It has been known for years, ever since Israel captured the Golan in the Six Day War, that negotiations with Syria would hinge on the picturesque highland. But the Golan now is home to moshavim, kibbutzim, wineries and more than 20,000 Israeli citizens. It is also deemed to be of considerable strategic importance, and its [...]

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More than 100 tanks, rocket launchers and armored vehicles, flanked by 8,000 soldiers, rattled across the tarmac, while sorties of jet fighters ripped through the sky as army generals saluted below.
The display wasn’t in communist North Korea or China. It was a practice for a May 9 parade of Russian military hardware on Moscow’s Red [...]

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Like all other foreign journalists in China, I get my share of criticism from Chinese readers, mostly about my stories on TIME’s website or my posts on our China Blog. Some of the criticism can be pretty sharp–that comes with the territory. But the opprobrium has taken on a distinctly unpleasant edge in recent weeks [...]

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Surely only good can come from so much cash? Hardly. In the 1970s the Gulf’s money was a disaster for Latin America, for, recycled through Western banks, it caused a decade-long debt crisis. The Gulf itself suffered by inflicting stagflation on the West, thus causing a 20-year-long slump in oil prices. They built white elephants [...]

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US says North Korea gave Syria nuclear assistance
International Herald Tribune, France - 1 hour ago
“We are convinced, based on a variety of information, that North Korea assisted Syria’s covert nuclear activities both before and after the reactor was …
Syria mocks ‘nuclear reactor’ images Melbourne Herald Sun
US alleges DPRK-Syria nuclear [...]

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Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, is in political trouble. He is clearly hoping that a new expropriation spree will fire up his supporters, at least long enough to keep his allies from suffering heavy defeats in November’s state and municipal elections.
In recent weeks, he ordered the nationalization of the foreign-owned cement industry and the country’s biggest [...]

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With EU approval for a new bidding process, Europe’s much-touted — and much delayed — Galileo, a Brussels-controlled competitor to the US’s GPS system, looks set for orbit. One satellite is being launched this weekend and the system is expected to go online by 2013. more…

The GPS Revolution: How Pocket Positioning Will Change Daily Life

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The U.S. and its allies probably have no more than a year to take action against Iran before that nation acquires nuclear weapons, warns Dennis Ross, an architect of the Mideast peace process.
By 2009, Iran “could be a nuclear power, if not a nuclear weapon state, said Ross, who served as the director for [...]

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