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...Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in China--and quickly made himself at home. The occasion was a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional group linking China, Russia, and Central Asia... He posed, arms linked, with Russian and Chinese officials, who said nothing as he called for "impartial and independent experts" to investigate whether the Holocaust happened. He delivered a major address broadcast on Chinese state television. He touted Moscow, Tehran, and Beijing's "identical" views on world issues. And he proposed making "the SCO into a strong and influential economic, political, and trade institution [to] thwart the threat of...

CNBC Asia, South Korea Wire Services Reporting

Russia Signs Deal To Produce Kamaz Trucks In Iran - Report TEHRAN -(Dow Jones)- Iran and Russia have signed a EUR300 million contract for the production of Russian trucks in Iran, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported Saturday. The managing director of Iran's Rakhsh-Khodro Diesel Co., Akbar Mirza- Husseini, said Iran has purchased the license to produce three models of Russian Kamaz trucks. "This is the largest industrial contract signed between Iran and Russia," said Mirza-Husseini, adding the assembly plant will be commissioned officially later this month. The production of the trucks, which will have a base price tag of...

WASHINGTON, October 4 (Itar-Tass) – As for to day Russia “has no Iegal obstacles to deliver nuclear fuel to Iran,” Nikolai Spassky, deputy head of the Russian Rosatom nuclear agency told reporters on Tuesday. “We normally work in the framework of international law which is international agreements signed by Russia and resolutions of the UN Security Council,” Spassky said noting that today there are no such resolutions limiting nuclear fuel deliveries to Iran. However if the United States adopts a law limiting partnership relations with countries cooperating with Iran and if this law affects relations between the two countries in...

If chills did not run down your spine when you heard the tune for the Soviet national anthem, written to glorify the mass-murdering dictator Joseph Stalin, playing for Russia at the Winter Olympics this year in Italy, if you do not shiver every time you hear about Russian people favoring Vladimir Putin, a proud KGB spy, with 70%-plus approval in opinion polls, then perhaps you are ready for this: Russia is re-weaponizing psychiatry as a method of dealing with anti-Kremlin dissent, just as in Soviet times. Two major articles from leading newspapers have documented the early stages of the phenomenon....

MOSCOW, October 1 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Chinese President Hu Jintao a message of congratulations on the occasion of the Chinese national holiday – the 57th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, the presidential press service reported on Sunday. The message of the Russian head of state says, inter alia, as follows: “The real breakthrough in key economic sectors and impressive successes in the social and humanitarian spheres, achieved by Chinese people over these years, evoke sincere respect. The rise in international prestige and influence of the People’s Republic of China and its contribution to strengthening...

News Release NORAD intercepts Russian aircraft NORAD - September 29, 2006 WINNIPEG, MAN. – North American Aerospace Defense Command launched three pairs of fighters Thursday evening from the command's Canadian NORAD Region (CANR) and the Alaskan NORAD Region (ANR) in response to Russian aircraft that penetrated North America’s Air Defense Identification Zone, according to NORAD officials. “While the Russian air assets at no time violated Canadian or U.S. airspace, integrated air defense assets in and around CANR and ANR were able to detect, intercept and identify a number of the Russian Tu-95 Bear heavy bombers participating in an annual Russian...

The Thailand Coup – Creating A New World Order David J. Jonsson September 28, 2006   The Sword of Islam may not take on the form of war and or terrorism, but take the form of political action, bloodless coups, finance and media propaganda. The actions are to achieve the same goal—the establishment of the Islamic Kingdom of God on Earth and implementation of Shariah law. In the case of Thailand it was a ‘bloodless’ coup led by Muslim Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin ostensibly to remove a corrupt democratically elected government. As Time Magazine (Asia) on September 25 reported Gen....

PORTOROZ (Slovenia), September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is concerned about the expansion of NATO's infrastructure in the new member states of the northern alliance, Russia's defense minister said. Sergei Ivanov, who is also deputy prime minister, said at a session of the Russia-NATO Council: "We are worried by the reconfiguration of NATO's infrastructure without prospects for the ratification of the Adapted Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe [CFE]." The CFE treaty establishes limits on military hardware and troop numbers for all countries from the Atlantic to the Urals, and aims to establish a military balance on the European...

Jets to be sold to Mexico, Brazil, pilots trained in Venezuela 11:46 | 28/ 09/ 2006 BUENOS-AIRES, September 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's state-owned arms exporter said Thursday it will soon sign deals to export Sukhoi warplanes to Mexico and Brazil, and will open helicopter maintenance and pilot training centers in Venezuela. Rosoboronexport's regional department head, Sergei Ladygin, said: "We hope that Sukhoi planes will soon appear in Latin American countries." Speaking on the sidelines of a military exhibition in Argentina, SINPRODE-2006, Ladygin said Rosoboronexport will also offer a modernized version of the Mig-29 Fulcrum fighter to Mexico and Brazil....

Hugo Chávez and the Non-Aligned Movement. By Mario Loyola Behind the spectacle of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s insults against the West lurks something more sinister than meets the eye. Chávez seeks to lead the Non-Aligned Movement in a new cold war of race, class, and nationalism, to be fought everywhere on earth, chiefly against the United States. And before he’s done, he may hurt his people and ours more than he can imagine. In the 1950s, from the ashes of Europe’s colonial empires, there arose a wave of new “nations,” soon to be called the “third world.” Usually defined by...

LONDON, September 27 (IranMania) - Head of Russian Federal Energy Agency Sergei Kiriyenko will pay a visit to Tehran in early December to discuss with Iranian officials issues related to mutual cooperation, IRNA reported. Deputy Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) for International Affairs Mohammad Saeedi told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday that the it is hoped that the visit would help the two sides reach agreement on speedy commissioning of Bushehr nuclear power plant. Saeedi said that based on an agreement signed by Tehran and Moscow on Tuesday, Bushehr nuclear power plant will become operational by...

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced further purchases of Russian weapons, saying his country is to become 'an impregnable fortress.' Venezuela has ordered Antonov airplanes and 14 gunship helicopters, the nationalist-leftist told the air force academy in a speech Tuesday night in the central city of Maracay. 'If you want peace, prepare for war, and that is what we are doing,' he said, adding that he wanted to significantly raise the level of the entire 'anti-imperialist armed forces.' 'We have to safeguard our national sovereignty against the aggressors of always,' said the president who has had an antagonistic relationship...

'THE DEVIL CAME TO THE UN YESTERDAY... Bush, I have the feeling you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare... We need a psychologist to analyze Bush... YANKEE IMPERIALISTS GO HOME'...

The Non-Aligned Movement of developing nations began a summit in Cuba on Monday with speeches that made no reference to the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks in a sign of animosity to the United States. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque called on the movement's 116 members to close ranks in the face of the threat of military strikes by the world's most powerful nations. The six-day summit, labeled by critics as a left-over of the Cold War with little diplomatic relevance, is expected to denounce the Bush administration for assuming the role of global policeman in its...

Some highlights from the Nonaligned Movement summit's final declaration. TERRORISM: Denounces the brutalization of peoples under foreign occupation as the gravest form of terrorism. Asks that terrorism not be associated with any religion, nationality or ethnic group and that it be recognized that the struggle of peoples under colonial or alien domination does not constitute terrorism. MIDEAST CONFLICTS: Strongly condemns "the relentless Israeli aggression launched against Lebanon." Promotes a revival of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Supports the Palestinian people's "inalienable right to self-determination in their independent and sovereign State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital." NUCLEAR IRAN: Defends...

There are many reasons to expect Moscow's deteriorating ties with the West will continue their downward trend this autumn. But the key one may be growing differences over the breakaway regions of Transdniester, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia and their stated desire to proclaim independence from Moldova and Georgia. The issue pushing the frozen conflicts to the fore are two independence referendums -- one in Transdniester on September 17, the second in South Ossetia on November 12. Russia, which has acted as a long-term booster for the separatist regions, is looking at the plebescites in two ways: a chance to bring...

Convention Names AMLO "Legitimate President" After voting on this convention's proposals, the delegates agreed that they will not recognize Felipe Calderon as President-Elect nor the government which he heads 6:27 p.m. The resolutions of the Democratic National Convention designated Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as "Legitimate President." After voting on this convention's proposals, the delegates agreed that they will not recognize Felipe Calderon as President Elect nor the government which he heads. In the midst of shouts of acceptance, the sympathizers await the arrival of Lopez Obrador, as reported [on the radio program] Formato 21. More information shortly

Kazan(Russia), Aug 31: Officials and religious figures from Russia and more than a dozen Islamic countries kicked off a conference here that organizers said was aimed at deepening their dialogue and defending a "multipolar" world in the face of US power. "Values cannot be imposed by force," Mintimer Shaimiyev, President of Russia`s mainly Muslim republic of Tatarstan where the three-day conference was being held, said in an opening address to delegates. "The example of Iraq has shown that democracy can only be the result of internal development. Liberal values can`t be exported like cars. A multipolar world without a system...

High-tech cooperation will give Russia an opportunity to enter the African market through South Africa. Moscow tries to retrieve its erstwhile influence on the African continent, preparing to face tough competition with world's leading countries. President Vladimir Putin arrived in Cape Town to solve these issues. The visit to Africa, which Putin started Tuesday, was initiated with the development of the global economic system, from which Russia was gradually falling out during the recent decade. The Russian administration started formulating its geopolitical interests openly only a short time ago. Slowly but surely the existence of the unipolar world is drawing...

The radio host asked, "Which is a greater national security threat to the United States, the insecurity of America's southern border or Iran's nuclear ambition?" It wasn't a trick question. True, Iran poses an international apocalyptic sort of threat; one JINSA takes most seriously. But at the end of the diplomatic day, we - and even our reticent allies - will know what to do with a country threatening us with nuclear weapons. Mexico, our friend and neighbor, poses a different kind of problem. Mexico has been roiled by strikes and protests since July, when Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador claimed...

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on the most massive military buildups in history. Part of President Reagan's strategy for winning was to entice the Soviets into a competition it could never even hope to win. A communist economy by its very nature is ill-equipped to compete with a free-market, capitalist system whether it's foreign trade or weapons technology. And so, slowly the Soviet economy became a basket case due to the communists desire to exceed America in an enormously expensive arms race. After the Cold War, with the Soviet threat gone and with...

The Kremlin may be the main winner in the Lebanon war. Israel has been attacked with Soviet Kalashnikovs and Katyushas, Russian Fajr-1 and Fajr-3 rockets, Russian AT-5 Spandrel antitank missiles and Kornet antitank rockets. Russia’s outmoded weapons are now all the rage with terrorists everywhere in the world, and the bad guys know exactly where to get them. The weapons cases abandoned by Hezbollah were marked: “Customer: Ministry of Defense of Syria. Supplier: KBP, Tula, Russia.” Today’s international terrorism was conceived at the Lubyanka, the headquarters of the KGB, in the aftermath of the1967 Six-Day War in the Middle East....

VENEZUELA has long cultivated ties with Middle Eastern governments, but its recent engagement of Iran has become a defining element in its effort to build an alliance to curb US influence in developing countries. In a visit late last month to Tehran by President Hugo Chavez and his Oil Minister, Rafael Ramirez, the two countries agreed to jointly produce nearly a dozen products, including crude oil and medicines. In a further sign that their ties have taken on a new dimension, the two countries are speaking in a more unified voice in their criticism of Israel and the US. The...

Even if one rejects Golitsyn's overall thesis -- viz., that Gorbachev's changes comprised a long-term strategic deception -- one must still acknowledge that Golitsyn was the only analyst whose crystal ball was functioning during the key period of the late 20th century. When the Soviet Empire collapsed in 1989, the CIA was chastised for failing to foresee the change. "For a generation, the Central Intelligence Agency told successive presidents everything they needed to know about the Soviet Union," said Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "except that it was about to fall apart." Sovietologists both inside and outside CIA were indeed baffled,...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - An unknown number of people were killed in an explosion at a Moscow market, Interfax news agency reported on Monday, quoting an eyewitness.

The image above shows a corpulent former Russian President Boris Yeltsin bedecked in toga and driving the “young farm girl” and “young factory fellow” from a famous Soviet monument like horses before his chariot. The caption reads: “Corruption: An impediment to progress.” Will Russia fall as Rome did, it seems to ask? Yeltsin was justly criticized during his reign for personal and systemic corruption but in fairness we must ask: Was it any difference before or since in Russia? Is Russia making any economic progress now? As this article will show, the answer is a resounding “nyet!” On May 24,...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the June 2005 election of the staunchly anti-American Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran. Ahmadinejad, though, has proven to be a difficult partner for Putin -- especially regarding the Iranian nuclear issue. At the end of Sept. 2005, Putin and Ahmadinejad (who had just taken office the previous month) met in New York where they both had come to attend the annual opening of the U.N. General Assembly. According to a Russian press account, the meeting did not go well: Putin "tried to persuade him to back away from the...

Mexico City, Jul 26 (EFE).- Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told the biggest Spanish-language television network in the United States that he is president of Mexico "by the will of the majority," though election authorities have yet to rule on his challenge of results that gave the victory to his conservative opponent. Officials results showed Felipe Calderon with an advantage of 0.58 percent over Lopez Obrador in the July 2 balloting, but the leftist is demanding a vote-by-vote recount. Mexico's electoral tribunal has until Sept. 6 to declare who will be sworn-in Dec. 1 to succeed conservative incumbent Vicente Fox...

PRAGUE, August 8, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The United States has imposed sanctions on two major Russian arms dealers -- state arms exporter Rosoboroneksport and the aviation firm Sukhoi -- for allegedly selling high-tech equipment to Iran. The August 4 move has been widely condemned in Russia as an "unfriendly act" aimed at crippling Russia's arms industry. It comes against the backdrop of strained bilateral relations in recent weeks. Moscow and Washington have failed to reach agreement on Russia's World Trade Organization bid and continue to disagree on resolving the Middle East conflict and on dealing with Iran's nuclear program. And...

The Russians have allegedly sold weapons to countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and other terrorist-supporting nations. After the US-led invasion of Iraq, Russian-made weapons were found. As a result, the US government placed sanctions against American business dealings with two Russian companies selling arms and weapons systems to Iran. Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted the United States on Friday for imposing such sanctions on two Russian corporations. Putin called the sanctions an “illegitimate attempt to make foreign companies work by internal American rules,” after the US banned all American companies from dealing with two Russian firms that sold hardware...

DUBAI, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday blasted Israel for its attacks against Lebanon and Palestinians, comparing its operations to those of Hitler. In an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera television, Chavez also slammed U.S. backing for Israel, describing Washington as a "Dracula always searching for oil and blood". "The Israeli offensive against the Palestinians and Lebanon is an aggression that we feel targets us also. It is an unjustified aggression that is being carried out in the style of (Adolf) Hitler, in a Fascist fashion," he said, referring to the leader of Nazi Germany. "They...

Since the first Gulf War, peace activists have cried in the streets, “No war for oil, no war for oil!” until they were blue in the face. This is of course meant to insinuate that the US government under a Republican administration will sweep into an Arab nation and “steal that oil.” Yes, in the minds of many liberals throughout the world, the American military is commanded by Exxon/Mobile to solely seek out the oil fields of peaceful sovereign nations and steal their precious crude. In this rationale there’s never any other reason save for greed and imperialism. What I...

General Yury Baluyevsky-Russia's #2 man in Defense-is unhappy over the American's missile defense system. What good is it to have 927 ICBMs if they can be destroyed in flight ? Details at: http://insidestraight.typepad.com/the_inside_straight/2006/08/us_and_russia_h.html

Click on the link to see why so many people in Russia are smiling ! Good ol'Hugo just ordered some toys. http://insidestraight.typepad.com/the_inside_straight/2006/07/hugo_chavez_whe.html

Party Session between the" Baath" and "Belarusian Communist" Parties Headed by al-Ahmar and Golubeva in Minsk Assertion on the cooperation development On 17. 5. 2006 Assistant Secretary General of the Baath Arab Socialist Party Abdullah al-Ahmar held party session with a delegation from the Belarusian Communist Party headed by the party's First Secretary Tatiana Golubeva joint relations between the two parties within the framework of the cooperation. Talks during the meeting dealt with cooperation ties between the two countries and with each party's role in developing the bilateral relations connecting Syria and Belarus. The two parties criticized polices followed by...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) greets Venezualan President Hugo Chavez in Tehran July 29, 2006. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi (IRAN)

World briefing Irresistible rise of the dictators' club Simon Tisdall Tuesday June 6, 2006 Guardian Tony Blair's promotion of shared global values and inclusive institutions in his Georgetown speech last month took little account of the rise and rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Few may yet have heard of it. But out of the east comes a radically different paradigm for 21st-century international organisation, short on idealism and long on hard-headed self-interest. The "universal" principles of "liberty, democracy and justice" lauded by Mr Blair are hardly its driving force. Founded by China, the five-year-old SCO groups together like-minded authoritarian...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday accused Israel of launching “crazy war� against the Lebanese and Palestinian people. He told reporters in Doha that the damage caused by the “Israeli aggression� was similar to the destruction that Hilter inflicted during the World War II. However, he condemned the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, saying it was a “mistake�, but blamed the United States as the mastermind of this war. “The American imperialism is the one which supplied Israel with the weapons. This military operation was planned in the Pentagon,� he believed. “Such a war requires a long time for planning and...

Aides to Venezuela's mercurial leader Hugo Chávez will have made sure his presidential fountain pen was fully loaded before he left Caracas, given the number of arms deals he is set to sign in Moscow this week. Contracts for 30 Russian Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, 30 military helicopters, 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, a licence to build a Kalashnikov factory in Venezuela, and perhaps two or three submarines are all on the agenda during Mr Chávez's fourth visit to Russia. Sergei Ivanov, Russia's defence minister and a possible successor to President Vladimir Putin, said last week the fighter and helicopter deal...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that Russia had helped his country break a U.S.-imposed "blockade" by agreeing to sell Caracas fighter planes and helicopters worth billions of dollars. Neither Chavez nor Russian leader Vladimir Putin gave details about any new deals signed Thursday, but Russia's defense minister said last week that Moscow had agreed to sell the oil-rich South American nation about 30 Su-30 fighter jets and some 30 military helicopters. Putin said Thursday that Moscow and Caracas would prove "reliable partners" and - in comments clearly aimed at Washington - said their cooperation should not be viewed as...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday he had forged a strategic alliance to stand up to U.S. imperialism with fellow maverick Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko. "Our countries must keep their hands at the ready on the sword," Chavez, in ex-Soviet Belarus as part of a world tour, said on a visit to a military academy. "After a day of intensive work, we have created a strategic alliance between our countries," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "It is absolutely vital to protect our homeland, to guard against internal and external threats." "The jaws of imperialism and hegemonism have both...

Moscow's $1 billion sale of top-flight military aircraft to Venezuela's erratic dictator isn't just business. It's unfriendly to the U.S. and a sign of a revived Cold War. ... His latest recruit was Belarus, where he signed an "anti-U.S. pact" Monday with this Russian satellite, praising Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who admits to having a soft spot for Stalin. "Our countries must keep their hands at the ready on the sword," Chavez said. ... There isn't any doubt Russia's $1 billion contract to sell Venezuela 30 Sukhoi jet aircraft and 33 helicopters will be trouble. ... All are perfect for...

HUGO CHÁVEZ, the ardently anti-American President of Venezuela, arrives in Russia today to sign a billion-dollar arms deal that has infuriated and alarmed the US. The self-styled leftist revolutionary will sign an agreement with President Putin to buy 30 Sukhoi Su30 fighter jets and 30 military helicopters worth $1 billion (£540 million). The two leaders will also discuss plans to build two Kalashnikov factories in Venezuela — to add to the 100,000 Kalashnikov AK103 assault rifles that Venezuela has bought from Russia in the past year. The arms deals — and the visit by Señor Chávez — are the latest...

MINSK, Belarus. President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela began an international tour Sunday with a visit to the former Soviet nation of Belarus, whose authoritarian president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has been dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by Washington. Chávez, a former army lieutenant colonel who has accused the United States of wanting to invade his oil-exporting South American nation, is also to go to Russia, a key weapons supplier, and to Qatar, Iran, Vietnam and Mali. Chávez flew into the Belarussian capital, Minsk, on Sunday evening. He was to meet with Lukashenko on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said. Chávez's older brother, Adan, visited...

Mr Chavez said he wanted to conclude "a unity pact" in Minsk Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has praised Belarus "as a model social state" like the one he and his government are building. During a visit to Belarus, he called for joint efforts to counter what he described as "hegemonic" capitalism. Mr Chavez later met Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights. Mr Chavez is on a world tour, partly to win support for a Venezuelan seat on the UN Security Council. From Belarus, he will travel to Russia, Qatar, Iran, Vietnam and Mali....

Oracle Commentaries 7/22/2006 Urgent Intelligence Update UNCOVERED: RUSSIAN-SYRIAN-IRANIAN AXIS For students of Bible prophecy, even the title of this communiqué should set off alarm sirens. I just received some electrifying intelligence data. First, from the Debka-Net-Weekly’s briefing. And second, from some personal intelligence sources (I carefully guard) that confirm Debka’s report. Russia, Iran and Syria have entered a defense pact that is in the process of altered the balance of power in the entire Middle East. Russia’s part in the pact has been kept relatively secret for a long time. But the facts reveal a long steady Russian commitment...

Russia signs $1bln aircraft contract with Venezuela-Ivanov 18:01 | 21/ 07/ 2006 MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has signed a contract on supplies of military planes and helicopters to Venezuela worth over $1 billion, the defense minister said Friday. Sergei Ivanov said 30 Su-30 Flanker air-superiority fighters and 30 helicopters would be supplied to Venezuela. The Russian Su-30 Flankers will replace a Venezuelan contingent of U.S. F-16 multi-role fighters after Washington imposed an embargo on arms sales to the country May 15, which it says poses a threat to regional stability. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has moved...

July 21, 2006 -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is due in Minsk on July 22 as part of a tour that also includes Russia and Iran. Chavez, a strong critic of U.S. policy, is a rare foreign visitor to Belarus, whose president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, is shunned by Western leaders who accuse him of totalitarian policies. Chavez is due in Russia on July 25. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said today that Russia will sell Venezuela 30 Su-30 fighter jets and 30 helicopters for $1 billion.

MOSCOW, July 20 (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday that the Israeli offensive on Lebanon had gone "far beyond" the anti-terrorist operation Israel says it is conducting against the Hizbollah militia. "The unprecedented scale of victims and destruction bear witness to the fact that the actions that were announced to (free captured Israeli servicemen) have gone far beyond the bounds of an anti-terrorist operation," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Israeli warplanes and artillery have been pounding Lebanon for more than a week. Israel says it is retaliating for the capture of two of its soldiers in a...