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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