North Korea is still balking at disclosing all of its nuclear materials and capabilities in a declaration expected by year’s end, the chief U.S. negotiator with the reclusive state said yesterday.
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Building deterrence is another element of Russia’s quest to become a world power. Already Russia’s military arsenal is being modernized and the three elements of a nuclear triad are being developed. The first element of this triad is nuclear missiles. On Oct. 18, Mr. Putin declared Russia was working on new types of nuclear weapons, [...]

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Venezuela to Buy Russian-Made Planes
The Associated Press - 10 hours ago
Under President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela has already purchased some $3 billion worth of arms from Russia, including 53 military helicopters, …
Venezuela Willing to Buy 12 Combat Jets in Russia Kommersant
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Why are we asking this now?
Next week is the 70th anniversary of the infamous Rape of Nanjing, when Japanese soldiers went on an orgy of rape and murder in the then Chinese capital. Dubbed the “forgotten holocaust” by its most famous contemporary chronicler, Iris Chang, the massacre is the subject of no fewer than a [...]

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Oxford Research Group (ORG) was founded 25 years ago at the height of one of the most dangerous phases of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan had been elected two years earlier and had dubbed the Warsaw Pact the “evil empire,” yet the Soviet Union was in the midst of a prolonged leadership crisis. An ailing [...]

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Let’s assume for argument’s sake that Iran did stop its nuke program in 2003. Why, then, in 2006 was Iran performing test flights of the Shabab-2 and Shabab-3 ballistic missiles, the latter with a range of some 1,200 miles? Commenting at the time, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Iranians “are not unaware that [...]

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Sprinkled with economic tidbits and Elizabethan poetry, “God and Gold” traces the history and strategy that have made the English-speaking powers the belles of the global ball–or, more accurately, the “the dread and envy of them all.” The United Kingdom and the United States, he argues, quickly mastered a maritime system born in the tiny [...]

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Kosovo is expected to declare independence within the next month. Russia says this could trigger instability in other nearby breakaway regions.
After more than eight years under a UN protectorate, and centuries of ethnic wrangling, Kosovo seems on the verge of settling its political status—sort of. On December 10, a UN deadline for settling the [...]

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American intelligence agencies obtained notes last summer from deliberations of Iranian military officials involved in the nuclear weapons program. By David E. Sanger and Steven Lee Myers more…

The World from Berlin: ‘Iran Requires the Right Mix of Sticks and Carrots’
News Analysis: An Assessment Jars a Foreign Policy Debate About Iran
Surprise for the White House?: Iran [...]

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More than light in China debate
SEOUL in 1988, or Berlin in 1936? Debate about the staging of next year’s Olympic games in Beijing tends to polarise opinion. Most Chinese—and foreigners optimistic about the country’s direction—see it as a fitting symbol of China’s emergence as a global power. They also argue the games will ease political [...]

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DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Russian fleet, which has already set out for its new mission from the North and Black Seas, will have the use of naval facilities at Syria’s Tartous port. Its presence for several months will be a complication for the Israel navy’s operations opposite the Lebanese and Syrian coasts, especially [...]

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