In effect, the BRIC countries collectively took the place of the United States as the locomotive of the global economy, helping to haul the rest of the planet along.
But there is a problem. They may not be able to keep it up, because just as it looked like the world had found a new economic [...]

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Winning and then staging what are sure to be spectacular and successful games will help justify the party’s continued rigid authority, and let it bask in most Chinese people’s excitement to be hosts.
But the games will also be seen as one of history’s most expensive, and well-orchestrated, coming-out parties.
After three decades of breakneck economic growth, [...]

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At the Euphrates site, Mr. Albright said, the agency’s inspectors should look for evidence like special piping, old foundations and chemical traces of graphite, a basic reactor building material.
“If the Syrians think that a quick visit and some interviews” will clear up the nuclear suspicions, he said, “they’re sadly mistaken.”
The senior official in Vienna said [...]

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DEBKAfile: Our Washington sources report that president George W. Bush is closer than ever before to ordering a limited missile-air bombardment of the IRGC-al Qods Brigade’s installations in Iran. It is planned to target training camps and the munitions factories pumping fighters, missiles and roadside bombs to the Iraqi insurgency, Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist [...]

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The Russian-Chinese bilateral commission on military technical cooperation has not met for two years, and Russia’s defense minister has repeatedly postponed his visit to Beijing. Military experts say that Russian companies are not working on a single major contract for China, supplying only spare parts and components, including for the assembly of Mi-8 Hip and [...]

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The revival of the base, abandoned in 1966, is seen by analysts as India’s military standing up to China. This comes as the Air Force plans to revive two more bases in eastern Ladakh, both close to the Chinese frontier.
The news agency Press Trust of India quoted Air Force sources as saying that the Daulatbeg [...]

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UN inspectors were shocked by the recent discovery of an Iranian document describing the process for making the potential core of a nuclear weapon.
Tehran called the allegations of pursuing bomb-making “baseless” and claimed that the intelligence was fabricated. However, the 15-page document appears to be the recipe for the process of machining uranium metal into [...]

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“If not handled properly, this issue could trigger a cascade of other crises — affecting economic growth, social progress, and even political security around the world.”
Participants at the High-Level Conference on World Food Security will discuss short-term solutions as well as new strategies to deal with the effects of global warming, growing demand for biofuels [...]

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Like Su, China is already trying to look ahead after the magnitude-7.9 earthquake. Reconstruction has started, even as the communist government attempts to feed and shelter about 5 million people left homeless by the massive disaster.
Shopkeepers who lost years of investment are plotting how to get their businesses running again. The government’s open response may [...]

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Gates took on Ma’s claims that China wants only to defend itself with intercontinental ballistic missiles and is focused on defensive systems.
“I don’t know what you use them for if it’s not for offensive capabilities,” Gates told reporters Sunday. While that kind of system might be considered a deterrent for other countries, Gates said it [...]

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