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In a move likely to stoke concerns in Tokyo, Washington and throughout Asia, China plans to greatly expand the reach and firepower of its navy by building at least two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Analysts believe China is expanding its naval power as part of a push toward strategic dominance over the western Pacific, including the waters that surround Japan. Military sources said the first nuclear-powered flattops would be constructed in 2020 or later. China will begin construction of two conventional aircraft carriers this year. According to sources, a meeting was held in Beijing on Dec. 30 among military officials. A...

HERZLIYA -- Israel has a year or so in which to attack Iran's nuclear facilities preemptively, an Israeli legislator and weapons expert said on Wednesday. Israeli forces could pull off successful strikes independently, Isaac Ben-Israel said, though these would only delay, rather than end, Iran's progress towards atomic weaponry. Echoing government assessments that Iran is about a year away from making enough enriched uranium for a bomb, Ben-Israel, a member of parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, said the window for last-ditch military action was closing. "Last resort means when you reach the stage when everything else failed. When is...

MOSCOW - The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday Georgia's expanding military presence on the borders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia continued to be a matter for grave concern. It said the Georgian military and police presence called for "special attention on the part of the UN and other international organizations operating in the region." A week ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference that, "EU monitors working in areas adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia have been reporting a buildup of Georgian military units and special forces near the borders with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and...

Western powers believe that Iran is running short of the raw material required to manufacture nuclear weapons, triggering an international race to prevent it from importing more, The Times has learnt. Diplomatic sources believe that Iran's stockpile of yellow cake uranium, produced from uranium ore, is close to running out and could be exhausted within months. Countries including Britain, the US, France and Germany have started intensive diplomatic efforts to dissuade major uranium producers from selling to Iran.

US and Egyptian warships were scouring the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea Tuesday, Jan. 20 to waylay an Iranian freighter carrying scores of heavy rockets for delivery to Hamas. DEBKAfile's exclusive sources report they were acting on intellligence that a ship loaded with an estimated 60 tons of arms to replenish Hamas depleted war stocks had set out from the Iranian Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas on Jan. 17. Our sources reveal that the arms-smuggling vessel started its voyage as the Iran-Hedayat and changed its name in mid sea to Famagustus registered to Panama. The captain was ordered...

Commander in Chief, a PC game that puts players in President Obama’s shoes, launches tomorrow, Inauguration Day. Just like the President, players immediately face the same problems and challenges as in the real world – the economy, controlling the military, national security and terrorism, natural disasters, alternative energy sources, and many others – all with the persistent threat of a terrorist attack on a major U.S. city. A game trailer can be seen at www.commander-in-chief.net. The game can be played alone, or, with an Internet connection up to 16 friends. Commander in Chief is played on a detailed 3D world...

Venezuela's Chavez says Obama has "stench" of Bush Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:44pm EST CAMPO CARABOBO, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday Barack Obama had the "stench" of his predecessor as U.S. president and was at risk of being killed if he tries to change the American "empire." Most world leaders expect a new era of U.S. foreign relations when Obama, a Democrat, is sworn in as president on Tuesday after Republican George W. Bush's eight years in the White House. But Chavez said frayed ties with Washington were unlikely to improve despite the departure of...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. security and law-enforcement officials say they have fresh evidence of recent efforts by Iran to evade sanctions and acquire metals from China used in high-tech weaponry, including long-range nuclear missiles, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Iran's efforts are detailed in a series of recent emails and letters between Iranian companies and foreign suppliers seen by The Wall Street Journal.

U.S. security and law-enforcement officials say they have fresh evidence of recent efforts by Iran to evade sanctions and acquire metals from China used in high-tech weaponry, including long-range nuclear missiles. Iran's efforts are detailed in a series of recent emails and letters between Iranian companies and foreign suppliers seen by The Wall Street Journal. Business records show one Iranian company, ABAN Commercial & Industrial Ltd., has contracted through an intermediary for more than 30,000 kilograms (about 66,000 pounds) of tungsten copper -- which can be used in missile guidance systems -- from Advanced Technology & Materials Co. Ltd. of...

Israel Police and the Shin Bet on Thursday indicted an Israeli citizen living in Argentina for allegedly attempting to spy on Israel on behalf of Iran. Mauricio Segel, who is a resident of Argentina, was arrested three weeks ago. He has been indicted on charges of holding contact with a foreign agent. According to the indictment, Segel went to Tehran's embassy in Argentina in 2006 and offered to help Iranian nationals gain access to Israeli documents. The defendant allegedly supplied the Iranians with his own passport and identification card and offered to provide more information in return for money

CARACAS: President Hugo Chávez, buffeted by falling oil prices that threaten to damage his efforts to establish a Socialist-inspired state, is quietly courting Western oil companies once again.

WASHINGTON — After focusing on the ailing economy, President-elect Barack Obama stepped into some of the hottest foreign policy issues this weekend, confirming a clear policy of engagement with Iran, vowing to press immediately for Middle East peace and saying flatly that “we are going to close Guantanamo.” Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Mr. Obama reiterated his intention to work directly with Iran — a country whose president has called for Israel’s destruction — to improve relations and halt a nuclear program that Tehran describes as peaceful but which the West believes is not. But he added that Iran would...

<p>A secret Israeli plan for airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facility was scuttled last year when the United States rebuffed Israel in its request to fly through Iraqi airspace, according to a New York Times report on a covert U.S. program.</p>

U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site By DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON — President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials. White House officials never conclusively determined whether Israel had decided to go ahead with the strike before the United States protested, or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel was trying to...

excerpt: 'Yes We Can' — Change for the Americas Coming from Below Hemispheric resistance to the first attempt by the U.S. to force the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) on every nation on this continent led to its eventual defeat at the IV Summit of the Americas, held in Argentina in 2005. The organizers of the April 2009 V Summit of the Americas had hoped to focus on a social agenda of providing a decent living for all those who call the “Americas” their home. The emergence of the PPA, or Bush’s Plan B for the FTAA, represents...

OPEC's top producer says oil-producing states in the Middle East will not respond to Iran's call to halt crude supplies to Israeli supporters. "The oil producers who need their income ... are not going to do that," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said at a Wednesday news conference. "The use of oil, especially at this time, is an idea that is at least past its worth, he said. "The important thing, oil is not a weapon. You can't reverse a conflict by using oil."

Iran has told Egypt it is ready to treat people wounded in the Israeli assault on Gaza and is seeking permission to set up a field hospital nearby, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Monday. Iranian officials have condemned Israel for its attacks and expressed support for the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, criticizing what they say is the silence of some Arab states. Egypt, the only Arab state to border Gaza, has been a focus for protests by hardline Iranians who say Cairo has not done enough to help the Palestinians. Egypt has partly blamed Hamas for the violence because it...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's military leaders approved a plan by the navy on Sunday to station warships permanently in friendly ports across the globe. Underfunded since the 1991 break up of the Soviet Union , the Russian navy has been reasserting itself over the last year by chasing Somali pirates around the coast of east Africa and steaming across the Atlantic to visit allies in South America. "The General Staff has given its position on this issue and it fully supports the position of the (Navy's) main committee," deputy chief of staff Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn told RIA Novosti news agency....

Nothing Screams "Drill Here Drill Now" more than this story. Mirfeysal Bagherzadeh, a brigadier-general of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and head of one of the country's "Islamic Police" called for a repeat of the 1972 Oil Embargo. He demanded that OPEC Countries should cut off of Oil Supplies to Israel's allies. Thirty-six years ago, the Islamic countries shut off Oil supplies to the US because of friendship with Israel. In the intervening years we have done nothing to prevent another embargo. We have enough Oil reserves to supply the US with fuel for over 100 years, yet we still refuse...

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday met Iran's Supreme National Security Council chief Saeed Jalili to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip, the official SANA news agency reported. It said Jalili, who arrived in Damascus on Friday night, and Assad held talks on "the dangerous situation the Palestinian people of Gaza are going through because of the Israeli aggression." They discussed the "consequences on security and stability in the region of the Israel's aggression continuing" and "ways Islamic countries can force Israel to immediately stop the massacres against the Palestinian people, end the Gaza blockade and...