1. The UK government has decided that terrorism by Muslims in the name of Islam is actually unrelated to Islam, or is even anti-Islamic.
2. Again culminating several years of evolution, the British government now recognizes polygamous marriages.
3. The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, endorsed applying portions of the Islamic law (the Shari‘a) in Great Britain.
Here’s [...]

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CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA–Potentially fatal rat-borne diseases, such as typhus and leptospirosis, are likely to spread farther around the world, according to research presented here this week at the Archaeological Science Conference 2008.
The findings come from a genetic analysis of the black rat (Rattus rattus), the rodent that spreads the bubonic plague. Researchers led by mammalogist Ken [...]

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Russia has threatened to target the Ukraine with nuclear warheads if the former Soviet republic joins Nato and accepts the deployment of United States anti-missile defences on its territory.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia warned Ukraine’s leader Viktor Yushchenko of “retaliatory actions” should his country join the Western alliance during a joint press conference in Moscow.
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Washington is trying to gauge whether Russia’s recent bomber mission near a U.S. aircraft carrier indicated Moscow’s return to a Cold war “mind-set” and is considering how the Pentagon should respond, a senior U.S. military officer said on Tuesday.
But other senior U.S. defense and Navy officials stressed they did not see Russia’s weekend bomber flights [...]

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The continuing weakness of China’s armaments industry has profound implications for China’s diplomacy, grand strategy and choice of conflicts it would be prepared to undertake for many years to come.
First, this weakness puts Russia in the driver’s seat of the Russian-Chinese alliance. Although never formalized as such, this alliance has been a reality ever since [...]

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President Vladimir Putin ratified a Russian-Ukrainian agreement to extend the service life of RS-20 (SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Kremlin press office said on Tuesday.
The lower and upper houses of parliament passed the draft law on the missile on January 25 and January 30 respectively.
The agreement was coordinated during a visit by [...]

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Seventeen years later, some question exists as to whether or not the Cold war actually ended in 1991. And contrary to the notions of a new era of peace and stability, conflicts that were previously unified into the overarching guise of the Cold war have splintered. With the overwhelming international focus on the controversial war [...]

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Pre-dawn police raids in Denmark have netted five people suspected of involvement in a plot to kill a cartoonist whose depiction of the Prophet Muhammad helped spark international violence two years ago. more…

Is Cartoon Controversy History?: Danish Library Wants to Preserve Inflammatory Drawings

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A Russian bomber twice buzzed a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the most stark warning yet from the Kremlin of a return to the Cold War.
The Pentagon leaked word of the potentially dangerous encounter near the coast of Japan for the first time last night.
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Navy Intercepts Russian Bombers
U.S. fighter planes intercepted two Russian bombers, [...]

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Russia proposed a treaty on Tuesday to ban the deployment of weapons in outer space, warning their development could lead to a new arms race and a repeat of the Cold War.
The draft treaty, presented by Russia and China to a U.N.-sponsored forum, would prohibit the deployment of weapons in space and the use or [...]

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Then why is the president speaking of an arms race when nobody is planning to compete with him? Why does he persistently return to the language of the Cold war when there is no basis for this?
In my opinion, there are two reasons. First, Putin wants to convince the world that Russia is seriously concerned [...]

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The world should take notice of Russia’s increasing militarism. The parade is designed to generate nostalgia among the Russian people and to signal to the U.S., NATO, and Russia’s neighbors that Russia’s power is back. Most importantly, it illustrates President Vladimir Putin’s emphasis on the military and security services at the expense of modern, democratic [...]

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China is preparing for an eventual cross-strait showdown with Taiwan and may be prepared to use tactics that could stop the United States from getting involved, according to an analysis of publicly available information on China’s military by the RAND Corporation.
According RAND, China’s defenses, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), has identified the U.S. military’s reliance [...]

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Former Boeing engineer accused of stealing trade secrets from NASA
Orlando Sentinel, FL - 2 hours ago
“Space is part of China’s military modernization plans, so we have had collection efforts targeted at space, aerospace and military technology. …
FBI arrests Chinese ’spies’ over theft of military data Independent
‘No. 1 Threat’ China Linked to Espionage Arrests CNSNews.com
US charges four in [...]

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