The BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are emerging as the new powers destined to inherit world economic leadership by the middle of the 21st century.
With China and India combined representing more than one-third of the world’s population (2.4 billion) and undisputed leaders in converting raw materials into finished goods, these Asian giants are headed [...]

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This is a fascinating article about survival in a disaster. Most people tend to freeze in a disaster, but the thing to do is act. I recommend reading this article.
From the article:
But survival is not just a product of luck. We can do far more than we think to improve our odds of preventing and [...]

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So far so good, but it still takes two to tango and the EU is not making the right moves, Bingran Dai of the Centre for European Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai tells ISN Security Watch.
“The problem is that the atmosphere has changed drastically since 2006 and the Chinese public and the government feel [...]

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Hackers working on behalf of China’s People’s Liberation Army have penetrated networks controlling electric power grids in the United States, computer security experts believe. And that may have precipitated a massive blackout on the east coast in 2003, as well as a blackout in Florida this year.
That’s just one blockbuster assertion in a long story [...]

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A new civil war has been averted in Lebanon, and Israel and Syria are back at the negotiating table. But Hezbollah is stronger than ever, and its arsenal is brimming with weapons — partly because the United Nations monitoring program has failed. By Daniel Steinvorth and Alexander Szandar more…

Possible Prisoner Exchange: Deal Imminent between Israel [...]

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Skyrocketing Oil Prices Threaten Prosperity
With oil prices breaking all records, the next shock for consumers is already at hand with electricity and natural gas prices set to skyrocket. While experts fear for the economy, the crisis is driving a wedge between the partners in Germany’s coalition government. By SPIEGEL Staff more…

Black Gold under the Ice: [...]

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The United Nations report, the global agriculture outlook through 2017, said prices for farm crops will remain substantially higher over the next decade because of fundamental changes in demand, though they will gradually decline from current highs.
Because the recent spike in crop and food prices has been caused in part by temporary factors like drought, [...]

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AS WESTERN countries scramble to deal with Russia’s increasingly energetic espionage efforts, their security services are hurriedly rehiring some of the seasoned spycatchers they let go in the past years.
But at the European Union attitudes are still worryingly dozy. Russian spying in Brussels and Strasbourg, say those who try to keep an eye it, is [...]

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Why do some countries succeed when others struggle? That’s what Nobel laureate A. Michael Spence and the Commission on Growth and Development set out to discover in their landmark study of the world’s 13 fastest-growing economies.
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Delegates from 111 nations agreed Wednesday a landmark treaty to ban cluster bombs, Ireland’s foreign ministry said, in a deal that lacks the backing of major producers and stockpilers of the lethal weapons. After 10 days of painstaking negotiations at Croke Park stadium in Dublin, diplomats agreed the wording of a wide-ranging pact to outlaw [...]

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An examination of the economic relations between the two countries reveals that, beyond their propaganda value, these relations are of small benefit to Syria and of negligible benefit to Iran. The alliance is driven first and foremost by political and strategic interests, not by economic considerations. While Syria has benefited from Iran’s economic support, this [...]

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Equipment bound for Syria which could be used to test ballistic missile components was intercepted during a previously undisclosed mission, the United States has announced.
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Missile-related shipment to Syria stopped, U.S. says
“One example of its success occurred in February 2007, when four nations represented in this room worked together to interdict equipment bound for Syria [...]

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Iran and its close ally Syria have signed a new defence cooperation pact, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, just a week after news broke that Israel had begun indirect peace talks with Damascus.
“The two countries pledge their mutual support regarding territorial independence and integrity in terms of international and regional authorities,” the state-run IRNA news [...]

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The proposed Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline is “absolutely infeasible” in the foreseeable future because financial, political, legal and security circumstances do not support it, a well-informed American expert says.
“None of the three countries involved in the talks has the resources to fund the pipeline. There are serious security concerns, especially because it passes through Baluchistan in Pakistan. [...]

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A Chinese woman pleaded guilty in a US court Wednesday to helping to spy for Beijing in a Pentagon-linked espionage case, the Justice Department said.
Yu Xin Kang, 33, admitted to “aiding and abetting” a Taiwanese-American, Tai Shen Kuo, who had earlier pleaded guilty to spying for China involving sensitive military secrets.
Businessman Kuo had obtained secret [...]

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Russia was accused yesterday of stoking separatist tensions as part of a campaign to prevent the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine joining Nato.
Georgia said that Russia was arming rebels in the breakaway region of Abkhazia to provoke a war and scupper its bid to join the military alliance.
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Moscow also angered Ukraine by [...]

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