For four months, three diplomats tried to get the Serbs and the Kosovo Albanians to find a compromise agreement. Both sides, though, proved unwilling to budge. A look inside the failed negotiations. By Gerhard Spörl more…

After the Deadline: EU Gathers to Present United Front on Kosovo
The Kosovo Countdown: Serbian Province Readies for Possible Independence
Planning for [...]

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Israel has become the world’s fourth largest weapons exporter, shipping out arms worth more than four billion dollars so far this year, the defence ministry said on Monday. Only the United States, Russia and France export more arms than Israel, said the ministry’s director general Pinchas Bucharis in a statement. New legislation to come [...]

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However, there is another very obvious and sobering reason why so many countries, including longtime U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, and a new important partner like India, are turning to Russian weapons systems or continuing to buy them: Many of them, as well as being very cheap, are very good.
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China’s civilian leaders, beginning with President Hu Jintao, are believed to want stable military relations with the U.S. so they can attend to pressing political and economic problems, such as unemployment. The PLA, however, sees U.S. forces as the enemy and thus has little incentive to strive for good relations.
A grudging balance appears to have [...]

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Who are the friends of China?
Originally published on May 6, 2002
The United States has added Cuba, Libya and Syria to the nations it claims are deliberately seeking to obtain chemical or biological weapons.
In a speech entitled “Beyond the Axis of Evil”, US Under Secretary of State, John Bolton said that the three nations could be [...]

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Who are the friends of China?
Countries determined by the Secretary of State to have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism are designated pursuant to three laws: section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act, section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, and section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act. Taken together, the four [...]

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Yuan Peng, director of the Institute of American Studies, part of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that “in the world, almost all enemies of the United States are China’s friends.”
Peng said long-term strategic stability between the U.S. and China “still remain[s] doubtful.”
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‘Almost all enemies’ of U.S. ‘are China’s friends’ East-Asia-Intel.com, December [...]

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Will China launch some major and dangerous move against Taiwan – a blockade? missile firings? worse? – next March, just five months ahead of the opening of the triumphant Beijing Olympics (motto “one world, one dream”)?
Such madness seems inconceivable. Yet I am becoming convinced that some such action is possible, even likely, by the pattern [...]

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Russia launches military satellite
Gulf Times, Qatar - 9 hours ago
Russia’s military has just over 60 orbiting satellites, which “encompass all kinds of military functions from communications to reconnaissance,” Itar-Tass …
Russia launches military satellite United Press International
Russia Successfully Sends New Military Satellite To Orbit AHN
Military launch new communication satellite RussiaToday
Kyiv Post - ITAR-TASS
all 28 news articles »

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The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran is unprecedented in the way it is likely to change U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic. Repercussions of the report go well beyond the Persian Gulf. They may influence U.S. relations with Russia and Europe and affect American standing in the world.
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The neo-cons strike back
Asia Times Online, Hong [...]

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