Asia’s troubles are about to get a great deal worse, because Asia is becoming a victim of the rise in energy prices in an even more spectacular way than higher gasoline prices.
Consider, for example, why it is that China’s steel exports to the United States are dropping at a rate of 20 percent this year. [...]

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Relations between Australia’s Muslim community and the rest of the population are near to exploding. As they face increasing suspicion and hostility from the rest of the nation, young Australian Muslims are being made to feel like foreigners in their own country. Is Australia’s response to terrorism to blame?

Link to this video.

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“After decades of considering Pakistan their principal enemy, Indian defence officials are beginning to see China as a more serious long-term threat, and they don’t want to be caught unprepared again. Washington is embracing India as a rising power that can be a valuable ally to stand with this country, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and [...]

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So far the threat of a global food crisis has not affected Australia, but there are worrying signs appearing in the United States where some worried locals are beginning to hoard supplies.
Two bulk US retailers are rationing some sales of imported rice and that’s been enough for some Americans to begin stocking up.
It has also [...]

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The principal characteristic of twenty-first-century international relations is turning out to be nonpolarity: a world dominated not by one or two or even several states but rather by dozens of actors possessing and exercising various kinds of power. This represents a tectonic shift from the past.
The twentieth century started out distinctly multipolar. But after almost [...]

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More generally, and more disturbingly, the US Studies poll shows only 37 per cent of Australians having a positive feeling towards the US and 48per cent wanting a more independent foreign policy. (By contrast, at the nadir of the Vietnam trauma in 1975, only 26 per cent wanted a more independent relationship.)
Australians’ dramatic loss of [...]

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PINE GAP could play a direct role in a controversial new generation of ballistic missile defences developed by the US and Japan, the Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, has told Parliament.
The rare statement on the secret facility near Alice Springs is likely to further alarm Russia, which yesterday joined China in criticising military co-operation between Australia, [...]

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GROWING military co-operation between Australia, Japan and the US is worrying Moscow, as is work on US-Japanese missile defence co-operation, a top foreign ministry official said in an interview today.
“The strengthening of US-Australian-Japanese ties has got our attention…. Narrow alliances, especially tight military-political unions, are a worry,” Deputy Foreign Ministry Alexander Losyukov told daily Vremya [...]

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SYDNEY (AFP) — Russia on Friday joined a rush by nuclear powers for access to Australia’s huge uranium reserves as President Vladimir Putin signed a landmark deal to import the strategic fuel.
The agreement he signed with Prime Minister John Howard came just months after Australia ratified a deal to sell uranium to China to [...]

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The six-day-long exercise currently underway in the Bay of Bengal is one of the biggest war games the world will see this year. But not all its participants want that fact broadcast. The exercise, dubbed Malabar 07-02, involves warships from the U.S., Australia, India, Japan and Singapore — more than two dozen, in all, including [...]

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Are the warships from the United States, India, Japan, Australia and Singapore that are exercising together this week off the east coast of India harbingers of a new military alliance in Asia to contain China?
Beijing may suspect they are, despite assurances from participants that the aim is sealane security, not alliance building.
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But then last year, China signed energy deals with Australia valued at well more than $100 billion in the coming years. Beijing is buying uranium, natural gas and oil. Already, it appears, Australia is becoming addicted.
“Here in Australia, the view is that whatever commodity you’re going to make, your always going to be able to [...]

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The United States, Japan and Australia plan to hold their first-ever summit next month, Japanese government officials say.
The agenda will include discussion of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and China’s military build-up.
The three countries’ leaders would meet in Sydney on the sidelines of the APEC summit due to open on September 8, the officials told Reuters.
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Australia possesses almost 40% of the world’s known low-cost reserves of uranium.
And ore from Australia’s three operating mines supplies about a quarter of the world’s uranium-oxide exports. Until now all this has gone to countries that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This ensures, in theory, that they will use it to produce electricity [...]

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A FEW weeks ago US President George W. Bush issued an unusual request to the Australian Government.
He wanted to see the Australian ambassador to Iran, Greg Moriarty. The Americans don’t have an ambassador in Tehran and it is no news to anybody that the Australian and British ambassadors brief their US colleagues on goings-on there. [...]

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The number of Russian spies in Australia has risen to near-Cold war levels, forcing the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to train a new generation of counter-espionage officers.
The threat from Russian intelligence experts comes alongside a huge jump in the numbers of Chinese agents believed to be operating in Australia.
The Australian newspaper reports [...]

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Have you noticed that those who try to resist the hysteria of multiculturalism are immediately stigmatized as racists, red necks, chauvinists or fascists? FSM Contributing Editor Philip Atkinson’s piercing analysis implicitly suggests that Western culture may be in decline.
Muslims, the traditional enemy of Christians, are allowed to become citizens of Australia, a Christian country, because [...]

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While Australia has been the US’s strongest military and political ally in the Asia Pacific since the second world war, Canberra has also been assiduous in recent years in building up a broad relationship with Beijing.
“It appears that [the Howard government] is moving to a policy under pressure from Washington and Tokyo to be less [...]

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It says although Australia does not face any direct military threat now or in the foreseeable future, it must work harder to ensure its defence capabilities are as up to date as possible because military forces in Asia and the Pacific are growing increasingly sophisticated.
This is code for the continuing rise of China. The update [...]

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CANBERRA, Australia: Australia and a top U.S. military official expressed concern Thursday that China’s rapid military buildup and use of a missile in space could add to instability in the Asia-Pacific, and backed a greater role for Japan in regional security.
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Navy commander: US is “wary” of China; hopes it will become a … International [...]

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AUSTRALIA is set to strike a controversial nuclear deal with Russia.
Uranium from Australian mines could be powering Russian nuclear plants by the end of the year, Federal Government officials have revealed.
The Howard Government is close to finalising a nuclear treaty with Vladimir Putin’s regime to allow exports of Australian yellowcake and possibly enriched uranium.
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