Taiwan scraps unification councilTaiwan's President Chen Shui-bian has said he plans to shut down a council set up to oversee the island's eventual unification with China.
The move to abandon the National Unification Council and its guidelines will infuriate China, analysts say.
China believes Mr Chen is pushing for Taiwan's formal independence, which China pledges to use force resisting.
China earlier warned Mr Chen that shutting the council would "trigger a serious crisis".
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Iraq Now Has No Units Able to Stand AloneWASHINGTON — The number of Iraqi army battalions judged capable of fighting the insurgency without U.S. help has slipped from one to zero since September, Pentagon officials said Friday.
But the number of Iraqi battalions capable of leading the battle, with U.S. troops in a support role, has grown by nearly 50%, from 36 to 53, Air Force Lt. Gen. Gene Renuart said, and the number engaged in combat has increased 11%, from 88 to 98.
Renuart said he didn't know ex... (more)
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Tbilisi Denies Rumors of U.S. Using Georgia Bases to Attack IranGeorgia’s president has refuted recent reports that Georgia might allow the U.S. to use its territories to launch an attack on Iran, and expressed his resentment at the rumors.
“The issue is simply out of the question,” Mikhail Saakashvili told the Ekho Moskvy radio station in an interview Sunday.
Georgia’s admission to NATO does not mean that the alliance will be able to place its military bases on territory of the country, Saakashvili added... (more)
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Pentagon report: Insurgent attacks hit postwar highARLINGTON, Va. — Insurgent attacks in Iraq reached a postwar high in the four months preceding Jan. 20, according to a Iraq progress report issued Friday by the Pentagon.
More than 550 attacks took place in Iraq from Aug. 29, 2005, to Jan. 20, 2006, according to the latest “security and stability” report the Defense Department is required to send lawmakers every four months.
Speaking to Pentagon reporters Friday, Assistant Secretary of Defense for ... (more)
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Russia, Iran agree to set up enrichment venture - vice presidentBUSHEHR, February 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Iran have agreed to set up a joint uranium enrichment venture in Russia, the Iranian vice president said Sunday. "We held talks with the Russian side on Russia's proposal yesterday and today. The talks saw good progress. Both sides are pleased with the talks," Gholamreza Agazadeh said after a meeting with Russia's nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko.
"Therefore, we decided to continue the talks in Moscow soon," he added.
Ki... (more)
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Iranian advisor: We'll strike Dimona in response to U.S. attackIf the United States launches an attack on Iran, the Islamic republic will retaliate with a military strike on Israel's main nuclear facility.
Dr. Abasi, an advisor to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, said Tehran would respond to an American attack with strikes on the Dimona nuclear reactor and other strategic Israeli sites such as the port city of Haifa and the Zakhariya area.
Haifa is also home to a large concentration of chemical factories and oil refineries.
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Venezuela cuts US airline flightsVenezuela is cutting flights by US airlines as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate.
From 1 March, flights by Delta and Continental Airlines will be cut by up to 70%, and American Airlines flights will also be affected, officials say.
They accuse the US - which imposed a similar ban on Venezuela 10 years ago - of failing to give Venezuelan carriers equal access to American soil.
Relations between the two countries have long been... (more)
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US Dusts Off Old Plans For IranWhen Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week asked Congress for an extra $75 million to organize and support non-violent opposition in Iran it was as though someone had resurrected the old files on the Reagan administration's successful campaign to undermine the Polish regime, and the even earlier files on the U.S. role in the Hungarian uprising which is being remembered this year on its 50th anniversary.
The latter tragic story is quickly told. In Oct. 1956 the Hungarians r... (more)
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Norwegian Bourse Director wants oil bourse - priced in eurosBourse Director Sven Arild Andersen is fed up with Norwegian oil having to be traded in London and wants to have a commodities and energy bourse in Norway.
The Bourse Director believes that Norway already has the prerequisites for building up a Norwegian or Scandinavian energy bourse.
"This would in such case compete with the bourse in London. Why not have the ambition to outcompete the British petroleum bourse," says Sven Arild Andersen.
"Here, you c... (more)
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Icelandic CIAThis week Minister of Justice Björn Bjarnason called for the creation of an Icelandic Secret Service, a sort of CIA counter terrorism unit.
Although Mr. Bjarnason was hesitant to use the word terrorism when describing this new department, he defended his decision by saying: “We are giving the authorities the tools to act quicker” to follow up leads on terrorism and organized crime like human and drug trafficking.
First, it should be said that the co... (more)
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Emergency declared in PhilippinesPhilippines President Gloria Arroyo has declared a state of emergency, after the army said it had prevented a coup.
She said was taking the action "because of the clear threat to the nation".
A top general is being held, suspected of planning to use rallies marking 20 years since the fall of President Ferdinand Marcos to launch a coup.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Manila on Friday in breach of the emergency order, but were beaten bac... (more)
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Satellite films North Korea dollar factoryOpposition MPs in South Korea yesterday revealed details of what they said was North Korean forging of $100 notes, including a photograph of the plant that printed them.
America has claimed for years that Kim Jong-il's regime makes up for its lack of funds by dealing in drugs and laundering fake US notes. But South Korea, eager not to rouse the North to anger and jeopardise its policy of detente, has denied that there is firm evidence.
Kim Jae-won and Kim Moon-soo, ... (more)
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The Port Sell-Out and the Dismantling of AmericaIt is a stated goal of the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission and the CFR to promote what they call 'interdependence' and to lobby governments to sell off key infrastructure such as roads, lakes, ports, and highways to international corporations so that corporations can grow to be bigger in size than government.
44 of the world's 100 biggest economies are not countries, they are corporations. There is no vote, there is no access to shareholder or CEO records. These corpor... (more)
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Iran Has No WMD — Russia’s Intelligence ChiefIran has no weapons of mass destruction or material for constructing them, a deputy head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Vladimir Zavershinsky said in an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda daily.
“We have no data that Iran has any nuclear warheads or sufficient amount of plutonium for constructing them,” he said.
“In our point of view, it is still possible and should be settled in peaceful manner,” Zavershinsky stressed. “Wha... (more)
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BIS Calls For Global CurrencyThe scandal-ridden and highly secretive Bank For International Settlements, considered to be the world's top central banking policy, has released a policy paper that calls for the end of national currencies in favor of a global model of currency formats.
The BIS is a branch of the of the Bretton-Woods International Financial architecture and closely allied with the Bilderberg Group. It is controlled by an inner elite that represents all the world's major central banking institutio... (more)
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Georgia denies US 'putting out feelers'Following the Post's report that the US was considering using military bases in Georgia as a platform for a possible attack on Iran, the Georgian chief of General Staff denied the claims.
"This is utterly absurd," Levan Nikoleishvili, the Georgian chief of the General Staff told Russian news agency Novosti following the Monday morning report.
The Jerusalem Post was told that American officials have been quietly probing whether Georgia, situated just northwest of Ira... (more)
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Top Secret American Military Installations in Israel A new book by an American military journalist and commentator reveals the extent of the US military presence on Israeli soil.
“Code Names,” by William M. Arkin, exposes information about at least five US Army bases at secret locations throughout the Jewish State, including one at Ben Gurion Airport and another in Herzliya Pituah. The book also provides a long list of code names describing joint military operations between Israel and America.
Arkin is an... (more)
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Iran-Russian nuclear talks closeIranian and Russian officials have ended two days of talks on a Russian plan to enrich uranium on its territory for use in Iran's reactors.
It is not clear what the talks may have achieved as the Iranian delegation prepared to leave Moscow on Tuesday.
A senior Iranian official described the talks as "positive and constructive" and said they would continue.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it was too early to declare the talks a failure.
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US Asks Georgia to Use Bases and Airfields for Attacks on Iran — PaperAmerican officials are probing whether Georgia, situated just northwest of Iran, will allow Washington to use its military bases and airfields in the event of a military conflict with Teheran, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday citing an unnamed Georgian official.
The Americans have been putting out feelers, the source, a high-ranking Georgian government foreign affairs official said, in advance of a possible military strike to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capabilit... (more)
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US style of human rights based on torture: IranLONDON, February 20 (IranMania) - Iran's Minister of Defense and Logistics of Armed Forces Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said that the human rights favored by US President George Bush are based on clandestine cells, torture, terror, wire tapping of American civilians, sacrilege to religious sanctities, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and attack on civilians.
According to the Public Relations Department of Defense Ministry, the minister made the remarks in ... (more)
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US military planes criss-cross Europe using bogus call signTHE American military have been operating flights across Europe using a call sign assigned to a civilian airline that they have no legal right to use.
Not only is the call sign bogus — according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) — so, it appears, are some of the aircraft details the Americans have filed with the air traffic control authorities.
In at least one case, a plane identified with the CIA practice of “extraordinary re... (more)
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Rice Empties Both Barrels on Venezuela's Chavezby Jim Kouri - The Venezuelan president, viewed by the Bush Administration as a communist madman, got some choice words from the US Secretary of State over concerns that he's forming ties to terrorists and extremists.
Making her sharpest criticisms yet about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Condoleezza Rice said that Venezuela and Cuba are ''sidekicks'' of Iran and dangers to Latin American democracies. and gave new details of a US diplomatic campaign to contain Chavez. Recently,... (more)
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US wants to boost sanctions against SyriaWASHINGTON: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that the United States wants to strengthen its sanctions against Syria and is trying to convince other nations to follow suit.
“We intend to use the Syrian Accountability Act and use it to its fullest,” the top US diplomat told Congress, referring to a 2003 law that allows the US administration to impose sanctions against Syria.
The law, which provides for a series of six diplomatic, economic ... (more)
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