While there may be an element of truth in all these arguments, there are other more fundamental reasons behind the recent chill in Sino-Indian relations. Apparently, the strategic consequences of India’s economic resurgence coupled with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s offer in March 2005 to “help make India a major world power in the [...]

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Negotiations with North Korea are on a knife’s edge. Rumors of secret Israeli raids on alleged Syrian nuclear facilities and possible U.S. airstrikes on Iran are roiling political salons from Washington to Riyadh. In this week’s Seven Questions, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton offers some advice for those confronted with a [...]

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Mohammed ElBaredei has served as the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 1997- an odd choice for the position since he has absolutely no scientific, let along, physics background and he hails from Egypt and previously served in that nation’s diplomatic corps. This background leads him open charges that he may lack [...]

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Who recently said: “These Jews started 19 Crusades. The 19th was World war (1). Why? Only to build Israel.”
Some holdover Nazi?
Hardly. It was former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan of Turkey, a NATO ally. He went on to claim that the Jews — whom he refers to as “bacteria” — controlled China, India and Japan, and [...]

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Networks offer breakthroughs in affordable emergency radio.
Apparently, they never heard of Family Radio Service in the town of Jericho.
Family Radio Service is a very low power, short-range UHF citizens band in the 460 MHz band that some civil-defense activists believe offers great promise in worst-case communications disaster scenarios.
The hand-held two-way radios sell for as little [...]

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In the past year, a mysterious disease ravaged (BusinessWeek) China’s pig population, with a death toll that could be as high as a million pigs, causing a sharp rise in pork prices. Chinese officials have identified the illness as blue-ear pig disease, a porcine respiratory and reproductive ailment. Although the disease is not known to [...]

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One hundred years of technological progress can be erased in minutes by nature’s fury. Recent disasters have left not only destruction, but also heroism in their wake, and we can learn from the experiences of the survivors. The right tools, skills and mind-set—the survival worldview—will help you withstand the worst.
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Venezuela is among a small but growing number of resource-rich countries to put the squeeze on international corporations. Russia early this year pressed both BP and Shell (Guardian) into turning over majority stakes in Russian gas operations to state-owned Gazprom. Bolivia nationalized gas and oil fields (NPR), and Ecuador used troops (Forbes) to take over [...]

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Reflecting a constantly worsening relationship between NATO allies Turkey and the united States in recent years, a new poll revealed Thursday that more than three-fourths of Turks view the U.S. as a potential military threat to their country.
The U.S.-based Pew Research Center’s latest global tendencies report was based on polls conducted in 47 nations throughout [...]

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With the explosion of Web 2.0, anyone can be a pundit or broadcast the minutiae of his or her life for the world to ogle. And politicians around the world—never a shy crowd—are less and less squeamish about joining the fray. In this week’s FP list, we’ve catalogued some noteworthy blogs of people in positions [...]

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The importance of this weekend’s election goes well beyond Turkey itself.
ON JULY 22nd Turkey, still an adolescent democracy, goes to the polls. The event is being followed carefully far from its own borders. For one thing, the country is of huge strategic importance. It borders the European Union to the west and the Caucasus, Iran, [...]

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Overfishing, competition from fish farms, water pollution, and government subsidies to fishermen have brought bluefin tuna stocks to near collapse (TIME). The issue led to finger-pointing (IHT) by the United States and the European Union, each of which regards the other as the culprit. But it is the Japanese, consumers of the most bluefin tuna [...]

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My Comment:
Near the bottom of the list you will find Germany, Spain and France.

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In a nutshell, it seems that all of the potential challengers of American global dominance in the next few decades — China, India, the European Union, Russia, Japan — will also be shouldering huge new financial burdens from state pension systems as their populations age. Those costs will be a major drag on their economies [...]

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Costco sells a 23lb bucket of food for emergencies that’s called Emergency Food Storage. You can find information about this item at NutriStorage.Com. I bought one for about $100 from Costco the other day, and I wanted to review what I found.
Opening the bucket is very easy by clipping the strip that goes around [...]

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TORONTO — Some of the world’s most powerful nations are getting increasingly desperate for fresh water and observers are concerned that a day will come when countries will fight for the dwindling resource.
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According to data from a report (PDF) by Doctors Without Borders, about nine million active infections of TB develop annually, leading to about two million deaths. TB is one of the most common infections among the HIV infected and the top killer of people with AIDS globally. A World Health Organization report finds the rise [...]

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A group of European readers of this column recently wrote to me, arguing that from an economic point of view, dictatorships have been outperforming democracies for many years and that if the trend continues, there will be very little incentive to replace autocrats with the rule of law. This is an old discussion that resurfaces [...]

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THE SURPRISES OF GLOBALIZATION - How crime is quietly becoming a global killer.
The world is experiencing a crime pandemic. Crime rates are on the rise almost everywhere, and these statistics typically are distinct from the death and mayhem that comes with terrorism, civil war, or major conflict. The data reflect the booming number of civilians [...]

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Check out the new newsletter called 1913 Piping. It is an automated system that provides articles about Russia, China, Iran and Israel. I read it on a regular basis. It comes to you via e-mail from Feedblitz.
You can subscribe by going to 1913Intel.Com. The e-mail box is located in the left sidebar and comes after [...]

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Wars, famine, and poverty drive hundreds of thousands of people each year to pull up stakes and head for greener pastures. But those seeking a better life don’t always find themselves welcome in their prospective homes. For this week’s List, FP takes a look at the dangerous routes migrants are using in order to stay [...]

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