TAIPEI, Taiwan, July 8 — The news came as a shock to many Taiwanese. After 63 years as a faithful ally of this self-ruled island, Costa Rica was switching diplomatic relations to mainland China, acknowledging that money was the big lure.
The change of course by a tiny Central American nation, announced in May, was a [...]

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Israel is “concerned” that Syria’s removal of military checkpoints on their side of the Golan Heights could be a sign that Damascus is preparing for war, the London based Al-Hayat reported Saturday.
The article reported that the checkpoints, which are on the road to Kuneitra, have been there since the Six Day War.
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Moscow, July 8 (PTI): Russia today offered a global integrated missile shield for the whole of Europe as an alternative to the US National Missile Defence (NMD), seen as a threat to the country.
Proposing the shield, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, widely seen as likely successor of President Vladimir Putin said Moscow’s proposal [...]

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Asghari has since revealed new and relevant information about Iran’s nuclear progress, saying that in addition to reactors and uranium enrichment facility centrifuges being built in the country, Iran has also developed the technology to enrich uranium with lasers.
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North Korea has successfully tested new short-range missiles and is close to making them operational, posing a threat to South Korea and Japan, a senior US defence official said. Yonhap news agency quoted Richard Lawless, outgoing deputy undersecretary of defence as saying: “We have a problem with the new system because it’s much more accurate, [...]

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Some are even predicting that, like the Roman Empire, America is in decline. In a recent
book by Cullen Murphy, “Are We Rome?,” the author draws parallels between Rome’s imperial predicament and what he sees as ours: the problems of a vast, multiethnic nation with a messianic vision of itself and an often simplistic vision of [...]

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DEBKAfile cites Western, Saudi and Lebanese intelligence as sighting hectic preparations by Iran, Syria and the Hizballah to foment major trouble in Lebanon up to and after mid-July. They intend the eruption to throw off track the July 16 UN Security Council session called to castigate their non-implementation of its Resolution 1701, especially their defiance [...]

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BEIRUT, July 8 (Reuters) - Fear that political deadlock may spill into violence is gripping Lebanon, a year after Israel and Shi’ite Hezbollah guerrillas jumped into a war that shattered trust between rival Lebanese camps.
Assassins have slain two anti-Syrian politicians in the past eight months. More than 200 people have died in battles between Lebanese [...]

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Lookout: Oil is a temporary tool of foreign policy; Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez
and other leaders of oil-rich nations must plan ahead to the day when oil wells run dry
The fast rising demand for oil by China and India, sharply declining fresh discoveries, and high prices are empowering the countries with large reserves of black gold [...]

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Syrian official threatens ‘resistance’ by September, warns Damascus preparing for large-scale conflict.
GOLAN HEIGHTS – If Israel doesn’t vacate the strategic Golan Heights before September, Syrian guerillas will immediately launch “resistance operations” against the Golan’s Jewish communities, a top official from Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Baath party told WND.
The Baath official, who spoke on condition his [...]

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