Chart (click to enlarge) And so the tragicomic becomes surreal. Yesterday’s news about the departure of the head of the debt management agency, Spyros Papanicolaou, was somewhat of a yawner, until we realized that his replacement would be none other than Petros Christodoulou, who until today was head of Private Banking and Group Treasury at the National Bank of Greece (reporting directly to the... 

A UN nuclear watchdog report suggests Iran could be developing a nuclear bomb, apparently confirming long-held suspicions in the West. But Tehran denies the claims, again insisting that its atomic intentions are peaceful. Michel Chossudovsky, who’s from an independent Canadian policy research group, believes that what Iran says hardly matters, because the U.S. is planning for war.  Read More »

On Feb. 18, 2010, an army colonel backed by mutinous troops overthrew the government of President Mamadou Tandja. What happened? Will the military junta keep its promises to fight corruption? Will the decade old democracy resist this Coup d’état? Niger is a former French colony so what is France’s position on the seizure of President Mamadou Tandja? Watch video here  Read More »

US Vice President Joe Biden US Vice President Joe Biden says Washington should seek an “adaptive missile defense shield” and conventional warheads with global range. Biden, who spoke at the National Defense University on Thursday, added that development of programs such as the planned anti-missile in Europe would allow the United States to decrease its nuclear weaponry. “Capabilities... 

* Agent claims MI5 and Foreign Office were tipped off * David Miliband vows to ‘get to the bottom’ of affair * Gordon Brown promises an inquiry into identity theft * Dubai police chief calls for arrest of Mossad head * Hamas promises retaliation against Israel MI6 was tipped off that Israeli agents were going to carry out an ‘overseas operation’ using fake British passports,... 

Patrick J Buchanan “I used to think it would take a great financial crisis to get both parties to the table, but we just had one,” said G. William Hoagland, a former adviser to the Senate Republican leadership on fiscal policy. “These days, I wonder if this country is even governable.” Quoted in The New York Times’ lead story, “Party Gridlock Feeds New Fear of a Debt Crisis,” Hoagland... 

At left, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran in Tehran on Tuesday. At right, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Jidda, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program appeared to deepen Tuesday as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton escalated her verbal assault during a Persian Gulf visit and Russia joined the United States and France in bluntly questioning... 

Lebanese troops opened fire Sunday on four Israeli warplanes that flew into Lebanese airspace, the army said. Israeli warplanes frequently fly over Lebanese territory in what Israel says are reconnaissance missions. The overflights have been a constant source of friction between the two countries. Sunday’s incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East following some of the sharpest... 

The city of Dresden after Allied air raids in 1945. Right-wing nationalist groups have referred to the Dresden raids as the “German Hiroshima”. Berlin // Dresden is bracing itself for what could be Germany’s biggest neo-Nazi rally since the Second World War tomorrow when the city marks the 65th anniversary of the Allied air raid that devastated it and killed up to 25,000 people. Authorities... 

Ahmadinejad tells Assad Jewish state must be "resisted with full force." Ahmadinejad tells Assad Jewish state must be “resisted with full force.” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Syrian President Bashar Assad that Israel “must be resisted” and finished off “once and for all” if it launches a military operation in the Middle East, Reuters cited... 

The opening-night speaker at first ever National Tea Party Convention ripped into President Obama, Sen. John McCain and “the cult of multiculturalism,” asserting that Obama was elected because “we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country.” The speaker, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told about 600 delegates in a Nashville, Tenn., ballroom... 

Nikolai Makarov Russia’s top general said on Tuesday that plans for a U.S. missile shield are directed against his country. “The development and establishment of the (U.S.) missile shield is directed against the Russian Federation,” Interfax news agency quoted Russian armed forces chief of staff, Nikolai Makarov, as saying. Source  Read More »

Dealing Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates a diplomatic slap, France announced Monday it will sell at least one amphibious assault warship to Russia. The sale, the first by a NATO member to Russia, comes despite objections from U.S. and other NATO members and was disclosed while Mr. Gates was visiting Paris. The French sale will help Moscow to begin modernizing its aging armed forces at a time when... 

The neo-Nazi National Democratic Party will be allowed to distribute CDs outside schools with interviews and music by party members because authorities have no legal grounds to stop them, a report said Saturday. The Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons said the disc merely contained political opinions, daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. The department therefore found no basis on... 

China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi is welcomed by Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Conference on Security Friday before the start of the 46th Conference on Security Policy in Munich. Speaking with uncharacteristic bluntness, Mr. Yang accused the US of violating international law with its proposed arms sale to Taiwan. Today Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi, speaking with unusual bluntness...