KINMEN, Taiwan, Feb 21 (Reuters) - It’s been decades since artillery shells landed on this strategic frontline island at the height of the China-Taiwan civil war, but now a new battle rages as garbage from the Chinese mainland washes up on Kinmen’s shore.
Bottles, plastic bags, rags and effluent from China is washing up on the [...]

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“I’m here to resolve problems,” Bolivian President Evo Morales, the country’s first Aymara Indian leader, recently told the Miami Herald. “My job is to take care of the poor.” Thus far, statistics make those two goals appear mutually exclusive. After Morales’ first year in office, revenues are booming due to high natural gas prices, but [...]

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Russia is poised to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) signed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in December 1987. The treaty prohibits development and deployment of all land-based short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) with ranges of 300 to 3,400 miles, as well as all ground-launched cruise [...]

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Forsvarets Forsvarsinstitutt (FFI), the Oslo-based Norwegian defense institute, has identified Russia as a potential “military threat” in the region. The FFI report, “Russia: A Military Power,” observes that while Norway has no reason to fear a threat of military invasion from Russia, a “limited, military action” cannot be ruled out.
The FFI advises the Ministry of [...]

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The Bush administration, which once pledged to do “whatever it takes” to defend Taiwan, is increasingly distancing itself from the prosperous and democratic island. This has been going on since August 3, 2002, when Taiwan’s president, Chen Shui-bian, first declared that “each side [of the Taiwan Strait] is its own nation.” Although this assertion had [...]

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What will alarm Tehran about the latest details of US military planning for a strike on Iran is the fact that there are now two possible triggers for an attack.
One is, as expected, the nuclear programme. But the new one is any major attack on US forces in Iraq that could be traced back [...]

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How the EU subsidizes trade with Iran.
On the record, Europe claims to be as concerned as America about a nuclear-armed Iran.
The record also shows, however, that Europe’s biggest countries do a booming business with the Islamic Republic. And so far for the Continentals, manna trumps security.
The European Union–led by Germany, France and Italy–has [...]

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According to China observers, the struggle for power within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has intensified prior to the Party Congress. At present, while Jiang Zemin’s followers—who have suffered successive setbacks recently—are on the defensive, Hu Jintao is still somewhat restrained in the Standing Committee of the Politburo and the military. As both sides [...]

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Russian President Vladimir Putin raised eyebrows with his aggressive speech at the Munich Security Conference. SPIEGEL spoke to Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg about the alleged arms race, the missile defense shield, and how the new Russia is like the old Soviet Union.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg says Russia wants to wield the same weight [...]

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MOSCOW: Russia’s nuclear agency spokesman warned Tuesday that Iranian delays in payments for the construction of a Russian-built nuclear plant would push back its launch date and uranium fuel deliveries from Russia.
A top nuclear official in Iran on Monday rejected Russian claims that Tehran had been dragging its feet on payments, and accused Moscow of [...]

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Washington (The Weekly Standard) Vol. 012, Issue 23 - 2/26/2007 - Israeli government authorities are building a ramp to allow non-Muslims to reach the enormous platform atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The old access ramp was condemned as unsafe and torn down several years ago. The interim ramp that replaced it was designed for [...]

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Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - Hezbollah has admitted that it is continuing to stockpile weapons in order to defend itself against Israel. In a speech on Friday, Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah said that his party was moving weapons covertly and the Jewish state did not know about their actions.
Link to this article.

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Tehran’s chest-beating over its nuclear-development program has masked a longstanding but growing Iranian vulnerability: its oil exports.
The energy industry accounts for some 85% of Iran’s export income, but oil shipments may be poised to go into a steep decline. Some industry researchers say they can see the day — perhaps 10 years off — when [...]

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Russia’s threats to target with ballistic missiles any Polish or Czech sites involved in a future US missile defence system are “uncalled for,” a NATO spokesman said Monday. Earlier Monday General Nikolai Solovtsov, head of Russia’s strategic missile force, threatened a tough response if the United States went ahead with its plan to site a [...]

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Talk of a new Cold war is in the air, though who bears the blame remains unclear. To be sure, some commentators are asking: Does Putin have a point? “What Putin says is not entirely crazy,” says Marshall Goldman of Harvard University in this new Backgrounder. “A very large number of Democrats in the United [...]

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Iran’s ideological army, the elite Revolutionary Guards, launched three days of war games on Monday with a succession of missile tests aimed at improving defensive capabilities. The “Power Manoeuvre” exercises involving 3,000 units of the elite force in 16 of Iran’s 30 provinces come at a time of mounting tension with the United States over [...]

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German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday said Europe was considering its own missile defence system in parallel to a shield the United States wants to put up in Eastern Europe. But Steinmeier, who has criticized the United States for not discussing its planned missile shield with Russia, said acknowledged that Europe does not yet [...]

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The Iranian people will regret their country’s nuclear program.
Instead of bringing them security or status, Iran’s nuclear program will only bring Iran economic ruin, internal chaos, and possibly death on a massive scale.
Iran’s nuclear program is stimulating a response from actors that have the ability to inflict great harm on Iran. Some of these actors [...]

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