The move suggests no letup in the dispute with the West. One missile could hit U.S. bases in the gulf.
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran conducted missile tests yesterday as its leadership stepped up warnings of a possible military confrontation with the United States.
The drum-beating suggested Iran does not intend to back down in its standoff with [...]

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Intelligence estimates vary about how long it could take Teheran to produce a nuclear warhead. But defence officials monitoring the growing co-operation between North Korea and Iran believe the Iranians could be in a position to test fire a low-grade device - less than half a kiloton - within 12 months.
North Korea is helping Iran [...]

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The unavoidable and awesome fact confronting the world today is that before the decade or even the year is out, the U.S. and Russia may be at war. On the U.S. estimate of Russian power depends—or should depend—the extent to which the U.S. will build up its own strength.
Russian strength is a question mark, but [...]

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China has confirmed it carried out a test that destroyed a satellite, in a move that caused international alarm.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said a test had been carried out but insisted China was committed to the “peaceful development of outer space”.
The US backed reports last week that China had used a ground-based medium-range ballistic [...]

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January 23, 2007: Saudia Arabia and Iran are getting ready for war with each other. And it’s not over oil or ethnicity, as much as it is over theology. Saudi Arabia, by dint of its vast oil wealth and role as protector of Islami’s holiest places, sees itself as the leader of the Moslem world. [...]

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (Yonhap) — Some 54 percent of the people around the world disapprove of U.S. handling of North Korea’s nuclear program, according to a sweeping survey of 25 countries released Tuesday.
Disapproval counted for a majority in South Korea, China and Russia, all members of the six-party talks aimed at resolving the nuclear issue, [...]

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Local air defense specialists yesterday dismissed reports that China’s J-10 jet fighters — the latest major aircraft to be deployed by the Chinese air force — poses a threat to Taiwan.
“Based on our analysis of the aircraft’s background and [our knowledge] of the training of Taiwanese and Chinese pilots,” the J-10 is not a [...]

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China’s Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) unveiled the latest addition to its rapidly modernizing air force on 5 January with the first public flight of Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation’s Jian-10 fighter.
The flight has once again drawn unwanted attention to the alleged role of Israeli companies in the fabrication and arming of the plane, jeopardizing the recently [...]

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My former State Department colleague, a very able man, Burns, yesterday generally gave the impression that all is reasonably well with the world. There are specific challenges; Israel-Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, a very serious challenge: Iran; that it was surprising that Iran didn’t accept the arrangement for electric power only from nuclear material; that the UN [...]

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We are in the midst of a new space race. This race, unlike the last, is one that usually is ignored — or derided — by the news media. Unlike the last, this one is deadly serious. It involves much higher stakes than putting a man on the moon. We can only pray that our [...]

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On Jan. 11, China used a “kinetic kill vehicle” to destroy one of its own weather satellites, 500 miles above the Earth’s surface. The implications of this action are enormous, because it shows that the Chinese are serious about fighting - and winning - a space war. The implications for America are ominous: Our own [...]

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Moscow, Russia - Since the beginning of Russian economic reforms 15 years ago, liberal scholars and experts inside and outside Russia have talked about a democratic polity, rule of law, liberal political freedoms and civic liberties as necessary prerequisites for stable economic development.
But after fifteen years the country can’t boast about achieving any of these [...]

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Some very worrisome news came out of China this Saturday — but it got a little more than a blip in the U.S. press.
At a high-level financial conference this past weekend, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said, “China would actively explore and expand the channels and methods for using [its] foreign exchange reserves.”
Considering that the bulk [...]

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By George Friedman
Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine, citing U.S. intelligence sources, has reported that China has successfully tested an anti-satellite (ASAT) system. According to the report, which U.S. officials later confirmed, a satellite was launched, intercepted and destroyed a Feng Yun 1C weather satellite, also belonging to China, on Jan. 11. The weather satellite [...]

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