Kosovo appears to be an archaic topic. The Yugoslavian question was a 1990s issue, while the Kosovo issue has appeared to be one of those conflicts that never quite goes away but isn’t regarded very seriously by the international community. You hear about it but you don’t care about it. However, Kosovo is getting very [...]

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The United States remains unprepared for disasters ranging from biological attacks to a flu pandemic, and funding for preparedness is falling, according to a report released on Tuesday.
Many states still lack a stockpile of drugs, masks, gloves and other equipment needed to battle a pandemic of diseases, despite five years of constant and detailed warning, [...]

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Defense Focus: Russia’s edge — Part 3
United Press International - 10 hours ago
But in the main, Russian military systems designers look to be able to produce large numbers of weapons based on relatively simple designs that are …
Outside View: The future of IN

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Bolivia appears to be on the verge of a constitutional crisis after four of its richest states declared their autonomy over the weekend. At issue is a new draft constitution—approved by supporters of President Evo Morales—that leaders in the energy-producing lowland states of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, and Pando fear will put the country on [...]

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Last major field goes on line.
Europe depends on Russia for its natural gas, but, as Gazprom begins production at the last major field, it is unclear how much gas is left in Siberia. Developed fields are almost exhausted, and tapping new reserves involves huge technical difficulties. By Christian Wüst more…

Pipe Dreams: Dutch Firm Invests in [...]

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Antibiotics in the meat, pesticide used as preservatives, mercury in the drinking water — Chinese author Zhou Qing says China’s food industry is poisoning the country in its greed for profit. If ordinary people knew, there would be a revolution, he adds. By Jochen Schönmann more…

Photo Gallery: The Dangers of Food in China
Rotten Meat Scandal: [...]

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The common wisdom is that China’s large and fast-growing economy could overtake the U.S. as soon as 2012. Not so fast. New data suggest China’s not quite as big as economists once thought.
The World Bank’s latest estimates for the global economy contained a stunner of a statistic: China accounts for just under 10% of the [...]

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Iran is establishing a Central American foothold in Nicaragua, to the alarm of some U.S. state department officials, it is being reported.
The San Antonio News-Express said Monday that Nicaragua, with the backing of its Venezuelan ally, has been forging a new partnership with Iran.
Part of that relationship comes in the form of a $350 [...]

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Millennium Challenge 2002 (MC02) was a major wargame exercise conducted by the United States armed forces in mid-2002, likely the largest such exercise in history. The exercise, which ran from July 24 to August 15 and cost 250 million dollars, involved both live exercises and computer simulations. MC02 was meant to be a test of [...]

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The United States has dismantled its nuclear weapons stockpile faster than anticipated and will meet President George W. Bush’s goal of reducing the arsenal by half at the end of this year — five years early, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
Bush in 2004 announced a goal of halving the U.S. nuclear stockpile by 2012, which [...]

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