Russia remains a Black Sea power

If the struggle in the Caucasus was ever over oil and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) agenda towards Central Asia, the United States suffered a colossal setback this week. Kazakhstan, the Caspian energy powerhouse and a key Central Asian player, has decided to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Russia over the conflict with Georgia, and Russia's de facto control over two major Black Sea ports has been consolidated.

Report: Israel won't allow a nuclear Iran

According to Ma'ariv, Sneh offered the two candidates the "sane, cheap and the only option that does not necessitate bloodshed." To prevent Iran's nuclear aspirations, Sneh wrote, "real" sanctions applied by the US and Europe were necessary. A total embargo in spare parts for the oil industry and a total boycott of Iranian banks would promptly put an end to the regime, which is already pressured by a sloping economy and would be toppled by the Iranian people if they have outside assistance, he said.

The window of opportunity Sneh suggests is a year and a half to two years, until 2010.

The whole world has the travel bug. And it's ravaging the planet

CIA memos reveal doubts over 'key' Lockerbie witness

Mr Giaka eventually returned to Tripoli in 1990 after the CIA money dried up. But the agency kept in touch with him and finally persuaded him in 1991 to come to America. Nine years later, Majid Giaka arrived at the Lockerbie bombing trial in the Netherlands. He described how he had seen Megrahi and his co-accused, Khalifa Fhimah, at Luqa airport before the bombing with a large brown suitcase. But the CIA cables confirm that nearly two years before, Mr Giaka didn't remember anything.

At the Lockerbie trial, the four judges described some of his evidence as "at best grossly exaggerated and at worst simply untrue" and concluded he was "largely motivated by financial considerations".

Christians hide in forests as Hindu mobs ransack villages

Thousands of terrified Indian Christians are hiding in the forests of the volatile Indian state of Orissa after a wave of religious 'cleansing' forced them from their burnt-out homes with no immediate prospect of return.

A mob of Hindu fundamentalists rampaged through villages last week, killing those too slow to get out of their way, burning churches and an orphanage, and targeting the homes of Christians.

OSCE observers fault Georgians in conflict

Pakistani city of Peshawar could fall to Taliban as fear and attacks grow

"We want peace, but we can not have it because of this terrorist America which orders our government to attack its own people," he said. "The Taliban are Godly people, they are Islamic, and we are happy that they send suicide bombers for revenge.

How the Republicans win

Barack Obama made it across the tightrope of the Democratic National Convention, gaining solid endorsements from Bill and Hillary Clinton and giving a rousing speech before some 80,000 supporters at Invesco Field in Denver. But now comes the time when the Republicans win elections.

What a mess to clean up

Georgian port is focal point of standoff with Russia

Weeks before Russia invaded Georgia earlier this month, excavators in this key Black Sea port began to lay the ground for a $200 million tax-free zone to triple the port's capacity and create, Georgian officials said, the Dubai of the Caucasus.

The RNC just gutted the DNC again

Up, in the sky: Black helicopters startle Portlanders

The sudden appearance of black helicopters carrying apparently armed men and buzzing around Portland generated dozens of calls to emergency dispatchers and the mayor's office from residents and visitors.

It's nothing to worry about, city and federal officials insisted Tuesday. And, by the way, you might see more of the same tonight.

The four MH-6 helicopters are part of a joint training exercise for U.S. Army and Navy special operations forces that had been planned for months, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

Galilee drying up, Syria-Israel claim shoreline

The next round of the fledgling talks between Israel and Syria are due to begin and, according to Walid al-Moualem, the foreign minister in Damascus, control of the Sea's shoreline is a bone of contention.

Only a two-page 'note' governs U.S. military in Afghanistan

Although President Bush pledged in a 2005 declaration signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to "develop appropriate arrangements and agreements" formally spelling out the terms of the U.S. troop presence and other bilateral ties, no such agreements were drawn up.

But after a U.S.-led airstrike last week that United Nations and Afghan officials have said killed up to 90 civilians — most of them children — Karzai has publicly called for a review of all foreign forces in Afghanistan and a formal "status of forces agreement," along the lines of an accord being negotiated between the United States and Iraq.

The prospect of codifying the ad hoc rules under which U.S. forces have operated in Afghanistan since late 2001 sends shudders through the Bush administration,

Defending Islam, hacker defaces thousands of Dutch websites

Catholic schools in India protest

Thousands of Catholic schools are shut across India in protest against continuing anti-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa. . . .

Over 3000 police have been deployed but attacks on churches continue. Hundreds of Christians have fled their homes.

U.S. radar system deployed in Israel a first

The radar deployment will have historical significance: the first American base on Israeli territory.

Israel has always had reservations about such a possibility and preferred to "defend itself by itself" and retain maximum freedom of action. . . .

In the current circumstances, the radar deployment, planned to take place in the coming months, has two possible meanings.

One: a signal to Israel not to attack Iran. . . .

The second meaning is less likely, but should not be ignored: The United States is planning to attack Iran, or to back an Israeli strike, and it is preparing Israel's defenses against a possible Iranian response.

Why was Cheney's guy in Georgia before the war?

Maliki picks a date with destiny

Generations of Iraqi leaders have succumbed to the "Iraqi curse" - dying violent deaths while in office or soon after leaving it. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's date with destiny could well be determined by his present fixation on another date — when United States troops should permanently leave his country.

This week, Maliki reiterated that he had agreed with the United States that all 145,000 American troops would withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2010. The negotiations are for a Status of Forces Agreement to govern relations between American troops and the Iraqis after the United Nations mandate expires this December.

Maliki said there would be no security agreement with the US without an unconditional timetable for withdrawal, . . .

Switzerland frees $60 million in Zardari’s assets

Mr. Zardari’s accounts were frozen in 1997 at the request of Pakistani authorities investigating allegations that Mr. Zardari had received kickbacks while he was a government official and his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was prime minister.