Shinzo Abe took the helm from Junichiro Koizumi in September as Japanese prime minister during a period of chilling relations with Beijing and Seoul, due to China and South Korea’s memory of brutal Japanese aggression in the region during the decades leading up to Hiroshima. Koizumi’s official visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors several [...]

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CHICAGO – It is one of the best-known symbols of the Atomic Age: a simple clock with only the last quadrant marked, whose hands are moved forward toward midnight (indicating nuclear disaster) or back (meaning global harmony).
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There are two certainties in today’s Russia under Vladimir Putin’s government: the country’s economy will likely implode before long, and a major confrontation with the United States and Europe may occur even sooner.
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In the longer term, however, the North Korean test could prove an important nail in the coffin of America’s five-decade dominance of Asian security issues. The nuclear test shakes Japanese and South Korean faith, which has already eroded over the past several years, in the basic Cold war bargain and will transform their attitudes about [...]

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HONG KONG China will seek uranium from nations including Canada, South Africa, Namibia and Kazakhstan to help meet its target of generating more electricity from reactors, an official from the state nuclear power company said Monday.
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CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN AIR FORCE STATION, Colo. — Dr. Strangelove would have a heart attack: America’s vaunted underground war room deep inside this granite mountain is being retired. Not only that, but Russian military men have been inside the place.
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With its nuclear weapons test confirmed by U.S. and Russian intelligence, North Korea can now claim to be the ninth nuclear-armed state. That could spur other states in Asia and the Middle East to join the club. Who will be No. 10? The List takes a look at some of the frontrunners.
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The question I was asked to address is whether the U.S.–ROK alliance is at risk. The short answer is “yes,” but the reasons why and the ensuing prescriptions are far from simple. Thus, for the sake of efficiency and clarity, I will begin with my conclusion and then pro­vide an explanation: The maintenance of a [...]

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The United States has detected fresh signs that North Korea may be preparing for a second nuclear test, according to U.S. media reports Monday.
U.S spy satellites have detected “suspicious vehicle movements” that could be preparations for another test near the site where North Korea conducted its first underground nuclear explosion test on Oct. 9, [...]

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When North Korea announced its first successful nuclear test this week, confirmation came swiftly from monitoring centers around the world. In a PopularMechanics.com exclusive, we look at nuclear detection technology and find out just how tough it is to hide a weapons blast.
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In recent years, group protests in China have risen at a rate of at least 17% a year in response to land expropriation disputes, election embezzlement, state-owned enterprise reforms, environmental pollution, and denial of justice. Official records for 2005 put the number of protests involving more than 15 people at 87,000—an average of 241 group [...]

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‘Because God’s punishment would fall on America in the month of Ramadan’
The head of the Islamabad-based al-Quds Center reported receiving an audio message from Mullah Masoom Afghani urging U.S. Muslims to get out of the country “because God’s punishment would fall on America in the month of Ramadan.”
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DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report Tehran has committed to training Hamas’ rapid deployment force of 6,500 men in Hizballah combat tactics, with the accent on missiles, especially the anti-tank variety which were used with devastating effect against Israeli tanks in the Lebanon War. The force will be sent over in batches for six-week courses at [...]

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But another threat, more likely and more dangerous, looms: Pyongyang’s test could encourage “nearnuclear” proliferation — a world in which states master key technologies that are ostensibly for harmless energy-related purposes but can be quickly adapted for deadly, offensive ends.
Governments aspiring to join the small but growing club of nuclear states don’t need to consider [...]

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WASHINGTON — In the wake of a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution against North Korea related to its purported nuclear test last week, Israel is warning of the prospect of nuclear proliferation to terrorists.
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AUSTRALIA could start planning to build its first nuclear power station within ten years, Industry and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane says.
Mr Macfarlane’s prediction comes after Prime Minister John Howard yesterday gave his strongest support yet for the introduction of nuclear power in Australia.

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But there’s another view. “The Middle East’s experience is the culmination of long-existing indigenous trends, passions, and patterns of behavior, first and foremost the region’s millenarian imperial tradition,” writes Efraim Karsh, a British scholar, in “Islamic Imperialism,” a provocative and persuasive book. “External influences, however potent, have played only a secondary role, [...]

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Why Do Latin Democrats Support Him?
It’s election day for Hugo Chávez — not in Venezuela but at the United Nations General Assembly. Today a vote is due on his government’s bid for a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council. Chávez has spent most of this year campaigning for the job, traveling the [...]

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Nonetheless, what’s done is done (the North Korea nuclear test), and though we may protest and bluster, there is very little the U.S. can do to stop it from proceeding. Rather than making a show of our weakness, we would do well to calm down. After all, this was not unexpected; the [...]

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