President Barack Obama’s bus During a three-day tour by bus of the Midwest, President Obama provided an early snapshot of his reelection strategy, one in which he’ll try to convince voters that his approach offers the rational path and seek to define Republicans as so unwilling to compromise they would risk financial chaos. And despite alarming levels of unemployment and a volatile market,... 

The Chief of the General Staff of China’s People’s Liberation Army, Chen Bingde, has met his Israeli counterpart Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv. Chen stressed that ties between the two countries’ militaries have been developing in recent years, and the deepening of Sino-Israeli cooperation contributes to regional peace and stability. For his part, Gantz said... 

Australia is almost certain to vote against a Palestinian state next month, despite an apparent push by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd for Canberra to abstain from any such vote. Leaders of the Jewish community reacted angrily yesterday to a report that Mr Rudd had written to Julia Gillard recommending that Australia abstain from the vote at the UN. The diplomatic row came as Victorian Labor leader Daniel... 

Congressman Ron Paul won 4,671 votes in today’s Iowa Republican Straw Poll, topping Governor Mitt Romney’s vote total from 2007 and drawing a near statistical tie with today’s winner at 27.6 percent of the vote versus 28.5 percent. Dr. Paul’s finish earned him a strong second place and it was the fourth highest vote total ever received by a candidate at the important test of candidate strength. Said... 

They descended by the hundreds – black-shirted, bat-wielding youths chasing down darkskinned immigrants through the streets of Athens and beating them senseless in an unprecedented show of force by Greece’s far-right extremists. In Greece, alarm is rising that the twin crises of financial meltdown and soaring illegal immigration are creating the conditions for a rightwing rise – and the July... 

Now is the time for China to use its “financial weapon” to teach the United States a lesson if it moves forward with a plan to sale arms to Taiwan. In fact, China has never wanted to use its holdings of US debt as a weapon. It is the United States that is forcing it to do so. The US House of Representatives just passed a debt ceiling bill on Aug. 1. On the next day, a total of 181 members... 

Eighty-one congressmen, about 20 percent of the US House of Representatives, will visit Israel for week-long trips sponsored by American Israel Education Foundation in next three weeks during Congress’s summer recess. The first group of 26 Democrats are scheduled to arrive as early as Monday. 55 Republican, 26 Democratic congressmen about 20% of US House of Representatives to visit Israel by summers... 

Police disperse supporters and opponents of Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in front of a court building during her trial in Kiev. A Ukrainian court has ordered the arrest of country’s former Prime Minister and high-profile opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko. ­Around 30 police officers surrounded Tymoshenko’s table and escorted the ex-PM out of the court room. After the... 

US Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defence Secretary Leon E. Panetta, during a press conference at the Pentagon, Aug. 4, 2011. The fast increasing military might of China is a growing concern for the US, a top Pentagon official said. “Having just visited China recently, certainly both South Korea and Japan; we’re all concerned with sustaining continued stability... 

NATO is planning a military campaign against Syria to help overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad with a long-reaching goal of preparing a beachhead for an attack on Iran, Russia’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said. The UN Security Council condemned on Wednesday ongoing violence in Syria and urged the country’s authorities to stop using force against peaceful protesters, while... 

A shocking Russian Finance Ministry report prepared for Prime Minister Putin is warning today that massive liquidity runs on American and European financial institutions over the past fortnight are in danger of collapsing the entire global economic system leaving war as the only “option” for the West to use to protect itself from complete obliteration. According to this report, the genesis of... 

USA urges Russia to de-occupy Georgia. This was stated in a resolution adopted by the U.S. Congress, which stresses that Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in line with the resolution, are recognized as the regions of Georgia occupied by the Russian Federation. The resolution urges the Russian government to take steps to meet the conditions of the armistice agreement of 2008 between Georgia and Russia, including... 

US President Barack Obama US President Barack Obama says America is witnessing its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and blamed political wrangling for the worsening of the crisis. “There is no doubt that we have gone through an extraordinary period in world history. We had the worst recession since the 1930s here in the United States,” Obama said in an interview... 

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says he supports calls for Russia to merge with its western neighbor Belarus. Belarus has been an independent state since the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. Speaking at a Kremlin youth camp, Putin said Monday the return to Soviet-style unity is “possible, desirable and wholly dependent on the will of the Belarusian people.” Russia and Belarus already have... 

UN Security Council UN Security Council member Germany on Sunday formally requested emergency consultations by the 15-nation body on the Syrian government’s deadly offensive against demonstrators, a spokesman said. A meeting could be held on Monday. But the move is likely to reopen bitter divisions within the Security Council, which has not yet been able to agree even a statement on President...