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MOSCOW -- The Russian head of a military pact including several ex-Soviet nations said Friday that the U.S. and NATO bases around Russia were a potential threat to the country, but Moscow has no immediate plans to build up its military presence in Central Asia. While not an immediate danger, those facilities near Russian borders were potentially destabilizing, said Nikolai Bordyuzha, secretary general of the six-nation Collective Security Treaty. The pact links Russia with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. "Military bases around Russia may become a threat if attempts are made to exert political and military pressure on our...

TOKYO (AP) - Plans to realign U.S. military forces in Japan triggered protest rallies Sunday and drew harsh opposition from local officials and citizens' groups, who say not enough troops are leaving the country and the burden of hosting them is just being shifted from one community to another. On Japan's southern island of Okinawa - which hosts most of the 14,460 U.S. Marines in the country - activists staged a 5,000-strong rally to protest crimes, noise and pollution long associated with Marine bases and to demand that more U.S. troops be moved out of Japan than the 7,000 Marines...

TOKYO (AP) - Victims of the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan joined a sit-in rally in Hiroshima on Saturday to protest plans to base a nuclear-powered American warship in the country, an activist said. The protest came as talks got underway between top Japanese and American security officials on how to realign the U.S. military presence in Japan. About 80 people - many of them victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - rallied against plans announced Friday by the U.S. Navy to deploy a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan, said Kazutoshi Kajikawa, who...

US moves Okinawa air base to heal rift By Colin Joyce in Tokyo (Filed: 27/10/2005) The United States agreed yesterday to move an air base into another military site on the Japanese island of Okinawa in a climbdown aimed at reducing friction between the US military and locals. Okinawans, whose small, southern island houses more than half the 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan, have long protested about the disruption to daily life caused by the heavy military presence. The Futenma air base will now be relocated to Camp Schwab Washington and Tokyo agreed to move the Futenma air base...

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - The United States and new NATO member Romania are very close to reaching an agreement to establish American military bases on the Black Sea, U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said on Sunday. Romania has been promoting its airfields and bases as a possible hub for U.S. forces as Washington pulls 70,000 troops out of central Europe and Asia in the next decade to smaller bases closer to potential hot spots such as the Middle East. "There's an issue of finalizing the relevant agreement and then signing it. The framework basically allows access to facilities so as...

The Japanese and U.S. governments have reached a broad agreement under which the United States will return port facilities at Naha Naval Port in Naha and the Makiminato Service Area in Urasoe, Okinawa Prefecture, to Japan, government sources said Saturday. The functions of the two facilities would be integrated with those at Camp Courtney in Uruma in the prefecture, they added. According to the sources, the United States told Japan that the facilities' return must be complimented by a solution to the long-running dispute over the relocation of the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station. To ensure...

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 11 -- After months of talks over continued U.S. access to a military base in Kyrgyzstan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday won formal agreement from the new Kyrgyz leadership for open-ended use of the airfield for continuing military operations and humanitarian programs in nearby Afghanistan. Rice and President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced the deal at a joint news conference here after what a senior State Department official described as difficult negotiations between the two countries. Kyrgyzstan is now requesting additional payment for services and facilities provided to the roughly 1,000 troops who have been based here...

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — The United States won new assurances Tuesday that an important air base used to support the war in Afghanistan will remain open as long as necessary. Rice and Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev (search) signed a brief statement promising open-ended U.S. use of the Manas air base for Afghan operations.....

Germany's Rhein-Main Air Base Closing By MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writer 26 minutes ago The runways that once helped feed a blockaded Berlin, bade Elvis farewell after his Army service and provided the first glimpse of freedom for hostages returning from Iran now stand empty. A hub of U.S. military activity for decades, Rhein-Main Air Base is being given back to Germany and its logistical functions taken over by bases at Ramstein and Spangdahlem. Ceremonies set for Monday will mark the handover, which will take until the end of the year. "The mission has moved," said U.S. Air Force Col....

The United States is losing its best base for continuing the anti-terror operation in Afghanistan -- Karshi-Khanabad -- situated in south-eastern Uzbekistan in direct proximity to the area of fighting. Afghanistan is also unlikely to provide a worthwhile replacement. In the opinion of representatives of the local military and political establishment, whom I met during my recent trip to Kabul, the only base in Afghanistan which could substitute for Khanabad is the aerodrome in Shindand. But it is located in the zone of "military instability" and the United States, although it has inspected it carefully, is cautious about using it....

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2005 – The National Endowment for the Arts launched its "Great American Voices Military Base Tour: Unforgettable Melodies from Opera and Broadway" during a special performance Sept. 28 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery here. The kick-off event featured a performance by soprano Harolyn Blackwell, and a preview performance by the Washington National Opera's "Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Program," which will visit the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and Picatinny Arsenal in Wharton, N.J., as part of the tour. The Great American Voices Military Base Tour is presented in coordination with the Defense Department...

TASHKENT, September 27 (RIA Novosti) - The United States will withdraw its contingent from the Khanabad base according to the timetable set by the Uzbek government, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said Tuesday. He said the U.S. respected Uzbekistan's decision and would withdraw from the base as scheduled by the Uzbek government. In late July, Uzbekistan demanded Washington's withdrawal from the base within six months.

(CNSNews.com) -- Rep. Joe Pitts, a Pennsylvania Republican, has introduced a bill intended to speed the process of building more oil refineries in this country, something that would boost the supply and possibly lower the price of gasoline. Two major hurricanes have temporarily reduced America's oil refining capacity by as much as a third, at a time when world demand for oil has boosted prices to unprecedented levels for American motorists. Rep. Pitts' bill calls on the Bush administration to identify three U.S. military bases slated for closure where oil refineries could be located. The plan, said Pitts, would eliminate...

The United States said on Tuesday it would pay Uzbekistan nearly $23 million for use of an airbase in the country which is a hub for US operations in Afghanistan from which it is being evicted. Members of the US Congress protested the payment. “Uzbekistan in July gave the United States 180 days to leave the Soviet-era Karshi-Khanabad airbase, called K-2, following US criticism of the Uzbek government’s violent suppression of demonstrators in the town of Andijan in May’’ Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The US is continuing to use the base despite restrictions placed by the Uzbek government on...

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Training in five key career fields restarts for 400 Airmen here Sept. 19, six months sooner than base officials forecasted more than a week ago. Then, more students will start training the following week, said Col. Jessie Canaday, 81st Training Group commander. And more students will gradually enter training each week after that as this base continues to recover from the pounding it took from Hurricane Katrina. Air Force officials determined what training would start based on the service’s critical needs, said the colonel, commander of the Air Force’s largest training group. “We’re taking...

The following release concerns active duty and retired military personnel in the area impacted by Katrina who normally use AAFES facilities at Keesler AFB, Camp Shelby and Jackson Barracks. DALLAS -Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) officials have confirmed that its main BX at Keesler AFB suffered major damage due to Hurricane Katrina and will be out of service for an indefinite period of time. AAFES officials believe it will be a few more weeks before there will be proper assessments by engineers on the extent of the damage and a timeline of when the store can reopen. "The...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Military housing, airport hangars, equipment and power lines were heavily damaged at six military bases across Louisiana and Mississippi, forcing nearly $1 billion in emergency repairs, according to base personnel and other defense officials. A Navy facility in New Orleans is partially flooded and all but essential personnel are still evacuated. Hurricane winds and heavy rain slammed other bases, but many are up and running now..... There have been no reported military casualties. A federal base closing commission had voted earlier to shut down one of the damaged bases, Naval Station Pascagoula, as well as the inpatient...

US military officials are denying reports that the Pentagon explored the establishment of an air base in Turkmenistan, a country run by a dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov, who has proven an unpredictable partner in numerous international dealings. Russian media outlets reported August 30 that Turkmenistan may have agreed to make an air base near the city of Mary available to US forces. A report published by the Interfax-AVN news agency suggested that the US military would use the Mary facility as a replacement for a base in neighboring Uzbekistan. In late July, Uzbek authorities announced that US forces had six months...

The nation's airlines have been mobilized to fly up to 25,000 refugees out of New Orleans beginning today, under an emergency plan put into effect for the first time by the Department of Homeland Security. Under the department's national response plan, 15 airlines, including 10 major commercial carriers, will transport up to 25,000 refugees from Louis Armstrong Airport outside New Orleans to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, airlines taking part in the plan said this morning. The airlines are volunteering their aircraft and crew for the program, which is scheduled to begin at noon and run until this...

Beginning today, they'll move into Buildings 1536 and 171 at KellyUSA, a military base-turned-civilian business park on the Southwest Side. Seeking temporary homes for at least 25,000 refugees, the Texas governor's office called Mayor Phil Hardberger on Thursday morning. The mayor agreed to host part of that group. Within hours, city street-cleaning trucks vacuumed debris from the quarter-mile-long Building 1536, which once stored aircraft components, shipping materials and weapons. Public works employees ground down bolts sticking up from the floor. [. . .] It's possible San Antonio will receive more people than it can house in the KellyUSA buildings, Hardberger...