I've been reading it and keeping up with it. Store up on your ammunition and keep some extra food handy. The world market has lost 2.7 TRILLION dollars since Monday: Think about THAT for a bit. We're on the brink of something major, and it's not the presidential race.

Thank god I live in Germany, if shit happens, I could just take a little walk and just store myself away in safe old Switzerland....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ssile.html

Russia tests new intercontinental ballistic missile

The Russian Navy has successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile, according to reports.

The Bulava missile was launched from a Russian nuclear submarine, the Defence Ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news wires.

The statement said the missile was test-fired from the submerged Dmitry Donskoy submarine, and that its warheads hit a designated target at a military range on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, the news agencies reported.

The news came as US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said Russia was becoming increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad. Ms Rice said Moscow was on a "one-way path to isolation and irrelevance".


http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008 ... 368671.htm

Russia tests shield-busting missile

Russia has test fired a new-generation strategic missile from a submarine, in its latest launch of multiple-warhead weapons designed to breach anti-missile shields.

The ballistic missile was successfully fired from the White Sea to the Kura testing site in Russia's far east.

The missile can be equipped with up to 10 individually targeted nuclear warheads.

The test comes amid Russian anger at US plans to locate a powerful missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic as well interceptor missiles in Poland to combat what it says are threats to global security.



http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?opti ... &Itemid=65

Moscow Prepares to Challenge the West on Arctic Delimitation
September 18, 2008
WINDOW ON EURASIA
September 18, 2008

Paul Goble

President Dmitry Medvedev told the Russian Security Council yesterday that Russia must "in the nearest future" define the border of Russia's claims to the seabed of the Arctic Ocean, an action that will present a serious challenge to the other Arctic powers, including the United States.

"Our first and fundamental task," Medvedev said, "is to convert the Arctic into a resource base for the Russia of the 21st century" by demanding that the international community recognize Moscow's claims to an exclusion zone based on the extent of the continental shelf extending from Russia proper.

According to the Russian president, Russia must guarantee its "energy security" by ensuring that it has unchallenged access to oil and gas reserves under the Arctic Ocean and its role as a bridge between Europe and Asia by guaranteeing that it and no one else controls the Northern shipping route that global warming is opening up.

Following Medvedev's lead which had been anticipated by a meeting last week of some members of the Russian Security Council on an Arctic island, that body approved a policy document on "The Basic Features of Russia's State Policy in the Arctic" which calls for the government to come up with plans for its realization by December 1st.


Major powers to discuss Iran amid Russia tension

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Major powers meet in Washington on Friday to haggle over a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran, but tensions with Russia and the U.S. political calendar hang over the timing of any new measures.

The United States and its European allies France, Germany and Britain are pushing for more sanctions to punish Iran for refusing to give up sensitive nuclear work, but Russia and China are balking, say diplomats and U.S. officials involved.

Senior officials from all six nations are hoping to coordinate strategy over Tehran ahead of next week's U.N. General Assembly in New York, where foreign ministers will discuss Iran on the sidelines of the annual meeting.

Highlighting divergent views, China and Russia will be excluded from a first round of morning discussions, which will also look at Moscow's actions in Georgia, but diplomats said all six nations were expected to attend a second meeting.


http://www.moscownews.net/story/408123

Russia may sell more air defence systems to Iran

Cape Town, Sep 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia is negotiating the delivery of more air defence systems to Iran despite Western demands for a halt in sales to Tehran over its refusal to stop uranium enrichment.

'Contacts between the two countries (on delivery of air defence systems) are continuing and we do not see any reason to suspend them,' Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport chief Anatoly Isaikin told reporters Thursday at the Africa Aerospace and Defence-2008 (AAD-2008) exhibition near Cape Town in South Africa.

Isaikin said deliveries of Russian anti-aircraft weaponry to Iran were aimed exclusively at increasing its air defence capability and were not subject to international restrictions.

Iran recently took delivery of 29 Russian-made Tor-M1 air defence missile systems under a $700-million contract signed in late 2005. Russia has also trained Iranian Tor-M1 specialists, including radar operators and crew commanders.

The US and Israel, which say they have kept open the military option against Iran, were alarmed by media reports, which started circulating as early as 2005, on the possible delivery of the state-of-the-art S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran.

The advance version of the S-300 missile system, called S-300PMU1 (SA-20 Gargoyle), has a range of over 150 km and can intercept ballistic missiles and aircraft at low and high altitudes.



Russia may help Cuba build space center

London, September 18 : After talks in Caracas with Venezuelan and Cuban officials, Russia's space agency chief has said that Moscow is ready to help Cuba develop its own space centre.

According to a report in New Scientist, Russia has stepped up efforts to develop closer links with both countries, which are ideological enemies of Washington, including sending Russian strategic bombers on a mission to Venezuela this month.

"We have held preliminary discussions about the possibility of creating a space centre in Cuba with our help," Anatoly Perminov, the chief of Russia's Federal Space Agency, was quoted as saying in Caracas by Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.

"With our Cuban colleagues, we discussed the possibilities of joint use of space equipment and the joint use of space communications systems," he added.

Russian officials have said they want to renew Cuban ties that were neglected after the Soviet Union's collapse.


Australian committee opposes uranium sale pact with Russia

An Australia parliamentary committee Thursday urged the federal government to delay ratifying an agreement on uranium sales to Russia amid concerns over the country's nuclear programme.

The Labour-led joint standing committee on treaties has recommended that an agreement signed last year by former Liberal prime minister John Howard and Russian leader Vladimir Putin should be delayed until Canberra can be certain Moscow will meet its obligations under the Nuclear non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The agreement, estimated to be worth A$1 billion, was for uranium sales to Russia on the proviso that it will be used for civilian purposes under strict safeguards. However, recent events in Georgia have caused concern in many quarters in Australia about the yellowcake going to Russia.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Robb says while Russia has already met its international obligations, events in Georgia are of concern.

'It is an act which needs to be strongly condemned, and we've done so and the government's done so. Whether it means that we don't proceed with this agreement is a matter for the government to make some judgment on and then explain that decision to the community,' Robb said.

Admitting the complex nature of the relations with Russia, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: 'Obviously the global situation in relation to the Russian Federation is now complex as a result of what we have seen in Georgia and most particularly in Southern Ossetia.'

'If you look back over the last 20 years or so, what has happened in the last couple of months or so in relation to the West's engagement with the Russian Federation, I fear that we are at one of these turning points,' Rudd told reporters.


AND

Tehran report worries Russia, China’ Iran has no fear of sanctions
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Tehran/paris: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Iran has no fear of threatened new international...

Russian lawmakers target Halloween, Valentine
USA Today
Moscow — Russia is opening a new front in its battle with the West over last month's fighting in neighboring Georgia: a move to ban the Western holidays of Halloween and Valentine's Day as bad...

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... crude production after a decline in prices pushed the market value of a barrel of the Urals blend below the cost of getting the fuel to consumers and paying taxes. Analyst Mr Dmitry Lukashov and Ms...

Irony?

http://www.abbaswatchman.com/NEWS%20NAV ... %20UP.html

The probability of another war in the Middle East is high. Only time will tell if the horrors of further warfare is to fully materialize. Even then, the shape of a war is still undecided in terms of its outcome.

If war is to be waged or not against Iran and Syria, there is still the undeniable build-up and development of measures that confirm a process of military deployment and preparation for war.

The diplomatic forum also seems to be pointing to the possibility of war. The decisions being made, the preparations being taken, and the military maneuvers that are unfolding on the geo-strategic chessboard are projecting a prognosis and forecast towards the direction of mobilization for some form of conflict in the Middle East.

In this context, people do not always realize that a war is never planned, executed or even anticipated in a matter of weeks. Military operations take months and even years to prepare.

A classical example is Operation Overlord (popularly identified as “D-Day”), which resulted in the Battle of Normandy and the invasion of France.

Operation Overlord took place on June 6, 1944, but the preparations for the military operation took eighteen months, “officially,” to set the stage for the invasion of the French coast. It was during a meeting in Casablanca, Morocco in January, 1943 that the U.S. President, F.D. Roosevelt, and the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, outlined a strategy to invade Normandy.1

The “Downing Street memo2” even confirms that the decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003 was decided in 2002 by the United States and Britain, and thus the preparations for war with Iraq were in reality started in 2002, a year before the invasion of Iraq took place. The preparations for the invasion of Iraq took at least a full year to arrange.

Long artical, go to link to read more. Yellow_Flash_Colorz_PDT_17

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024599.html

Report: U.S. said no to Israeli strike on Iran


http://story.northkoreatimes.com/index. ... 0810/cs/1/

N. Korea to resume plutonium reprocessing, US concerned
North Korea expels UN team from nuclear plant


http://story.northkoreatimes.com/index. ... 1104/cs/1/

North Korea alleges US planning surprise attack


http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024426.html

Peres: U.S. has no choice but to save world from Ahmadinejad


http://www.iran.mojahedin.org/pagesen/d ... ewsid=3299

Press Conference Iranian Resistance reveals new details on Iranian regime’s nuclear project


http://www.iran.mojahedin.org/pagesen/d ... ewsid=3297

EU Presidency warned Iran on violation of UN resolution and Uranium enrichment


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01603.html

Putin offers nuclear energy help to Chavez


http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1010/42/371228.htm

Medvedev Promises New Subs


http://www.moscownews.net/story/410918

Medvedev seeks faster military reforms


http://abcnews.go.com/International/sto ... 933&page=1

U.S. Drone Shot Down in Pakistan


http://www.moscownews.net/story/411175

Pakistan military opens fire on NATO helicopters


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7636845.stm

Shots fired in US-Pakistan clash


http://www.mnweekly.ru/news/20080926/55348681.html

Russian Navy deploys ships to Venezuela


http://www.mnweekly.ru/news/20080926/55348681.html

Russia should reactivate nuclear icebreaker fleet - PM Putin


http://www.mnweekly.ru/business/20080327/55319264.html

US, Russia, China in Dogfight Over Jet Sales


http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?opti ... &Itemid=65

Czechs say Russian spies stir against U.S. base


http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?opti ... &Itemid=65

Russia forces West to go it alone against Iran nuclear programme


http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?opti ... &Itemid=65

Russia Offers Venezuela $1 Billion to Buy Arms as Chavez Visits


http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?opti ... &Itemid=72

Anti-U.S. Sentiment in Russia Reaches 11-Year High, Poll Shows

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080917/116894260.html

Arctic resources central to Russia's energy security - Medvedev


http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080922/117013835.html

Russia to set new border line in the Arctic


http://en.rian.ru/world/20080919/116962012.html

U.S. plays down Russia's planned Arctic marking


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Mugabe accuses Britain of genocide in UN


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... space.html

China fakes reports from space

Yellow_Flash_Colorz_PDT_37 Yellow_Flash_Colorz_PDT_38 Yellow_Flash_Colorz_PDT_30 Yellow_Flash_Colorz_PDT_23 Yellow_Flash_Colorz_PDT_25

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,428541,00.html

U.S., Russia Agree on U.N. Resolution on Iran Nuclear Program

Russia and the United States have reached a deal to seek a new U.N. resolution on Iran, Britain's U.N. ambassador said Friday.

Ambassador John Sawers spoke before heading into a high-level meeting at U.N. headquarters of nations concerned with events in Pakistan.

After the meeting, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the resolution will be introduced in the Security Council on Friday.

Western diplomats said the resolution would reaffirm three rounds of earlier U.N. sanctions to make clear that the process has not been dropped and that the council wants Iran to comply.

The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because details have not been made public.

The United States, Britain and France have been pressing for a new round of sanctions to step up pressure against Iran for its continuing refusal to suspend uranium enrichment as a prelude to talks on its nuclear program. But Russia and China objected to new sanctions.

The proposed new resolution appears to be a compromise — no new sanctions but a tough statement to Iran that Security Council resolutions are legally binding and must be carried out.