BUENOS AIRES — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez launched another verbal assault on President Bush last night as he led about 20,000 supporters in an anti-American rally, calling the US leader a “political cadaver” and blasting his policies as “imperialist.”
“Gringo go Home!” Chávez shouted to raucous applause at a crowded soccer stadium in the Argentine capital. [...]

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The financial problems leading to a rapid deterioration of social conditions in Venezuela are the result of the massive and uncontrolled spending of Hugo Chavez, combined with a drop in the prices of oil in the world markets. Even with the oil at the prices of early 2006 Hugo Chavez had been establishing financial commitments [...]

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Thousands of private homes have been equipped with nuclear-proof equipment ranging from air filters to water-decontamination systems. But builders and contractors say that the demand in the past few months for fully fledged atomic shelters has surged, fuelled by speculation that Iran is building a nuclear weapon that it would not hesitate to use against [...]

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Strategists prefer to project, futurists love to extrapolate and demographers will tell you their data are pure destiny. But just like history, the future tends to repeat itself by consistently delaying our dreams (my long-overdue flying car) while constantly denying our doomsdays (remember overpopulation or the impending ice age?).
Humanity confounds us prognosticators primarily by being [...]

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WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) — China is outstripping the United States by 14 to one in building new military submarines, a congressman warned Thursday.
If the trend continues, China will have a larger submarine fleet than the U.S. Navy by the year 2017, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., the ranking member of the Seapower and Expeditionary Forces [...]

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. plans to base a missile defense system in eastern Europe could reopen old divisions on the continent, French President Jacques Chirac said on Friday.
The United States wants to base the system in Poland and the Czech Republic so that any missiles fired by what it calls “rogue states” such as Iran [...]

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About ten thousand protestors rallied in Sao Paolo on Thursday against President Bush’s arrival in Brazil, chanting “Bush Go Home” and prompting police to fire tear gas (BBC). As the protests demonstrate, anti-Americanism runs deep in Latin America, and many are skeptical (LAT) of this new attention from the United States.
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China: the indispensable nation. But wait, isn’t that America’s role? Bill Clinton used the phrase in his second inaugural in 1997. Madeleine Albright picked up on the refrain, explaining that America is indispensable because “We stand tall. We see further into the future.”
Well, America didn’t see very far into the future of Afghanistan or Iraq. [...]

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AUSTRALIA and Japan are about to embark on their most wide-ranging military and intelligence-sharing agreement, in a move that is generating concern from Beijing.
In the 50th anniversary year of the signing of the post-war Australia-Japan trade pact, Tokyo and Canberra will agree on a joint security declaration that promises to transform defence relations between the [...]

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