“The recent economic boom in the Gulf, fueled by higher oil prices, brought its own problems: higher inflation rates, larger income gap between the rich and the poor, more expatriate workers, and traffic congestion. Higher income, growing populations, increased number of expatriates, economic cities, and expansion of petrochemicals have increased the demand for electricity to [...]

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Washington’s reported plan to name Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a “specially designated global terrorist” organization may be less about raising pressure on Tehran than about raising pressure on U.S. allies to support a tougher line with Iran. In fact, the move reflects Washington’s relative isolation on the question of how to deal with Iran. The [...]

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Tehran has taken a key role helping reconstruct war-hit areas, in contrast to what Lebanese see as Beirut’s indifference
The reconstruction of Lebanon after last summer’s war was meant to strengthen the U.S.-backed Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Hundreds of millions of dollars poured in from U.S.-friendly Persian Gulf countries
Instead, as government officials acknowledge, [...]

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August 17, 2007: China is touting the advanced electronics in their new J10A fighter. The J10A is using an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. AESA systems consist of thousands of tiny radars that make it possible to track many different targets simultaneously. China claims the J10A radar can track ten targets at once, [...]

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CHEBARKUL TESTING RANGE, Russia: President Vladimir Putin said he had ordered strategic bombers to resume regular long-range patrols as Russian and Chinese forces held their first joint military exercise on Russian soil — a show of armed muscle aimed at sending a pointed message to the United States.
The resumption of bombing patrols, which analysts say [...]

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“Blackjacks” and “Bears” each carry eight 200 kilotonne Kh-55 nuclear missiles, which have a range of 3,000 kilometres (1,864 miles).
The “Bear”, the first models of which entered service in 1955, is a four-engined turbo-prop with a range of more than 10,000 kilometres.
The “Bear H”, which carries nuclear weapons, made its first flight in September 1979. [...]

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Background
The threat posed by the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) within the United States has grown significantly in recent years, focusing attention on the medical and public health disaster capabilities of the nation in a large scale crisis. While the hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties resulting from a nuclear weapon would, [...]

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HONG KONG, Aug. 17 (UPI) — China is bent on the simultaneous development of both an aircraft carrier and a strategic nuclear submarine, or SSBN. Discussions over which should take priority are over, as a higher military budget allocation has accelerated the People’s Liberation Army navy’s ambitious plan.
China has been working more than 20 years [...]

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North Korea hailed 2006 as a “year of great victory” thanks to its first nuclear weapon test. But the cost of possessing atomic bombs has put the country’s command economy again on the verge of bankruptcy.
The North’s economy swung to negative growth in 2006 for the first time in eight years largely because of [...]

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a thinly veiled and robust message to Western leaders that he is preparing Moscow for a return to the Cold war days.
In a series of provocative moves orchestrated by the Kremlin and approved by Mr Putin:
• Russian troops staged a massive show of force during unprecedented joint military operations [...]

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