This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com.

U.S. and Vietnam launch joint naval exercises amid tensions with China

Col. Nguyen Van Lam, center, greets U.S. Rear Admiral Tom Carney with flowers on Friday (Reuters)

The U.S. and Vietnam launched a series of joint naval exercises on Friday. The exercises, which are confined to noncombat training, fall short of the kinds of advanced military exercises that occur between the U.S. and longer-term allies in the region, such as the Philippines and Australia. The U.S. strategy is a response to China’s recent military aggressiveness, and includes an expansion of training exercises in other parts of the region to include newer participants, such as Cambodia and Malaysia, in some programs, as well as the deployment of new hardware, including littoral combat ships in Singapore. Wall Street Journal (Access).

Vietnamese police arrested at least 10 people, among 50 who were approaching the Chinese embassy in Hanoi. They were demonstrating against China over the tensions in the South China Sea. AFP

Contrary to the desires of the peace-loving Chinese, there have been a spate of escalations of military tensions with China’s neighbors in the East China Sea and South China Sea. The saber-rattling provocateurs include Japan, Vietnam, and Philippines. The situation is made worse by U.S. meddling. Treating China as a threat and containing it in the South China Sea issue would be a bad judgment benefiting neither country’s interests. If Washington continues to go along the wrong direction, it should prepare for the severe consequences. China Daily

Thursday’s European summit meeting a ‘Moment of Destiny’

European leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday for an emergency summit to agree on another large bailout package for Greece. One unnamed diplomat says, “There are times in history when it really matters. This is one of those times. The people working on a comprehensive package feel the weight of their responsibility.” Unfortunately, many people realize that none of the proposals being made is going to be enough. Furthermore, there are two major obstacles to even those proposals: First, no one believes that Greece is going to rid itself of vast amounts of waste and corruption; and second, taxpayers in Germany and other core eurozone countries don’t want to bail out Greece again. Kathimerini

Mideast Quartet may be facing a serious rift

The recent meeting in Washington of the Mideast Quartet (the US, Russia, the EU and the UN) ended without the usual statement calling on the Palestinians and Israelis to resume peace talks, suggesting that there’s a serious rift among the members. Jordan Times

Louis Farrakhan says Europe/America will be drowned in their own blood

Nation of IslamlLeader Louis Farrakhan supports Libyan Leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, and threatens Europe and America: “You will be drowned in your own blood.” Memri

Cheap, common drug could dramatically reduce malaria in Africa

Ivermectin, a cheap common drug that’s already being used to fight other parasites in Africa, could dramatically decrease the incidence of malaria, which kills almost 800,000 people each year. All Africa

QVC cancels TV appearance by Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda mirthfully posing with enemy North Vietnamese soldiers in 1972

Jane Fonda was scheduled to appear on the home shopping TV QVC network QVC on Saturday to promote her new book, “Prime Time,” but her appearance was canceled at the last minute. On her web site, Fonda claims that the network received a flood of angry calls regarding her Vietnam war activism. “I am, to say the least, deeply disappointed that QVC caved to this kind of insane pressure by some well funded and organized political extremist groups,” Fonda wrote. (See “Jane Fonda’s half-hearted selective apology”) In 1972, Fonda posed for photos showing her sitting atop a Viet Cong anti-aircraft gun that was targeting American soldiers. When the Vietnam war ended, Fonda enthusiastically supported the Communist-led bloodbath in Cambodia that killed millions of people, because she would never criticize the actions of any Socialist government. Reuters

Latin American blueberries are ‘extreme superfruits’

Researchers have found that two species of wild blueberries native to the tropical regions of Central and South America — the New World tropics, or Neotropics — contain two to four times more antioxidants than the blueberries sold in U.S. market “We consider these two species of neotropical blueberries to be extreme superfruits with great potential to benefit human health.” Eurasia Review