Free Republic

Russia has displaced the United States as the world's No. 1 arms exporter not just because its weapons are cheaper, but because many of them are very good. According to Russian military commentator Nikita Petrov writing for RIA Novosti, in 2007 Russia earned more than $5.5 billion in weapons exports and has a backlog of orders worth more than $20 billion. Different institutions have different measuring yardsticks for weapons exports and definitions on what they are. However, the U.S. Congressional Research Service estimated Russian arms sales as worth $7.1 billion in its report "Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1998-2005."...

A JAPANESE man who flew to Hong Kong from mainland China has been hospitalised with fever and is being tested for SARS, officials said today. The 29-year-old man, who had been in the mainland city of Dalian, was being treated in isolation a spokeswoman for Hong Kong's Queen Elizabeth Hospital said. The man was in stable condition and authorities were conducting various tests, including one for the SARS virus, she said. A report on Hong Kong's Commercial Radio said the man's chest x-ray showed patches – which can appear in SARS patients.