On the other side of Israel’s troubled northern border, Hizballah is carrying out a live exercise to chase the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon-UNIFIL peacekeepers away from the border region first, then from all parts of South Lebanon. The Lebanese militia places its trust in low-tech weaponry: rocks hurled at UN vehicles and yellow [...]

read more....

The current battles between Russia and Estonia (concerning the reburial of Soviet soldiers’ remains) have much wider significance than just being one more spat between Russia and its former vassals.
The fundamental cause of this conflict lies in the main unsolved issue of modern Russia: the denial by the Kremlin, and by President Vladimir Putin, of [...]

read more....

What has changed under Putin is that Russia is now much more self-confident and that Moscow and the Central Asian countries have become more aware than before that they have a strong vested interest in cooperation.
Russia is far too weak to become a superpower again in the foreseeable future, but it is reasserting itself as [...]

read more....

Russia’s rhetorical hostility towards America is reaching levels unseen since the cold war ended. Indeed, even in the late Soviet period anti-American propaganda was less emotional and certainly less sincere than it is today. The question now is whether the noisy words will be translated into action. That may become a bit clearer at the [...]

read more....

The United States is the largest oil importer in the world, bringing in 13.5 million barrels per day (mbd), which accounts for 63.5 percent of total U.S. daily consumption (20.6 mbd).[1] Oil from the Middle East–specifically, the Persian Gulf–accounts for 20 percent of U.S. oil imports, and this dependence is growing. By 2017, the U.S. [...]

read more....

From Muslims in Europe to evangelical Christians in Africa, it is religious believers who are shaping the early 21st Century. Charismatic movements are sweeping throughout the Southern Hemisphere, while high birth rates among immigrants are provoking soul-seeking in the historically Christian West. For this week’s List, FP looks at the fast-growing faiths that are upending [...]

read more....

VIENNA, May 14 — Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is now beginning to enrich uranium on a far larger scale than before, according to the agency’s top officials.
The findings may change the calculus of diplomacy in Europe and in [...]

read more....

China is the world’s number-one growth story now. But how is it that China has achieved such quick growth in this era? How is it that made-in-China products can flood the globe? Is a trade war going to happen? Or is a new world order in the making? This second volume of a trilogy-by Chinese [...]

read more....

Why do we remain unprepared for the next terrorist attack or natural disaster?
Where are we most vulnerable?
How have we allowed our government to be so negligent?
Who will keep you and your family safe?
Is America living on borrowed time?
How can we become a more resilient nation?
Americans are in denial when it comes to facing up to [...]

read more....

The operational Galileo satellites will carry two types of clocks - passive hydrogen masers and rubidium atomic frequency standards. Each satellite will be equipped with two hydrogen masers, one of which will be the primary reference for generating the navigation signals, with the other as a cold (non-operating) spare.
Read More…

read more....

Though it seems like a plot line from a James Bond film, clandestine acquisition of nuclear technologies and materials is still very much with us, according to a newly released study. Preventing nuclear proliferation by both state and non-state actors is very much an action-reaction process. Proliferators illicitly acquire materials and technologies critical to constructing [...]

read more....

JAKARTA - Indonesia is moving ahead with controversial plans to build its first nuclear power plant, which if completed on schedule in 2017 would put the country in Southeast Asia’s nuclear-energy vanguard.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last year announced that the government planned to start building the 4,000-megawatt plant by 2010. Construction tenders for the US$1.6 [...]

read more....

Just days after a BJP MP created a stir by claiming that the Chinese had taken over a large tract of Indian land in Arunachal Pradesh, India’s Defence secretary Shekhar Dutt has made another startling revelation, one that sheds more light on the growing threat posed by China to India’s security.
Read More…

read more....

The official footage, which has now appeared on the internet, shows an entirely new class of air-to-surface missiles, airborne launch trials of the Kh-31 high-speed anti-radiation missile (ARM) and the PL-12 active radar beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM), heavy air-to-surface loads for the Chengdu J-10 and Shenyang J-11B fighters, plus extensive test and development activity with [...]

read more....

For years defenders of Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez have harped on what they described as the domination of the country’s independent media by his opponents — proof, it was said, that Ch?vez was no dictator. Two weeks from today that argument will lose all credibility. By then, Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, Venezuela’s most popular [...]

read more....

Don’t be surprised if you wake up one morning and learn that the Gaza Strip has become a lot like Lebanon was last summer. Gaza looms as a major battleground in the larger global struggle with jihadism, with the Israeli military squaring off against terrorist proxies of Iran and Syria in addition to al Qaeda [...]

read more....

TOKYO: Japan’s Defence Ministry plans to develop a high-powered laser capable of shooting down missiles to boost its defences against North Korea, a news report said on Sunday.
The ministry will ask for funds next fiscal year to develop a ground-based laser capable of destroying ballistic missiles in midair, according to the Mainichi newspaper.
Read More…

read more....