NATO is celebrating its 60th birthday this week at a summit co-hosted by Germany and France. But the ceremonies cannot disguise the fact that the alliance, despite its successes, is facing huge challenges in Afghanistan and its dispute with Russia. By SPIEGEL Staff more…

Photo Gallery: NATO Turns 60
‘Big Tent Meeting’: A New Outlook for Afghanistan

read more....

And according to the Pentagon, it’s now fielding a new nuclear force able to “inflict significant damage on most large American cities.”
Most disturbing, Chinese military officials have publicly threatened to use that capability against the United States — in a conflict over Taiwan.
“China doesn’t just threaten war, it threatens nuclear war,” said John Tkacik, a [...]

read more....

I’ll say it again. We face two choices: we can suffer now and return to sound monetary and fiscal policy, or we can print money and inflate our problems away – postponing the suffering until a later date. Of course, if we do choose postponement, the suffering will be much more severe and much more [...]

read more....

Canadian researchers say they have uncovered a China-based electronic spying operation that infiltrated computers in 103 countries. While they say they have no conclusive evidence of Chinese government involvement, the targets of the computer espionage were political. The cyber spying operation is one of the biggest and most sophisticated ever discovered.
Read More…

read more....

According to his paperwork, “Dmitri” spent several weeks in a psychiatric institution in the Arkhangelsk region in northern Russia and, soon after, he was finally diagnosed with a mild mental illness. He won’t say what the diagnosis actually is; the important thing for him is that the general finding is stamped across his identification papers. [...]

read more....

Israeli fighter-bombers, backed by unmanned drones, were responsible for a mid-January attack on a 23-truck convoy in the Sudanese desert carrying arms to Hamas militants, two highly-placed Israeli security sources revealed to TIME. The attack was a warning to Iran and other adversaries, showing Israel’s intelligence capability and its willingness to mount operations far beyond [...]

read more....

Read More…

North Korea Has Two Nuclear Warheads for Missile, Kyodo Reports
Bloomberg - ?1 hour ago?
By Stuart Biggs March 31 (Bloomberg) — North Korea has two nuclear warheads it can load on its mid-range Rodong missile, Japan’s Kyodo News reported, citing an analyst at the International Crisis Group, a non-government organization.

US moves warships into position for North [...]

read more....

All eyes are on London this week as leaders from the world’s leading economies gather to find a way out of the growing financial crisis. But tensions are growing between the US, Europe and China, and a common course has so far proven elusive. By SPIEGEL Staff more…

Photo Gallery: The G-20 Takes on the Economy
SPIEGEL [...]

read more....

The company’s situation reflects problems throughout the life insurance industry as investments suffer. Further strain could bring about a second financial crisis.
…
The company’s situation is emblematic of problems across the life insurance industry, which is suffering deep losses on investments that underlie policies for millions of American families.
Read More…

read more....

It appears that Iran is continuing with is massive support for extremist groups that are intent on attacking Israel. A 20-page dossier compiled by the Israeli intelligence agencies, which has been seen by SPIEGEL, reports that Iran “has strengthened its operative help to Palestinian terror groups.” The military aid is said to take the form [...]

read more....