ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates: A nuclear-armed Iran could shift the balance of power in the energy-rich Persian Gulf, sparking a regional arms race and potentially upending the strong economies in the region, former Singapore leader Lee Kuan Yew said here Tuesday.
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Concern focuses on non-traditional agents like students, businessmen.
WASHINGTON - University professor Gao Zhan, a human rights activist once celebrated in Washington, is today in U.S. custody, convicted of selling sensitive U.S. technology to China — microprocessors that could be used in missiles.
Gao’s activities are part of what senior U.S. officials say is an intensified campaign [...]

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Three war clouds hang over the Middle East. The first represents the possibility of American or Israeli military action against Iran’s nuclear installations. The second represents the threat of a fresh civil war in Lebanon. The third points to the growing threat of military clash between Israel and Syria.
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Rethinking the Egypt-Israel “Peace” Treaty
by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
November 21, 2006
[NY Sun title: "Time To Recognize Failure Of Israel-Egypt Treaty"]
Ninety-two percent of respondents in a recent poll of one thousand Egyptians over 18 years of age called Israel an enemy state. In contrast, a meager 2% saw Israel as “a friend to Egypt.”
These hostile sentiments [...]

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HANOI: Russia and Vietnam agreed Monday to step up economic cooperation and work together to combat terrorism during a visit by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, meant to fortify ties between the two Cold war allies.
Russia could extend cooperation in the energy sector to include nuclear power, Putin said.
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North Korea may be a failed economic and political state based on a Stalinist model, but it has emerged as a strategic player in East Asia as a result of its nuclear policy.
The United States, meanwhile, is a major power by all measures of power but is forced to play a weak hand.
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Russia is going ahead with a contract to deliver sophisticated air defense systems to Iran, a Russian Defense Ministry official said Nov. 17, despite appeals from Washington to reconsider.
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On Sunday, the British press exploded with reports about the poisoning in London of KGB defector Colonel Alexander Litvinenko (pictured above, circa 2002), who had been in the process of investigating the murder of Anna Politkovskaya to see whether the KGB (now called the FSB) was involved. The Associated Press reported that “Toxicologist Dr. John [...]

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MOSCOW — Low domestic birthrates and rising immigration from the former Soviet republics are producing explosive growth in Russia’s Muslim community, which is on a track to account for more than half the population by midcentury.
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Under almost 13 years of Liberal rule, Canada’s China policy had become increasingly obsequious.
Human rights violations in China were winked at. China’s bad behaviour internationally was ignored and even the revelation by CSIS of 1,000 Chinese spies in Canada was swept under the rug.
If the idea was that being China’s moral apologist would help Canadian [...]

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But China now suspects that Indian negotiators have read its mind — in particular, its keenness to settle the border dispute speedily — and are trying to use the situation to their advantage. “India wants to take advantage of this opportunity… but its intention of occupying more areas will fail… If India feels it can [...]

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