Russians overreacting on the basis of overwrought reports on U.S. policy
International frictions over space policy took a rising turn this week, with Russian President Vladimir Putin accusing unnamed countries — clearly meaning the United States and perhaps Israel — of “seeking to untie their hands in order to take weapons to outer space, including nuclear [...]

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With US President George W Bush in essence rendered to lame-duck status and Republican Party stalwarts such as Donald Rumsfeld missing in action, China has a unique opportunity to accelerate its path toward becoming the world’s second superpower.
Link to this article.

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The First World war lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11.11am on 11 November 1918. It claimed an estimated 10 million lives. It caused the disintegration of four empires (Austro-Hungarian, Russian, German and Ottoman), and, of course, it dramatically changed the political and social fabric of Europe. The conflicts between the Allied Powers (Britain and [...]

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Set in the not-so-distant future, Jaden’s novel focuses on what could happen in the next decade. On Jan. 24, 2012, the world changes forever. After a massive attack on Iranian nuclear/chemical facilities in October 2006 and the bombing of Turkey’s military in December, the leaders of China orchestrate a secret world coalition against the United [...]

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PRAGUE, November 9, 2006 (RFE/RL) — Russian media today are predicting a chill in U.S.-Russia ties following the results of the November 7 U.S. elections, which appeared to hand both chambers of Congress to the opposition Democrats and have led to the surprise resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Many Russian newspapers predict the [...]

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Faced with poor job prospects, high taxes and an intrusive bureaucracy, more and more Germans are choosing to emigrate. Most of those who leave, though, are highly qualified — which could mean devastating economic consequences.
Link to Spiegel article.

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AMSTERDAM — In the first nine months of this year, almost 100,000 people left the Netherlands to settle elsewhere, 12,000 more than the same period last year.
About half of the emigrants were Dutch natives, the national statistics office CBS said on Friday.
Link to Expatica article.

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Addressing the rising tide of British anti-Semitism, the British columnist Nick Cohen recently wrote, “Anti-Semitism isn’t a local side effect of a dirty war over a patch of land smaller than Wales. It’s everywhere, from Malaysia to Morocco, and it has arrived here. If you challenge liberal orthodoxy, your argument cannot be debated on its [...]

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The war in Lebanon and rockets from Gaza have reinforced a great mood swing. People no longer seem to want a peace deal
The Israeli artillery fire that claimed 18 civilian lives in Beit Hanoun this week is the worst single attack in Gaza for six years. Whether it will prompt an end to Hamas’s [...]

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As Secretary of Defense-designate Robert Gates prepares for his confirmation hearings, he will need to address one of the most serious but underappreciated security threats of the post-September 11 era: the burgeoning threat from Iran’s ballistic-missile arsenal, which is growing much more lethal thanks to considerable assistance from North Korea. Today, Iran has ballistic missiles [...]

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France carried out a first test on its new M-51 ballistic missile which is to carry submarine-based nuclear weapons, the Defence Ministry said. The unarmed missile was fired over the Bay of Biscay from a launch test centre on France’s southern Atlantic coast. The M51, with a range of some 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles), is [...]

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Steyn’s term, “Eurabia,” suggests the future he foresees for a continent flirting with a “demographic death spiral” and brooding in the lounge of that “old ennui.” Rotterdam, where the Muslim population is 40%, may presage the shape of things by 2050 — or sooner if “white-flight” out of “Eutopia” accelerates. In such an environment, “Pre-modern [...]

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LONDON (Reuters) - Muslim extremists are plotting at least 30 major terrorist attacks in Britain and the threats could involve chemical and nuclear devices, a British spy chief said.
Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of domestic spy agency MI5, said young British Muslims were being groomed to become suicide bombers and her agents were tracking some 1,600 suspects, [...]

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