The rapid increase in oil prices and the rise in metal and mineral demand worldwide have made the Russians overconfident. Their annual cash income in the last four years has grown fourfold. The economic crunch of the 1990s is behind them. Thus the Russians have become somewhat politically belligerent, visible in the opposition they have [...]

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Officials from a German government party and the opposition demand that Germany should be freed from some 20 or so remaining U.S. nuclear warheads stored in military bases in the country.
The discussion was launched after an internal U.S. Air Force report found security and safety standards at most nuclear weapons storage sites in Europe fall [...]

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Damascus suspects Israel decided to return to negotiations due to its failings in the Second Lebanon war and the realization that it could not live securely among its neighbors without peace, Syrian President Bashar Assad told an Indian newspaper.
“The Israelis used to think that with time they were going to be stronger and any opposition [...]

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Output is tanking, but there’s fierce opposition to a plan that could reward Big Oil for helping find new reserves
Reform is urgent: Oil output in Mexico, the world’s No. 6 producer of crude, is plummeting. At the Cantarell field, the country’s main source of oil, production is declining 15% annually. Pemex pumped 2.85 million barrels [...]

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Unfortunately for the Lebanese, their leaders are almost certainly coming back soon, and probably without a workable agreement. That’s because 18 months into the stalemate between the U.S. and Saudi-backed government on the one hand and the Syrian- and Iranian-supported opposition on the other, the differences between the two camps appear to be irreconcilable for [...]

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China as an “emerging superpower” makes for a compelling story line in the media. It is reinforced by the propaganda image that the current Chinese leadership would like us to accept. But the reality is quite different. Although recent events in Tibet and western China – and the central government’s response – appear to be [...]

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These phoney humanitarian protests, however, are in reality nothing more than a cheap camouflage used to cover the real reason for the German left’s opposition to the deal, namely, its deep-rooted anti-Americanism.
It’s bad enough that such anti-accord Germans seem to have forgotten 9/11, a good part of which was planned in their country. Many of [...]

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It has been three decades since China’s one-child policy was introduced as a temporary measure to slow the country’s population growth. But there’s rising opposition to the policy amid criticism that it’s creating another demographic crisis.
The trends are exemplified in the city of Shanghai, which has the lowest birth rate and the highest proportion [...]

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