Seemingly unrelated events of last week suggest considerable trouble ahead for U.S. vital interests. As President Bush puts the finishing touches on his plans for a new strategy for waging the war for the Free World, he had best make sure he focuses not only on Iraq and Iran (as recommended in this space last [...]

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On May 1, 2004, ten new countries,[1] with a com­bined population of 74 million, became members of the European Union, bringing the total E.U. popula­tion to 454 million. This means that the E.U. now has a population more than 50 percent larger than that of the United States. And with Romania and Bulgaria joining on [...]

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Middle East Online From the worsening of the Middle East to the worsening in the horn of Africa; from the potential of an Israeli-American attack on Iran to the overarching anarchy from a lack of global leaders with vision and influence, Patrick Seale offers a dire look at the problems in the New Year.
Although peering [...]

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The Japanese daily Sankei reported that experts at several government organizations concluded it would take at least three to five years to make a prototype weapon.
The experts also estimated that the project would cost about $1.68 billion to $2.52 billion and require the efforts of several hundred engineers, according to Sankei.
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WASHINGTON - The Iraq Survey Group is calling for open negotiations with Syria, but new reports show that Damascus is up to no good. Indeed, while world attention is rightly focused on the nuclear capabilities of Iran and North Korea, Syria has been quietly — but quickly — advancing its own secret nuclear program.
The first [...]

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SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea on Friday termed
North Korea a grave threat, a further sign of the deepening chill in relations between the two since Pyongyang’s nuclear test nearly three months ago.
A defense white paper used some of the harshest language to describe its communist neighbor since the South tried to set aside decades of [...]

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WARSAW (AFP) - The dispute between Belarus and Moscow over natural gas prices threatens the energy security of Poland and the rest of Europe, an official at the Polish foreign ministry has said.
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“This problem poses a threat to us and this is why we have had heated debate in the past few months about Polish-Russian [...]

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China’s defence spending is expected to reach Rmb283.8bn ($36.4bn) this year, up nearly 15 per cent from last year, according to rarely released government data that are likely to heighten concerns over Beijing’s military build-up.
The boost in funds, which many experts argue greatly underestimates actual military expenditures, is aimed at modernising the 2.3m-strong People’s Liberation [...]

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Taiwan has one of Asia’s few functioning democracies and one of its strongest economies. But for the island’s 23 million people, the future is overshadowed by an unresolved dispute with China.
China sees the island as a breakaway province which should be reunified, by force if necessary. Hundreds of Chinese missiles now aim across the Taiwan [...]

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BEIJING, Dec. 29 — China warned Friday that the military landscape in northeast Asia is getting “more complicated and serious” because of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and tighter defense cooperation between Japan and the United States.
The Chinese views on regional security, articulated in a government white paper on national defense, provided a rare glimpse [...]

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After defeating fascists and communists, can the West now defeat the Islamists?
On the face of it, its military preponderance makes victory seem inevitable. Even if Tehran acquires a nuclear weapon, Islamists have nothing like the military machine the Axis deployed in World war II, nor the Soviet Union during the cold war. What do the [...]

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A commentary on the Foreign Policy in Focus Web site by US-based journalist Ian Williams says that “China’s arguments against Taiwanese self-determination are not particularly legal or ethical.”
Questioning Beijing’s arguments of China having a billion people and a huge economy, Williams said that the fact that China has more than 900 missiles pointing at Taiwan [...]

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North Korea may have gotten all the attention, but all the nuclear weapon states were busy flight-testing ballistic missiles for their nuclear weapons during 2006. According to a preliminary count, eight countries launched more than 26 ballistic missiles of 23 types in 24 different events.
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Big oil has a long history of having assets appropriated by hostile governments. Yet no one has been quite prepared for the land grab by Gazprom of a 50% stake in the Sakhalin-2 project.
This will come as a nasty blow to all overseas investors in President Putin’s Russia and emphasises the vulnerability of European energy [...]

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Watch a GIF animation of smoke released by a hypothetical nuclear war between Pakistan and India. Note: An optical density of 0.1 means 90 percent of the light gets through.
Courtesy Alan Robock, Rutgers University
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TEL AVIV – Members of Hamas are debating whether to carry out attacks against the United States and may hit American targets if the U.S. continues to support Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ call for new elections, Hamas leaders told WND in a series of interviews.
“There is no doubt that Abu Mazen (Abbas) was encouraged [...]

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While negotiators from China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the United States were struggling to produce progress in North Korean nuclear talks, South Korean President Roh was assigning blame for the talks’ delays.
In a speech to advisors Thursday, Mr. Roh suggested that the U.S. State Department and Treasury Department could be seen as having “played [...]

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Israeli media reported Friday that Syria has taken a leaf out of the Hizb’allah war manual and is laying the groundwork to draw Israel into a war of attrition.
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Some think that France will be the first European country in modern times to be taken over by Muslims due to her very large, violent immigrant population and effeminate native populace. Others point to the Netherlands, from which native Dutch people are beginning to flee in the face of hostile Islamism among the immigrants [...]

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Iranian president: Our scienists have reached zenith, accessed nuclear fuel cycle.
Iran is now a “nuclear power,” its President, Mahmoud Ahamdinejad, delcared Wednesday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
During a speech delivered in the Western Iranian province of Javanroud, Ahmadinejad said: ” The Islamic Republic of Iran is now a nuclear power, thanks to [...]

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Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday blasted Western leaders for criticizing President Vladimir Putin to score points at home and contain Russian power.
Speaking at his traditional, end-of-the-year news conference, Lavrov stressed that Russia’s resurgence to the status of global player would continue and defended Russian policy in the former Soviet Union.
“We very often take into [...]

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