China Plans Steep Increase in Military Spending

Sustained increases in its annual defense outlays put China on track to become a major military power. China’s military budget for 2008 will increase by 17.6 percent to 417.8 billion yuan, or about $58.8 billion, Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, said at a news conference. This follows a 17.8 percent increase in 2007.

Military experts in the United States and elsewhere say Beijing’s real military spending is at least double the announced figure. But even if it was double, China’s yearly military budget would still be only about one-fourth the size of the Pentagon’s. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/world/asia/05china.html?ex=1362459600&en=0616459f1f798579&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Frontline blogger covers war with soldier's eyes

A former Special Forces soldier has created a loyal following on the Web with his accounts of frontline soldiers’ daily work in Iraq. Is this journalism?

Michael Yon was not a journalist, and he wasn’t sure what a blogger was. He had been in uniform but not in combat, and he wanted to keep it that way. He went to Iraq thinking he would stay for a month, and maybe find a way to write about the war after he got home. Instead, he has spent most of the last three years in Iraq, writing prolifically and graphically, and racking up more time embedded with combat units than any other journalist, according to the United States military. He has been shot at, buffeted by explosions and seen more people maimed — fighters and civilians, adults and children — than he can count.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/business/21iraqblogger.html?ex=1358658000&en=53fb1d5051560fa3&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink