BEIJING (Reuters) - In a bold jab before a key meeting of China’s Communists, a 90-year-old former secretary to Mao Zedong has urged the Party to embrace democracy, saying that only political freedom can end instability and corruption.
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In the October edition of the outspoken magazine, Li said his country could be dragged back into past [...]

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“I urged Bush to take action against the Iranian nuclear facilities and explained why I thought there was no alternative,” said Podhoretz, 77, in an interview with The Sunday Times.
“I laid out the worst-case scenario – bombing Iran – versus the worst-case consequences of allowing the Iranians to get the bomb.”
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Information coming out of Iran indicates that the military there is very dismayed at how ineffective new Russian anti-aircraft systems were during the Israeli September 6th air strike on a Syrian weapons development facility near the Iraqi border. Syria and Iran have both bought billions of dollars worth of the latest Russian anti-aircraft [...]

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“The United States pays too much attention to Ahmadinejad,” said an Iranian political scientist who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “He is not that consequential.”
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Mr. Ahmadinejad’s power stems not from his office per se, but from the refusal of his patron, Ayatollah Khamenei, and some hard-line leaders, to move beyond [...]

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For three decades, water has been indispensable in sustaining the rollicking economic expansion that has made China a world power. Now, China’s galloping, often wasteful style of economic growth is pushing the country toward a water crisis. Water pollution is rampant nationwide, while water scarcity has worsened severely in north China — even as demand [...]

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More than 60 years ago, Dr. F.A. Hayek brilliantly described the final destination of all people living under socialism: serfdom in a cruel totalitarian state. Venezuela is heading in that direction under the leadership of Fidel Castro’s star pupil, Dictator-President Hugo Chávez. On Sunday, September 30, voters in Ecuador will decide whether to authorize their [...]

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The Naval Base Coronado near San Diego has gone unnoticed since it’s groundbreaking in 1967. Then Google Earth had to come in and ruin everything. The satellite mapping site revealed to the public that, from the air, the structure was shaped like a swastika (oops!). Turns out that the Navy knew about this all along, [...]

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South America embraces Bush’s arch enemy
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 4 hours ago
The leaders of Bolivia and Venezuela embraced Mr Ahmadinejad and blessed Iran’s nuclear programme, underlining how much influence Washington has lost over a …
Ahmadinejad shores up support in Bolivia, Venezuela AFP
Iran Strengthens South America Ties The Associated Press
Ahmadinejad and Chavez: Brothers in nukes New Europe
Reuters - Monsters [...]

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Iranian former deputy defense minister Ali Rheze Asgari supplied intelligence sources in the West with information regarding the sites that Israeli jets allegedly attacked on September 6, the Kuweiti Al Jareeda reported Friday.
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Pakistan, Russia ‘vulnerable to N-theft’
Pakistan Dawn, Pakistan - 23 hours ago
By Anwar Iqbal WASHINGTON, Sept 27: A new report by a prestigious Washington think-tank claims that Pakistan and Russia are the most vulnerable to nuclear …
Alert over nuclear theft Gulf Daily News
Report Warns of Nuclear Threat Harvard Crimson
all 91 news articles »

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Freedom in retreat.
The release on Tuesday of Freedom House’s Countries at the Crossroads 2007, confirmed the truth of President Bush’s message to the United Nations: Freedom is in retreat in many places around the world. The President, in his address, cited a number of oppressive governments, but the most significant pushback against liberty, Freedom House [...]

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Sep. 28 (Bloomberg) — For more than 200 years, Russia’s Black Sea fleet has set sail from the Crimean port of Sevastopol to battle the motherland’s adversaries — Turkish, British, French and German.
There’s just one problem: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sevastopol has been a part of an independent Ukraine whose president, [...]

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LONDON,Sept 27 (APP): The six-member Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) could be enlarged in near future to include Pakistan,India,Iran and Mongolia to help strengthen regional security and ensure greater economic development and progress.
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KADENA AIR BASE, Japan: While the U.S. has been tied up fighting the war in Iraq, China has made huge gains toward modernizing its military and improving its equipment, and its air defenses are now nearly impenetrable to all but the newest of American fighters, the senior U.S. military official in Japan said.
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And you thought the East Germans spied a lot. A new study shows that the West Germans had fully 10,000 agents snooping on their Communist neighbors. And they knew about the Berlin Wall before it went up. By Siobhán Dowling more…

The Occupation and its Offspring: Lost Red Army Children Search for Fathers
Letter From Berlin: New [...]

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Taiwan has in recent months tested a land attack cruise missile with a range of 1,000 kilometers, or 621 miles, that could carry a 400-kilogram warhead to targets as distant as Shanghai, according to military analysts.
Some Taiwanese military specialists have argued for decades that Taiwan should develop offensive weapons, including missiles, as a deterrent to [...]

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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - In an age of al-Qaida, sleeper cells and the threat of nuclear terrorism, Huntsville is dusting off its Cold war manual to create the nation’s most ambitious fallout-shelter plan, featuring an abandoned mine big enough for 20,000 people to take cover underground.
Others would hunker down in college dorms, churches, libraries and [...]

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Several people have been killed, including a Japanese photographer, as the Burmese military opened fire on thousands of demonstrators in the city of Yangon on Thursday. Many have been badly beaten after early morning raids on Buddhist monasteries. more…

Photo Gallery: Military Cracks Down in Burma
The Cyber Rebellion: Burmese Bloggers By-Pass Censors
The World from Berlin: Burmese [...]

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Ahmadinejad shores up support in Bolivia, Venezuela
AFP - 6 hours ago
Chavez and fellow leftist Morales both support Iran’s controversial nuclear program and, like Ahmadinejad, are virulent critics of the US administration. …
Iran Strengthens South America Ties The Associated Press
Ahmadinejad seeks to strengthen South America ties Guardian Unlimited
Ahmadinejad Visits Latin America to Deepen Ties (Update1) Bloomberg
France24 - MercoPress
all [...]

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Israeli fighter pilots scrambled warplanes on Sept. 27 for the third time in a week after concern was raised about activity over Syrian airspace, a military official said.
The alarm was raised after assault helicopters were spotted on Israeli radar before eventually landing.
”This was a routine measure,” the official said. “The planes returned to base after [...]

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Senior members of Lebanese, Palestinian organizations vow to stand by Damascus if Jewish state launches war. ‘Doors will be open which have not been open before. Israel will pay a heavy price,’ they warn.
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