "Instead of shouting outside the institutions, it's better to be inside them." He said of his election that, "It's a mandate given by the people, we can't disappoint them. They have the right to be represented."

Rwasa also called for a unity government in which power would be shared between the president and the opposition parties. Nkurunziza said that such a move would not be opposed— a glimmer of hope, however conditional, in a country that's been on the verge of conflict for weeks.

Though other opponents of Nkurunziza have continued to boycott the government and abstain from the parliament, this recent twist gives hope that Burundi might make it out of this impasse without falling into full-on civil war.

Still, there is cause for concern over the country's likely course. Already as many as 175,000 people have fled Burundi. The government has silenced popular radio stations, while government-sponsored outlets have appeared in order to spread disinformation.

The African Great Lakes region is emerging from a long period of instability. Things have been relatively dormant in Burundi for years — but Nkurunziza's third term threatens to spark another big eruption in a conflict-prone part of the world.

SEE ALSO: Things are not looking good for the small East African country of Burundi

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NOW WATCH: Watch Obama talk about a hypothetical third term: ‘I could win'

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore reached a grim milestone on Friday, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 43 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.

The 43rd recorded homicide was Jermaine Miller, 18, who took a bullet to his head just before noon the day before.

With his death on Friday, this year's total homicides reached 187, far outpacing the 119 killings by July's end in 2014. Non-fatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July's total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.

The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city's violence prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner Anthony Batts on July 8.

"Too many continue to die on our streets," Rawlings-Blake said then. "Families are tired of dealing with this pain, and so am I. Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against crime."

But the killings have not abated under Interim Commissioner Kevin Davis since then.

Baltimore is not unique in its suffering; crimes are spiking in big cities around the country.

But while the city's police are closing cases— Davis announced arrests in three recent murders several days ago — the violence is outpacing their efforts. Davis said Tuesday the "clearance rate" is at 36.6 percent, far lower than the department's mid-40s average.

Crime experts and residents of Baltimore's most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.

Federal drug enforcement agents said gangs targeted 32 pharmacies in the city, taking roughly 300,000 doses of opiates, as the riots caused $9 million in property damage in the city.

Perched on a friend's stoop, Sherry Moore, 55, said she knew "mostly all" of the young men killed recently in West Baltimore, including an 18-year-old fatally shot a half-block away. Moore said many more pills are on the street since the riot, making people wilder than usual.

"The ones doing the violence, the shootings, they're eating Percocet like candy and they're not thinking about consequences. They have no discipline, they have no respect_they think this is a game. How many can I put down on the East side? How many can I put down on the West side?"

The city's official tally of 42 homicides recorded in May included Gray, who died in April after his neck was broken in police custody. The July tally likewise includes a previous death — a baby whose death in June was ruled a homicide in July.

Shawn Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said May's homicide spike was probably related to the stolen prescription drugs, a supply that is likely exhausted by now. But the drug trade is inherently violent, and turf wars tend to prompt retaliatory killings.

"You can't attribute every murder to narcotics, but I would think a good number" of them are, he said. "You could say it's retaliation from drug trafficking, it's retaliation from gangs moving in from other territories. But there have been drug markets in Baltimore for years."

Across West Baltimore, residents complain that drug addiction and crime are part of a cycle that begins with despair among children who lack educational and recreational opportunities, and extends when people can't find work.

"We need jobs! We need jobs!" a man riding around on a bicycle shouted to anyone who'd listen after four people were shot, three of them fatally, on a street corner in July.

More community engagement, progressive policing policies and opportunities for young people in poverty could help, community activist Munir Bahar said.

"People are focusing on enforcement, not preventing violence. Police enforce a code, a law. Our job as the community is to prevent the violence, and we've failed," said Bahar, who leads the annual 300 Men March against violence in West Baltimore.

"We need anti-violence organizations, we need mentorship programs, we need a long-term solution. But we also need immediate relief," Bahar added. "When we're in something so deep, we have to stop it before you can analyze what the root is."

Strained relationships between police and the public also play a role, according to Eugene O'Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Arrests plummeted and violence soared after six officers were indicted in Gray's death. Residents accused police of abandoning their posts for fear of facing criminal charges for making arrests, and said emboldened criminals were settling scores with little risk of being caught.

The department denied these claims, and police cars have been evident patrolling West Baltimore's central thoroughfares recently.

But O'Donnell said the perception of lawlessness is just as powerful than the reality.

"We have a national issue where the police feel they are the Public Enemy No. 1," he said, making some officers stand down and criminals become more brazen.

"There's a rhythm to the streets," he added. "And when people get away with gun violence, it has a long-term emboldening effect. And the good people in the neighborhood think, 'who has the upper hand?'"

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Three young Chechen women are in trouble after being caught scamming Islamic State (IS) fighters out of thousands of dollars by posing as wannabe jihadi brides, according to reports in Russia.

The women are reportedly now being held by Russian authorities on charges of suspected fraud.

Russian website Life News reported that the scam began on social networks, where the women would begin to contact IS militants in Syria and Iraq. If the targeted jihadi "bought" their ruse, the girl would send him pictures.

One of those involved, Maryam, told the website that one man in particular began communicating with her at first. "He began to lure me, saying: 'Do you want to come to Syria, [it is] very good.' I told him that I had no money," she said. So the man wired her 10,000 rubles ($168).

After Maryam received the money, she deleted her social media accounts, setting up new ones and finding a new set of new men to speak to. Between the three women, they received more than $3,100, before Chechen police caught them.

Maryam told Life News that at one stage she did honestly consider making the journey to IS territory, but the stories coming back from friends who had done it about the way women were treated in IS territory forced her to reconsider.

According to the site, several people are currently detained in Chechnya for engaging in similar scams perpetrated against Islamic State militants. Those believed to have participated in them include men as well as women. 

Maryam risks a fine or up to six years in prison if convicted of fraud.

"I don't recall any precedent like this one in Chechnya, probably because nobody digs deep enough in that direction," police officer Valery Zolotaryov told the Moskovskii Komsomolets website."Anyhow, I don't advise anyone to communicate with dangerous criminals, especially for grabbing quick money."

The women's detention comes two months after social media erupted in outrage around a debate about polygamy and age differences in marriage in the country, which resulted in Chechen President Ramzan A. Kadyrov saying: "You, men, keep your women far away from WhatsApp!"

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The world powers and Iran struck a deal on Tuesday to curb Iran's nuclear program for at least 10 years in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions.

One of the most talked-about side effects of the deal is the reentry of Iranian crude on the global markets.

Interestingly, although Iran has a huge amount of oil, the Islamic republic doesn't even make it into the top three when it comes to proven crude oil reserves.

Using the data provided by Barclays commodities analyst Michael Cohen, we put together a list of the 10 countries sitting on the greatest amounts of crude oil. Check them out below.

10. Nigeria

Proven crude oil reserves (bbl):
37.14 billion

Oil has been the dominant source of government revenues in Nigeria since the 1970s. However, the country struggled following last year's collapse in oil prices. And now Nigeria stands to "face extra competition" from the reintroduction of Iranian oil on the markets.

Source: Barclays Research, CIA Factbook

9. Libya

Proven crude oil reserves (bbl):
48.47 billion

Libya's economy is almost completely dependent on energy. Sales of oil and gas plunged sharply in 2014 after huge protest disruptions at oil ports.

Source: Barclays Research, CIA Factbook

8. Russia

Proven crude oil reserves (bbl): 
80 billion

Although Moscow stands to benefit geopolitically following the Iran deal, the return of Iranian oil to the markets is bad news for them as Tehran could go after one of Russia's European markets.

“Iran is going to be competing in Europe head-on with Russia,” Ed Morse, the head of commodities research at Citigroup, told Bloomberg.

Source: Barclays, Business Insider

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's military warned on Saturday on its founding anniversary of growing risks along its borders, including in the disputed waters of the South and East China Seas.

The Chinese military, the world's largest, has embarked upon an ambitious modernization program in recent years.

That, along with rising defense spending, has jangled nerves around the region. China says it is a threat to nobody, but needs to update outdated equipment and has to be able to defend what is now the world's second largest economy.

In a front page editorial, the official People's Liberation Army Daily said the world was facing unprecedented changes.

"The situation surrounding our country is generally stable, but the risks and challenges are extremely severe, and the possibility of chaos and war on our doorstep has increased," it said.

"The maritime security environment is more complicated, and the undercurrents in the East and South China Seas have been gushing up," the paper wrote.

China has become increasingly assertive in its dispute with Japan over a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, while in the South China Sea it has been reclaiming land in waters where Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims.

China also looks warily at threats from extremists in countries like Afghanistan, the possibility of war on the Korean peninsula, instability on the border with Myanmar and India, and the festering question of the status of self-ruled Taiwan.

"The mission of protecting national unity, territorial integrity and development interests is difficult and strenuous," the paper said.

In a separate piece, the paper quoted Defense Minister Chang Wanquan as saying China was committed to being a force for peace, but would not compromise on core principles like Taiwan.

"We will uphold the principle that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family and go down the path of peaceful development of relations (but will) resolutely oppose and hold back the plots of Taiwan independence separatists," Chang said.

China claims Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. Defeated Nationalist forces withdrew to the island after loosing a civil war with the Communists in 1949.

China's military has also been dealing with a deep-rooted corruption problem, and this week announced another former senior officer, Guo Boxiong, would be prosecuted for graft.

The party's official People's Daily said that these cases had "blacked the name" of the military, but that they were not representative of the loyalty and bravery of the broad mass of service personnel.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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The Associated Press and partner British Movietone have made 120 years of historical news footage available online for the first time ever by uploading 550,000 YouTube videos.

That adds up to over one million minutes of footage.

On the AP's new Youtube Channel and the British Movietone Channel, people now have instant access to footage of some of the most pivotal moments in modern history, including news footage of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., as well as videos of the Titanic leaving an Irish port, the stock market crash of 1929, and the the bombing of Hiroshima.

The Washington Post reports that before putting this footage on Youtube, most of it was only available to be seen in historical archives or museums. 

Here are 17 of the best videos released by the AP:

SEE ALSO: This map shows the US really has 11 separate 'nations' with entirely different cultures

The Titanic leaving Belfast Lough for Southampton, 1912.

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/T9Q0FV8b2R8
Width: 840px
Height: 500px

Footage of World War 1, 1914 — 1918.

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/y5u_x5e8EGE
Width: 840px
Height: 500px

News report of the stock market crash of 1929.

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/Gy4cMkf5MrU
Width: 840px
Height: 500px

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Stunning air-to-air image shows a four-ship formation break.

The top image (click on this link for the high resolution version) shows four F-15C Eagle jets belonging to the 493rd Fighter Squadron, based Royal Air Force Lakenheath, UK, as they break the formation during flying operations on Jul. 22, 2015.

The 493rd FS recently received the 2014 Raytheon Trophy as the U.S. Air Force’s top fighter squadron.

Image credit: Courtesy photo by Ioannis Lekkas/Released

SEE ALSO: Incredible photos of 10 Russian warplanes intercepted over the Baltic Sea

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LONDON (AP) — Family members of the late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden were among four people killed in a private jet crash in southern England, a Saudi ambassador said, but did not further identify the dead.

Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf Bin Abdel-Aziz, the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom, offered his condolences to the wealthy bin Laden family, which owns a major construction company in Saudi Arabia.

"The embassy will follow up on the incident and its circumstances with the concerned British authorities and work on speeding up the handover of the bodies of the victims to the kingdom for prayer and burial," the ambassador said in a statement tweeted by the embassy late Friday.

Police say a pilot and three passengers died when an executive jet crashed into a parking lot and burst into flames while trying to land at Blackbushe Airport in southern England Friday afternoon. The plane had been flying from Malpensa Airport in Milan.

No one on the ground was hurt. Police and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch launched a joint investigation.

Blackbushe Airport said the Embraer Phenom 300 jet crashed near the end of the runway while trying to land at the airfield about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of London, which is used by private planes and flying clubs.

Andrew Thomas, who was at a car auction sales center based at the airport, told the BBC that "the plane nosedived into the cars and exploded on impact." He said he saw the plane and several cars in flames.

The official Saudi Press Agency earlier identified the plane as Saudi-owned without mentioning the bin Ladens. It said a Saudi official would work with British authorities in investigating the crash.

The bin Laden family disowned Osama in 1994 when Saudi Arabia stripped him of his citizenship because of his militant activities. The al-Qaida leader was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011.

The family is a large and wealthy one. Osama bin Laden's billionaire father Mohammed had more than 50 children and founded the Binladen Group, a sprawling construction conglomerate awarded many major building contracts in the Sunni kingdom.

Mohammed bin Laden died in a plane crash in Saudi Arabia in 1967. One of his sons, Salem, was killed when his ultralight aircraft flew into power lines in San Antonio, Texas, in 1988.

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China and Russia have been front and center in the Central Asia conversation.

Beijing has been pushing westward — in part aiming to find new countries to which it can export its goods as Western demand slows and China transitions into a consumption-based economy.

Meanwhile, Moscow keeps trying to maintain its decaying influence in the same region, worried that its sometimes-friend, sometimes-adversary China is getting a little too involved there.

But there's another notable player getting into Central Asia: Japan.

Last week Tokyo announced that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit five Central Asian countriesin October, which is significant as the last time a Japanese prime minister toured the region was back in 2006.

Government officials stated that Abe's trip is "part of efforts to strengthen economic relations with the resource-rich region," according to The Japan Times. And this wouldn't be Tokyo's first attempt: In 2014 Japan and Turkmenistan signed a $1.7 billion deal to build a gas-to-liquids plant.

Furthermore, Japan's interest in the region could have underlying geopolitical reasons.

"The visit could also counter China’s growing clout in the region, as well as boost leverage with Russia, according to the officials," as cited by The Japan Times."They noted Moscow is concerned by Beijing’s surging influence in Central Asia, which Russia hopes to keep within its sphere of influence."

“If Japan competes with China [in Central Asia], Russia would welcome it,” one official said, according to The Japan Times. “As a result, Japan would have one diplomatic card [to play] against Russia.”

Still, others maintain that it's just about economics: Japan is looking for alternative energy markets and warm-water ports.

"Japan’s Eurasia strategy is two-pronged. First, Japan is stepping up its technological investment in Central Asian energy markets to compensate for the abrupt end of its reliance on nuclear power. Second, Japan wants to prevent China’s One Belt, One Road project from monopolizing control over the region’s warm water ports,” argues Samuel Ramani,Oxford master's student and journalist, in The Diplomat.

"Analysis of the recent rise in Japanese involvement in Central Asia should be detached from broader geopolitics, as Japan’s interests are in competition with those of both China and Russia," he added.

Nevertheless, regardless of the reason, it’s clear that Japan is taking Central Asia seriously — and Abe's trip could be something to watch come October.

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The terrorist attacks of 9/11 put Special Operations on the map and at the forefront of the 21st Century DOD but this has also created a massive problem few in leadership positions are ready to admit.

The main issue is that many will only admit in hushed voices behind closed doors, is that US SOCOM (Special Operations Command) has become a massive bureaucracy.

Unit level autonomy in Naval Special Warfare (NSW) has been eroded to the point where purchasing damaged uniforms can open source is nearly impossible because it would mean circumventing a major program of record, and more importantly, SOCOM’s main HQ in Tampa has become a place where civilian contractors, who serve as program managers, are more concerned with careerism then taking care of the Special Operations Warfighter on the front lines.

“Many of these guys have never served in the military and the GS contractors are always looking for an reason to say no, when active duty guys are looking for reasons to say yes, and get the job done,” one senior non-commissioned officer attached to SOCOM told SOFREP.

Last year an NSW Warrant Officer told SOFREP that it’s routine to see senior level Special Operations line officers doing “busy work” at SOCOM that is unrelated to core expertise, and he personally witnessed a Navy Commander escorting a janitor (without security clearance) from space to space for an entire work day.

Time is valuable, and seeing time and talent wasted like this goes against Special Operations core values. This is a huge problem and the elephant in the room few want to admit exists.  Our hope is that influencers inside SOCOM will push for change and continue to fight against bureaucratic paralysis that can only be leveraged against us by our enemies.

If USSOCOM wants to thrive in the new century, leadership must look to leaders of organizations that have been able to successfully lead highly intelligent (and driven “A” types), around clear and inspiring organizational goals on a large-scale. And continue to maintain the ability to communicate quickly and effectively top down and bottom up, with the ability to make decisions quickly, and add autonomy where needed.

Elon Musk should be at the top of the list of people to emulate when it comes to leading large organizations that are highly maneuverable and use it as a competitive advantage. The PayPal co-founder, and CEO of Tesla and Space X has revolutionized the American space industry since 2002. In just over a decade Elon has accomplished what many thought was impossible; to make America relevant and at the forefront of interplanetary space travel.

Evaluating and learning from exemplary industry leaders and innovators like Elon Musk who are able to successful lead large and nimble organizations is something worth reflecting on (SOFREP also highly recommends reading Ashlee Vance’s new book, “Elon Musk”).

SOCOM must gain its unit level autonomy and maneuverability back. This will be critical to the effectiveness and relevancy of a modern and maturing SOCOM and is essential to the Command’s survival as it continues to deal with State sponsors of terrorism (like Iran), and open source radical Islam that leverages distributed adversaries across the globe.

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Taliban leader Mullah Omar was officially declared dead this week, and the militant group is showing signs of major strain as a result.

Omar's death could have huge implications that ripple past the Taliban itself — J.M. Berger, a Brookings Institution fellow and coauthor of the recent book "ISIS: The State of Terror," told Business Insider that this week's news could be a boon to the Islamic State.

Although Omar has apparently been dead for more than two years, until this week the Taliban had been leading people to believe that he was still alive.

The revelation that Omar has been dead for so long while the Taliban has continued releasing statements in his name is a huge blow to the group's credibility, Berger said.

"From ISIS’ perspective, this is the best possible outcome," he said. "Mullah Omar having been dead for years is a gift to them."

As Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, explained in The Daily Beast, Al Qaeda could also struggle with the news, as the group "made Mullah Omar’s role a central pillar of its response to ISIS’s ideological challenge."

Al Qaeda made the argument that if anyone should be the supreme "emir of the believers" or "caliph" of the Islamic world, commanding the loyalty of jihadists everywhere, it should be Omar, and not Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State terror group (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh).

"Mullah Omar’s role in the global jihadist movement was one of the really strong arguments against [Baghdadi's] legitimacy," Berger said. "... In terms of the PR war within the jihadi world, this is just huge because not only does it cut the legs out of one of the objections to ISIS taking over with its caliphate but it also does so in a way that completely discredits their critics."

Basically, Baghdadi can claim more legitimacy.

"There is no other credible leader of the jihadist movement now to compete with Baghdadi,"Berger said. "[Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri] isn’t it, he doesn’t have the chops for this."

ISIS is likely to capitalize on this development. The group is known for its widespread propaganda, and this is an opportunity for ISIS to criticize the group's detractors while bolstering its argument for legitimacy.

"Their fans online have been jubilant," Berger said. "Yesterday was the most active day I’ve seen on ISIS Twitter in months. Everybody was talking about this. They were very excited about it."

While this news is likely to help ISIS in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the group has been trying to gain a foothold and attract fighters, it probably won't affect operations much in Iraq and Syria, Berger explained.

Michael Kugelman, a senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, expanded on this point in The Wall Street Journal:

He was not just the leader of a militant organization. He has been a deeply influential figure well beyond the Taliban. Even Osama Bin Laden — who was Mullah Omar’s guest in pre-9/11 Afghanistan — reportedly expressed allegiance to Mullah Omar. Last year, al Qaeda renewed its oath of allegiance to Mullah Omar. Militants across South Asia and beyond bestowed on Mullah Omar the honorific “Commander of the Faithful.”

In recent years, Mullah Omar unified an otherwise fractured network of South Asian militants. His death could shred any semblance of cohesion, certainly within the Afghan Taliban – which is afflicted by infighting – but also among jihadist factions across Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Berger noted that while it may not lead to Al Qaeda affiliates switching over to ISIS, the disarray could lead to defections "down in the trenches."

"The next couple of weeks are going to be unpredictable," Berger said. "There’s a lot of opportunity for high drama in this movement, and we could see dramatic moves."

ISIS has been pummeled by US-led airstrikes and is dealing with enemies on multiple fronts. Nevertheless, the group is still a formidable threat. The Associated Press reported on Friday that US intelligence agencies have concluded that ISIS is no weaker than a year ago when the US-led campaign of air strikes started.

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Cybersecurity specialist Wang Qi gets more than a little irritated at how Chinese society often views IT geeks like himself - as socially inept and isolated guys who dress like penniless slobs.

"In fact, some think we don't deserve to have a decent position in society," says a testy Wang, 35, an established "white hat" - a hacker who identifies weaknesses in internet security with the aim to improve it.

It's perhaps understandable for Wang to have a chip on his shoulder - his expertise is fast becoming one of the most important jobs in the modern world. A former senior security specialist at Microsoft China, Wang has set up his own cybersecurity venture, Keen Team, and gained an internal reputation in the world of white hats.

"The demand for security protection from businesses is rising rapidly, thanks to non-stop advances of the internet technology," says Wang.

Set up in 2011, his Shanghai-based internet security company has now become an adviser for technology giants including Apple and Huawei.

Hackers are getting bigger, bolder and faster as digital technology is integrated more deeply into everyday life, according to the latest report by Symantec. Cyberattackers are infiltrating networks and hijacking the infrastructure of companies and turning it against them, while extorting end-users through their smartphones and social media to make some quick cash.

In China, the non-profit National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team said the number of data leaks recorded had tripled since 2013 to 9,068 instances in 2014. As businesses try to fend off the rise in cyberattacks, it is becoming more lucrative to join the country's burgeoning cybersecurity industry.

That may explain the rapid growth in the number of white hats in China's internet landscape over the past three years. A report published by Chinese internet security company Qihoo 360 said numbers have risen rapidly in recent years.

On the Qihoo platform alone, the number of white hat hackers registered to help businesses spot vulnerabilities within their systems jumped from 2,490 in 2014 to 13,812 this year. Most (63.8 per cent) were born in the 1990s, while those born in the 1980s make up 34.4 per cent, the Qihoo report said. Of those registered last year, only four (less than 0.2 per cent) were women.

But, as in many other segments of digital business, cybersecurity companies find it tough to retain talent.

"Brain drain is a chronic problem in this emerging community of white hat hackers," Wang says. "The most talented can be easily enticed to a well-established technology company, so we try to keep people engaged by organising more off-line activities."

Last year, for instance, his company co-organised GeekPwn, a mainland version of international security geek contest Pwn2Own, to attract talent.

Wang, who holds a master's in information technology from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, made an impression at the Beijing event by using a smartphone to gain control of a Tesla electric car. He and his team were able to do so after spending 100 days figuring out the vulnerabilities of the vehicle.

Keen Team has started to make a name for itself at Pwn2Own, which has been held since 2007 at the CanSecWest computer security conference in Canada. With cash prizes from companies such as Google and Apple as rewards, contestants try to reveal unknown weaknesses in widely used software and smart devices and their findings help gauge progress in improving security.

At the Mobile Pwn2Own contest held in Tokyo in 2013, Keen Team participants managed to break into Apple's web browser, Safari, within 30 seconds, winning themselves US$40,000. Keen developers claimed the number of security risks they found in iOS was more than double that disclosed by Apple.

At the event in Canada last year, Keen Team collected US$140,000 in prize money from two other exploits.

Life is undoubtedly better these days as a young white hat in China. Even without a job offer from a technology major, it's possible to earn enough from competitions and advising companies to live comfortably.

"An income of about 20,000 yuan [HK$25,000] a month is the average, so having a relatively affluent lifestyle is not a real problem," says Luo Qinglan, founder and CEO of Moule, another Shanghai-based cyberspace security start-up.

"What really makes young hackers fixate on the job is passion," says Lou, 27, who leads a team of more than 30 white hats in his company.

"All are cyberspace security fanatics, and what I am doing is merely setting up a fair and liberal workshop where we can get together to enjoy research on information technology."

As for the young white hats in China, typing away at a keyboard and sleeping on a couch for days to concentrate on breaking one security loophole is nothing unusual. It's estimated that it takes 78 days on average to uncover a single vulnerability.

Now gearing up for a second round of fundraising, Moule has collaborated with dozens of public agencies and companies, particularly in the booming e-commerce sector. Its partners include ventures such as Yihaodian, a major online grocery shop, and Dianping, which operates a Yelp-like user review website where customers can purchase dining coupons.

"Living in the bubble of online finance and e-commerce, people rarely realise that some of our most important personal and financial information are placed up the cloud, a network of remote servers used to store, manage, and process data," says Luo, who studied computer science at Donghua University in Shanghai.

About 26 per cent of security vulnerabilities are found on e-commerce websites, according to the report released by Qihoo 360 earlier this year.

But while IT geeks find it thrilling to make breakthroughs mining vulnerabilities, raising awareness in the business community about the need for cyberspace security remains a challenge.

Many business executives regard investment on security upgrades as a huge cost, rather than a pre-emptive measure to hedge against cybercrimes, according to a 2014 global survey by consultancy Ernst & Young.

"Cybersecurity is not seen as an added-value activity and is viewed as a cost which needs to be limited as much as possible," the report said. Less than 20 per cent of organisations have real-time insight on cyberspace risks, and 63 per cent consider budget constraints as the main obstacle to investing more on security upgrades.

Meanwhile, the cyberattacks keep coming. "Apart from those people who hack into websites for sport, many malicious hackers target organisations for money," Luo says.

Wang says: "Even though the cost of upgrading security system is rising, it's merely heading to its normal level given the ever more pervasive cyberspace attacks and the fact that its value was much more underestimated in the past." More people are coming around to this conclusion, however - the recent GeekPwn contest in Beijing awarded three million yuan in cash prizes.

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On the night of July 11, the leader of one of the world's largest drug empires casually stood up from his bed, walked to the far corner of his prison cell, and escaped through a sophisticated and custom-engineered tunnel system.

What's astounding is that a little over a year earlier, one of his lieutenants escaped from prison using almost identical means: by building a tunnel from a ground-floor cell to the outside world.

A little more than 14 months before Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escaped from the Altiplano maximum-security prison, fellow cartel operative Adelmo Niebla González broke out of a different facility — also by tunneling from his ground-floor cell.

Given the Sinaloa's proficiency in tunneling — the group has dug scores of passageways under the US-Mexican border — and this earlier escape, placing Guzman in a ground-floor cell was flagrantly ill-advised.

"If you know that the modus operandi of the Sinaloa cartel involves tunneling, you just don't lock this guy up on the prison's ground floor," Mexican Senator Alejandro Encinas reportedly said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In 2012, Niebla was imprisoned at the Culiacán penitentiary for smuggling marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, and firearms across the Mexican-US border.

Niebla, nicknamed "El Señor" or "The Lord," snuck out of prison with two other inmates in May 2014 via a quarter-mile-long tunnel that plunged 46 feet into the earth.

The ventilated and illuminated escape route passed under a canal and was constructed in less than three months, Borderland Beat reports.

Sinaloa's tunneling prowess

In 1989, the Sinaloa cartel utilized its first cross-border "narcotúnel" to smuggle illicit materials.

"Since then, Sinaloa has refined the art of underground construction and has used tunnels more effectively than any criminal group in history," The New Yorker reports.

According to The New Yorker, investigators estimate that a single Sinaloa "narcotúnel" requires more than a million dollars and several months to construct.

"I think it's a very small group of elite members of the cartel that are doing this. This is highly sophisticated work,"Sherri Hobson, a federal prosecutor in California, told The New Yorker.

"A lot of people think that you have a shovel and you dig. That's not the way it works," Hobson added.

Arched ceilings, makeshift ventilation ducts, electric lights, and even railways are some hallmarks of the Sinaloa cartel's extraordinary tunnels, The New Yorker reports.

The tunnels that supplied Niebla and Guzmán their escape from different Mexican prisons also have several striking similarities.

Both secret passageways featured ventilation system with makeshift PVC piping. Both were illuminated. And both emerged in unfinished and abandoned construction sites.

While Niebla's route is reported to have taken about two months to build, aerial imagery shows that the endpoint of Guzmán's escape path was actually built six months before he fled.

For extra security, the nondescript site is at least a half-mile away from any other building.

Adding to Mexico's embarrassment, Guzmán's first jailbreak in 2001 was from a facility that looks almost identical to Aliplano:

Dámaso López, a former employee of the Puente Grande prison, is a prime suspect in the investigation into Guzmán's latest escape, The New York Times reports.

Authorities believe López may have stolen a copy of the prison's blueprints before leaving his post at Puente Grande.

"López is believed to have close knowledge of the layout of the prisons and security procedures," The Times reported. The tunnel makers may have also had the GPS coordinates for Mr. Guzmán's shower stall."

Considering both prisons are shockingly similar in layout, the stolen blueprints from 2001 would have tremendously aided Guzmán's accomplices in helping him escape.

Since Guzmán fled Alitplano, several other prison employees have been arrested for colluding with the drug trafficker.

Not the first time

In 2014, Mexican marines found a complex tunnel network inside one of Guzmán's hideouts in Culiacan, Mexico. Lifting up a bathtub, investigators climbed into a passage that lead to the city's drainage system.

Guzman escaped through the tunnel, running barefoot underground for as much as a mile, according to The New Yorker. Mexican marines caught up with him a few days later in the coastal city of Mazatlan, pulling off one of the biggest drug arrests in Mexican history.

Now, the brazen escape of the world's most notorious drug lord has triggered yet another manhunt.

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The American Southwest is in the midst a catastrophic drought.

It’s so bad, in fact, that it’s caused Lake Mead — a massive oasis in the middle of Mojave Desert formed by the Hoover Dam — to recede to the lowest levels ever seen. As of June, water levels were 154 feet below normal.

For the adventurous few, the lower water level is a chance to get closer to history than ever before, up close and personal with a B-29 bomber that has sat on the lake bed for over 70 years.

The B-29 “Superfortress” played many roles in World War II, including carrying the atomic bomb, but this particular plane didn’t make it to the Pacific theater, or even out of Nevada ...

In 1948, while on a secret mission high above the Mojave Desert, this B-29 crashed with five crew members on board, all of whom survived. The plane didn't fare as well.

Today, over 70 years later, the plane remains untouched on the bottom of Lake Mead. Thanks to falling water levels, it’s becoming easier to find and explore.

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