Beirut (AFP) Jan 8, 2008 - The head of the UN atomic watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei has voiced concern over the possibility that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal could fall into extremist hands, in statements published on Tuesday. "I fear that chaos... or an extremist regime could take root in that country which has 30 to 40 warheads," ElBaradei told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat in an interview. He stressed that he was "worr ... moreiran
+ Bush denounces 'provocative' Iran naval challenge
Washington (AFP) Jan 8, 2008 - US President George W. Bush on Tuesday blamed Tehran for a "provocative" weekend face-off between US and Iranian ships as he prepared to take his warning that "Iran is a threat" to the Middle East. "We viewed it as a provocative act. It is a dangerous situation and they should not have done it, pure and simple," Bush declared in his first public remarks on Sunday's incident in the Strait of ... more
Vienna (AFP) Jan 8, 2008 - Iran and the UN atomic watchdog have started talks on the last major issue regarding possible military use in the long-running probe into Tehran's disputed nuclear activities, diplomats here said Tuesday. As International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei was preparing to fly to Tehran for a rare visit at the end of the week, IAEA officials were already "on the ground" in the Iran ... 
Moscow (UPI) Jan 8, 2007 - The U.S. anti-ballistic missile program has crossed the boundaries of Russian-U.S. relations and, to all appearances, will soon acquire larger global significance now that Japan is following the American footsteps to establish its own sea- and land-based ABM system. The plan was already announced and is rapidly being built up. Only one Japanese destroyer will be on combat duty in the S ... 
Washington (AFP) Jan 8, 2008 - Washington on Tuesday warned Iran against making threatening maneuvers towards American ships after a tense weekend standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, while Tehran denied anything other than "routine" interaction between the fleets. As US President George W. Bush prepared to depart for a week-long Middle East trip partly designed to seek a united front against Tehran, his spokeswoman blasted ... 
Washington (AFP) Jan 8, 2008 - The United States on Tuesday rejected Iran's assertion that a tense naval standoff between Washington and Tehran's navies in the Strait of Hormuz was routine, and warned "they should not do it again." "It was out of the ordinary, it was reckless," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, as US President George W. Bush prepared to depart on a week-long Middle East trip partly designed to see ... 
Washington (UPI) Jan 7, 2007 - As President Bush is about to begin an eight-day tour of the Middle East -- part of the post-Annapolis, Md., effort to get the peace process moving -- al-Qaida's so-called American spokesman asked followers of the terror organization to greet the American president with "bombs and booby-trapped vehicles." In a 50-minute video released through Web sites sympathetic to al-Qaida, Californ ... 
Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 9, 2008 - US President George W. Bush issued a new warning to regional archfoe Iran on Wednesday as he began a Middle East tour under the shadow of a weekend naval face-off between the two countries. Bush threatened Iran with "serious consequences" if it attacked US warships, saying "all options" were on the table to protect US assets after Sunday's standoff in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Spea ... 
Washington (AFP) Jan 9, 2008 - One year after sending thousands of new troops to Iraq, the United States can claim progress on the security front, but durable stability in the war-shattered country may require a long-term US presence, experts said. Conrad Crane, director of the US Army military history institute, was one of several experts drawing the conclusion that the United States must prepare itself for a long stay i ... 
Washington (UPI) Jan 9, 2007 - The bipartisan conclave in Oklahoma this week was designed as a bridge between moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats who seek to use "smart power" to build a new world order. Smart power is the skillful conjugation of soft (diplomacy) and hard (military intervention) power, which kept the world at peace for half of the 20th century. (Wars in Korea and Vietnam were bumps in the road.) ... 
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 9, 2008 - Israeli agents prepared to strike a ship suspected of smuggling missiles from North Korea to Syria in 1991 but cancelled it at the 11th hour under US pressure, a Japanese newspaper reported Wednesday. Undercover agents of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency secretly attached a guidance system for an airstrike on a cargo vessel believed to be carrying 23 short-range Scud missiles to Syria, th ... 
Los Angeles (AFP) Jan 9, 2008 - A US Marine sergeant accused of leading the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha will stand trial on February 25, a military court ruled Wednesday. Staff sergeant Frank Wuterich did not enter a plea at an arraignment hearing at the Marines' Camp Pendleton base outside San Diego on Wednesday as his court martial date was set. Wuterich has also reserved the right to be trie ... 
Seoul (AFP) Jan 9, 2008 - Chief US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill called for patience Wednesday in getting North Korea to dismantle its weapons drive, saying there was no need to panic over a missed deadline. Hill, who is on a regional tour to push for a quick resumption of six-party talks, said neither the communist North nor its negotiating partners "want to walk away" from a landmark deal forged in February last y ... 
Washington (AFP) Jan 8, 2008 - China has contingency plans to dispatch troops into North Korea and secure nuclear weapons in the event of instability in the hardline communist state, according to US experts who have talked to Chinese military researchers. Any intervention by Beijing would be done as far as possible after consultations with the United Nations, but unilateral action was not ruled out, the experts said in a ... 
Visakhapatnam, India (AFP) Jan 8, 2008 - India will develop an indigenous defence system to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles by 2010, a defence official said. The system was currently being designed and would go on trial from 2009, said V.K. Saraswat, the chief controller of the Defence Research and Development Organisation. It would be capable of detecting, intercepting and destroying intermediate-range and intercontin ... 
Tehran (AFP) Jan 10, 2008 - Iran on Thursday aired its own video of an incident in the Strait of Hormuz with US warships, as the US Fifth Fleet raised doubts whether a radioed threat came from Iranian speedboats. The United States, meanwhile, made a formal protest over the weekend incident in which Iranian speedboats swarmed around US warships in the Strait of Hormuz entrance to the Gulf. In a bid to counter earlie ... 
Kabul (AFP) Jan 10, 2008 - Afghanistan on Thursday welcomed US plans to send up to 3,000 additional marines to counter an expected Taliban spring offensive but insisted the long-term solution is to boost Afghan forces. The defence ministry said more international troops are needed to battle the extremist militia, which is believed to be preparing to launch an offensive as soon as the winter snows melt. "At present ... 
Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 10, 2008 - Israel is keeping all options on the table if economic and diplomatic pressure fails to halt archfoe Iran's nuclear programme, Israel's ambassador to the United States said on Thursday. "In assessing the threat from Iran we see in sync and think similarly. Both America and Israel understand the severity of the threat, the implication of the threat if it grows," Israel's US Ambassador Sallai ... 
Haifa, Israel (UPI) Jan 10, 2007 - Following year-end reports of continued success in the Israeli security industry, companies have wasted no time closing new overseas deals for 2008. Earlier this week, Magal Security Systems announced a $1.25 million agreement with a South African commercial port. According to the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, "This new sea port project ... will include (a) securi ... 
Beijing (AFP) Jan 10, 2008 - Chief US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill called Thursday on North Korea to disable and declare all its weapons programmes by the end of next month to keep a disarmament deal alive. Speaking on the latest leg of a regional tour aimed at restarting stalled talks, Hill said the reclusive communist state had to show "full transparency" for the process to move forward. "The issue is for the No ... 
Washington (AFP) Jan 9, 2008 - US deals to end North Korea's nuclear weapons drive and to bring India into the loop of global atomic commerce are in a limbo amid doubts they can be wrapped up before President George W. Bush leaves office in a year. The deal with North Korea under a six-nation agreement has been progressing well over the last year until Pyongyang failed to meet a December 31 deadline to fully declare its n ... 
Baghdad (AFP) Jan 10, 2008 - US warplanes rained bombs on a rural area just south of Baghdad on Thursday, with the American military saying Al-Qaeda in Iraq safe havens were destroyed in "one of the largest airstrikes" since 2003. The blitz unleashed 47,500 pounds (21,500 kilograms) of explosives on Arab Jabour village just south of the capital, military officials said. "The attack was one of the largest airstrikes ... 
Washington (AFP) Jan 9, 2008 - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is considering sending some 3,000 additional marines to Afghanistan to boost forces ahead of a Taliban spring offensive, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday. The proposal recommended by US commanders in Afghanistan will go before Gates on Friday, although a final decision was not expected at that time, said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell. Morrell ... 
Islamabad (AFP) Jan 9, 2008 - Scotland Yard strengthened its team aiding the probe into the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday as concerns for the country's nuclear security grew. Three more detectives arrived from London, including an expert in the type of explosives used in the gun and suicide bomb attack which killed Bhutto and nearly two dozen of her supporters at a rally in Rawa ... 
Washington (UPI) Jan 9, 2007 - Former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur this week proposed in a long essay "a true union of the West" between Europe and North America, which received a warm response from France's new President Nicolas Sarkozy. His call reflects what has become the conventional wisdom, to interpret the widespread predictions of future economic growth in China and India as meaning that Asia will b ... 
