1. GIO DOS SANTOS TO LA GALAXY?

Wednesday evening this huge rumor begin undulating around the internet and it just kept picking up speed. Mexican international , after the MLS side apparently offered $8 million. The 26-year-old former Tottenham Hotspur winger would cause quite a stir if he did join LA. Thoughts?

2. PHILADELPHIA WIN BIG AGAINST CREW

Three goals in six first half minutes were good enough for three points for the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday night. Asees John Hackworths side up to third in the Eastern conference. CaptainI think its huge. Jack has drawn so much attention from the defense just through his run right now. Its time other guys stepped up.

3. CREW CAME OUT FLAT; WHATS GOING ON?

But the Crew didnt exactly put up much of a fight, with their first half collapse condemning them to another loss as theyve won just once in their last six. Robert Warzycha promised changes. We made mistakes and we paid a penalty.Is that the answer?

4. ORLANDOS MLS BID GETS SERIOUS, EXPANSION PRO JOINS FRONT OFFICE

Big news out of Orlando yesterday as MLS Commissioner Don Garbers former special assistant,to help with their MLS expansion dreams. Lashbrooks appointment is huge news, with his role set asby 2015.

5. WHY ARE SEATTLES FANS BEING RIDICULED FOR US ATTENDANCE?

Selling over 50,000 tickets for the Cascadia clash with Vancouver on Saturday proves the huge fanbase in the Emerald City. We all know it exists. So why haveUS soccer fans are giving Seattle fans disapproving looks. MLSsoccer.com's Simon Borg breaks it down.

6. SCHMID HAPPY THE PROCESS WORKS, AS MARTINS RED CARD RESCINDED

Staying in Seattle, Obafemi Martins will be available to play in that huge rivalry game against the Whitecaps. The Sounders striker had , much to Sigi Schmids delight.Some people at MLSsoccer.com thought . Your thoughts?

7. HIGUAIN: IM NOT JEALOUS OF GONZALO

Despite the loss to Philadelphia last night, Federico Higuain has been speaking to FIFA.com and told them he doesnt envy his brother Gonzalo. He also spoke about his love for Columbus. I feel very comfortable.by the standard of play here, and I love the club, the stadiums and the fans.

8. USMNT IN JAMAICA, BEWARE OF THE PAST

The USMNT arrived a day early to Jamaica, as the players and Jurgen Klinsmann gave themselves the best possible preparation to get a result in Kingston. ButNot pretty. Steve Davis over at NBC Pro Soccer Talk reminisces. While ESPNahead of Friday's crucial clash in Kingston, with Jones' new found role pivotal to the USA's chances.

9. IS RFK STADIUM US SOCCERS SPIRITUAL HOME?

This is a really interesting read. Garret Quinn from the Washington City Paper went behind the scenes during last Sundays 4-3 win over Germany at RFK. The Stadium is described asand the rickety spiritual home of the USMNT. Any other rival venues people want to throw out there?

10. US U-20S LOSE THREE OUT OF FOUR, HEAD TO WORLD CUP

Tab Ramos US U-20 sideafter three defeats in their last four games. Ramos is expected to announce his U-20 World Cup squad on Friday. DeAndre Yedlin, Luis Gil, Jose Villarreal and Mario Rodriguez werent with the squad in France but are expected to make it in. Who do you think should make the cut?

11. CONVEY SETTLING IN AT TFC, MORE FREEDOM THAN SKC

Bobby Convey has been around MLS for quite some time, and now that hes landed in Toronto, the 30-year-old winger is ready to express himself at TFC. Its similar to playing for San Jose, its much different than playing in Kansas City, Convey told Red Nation Online.and in San Jose I had more freedom to switch sides and do different things.

12. A JOURNEY INTO ITALIAN SOCCERS STRUGGLE WITH RACISM

ESPN.coms senior writerto see if he could interact with any of the alleged racist fans, to find out if racism is really as rife in Italian soccer as some say it is. What he found was quite shocking, as he brilliantly depicts his troubling journey across one of the worlds greatest soccer nations. Bravo.

13. LAUDRUP ON HIS WAY OUT AT SWANSEA?

A developing story at Swansea City this morning, as Danish managerwith the Swans board. The 48-year-old won the League Cup and Swansea finished in the top ten in his first season in charge. But his old club Real Madrid may come calling. Who could say no to that?

14. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THE OLD NYC SUBWAY TOKEN?

Well, if you do, one designer is basing New York city FCs newto ride the Citys subway. The coin with the pentagon shape in the middle will represent the five boroughs of NYC. That will be the theme of the badge. Intrigued? Check out these cool designs from Fast Company Design.

15. SOCCER ON THE TUBE TODAY

Some huge matches coming up today, after the UEFA U-21 European Championships kicked off in Israel last night. Holland versus Germany is a huge grudge match. (2:20pm ET, ESPN U) And before that reigning champs Spain take on Russia (12pm ET, ESPN3.com) While the group stages of the Toulon tournament conclude, with Nigeria vs. Portugal (11:30am ET) and Belgium against Mexico (1:30pm ET) both on BeIN Sport.

MLSsoccer.com Musts

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In one of the most electric moments since the IRS controversy erupted nearly two weeks ago, Lois Lerner defended herself during a brief appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committee is investigating the agency's improper targeting of tea party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status from 2010 to 2012, and Lerner oversees the IRS office that processes applications for that designation.

"I have done nothing wrong," said a stern-looking Lerner, sitting next to three other witnesses and reading from a written statement. "I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations and I have not provided false information to this or any other committee."

Members of Congress have angrily complained that Lerner and other high-ranking IRS officials did not inform lawmakers that conservative groups were targeted, even though legislators asked the IRS multiple times about it after local tea party groups told lawmakers they were being treated unfairly.

Lerner then said she would invoke her constitutional right to avoid incriminating herself.

"One of the basic functions of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent individuals, and that is the protection I am invoking today," she said.

After Oversight committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asked her to reconsider, she said, "I will not answer any questions or testify about the subject matter of this committee's meeting."

Nine minutes after she began speaking, Issa excused Lerner but said she might be recalled, saying he might explore whether she would testify later if granted some immunity.

Lerner left the hearing room through a rear door, escorted by her lawyer and several other men. The men quickly whisked Lerner into an elevator, where several of the men physically pushed back television camera operators who were trying to film them.

Lerner's refusal to answer questions was not a surprise. Her attorney, William W. Taylor III, wrote a letter to the committee this week saying she would do so.

Issa and other members of the committee were not pleased with Lerner's decision to not testify. Even before she spoke, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., warned the witnesses that their refusal to cooperate would result in the eventual appointment of a special prosecutor to examine the case.

"There will be hell to pay if that's the route we choose to go down," Lynch said.

Lerner revealed the agency's targeting two weeks ago and apologized for the actions. Since then, Washington has been awash in questions about why the nonpartisan IRS focused on conservative groups, who instigated it and whether it was politically motivated which many Republicans suspect but participants have rejected.

J. Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general who focuses on taxes, released a report last week that detailed the targeting and called it inappropriate. He has said there is no evidence that the screening was politically motivated or that IRS officials were influenced by others, and blamed poor management by IRS officials for allowing the screening system to be instituted.

Lerner, 62, is an attorney who joined the IRS in 2001. She expressed pride in her 34-year career in federal government, which has included work at the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission, and said she currently oversees 900 workers and a budget approaching $100 million.

She has come under fire from members of both parties, including Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, who has said she should lose her job and criticized top IRS officials for not being more forthcoming.

"We're talking about truth and trust," Cummings said.

At Wednesday's hearing Congress' third since the controversy began the No. 2 Treasury Department official said his agency played no role in the episode.

"There is no indication that Treasury was involved in the inexcusable behavior at the IRS," said Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin.

Wolin told the committee that it was "absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable" that the IRS subjected tea party and other conservative groups seeking non-profit status to extra scrutiny from 2010 to 2012.

He said George told him last year "that he had undertaken an audit of the IRS's review of tax-exempt applications."

"I told him that he should follow the facts wherever they lead. I told him that our job is to stay out of the way and let him do his work," Wolin said.

Issa and other members of the committee complained repeatedly Wednesday that IRS officials had ample opportunity to tell Congress earlier about the targeting but didn't do so. Issa said his committee has privately interviewed another IRS official, Holly Paz, who said the IRS conducted an internal investigation that reached similar conclusions to George's report, but a year earlier.

"Think about it. For more than a year, the IRS knew it had inappropriately targeted groups of Americans based on their political beliefs, without mentioning it" to Congress, Issa said.

While the targeting began in early 2010, Lerner learned of it in June 2011 and ordered that the criteria be changed, according to George's report.

In early May 2012, Steven Miller, who was deputy commissioner, was told by staff that conservative groups were being inappropriately targeted, George's report said.Miller later became acting commissioner but has been ousted by President Barack Obama in the wake of the disclosures.

Staff of the Oversight Committee questioned Lerner and other IRS officials last year after receiving complaints from Ohio tea party groups that they were being mistreated by the IRS. In responses to the committee, Lerner didn't mention that tea party groups had ever been targeted, according to documents. Her responses included 45-page letters in May 2012 to Issa and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

Lerner also met twice in early 2012 with staff from the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee to discuss the issue, according to a timeline constructed by committee staff. The timeline said she didn't mention at either meeting that conservative groups had been targeted.

Also coming under fire Wednesday for not telling Congress about the targeting was Douglas Shulman, who was IRS commissioner from 2008 until last November, while the screening was occurring. Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush.

On Tuesday, Shulman told the Senate Finance Committee that he learned in the spring of 2012 about his agency's targeting of conservatives and George's probe. He said he didn't tell lawmakers or officials at Treasury of which the IRS is part because he only had sketchy information about the situation, was told it was being handled and believed it proper to let George's office conduct its investigation.

"When you learned that there was a list, you did nothing," said Lynch, the Massachusetts congressman.

The drug, BMN673, is part of a new class known as PARP inhibitors.

PARP, or poly ADP ribose polymerase, is an enzyme used by the body to repair broken DNA that can also be used by cancer cells to survive. By blocking PARP, drugmakers hope to prevent cancer cells from spreading.

Mutations in the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, which normally function by interacting with damaged DNA to help repair it, can increase a woman's risk of breast cancer 60 percent to 80 percent. The mutations are also associated with a higher risk of ovarian cancer.

BioMarin, which makes drugs for rare diseases, said it plans to begin a pivotal trial in patients with metastatic breast cancer in the fourth quarter of this year.

The data, presented at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, showed that 11 out of 25 evaluated ovarian cancer patients had tumor shrinkage of at least 30 percent.

A health benefit was observed in 82 percent of those patients, the company said.

In the 18 BRCA breast cancer patients, seven had tumor shrinkage and 12 patients had a clinical benefit. All signs of the cancer disappeared in one patient.

Patients whose cancer is because of defects in the BRCA-gene "have no targeted treatment options ... PARP inhibitors offer that potential in BRCA-related cancers," Johann de Bono, professor of experimental cancer medicine at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, said in a statement.

The researchers said BMN673 was generally well-tolerated. Up to 20 percent of patients with chronic dosing experienced a decrease in the ability of bone marrow to produce blood cells. Fatigue, nausea and hair loss were observed in 20 percent to 30 percent of patients.

(Reporting By Deena Beasley; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

JUST SAY NO: All eight resolutions submitted by shareholders of Exxon Mobil Corp. were defeated at the company's annual meeting. The Exxon board had recommended "No" votes.

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION VOTE: By a preliminary count, 19.8 percent of shares were cast in favor of explicitly prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. That's about the same support the measure got the previous two years.

CLIMATE AND GAS: A call to set goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from using Exxon products got 26.8 percent, also similar to the last two years. A proposal for the company to report on its natural gas production methods got 30.2 percent, up slightly from the last two years.

Townley was a violent right-wing militant who grew up in Chile in the 1960s and spread propaganda against Neruda's great friend, Marxist President Salvador Allende, in early 1973. But experts said Townley was in Florida at the time of Neruda's death on Sept. 23, 1973, just 12 days after Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military coup ousted Allende. And contrary to the self-serving story put out by Pinochet's spy chief, Townley was never a CIA agent, they said.

There's a long paper trail including a Florida driver's license, a new U.S. passport and salary receipts from a garage where Townley worked as a mechanic that proves he was in Florida in September 1973, said John Dinges, a journalist who covered Chile for The Washington Post and wrote about Townley in two books, "The Condor Years" and "Assassination on Embassy Row."

Peter Kornbluh, the author of "The Pinochet File, a Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability," also discounted the idea that Townley was worth looking into.

"We all want to see this case solved, but false leads are not going to bring us any closer to arriving at the truth of Pablo Neruda's very untimely death," Kornbluh said.

Both spoke with The Associated Press in phone interviews from the United States on Monday.

Neruda had been suffering from cancer and the disease was listed as the official cause of his death, but the poet's driver and others close to him have long suspected foul play.

Nearly 40 years later, Judge Mario Carroza is formally investigating the cause of death of the Nobel Prize-winning poet, who would have been one of Pinochet's most forceful critics if he had escaped Chile. His body has been disinterred for chemical tests, and Carroza is seeking any evidence available.

A key witness has been Dr. Sergio Draper, who attended Neruda at the hospital. Draper said in the 1970s that he was at Neruda's side when he died. But Draper recently told the judge a different story that a "Dr. Price" took over Neruda's care just before he died, and disappeared shortly thereafter.

The judge ordered a police sketch based on Draper's recollections to help identify this mysterious figure, and the AP obtained a copy of it Monday. Police notes below the black-and-white sketch describe the subject as about 28 years old, with blue eyes, white skin and short blond hair.

Draper treated both Neruda and former President Eduardo Frei Montalva, another Pinochet critic who died under suspicious circumstances while hospitalized. He has long denied any foul play in either death, and publicly insisted that Neruda was brought to the hospital near death from metastatic cancer.

Communist Party attorney Eduardo Contreras, who pushed for the Neruda investigation and has access to the closed-door testimony, told the AP that Draper's description of "Dr. Price" could match either Townley or Harmutt Hopp. He said he wants Interpol to authoritatively determine where Townley was in September 1973.

"During the dictatorship many people entered and left Chile without their movements being registered," Contreras said.

Unlike Townley, who had light brown hair, Hopp was a doctor, and blond. Hopp was sentenced in absentia in January to five years in prison for sexually abusing minors at Colonia Dignidad, a compound led by a former Nazi that doubled as one of Pinochet's torture centers. But Hopp remains free after fleeing to Germany, which refused Chile's extradition request.

Townley, who joined Chile's DINA intelligence agency in June 1974, has said he acted on the orders of Pinochet's spy chief, Manuel Contreras, when he planted bombs that killed critics of the dictatorship, including Gen. Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires and Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington.

Eduardo Contreras, who is not related to the ex-spy chief, repeated the often-told story that Townley was a "double-agent" who worked for the CIA as well as DINA. But both Dinges and Kornbluh said that the CIA twice turned down Townley's efforts to join the agency and that Pinochet's spy chief sought to divert culpability for his crimes by putting out the false story that the CIA had planted Townley inside Chile's secret police.

"This is a story that Manuel Contreras has been putting out consistently since the death of Letelier: that Townley was not working for DINA but for the CIA. And the left falls into the trap again and again, because they want to throw mud at the CIA," Dinges said.

Townley testified in the United States against Manuel Contreras, who is serving multiple life sentences for kidnappings and murders during the 1973-90 Pinochet dictatorship. Townley himself served a six-year sentence in the U.S. for the Letelier bombing and then was put into the witness protection program.

U.S. federal investigations showed that Townley fled Chile months before the coup because he feared arrest for murdering a homeless man who got in the way of an anti-Allende operation. Dinges said Townley didn't return to Chile until Oct. 18, 1973, carrying the same false passport that he would later use to enter Argentina and kill Prats.

___

Associated Press writer Marianela Jarroud reported this story in Santiago and Michael Warren reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Zachary Quinto has transitioned swiftly from a television villain into an unlikely action film star in J.J Abrams' rebooted "Star Trek" franchise, playing the series' most recognizable half-Vulcan, Spock.

The 35-year-old actor, who gained fame as super-villain Sylar in sci-fi television series "Heroes," will reprise his role as the pointy-eared first officer of the starship Enterprise in "Star Trek Into Darkness," which will be released in theaters on Friday.

The actor spoke to Reuters about the challenges of playing Spock and why he chose to go public about being gay.

Q: "Star Trek Into Darkness" has more action, set pieces and destinations than the 2009 reboot. Is that right?

A: You're right. It's a larger scale version of the "Star Trek" story. The first one was about re-conceiving people's perceptions of "Star Trek," and trying to infuse it with new energy. The self-contained and more intimate nature of that film made sense. Now, people are more familiar with us as these characters so this movie builds on that and expands on it.

Q: What is Spock struggling with in this film?

A: I think he's learning how to be accountable and responsible to the people he loves and cares about. He is learning to embody and live the qualities of what it means to be a friend and what it means to be responsible to other people emotionally, because that's not the place from which he leads. He needs to learn how to integrate that part of himself and honor the feelings he has for the people he loves.

Q: What do you learn from Spock on a personal level?

A: I have an inherent understanding to his nature, which is one of duality - the head versus the heart. That is certainly something I can relate to. As someone who has been considered pretty intellectual and wordy, I also have a deep well of emotional life. I understand what it means to be in constant relationship to both of those aspects of myself.

Q: Which of Spock's qualities do you aspire for yourself?

A: The equanimity with which he deals with every situation in front of him, and the thoughtfulness and care he gives to measure his reactions. Sometimes I can be a little extreme in my reaction to something. I respect his reservedness and pensive consideration, which is an aspect of me but outweighed by my instinctual or impulsive reactions to things sometimes.

Q: In this film you're jumping into volcanoes and off of barges. You're fighting, running, chasing. Did you ever think of yourself as an action star?

A: I can't say I ever planned on that. But I will say I really thrived in that environment. I enjoyed those specific challenges and the relentlessness of it. I don't necessarily know I want every movie to be that way, but I wouldn't mind revisiting that again at some point down the line.

Q: How close are you with the cast?

A: We are very, very good friends in real life. When the first movie happened, it was a life changing experience for all of us. We were going through it at the same time and relied on each other for support and for the excitement of that time. That energy is starting to kick back up again. We look forward to spending time together on these extended periods where we're traveling around the world.

Q: You used your "Star Trek" clout to form a production company, Before the Door Pictures, whose first film, 2011's "Margin Call," was nominated for a best screenplay Oscar. Did that change things for you?

A: I think "Margin Call" did similar things for my production company that "Star Trek" did for me as an actor. The way that film was received really did authenticate my company and allowed us more access and more connections than we might have had otherwise.

Q: In between the two "Star Trek" films, you made some headlines when you said you were gay. Was coming out a big deal?

A: It was obviously a very big deal. It wasn't about formality or stopping rumors because I don't really pay attention to rumors in the first place. It was a very specific move that I made because there was a rash of teen suicides at the time (the victims were gay).

Q: How did that relate to you?

A: I felt it incumbent upon me to do something about that if it was in my power, which is was. So for me that was a very specific and emotional time. I felt very grateful for the response that it generated and the work on behalf of the LGBT community it has allowed me to do subsequently.

Q: Some actors feel that by coming out it could impact the roles they get to play. Did you feel it hindered your career?

A: Not one bit.

(Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy, Patricia Reaney and Vicki Allen)

[More from BGR: ]

This article was

The weeklong trip will take him to Singapore and then to Brussels. Hagel plans to deliver a speech to a national security conference in Singapore, bringing allies up to date about the Pentagon's heightened focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

Former defense chief Leon Panetta spoke to the conference last year, describing plans to assign 60 percent of the Navy's fleet to the Pacific even as he acknowledged ongoing budget problems. It's now up to Hagel to reaffirm that commitment, despite the continuing U.S. budget crisis.

Congress has been unable to agree on any plan to avoid automatic budget cuts that will slash about $487 billion in defense spending over 10 years. Already this year, the military services have had to curtail flight and combat training, ground some Air Force squadrons and delay or cancel some ship deployments.

And the Pentagon has announced it will furlough about 680,000 civilian employees for up to 11 days through the end of the fiscal year, allowing only limited exceptions for the services to avoid or reduce the unpaid days off.

Hagel told troops they will all have to do more with less, and he said the Pentagon must look at personnel costs as it looks to meet budget cuts. Hagel stood in front of an F-22 Raptor fighter jet inside an airport hangar as he spoke to about 200 troops from across the services.

The conference will be a comfortable reunion for Hagel. The Republican former senator from Nebraska was a founder of the Shangri-La Dialogue conference 11 years ago and has spoken there several times.

North Korea will be a focus of the conference, as will Hagel's private meetings with defense leaders from countries in the region. Over the last several months, Pyongyang has ratcheted up tensions in the region with increasingly hostile rhetoric and threats, even against the U.S.

Vance passed away at his Oakland, California, home on Sunday, according to the statement at www.jackvance.com, a site maintained by his friends and family.

He won the Hugo award for his science fiction book "The Dragon Masters" in 1963 and again in 1967 for "The Last Castle." The Hugo is given for excellence in the fields of science fiction and fantasy.

"The Dragon Masters" features medieval-style combat and describes humans who war with aliens, even as they rely on certain lizard-like aliens they took captive.

"The Last Castle" takes place on a fictional planet Earth where humans live like aristocrats in high-tech redoubts while aliens attend their needs, until a race of those aliens stages a violent revolt.

Vance, who wrote over 60 books, also authored mystery novels under his full name, John Holbrook Vance, and three titles under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, according to his website.

In 1974, the movie "Bad Ronald," which was based on a story by Vance about a teenager who accidentally kills a girl and conspires with his mother to hide in their house, was broadcast on television.

Pulitzer-prize winning author Michael Chabon in a 2009 New York Times magazine article about Vance called him "the most painful case of all the writers I love who I feel don't get the credit they deserve."

Vance was born in San Francisco and was raised on his maternal grandparents ranch in Northern California after his parents separated. After college, he worked at a naval shipyard in Hawaii but left shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, according to his website.

He later served in the U.S. Merchant Marine and saw some of his earliest work published in pulp magazines.

A lifelong lover of music, Vance played the cornet, ukulele and harmonica and had an affection for jazz music.

He was legally blind since the 1980s but continued to write with the help of special computer software.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Paul Simao)

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in Tuesday's paper that Chinese cyberthieves have "compromised" mockups that form the "backbone" of some of the U.S. military's most important and high-tech defense technology, and that it could signal a copycat advancement of China's arms, while aiming to "weaken the U.S. military advantage" down the road. The Chinese government, as usual with these attacks — even when they seemto the People's Liberation Army — are distancing themselves from the pervasive, and this time very internationally unsound, hacking. "The Defense Science Board, a senior advisory group made up of government and civilian experts, did not accuse the Chinese of stealing the designs. But senior military and industry officials with knowledge of the breaches said the vast majority were part of a widening Chinese campaign of espionage against U.S. defense contractors and government agencies," the Post reports.

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The new breach comes as a newly disclosed part of a classified Defense Science Board report. Back in January, the board , warning of possible attacks on U.S. defense systems as well as the Defense Department's lack of preparation and protection. And if you look back in 2005, the same group warned U.S. defense officials against buying microchips from China because of trojan horses and spyware — advice the Pentagon eventually took, . But in just the last few months, Chinese hackers have gotten toand . How have the Pentagon's own cybersecurity experts been so far ahead of the Pentagon's actual cybersecurity if China is stealing our war plans — or at least our warplanes? And is there any way to stop it?

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Obama has said that the U.S. military would focus on Asia and the Pacific in the coming year — he called it a "vast and complex undertaking"on Thursday. "We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy," Obama saidthis year. Except it may be too late for wonder and speeches; Nakashima reports the Chinese cyberspies already have the basic outlines for the following:

The designs included those for the advanced Patriot missile system, known as PAC-3; an Army system for shooting down ballistic missiles, known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD; and the Navy’s Aegis ballistic-missile defense system.

Also identified in the report are vital combat aircraft and ships, including the F/A-18 fighter jet, the V-22 Osprey, the Black Hawk helicopter and the Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship, which is designed to patrol waters close to shore. Also on the list is the most expensive weapons system ever built — the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is on track to cost about $1.4 trillion.

So while that big Mandiant report from February — the one linking a nondescript building all the way to the PLA and back to critical U.S. infrastructure, the one the Pentagon outrighton the Chinese government — might be scary, this is a cyber race to weapons building. And it's got implications for future combat: "You've seen significant improvements in Chinese military capabilities through their willingness to spend, their acquisitions of advanced Russian weapons, and from their cyber-espionage campaign," James A. Lewis, a cyber-policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, .

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, a group headed up by two ex-Obama administration officials (Dennis Blair and Jon Huntsman), hacking costs the U.S. some $300 billion per year. And you know what? China is reportedly responsible for a full 70 percent of that when it comes to corporate IP and theft. Butover the weekend added an important point of emphasis: "While there are concerns about military-related incursions, the focus of most public discussion surrounds hacking into business and industry." Behind the scenes, then, the Pentagon is doing more than it's saying — and building up a more sophisticated cyber battle plan of our own:has an in-depth report today on the Pentagon's so-called Plan X, "a program that is specifically working towards building the technology infrastructure that would allow cyber offense to move from the world we're in today," as Darpa's director put it.

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Whether videogame-style protections and clandestine preparations will bail out the Pentagon the next time around, well, we may never know. But we know the U.S. isn't the only victim of military-grade cyber espionage: Australian media reported over the American long weekened that the Chinese had hacked blueprints of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's new headquarters. The "blueprints included floor plans and the locations of communications cabling, servers and security systems," . So, it wouldn't be that hard to imagine China creating U.S. weapons in a building designed by Australia's ASIO, now would it?

Obama is expected to discuss the Chinese hacks — and, which is increasingly looking more like war games than hobby horse — with Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet next month in California. There might have to beif we want to keep our planes from taking off over Chinese skies.