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El Pentágono admite que un avión militar violó el espacio aéreo venezol
2008-05-20 05:23:00
Estados Unidos asegura que la incursión aérea se debió a un acto completamente involuntario.- El ministro de Exteriores de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, ha citado al embajador norteamericano para que explique el sobrevuelo sobre unas islas al norte de Caracas.El Pentágono ha reconocido que un avión militar estadounidense violó el espacio aéreo venezolano el pasado sábado 17 de mayo. El anuncio de Washington se produce horas después de que Venezuela pidiera explicaciones a Estados Unidos por una incursión aérea producida pasado el fin de semana y solicitara la comparecencia del embajador norteamericano en Caracas, Patty Dutty, para que ofreciera explicaciones sobre el hecho. El Pentágono ha asegurado que la incursión de uno de sus aviones en territorio venezolano se debió a un acto completamente involuntario.El incidente se produjo en la noche del sábado, cuando los radares venezolanos detectaron que una aeronave sobrevolaba el archipiélago de La Orchila, a 160 kilómet...

Russia's oil industry. Trouble in the pipeline
2008-05-11 20:36:00
Despite booming demand and record prices, Russia's oil industry faces problems.WHEN the price of oil reached another record on May 6th, of over $122 a barrel, analysts pointed to attacks on pipelines in Nigeria and turmoil in Iraq as the immediate causes. Even small disruptions to supplies from such places can cause the price to jump, since only Saudi Arabia has the capacity to replace the lost production, and it does not seem inclined to do so. But to understand how supplies became so scarce in the first place, one must look at the state of the oil industry in Russia, the world's second-biggest producer. Over the past seven years, according to Citibank, Russia accounted for 80% of the growth in oil production outside the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. The increase in its output in the early part of the decade matched the growth in demand from China and India almost barrel for barrel. Yet in April, production fell for the fourth month in a row. It is now over 2...
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Angry China
2008-05-11 20:29:00
CHINA is in a frightening mood. The sight of thousands of Chinese people waving xenophobic fists suggests that a country on its way to becoming a superpower may turn out to be a more dangerous force than optimists had hoped. But it isn't just foreigners who should be worried by these scenes: the Chinese government, which has encouraged this outburst of nationalism, should also be afraid. For three decades, having shed communism in all but the name of its ruling party, China 's government has justified its monopolistic hold on power through economic advance. Many Chinese enjoy a prosperity undreamt of by their forefathers. For them, though, it is no longer enough to be reminded of the grim austerity of their parents' childhoods. They need new aspirations. The government's solution is to promise them that China will be restored to its rightful place at the centre of world affairs. Hence the pride at winning the Olympics, and the fury at the embarrassing protests during the torch re...
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A parade of power in Russia
2008-05-11 02:23:00
In the past week tanks, nuclear-bomb carriers and armoured vehicles drove up and down Tversakaya street—Moscow's main drag—and military jets whizzed past your correspondent's kitchen window, scaring children and knocking over plants. Reportedly damage caused to the roads will cost 1 billion roubles ($44m) to repair. This was in preparation for a military parade that was held on Friday May 9th on Red Square. Such parades are held every year, but this was the first time since the cold war that Russia brandished its military hardware. The parade was supposed to celebrate victory in the second world war, but it also symbolised the return of Russia as a triumphant power in the course of eight years of Vladimir Putin's rule. This was only in part a Soviet style affair: the Lenin Mausoleum which witnessed such affairs in Soviet times was covered by a banner. It was a contemporary show.Coming two days after the inauguration of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia's president, it was supposed t...
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India to upgrade over 50 Mirage fighters
2008-05-11 01:21:00
India is close to sign a contract with France, worth an estimated 1 billion euros ($1.54 billion) for the upgrade of the 51 Mirage-2000 fighters in service with the Indian air force (IAF), a national newspaper said on Friday, citing military sources. The contract may be signed in summer pending price negotiations. In March 2008, India signed a $964 million deal with Russia for the upgrade of 63 MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters. According to the Times of India newspaper, "the upgraded Mirage-2000 jets will get new avionics, including an advanced navigation system, new mission computers with increased capacity and processing speed, helmet-mounted displays, glass cockpits, internal electronic warfare suites and, of course, better armaments and weapon systems." India bought 40 Mirage-2000s in the mid-1980s, and later added another 20 aircraft. Since then, 10 Mirages have been lost in crashes. IAF is pursuing the modernization of its fleet of Russian MiGs, British Jaguars and French Mirage-2000s ...
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China's submarine progress alarms India
2008-05-10 20:28:00
By Siddharth Srivastava NEW DELHI - Recent reports about China's nuclear-powered submarine and naval capabilities are raising concern in New Delhi. It has also drawn attention to India 's failure to effectively implement an elaborate naval expansion plan that stands significantly delayed. According to reports, commercial satellite images indicate that the Chinese are building a massive strategic naval base on Hainan island, in the South China Sea, south of Hong Kong. This confirms suspicions of several Asian nations since 2002 about the underground submarine base. A reputed British daily has described the base as a "vast, James Bond-style edifice capable of concealing up to 20 nuclear-powered submarines and which will enable China to project its power across the region". Nuclear submarines can remain under water longer than conventional diesel-electric submarines and are thus difficult to detect. They are also capable of firing nuclear warheads. Refusing to confirm or deny the base...
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An oil-addicted ex-superpower
2008-05-10 20:11:00
By Michael T Klare Nineteen years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall effectively eliminated the Soviet Union as the world's other superpower. Yes, the USSR as a political entity stumbled on for another two years, but it was clearly an ex-superpower from the moment it lost control over its satellites in Eastern Europe. Less than a month ago, the United States similarly lost its claim to superpower status when a barrel of crude oil roared past US$110 on the international market, gasoline prices crossed the $3.50 threshold at American pumps, and diesel fuel topped $4. As was true of the USSR following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the US will no doubt continue to stumble on like the superpower it once was; but as the nation's economy continues to be eviscerated to pay for its daily oil fix, it, too, will be seen by increasing numbers of savvy observers as an ex-superpower-in-the-making. That the fall of the Berlin Wall spelled the erasure of the Soviet Union's superpower status ...
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Los papeles de las FARC acusan a Chávez
2008-05-10 18:59:00
El ordenador de Raúl Reyes revela la colaboración del presidente con la guerrillaEl pasado 8 de noviembre, Hugo Chávez recibía en Caracas a Luciano Marín, alias Iván Márquez, dirigente de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). El motivo: impulsar el acuerdo humanitario con Colombia para canjear a 44 secuestrados por 500 guerrilleros presos. Eso fue la parte pública. Pero hubo otra reunión secreta. En ella, el presidente venezolano "aprobó sin pestañear la solicitud" de 300 millones de dólares [194 millones de euros] hecha por la guerrilla marxista. Además, se diseñó un plan para recibir en la región venezolana del Orinoco el armamento enviado a las FARC por dos traficantes australianos y se puso en marcha un mecanismo de coordinación entre la guerrilla y el Ejército venezolano, al más alto nivel.Así lo cuenta el propio Iván a sus compañeros del Secretariado de las FARC en un correo datado el 12 de noviembre de 2007. El mensaje está en uno de l...
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Vladimir Putin tells summit he wants security and friendship
2008-04-05 18:30:00
President Putin , in a bravura performance before the world’s media at the end of the Nato summit, warned President Bush and other alliance leaders that their plan to expand eastwards to Ukraine and Georgia “didn’t contribute to trust and predictability in our relations”. The Russian President, who hands over to Dmitri Medvedev on May 7, said that the world’s problems could not be solved without Russia and he appealed for the West to give due consideration to his country’s security concerns. “So let’s be friends, guys, let’s be frank and open,” he said through an interpreter. Expansion of the alliance to Russia’s borders “would be taken in Russia as a direct threat to the security of our country”. Nato statements that this was not directed against Russia were not enough, he said. Mr Putin, who strode into the huge press conference centre inside Ceausescu’s palace in Bucharest to a round of applause from many of the waiting journalists, declared that his c...
More About: Security , Friendship , Summit , Vladimir Putin

George Bush and Vladimir Putin unveil final double act
2008-04-05 18:26:00
Tomorrow's seaside summit of the presidents of Russia and the United States will bring down the curtain on a double act that has lasted for 28 performances and seven years. George Bush will join Vladimir Putin at his summer residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for their last meeting before the Russian leader stands down in favour of Dmitri Medvedev next month. Mr Bush is the man who famously claimed to have looked his counterpart in the eye and got “a sense of his soul” at their first meeting in June 2001. The judgment of history awaits both men. In 2000 Mr Bush was in charge of a confident international colossus, ready to flex its economic and military muscles to make its vision of the world come true; Russia was still a humbled former superpower struggling to get to grips with post-Soviet reality and fighting - and apparently losing - a war with separatists in Chechnya. What a difference eight years makes. After 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq, Mr Bush is regarded at home as...
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La Casa Blanca espera que las conversaciones entre Bush y Putin se desarrol
2008-04-05 18:18:00
Ambos líderes tratarán el escudo antimisiles, el tratado de armas convencionales y la ampliación de la OTAN La Casa Blanca espera que la reunión entre el presidente estadounidense, George W. Bush , y su homólogo ruso, Vladimir Putin , se desarrollen en la “dirección correcta”, de cara a la firma de un “marco estratégico de trabajo”, según ha informado la portavoz Dana Perino.En la reunión prevista para hoy en el balneario ruso de Sochi, ambos líderes conversarán sobre el Sistema de Defensa Antimisiles (DAM), el tratado de armas convencionales FACE, así como la situación en Kosovo, Oriente Próximo y la ampliación de la OTAN.En relación al escudo antimisiles que Estados Unidos pretende instalar en el centro de Europa, Perino subrayó que “de momento nadie ha dicho que todo haya finalizado”, dadas las fuertes críticas de Rusia, que considera que el sistema supone un incremento innecesario de la tensión en la zona.“Creemos que el diálogo se encamina en la ...

Putin descarta una nueva Guerra Fría
2008-04-05 18:10:00
El presidente ruso apuesta por el diálogo para resolver las diferencias con la OTAN - Moscú permitirá a la Alianza cruzar Rusia para apoyar a las tropas en Afganistán.El presidente de Rusia, Vladímir Putin , evitó ayer las amenazas en su reunión con los líderes de la OTAN, pero mantuvo firme su posición sobre los temas que le inquietan, como la ampliación de la Alianza hasta las fronteras rusas y la instalación de elementos del escudo antimisiles norteamericano en Polonia y la República Checa.Medios de la delegación rusa indicaron que a los problemas ya existentes entre Moscú y la Alianza se ha unido otros suplementarios en la cumbre de la Alianza en Bucarest y éstos hacen referencia también al escudo, un tema que quedó reservado para la reunión de los presidentes de Rusia y Estados Unidos este fin de semana en Sochi, en la costa rusa del Mar Negro. En la sesión del Consejo Rusia-OTAN a puerta cerrada, Putin "reprochó" a la Alianza Atlántica el "desdeñar los int...
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Bush abre la puerta de la OTAN al resto de los Balcanes
2008-04-05 18:06:00
El presidente estadounidense tiende la mano a Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro y Serbia.- Afirma que la oferta de ingreso de Croacia y Albania representa “un voto de confianza”.La puerta de la OTAN está abierta a todos los países del este europeo y los Balcanes. Es el mensaje que ha lanzado hoy el presidente de EE UU, George W. Bush , en un discurso en Zagreb para felicitar a los nuevos miembros de la Alianza, al mismo tiempo que ha afirmado que la oferta de ingreso a países balcánicos representa “un voto de confianza” con el que Croacia y Albania continuarán sus reformas y serán “miembros firmes” de la Alianza.“La OTAN está abierta a todos los países de la región”, ha dicho Bush ante una abarrotada plaza de San Marco. El mandatario también ha recordado que la Alianza ha ofrecido un “diálogo intensificado” a Bosnia y a Montenegro, dos repúblicas ex yugoslavas y ha hecho un llamamiento a Serbia para que se acerque a la OTAN y encuentre “el lugar que le c...

Un nuevo progresismo
2008-04-05 18:01:00
Emerge un nuevo progresismo en el mundo, continuador de una tradición fecunda e innovador en muchos aspectos. Hoy y mañana, buena parte de él se congrega en Londres. Allí están convocados más de doscientos políticos, académicos, expertos y policy-makers de todo el globo, incluyendo una decena de jefes de Estado y de Gobierno. Es lo que se denomina Cumbre de Gobiernos Progresistas. Asistiré a dicha reunión en mi calidad de presidenta de Chile; como representante de una nación que, desde la recuperación de su libertad, ha optado democráticamente caminar por el sendero del desarrollo inclusivo, de la prosperidad y la justicia social.Se realiza esta reunión en un momento especialmente clave para las ideas progresistas. A comienzos de esta década dejaron el poder una serie de gobiernos de centroizquierda en todo el mundo, especialmente en Europa, terminando aquella marea progresista que se gestó a fines de los años noventa. Pero poco a poco el centroizquierda ha ido gana...

Saudi king rejects Cheney's belligerency
2008-03-22 18:25:00
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in a meeting with visiting US Vice President Dick Cheney has rejected any US military strike against Iran. King Abdullah is against any US military strike against Iran, Saudi official sources said. Cheney who arrived in Saudi Arabia on Friday discussed Iran's nuclear program and its increasing influence in the Middle East with senior Saudi officials, DPA reported. Saudi Arabia, along with other Persian Gulf Arab countries, sees negotiations as the best way to resolve the standoff between the US and Iran. The king also told Cheney that the Middle East should be free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, the sources added. The Saudis say any nuclear non-proliferation efforts should include Israel, which is widely believed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East with around 200 nuclear warheads. The US vice president's efforts to drum up support for Washington's war mongering policies against Iran comes as a recent NIE report...
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Cheney in oil talks with Saudis
2008-03-22 18:13:00
US Vice-President Dick Cheney has met Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to discuss ways of stabilising the oil market. US officials said there was "a lot of commonality" in the talks in Riyadh on the way to move forward in the global energy market.Oil prices have risen about 16% this year, but the oil producers' cartel, Opec, has declined to raise output. On Thursday, Mr Cheney held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, urging greater Nato commitment. Mr Cheney's Middle East tour also took him to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, five years after the US-led invasion. He will also visit Israel, the West Bank and Turkey before returning to Washington.Market volatility In meetings that also included Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, US officials said there was a "very thorough" discussion of short, medium and long-term goals for the oil market. "There was I think a lot of commonality in their assessment about the structural problems confronted by the global energy market now and so...

La OCDE certifica que la economía de EE UU está al borde de la recesión
2008-03-22 18:06:00
Para la economía de Estados Unidos, la recesión es una posibilidad que cada vez está más cerca de tornarse en certeza. Muchos expertos, con el ex presidente de la Reserva Federal, Alan Greenspan, a la cabeza, dan por descontado que el PIB estadounidense ha dejado ya de crecer y que su valor se reduce. Pero la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) es el primer organismo multilateral que constata que EE UU puede entrar en recesión este año.En la última revisión de sus previsiones para este año, la OCDE, que aglutina a las principales economías occidentales, reduce de forma notable su estimación para Estados Unidos. Así, mientras la previsión para la zona euro no se cambia (1,9%), el crecimiento anual del PIB estadounidense en 2008 pasaría del 2% al 1,4%. Un vaticinio que se apoyaría en una recuperación a partir de la segunda mitad del año, porque hasta el verano el panorama es poco alentador. El informe apunta a un crecimiento sobre el t...

Sarkozy y Brown se alían para crear una nueva generación de centrales nuc
2008-03-22 17:52:00
Francia y Reino Unido anunciarán la próxima semana un plan de cooperación nuclear durante la visita del presidente francés a Londres.Francia y Reino Unido anunciarán la próxima semana un plan común para construir nuevas centrales nucleares y exportar tecnología, según informa el diario The Guardian este sábado. Según este diario, la tecnología francesa puede ser muy útil al Gobierno británico para ejecutar su proyecto de construir de una nueva generación de centrales nucleares, aprobado recientemente.El anuncio del acuerdo se realizará probablemente la próxima semana en el transcurso de la visita oficial a Londres del presidente francés, Nicolas Sarkozy , que se reunirá el jueves en Londres con el primer ministro británico, Gordon Brown . Brown espera que el plan de cooperación permita a Reino Unido dotarse de personal cualificado para las centrales. Los británicos, por su parte, trabajarían con los franceses para exportar tecnología a todo el mundo en el curso...
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Idealists with guns or evil ideologues: the neocon myth
2008-03-17 00:44:00
“We know where they [the WMDs] are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.” Donald Rumsfeld March 30, 2003After Saddam Hussein, perhaps the biggest political casualties of the war in Iraq, at least in the view of armchair pundits, were a once-obscure but a now globally notorious bunch of American thinkers and activists called the neoconservatives. Few loosely aggregated groups of intellectuals and their sympathisers in government have been as universally reviled in the popular mind as the neocons. For their persistent advocacy of regime change, and their insistence that the US should not shrink from using its military power to achieve it, they are widely believed to have provided the intellectual basis for the invasion of Iraq. Five years after the invasion they tend to be viewed as either a gang of uniquely malevolent ideologues intent on widening American dominion through violent means, or a bunch of helplessly naive idealists...
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Iran’s hardliners surge ahead in poll
2008-03-17 00:35:00
THE hardline supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the firebrand Iranian president, appeared to be heading for victory in parliamentary elections last night, despite earlier predictions that more pragmatic conservatives who favour a less confrontational approach to the West might triumph. With half the 290 seats in the Majlis, or parliament, declared, Ahmadinejad’s backers had surged ahead with 57, compared with 40 for the moderate slate. Analysts had forecast that the pragmatic conservatives led by Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, the mayor of Tehran, and Ali Larijani, the former international negotiator on Iran’s nuclear programme, might win the day and temper Ahmadinejad’s radical policies. Both men are considered to be possible challengers to the diminutive president in elections next year. When Qalibaf lost the 2005 presidential election, he replaced Ahmadinejad as mayor of Tehran. He has since used the office to advance his own 2009 campaign. Larijani resigned as Iran’s chief neg...
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Iran faces power play after vote
2008-03-17 00:29:00
On the face of it, the victory was fairly overwhelming. By Sunday evening, conservatives had won four times as many seats as the reformists, retaining control of the Iran ian parliament. No doubt they will take it as an endorsement of their uncompromising view of Iran's Islamic system, of the nuclear programme, and of Iran's assertive foreign policy. No doubt they will conveniently forget that a large proportion of the reformist candidates were disqualified. And the cards were stacked against reformists in other ways. They were often not allowed to hold public rallies. Their newspapers were regularly closed down. Nevertheless, even in Tehran, where voters did have a range - sometimes a bewildering range - of reformists and conservatives to choose from, supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad topped the poll. Power struggle It all looks like good news for the president, bad news for Western governments hoping for the moderates to temper those aggressive policies. But as he prepa...
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LA POLÍTICA EXTERIOR DE ESPAÑA TRAS EL 9-M
2008-03-14 02:25:00
Por Andrés OrtegaSea osado en política exteriorConstruya sobre lo que ya se ha conseguido. Después, atrévase a lanzar sus nuevas propuestas y, sobre todo, manténgalas. Enhorabuena por su victoria. Debe prepararse para lo imprevisible, pero empiece a planear lo previsible. La política exterior, por diversas razones, no ha brillado durante los pasados cuatro años, en los que no pareció ser (importa poco que la percepción fuera fundada o no) una de las prioridades del presidente del Gobierno, más volcado en las cosas de casa. Y cuando falla el input presidencial, en nuestros tiempos falla mucho. No se duerma, presidente. Sea osado. En esta legislatura habrá ocasiones para hacer una política exterior firme y clara. El próximo enero, EE UU estrenará presidente. Nicolas Sarkozy, en Francia, no para de lanzar iniciativas. No se limite a rechazarlas ni a secundarlas; lance las suyas. Eso sí, no repita el error que se cometió en la anterior legislatura: anunciarlas sin tenerl...

Russia's uneasy handover
2008-03-04 04:48:00
MOST elections have an element of uncertainty about them. Not Russia's. This weekend, barring a miracle, Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin's handpicked successor, will win the Russian presidency by a landslide. The emasculation of the country's fragile democracy—from the Kremlin's monopoly over television to the crushing of any serious opposition candidates—is enough to ensure that. But so is Mr Putin's popularity: he enjoys an approval rating above 70%. This figure is artificially exaggerated, as is to be expected in a country with no democratic tradition, almost no free media and no independent power centres. But there is little reason to doubt that many, perhaps most, Russians are satisfied with Mr Putin's apparently successful eight years in office and willing to accept his choice of Mr Medvedev. Yet Mr Medvedev's chances of maintaining this level of satisfaction seem remote. Mr Putin's reputation rests on four chief claims advanced by his supporters, both at home and...

El presidente de Irán exige en Bagdad la salida de los soldados de EE UU
2008-03-04 04:45:00
El presidente iraní, Mahmud Ahmadineyad, concluyó ayer su histórica visita a Bagdad con un llamamiento a la salida de las tropas estadounidenses de Irak, cuya presencia calificó de "humillación para los países de la zona". También negó las acusaciones norteamericanas de que su país entrena a terroristas. De madrugada, Ahmadineyad rezó en la mezquita de Kadhumiya, el más importante santuario chií de Bagdad, poniendo de relieve el simbolismo de su viaje."Consideramos que las fuerzas venidas del extranjero y que han viajado miles de kilómetros deben marcharse y devolver su soberanía a los pueblos de la región", declaró el presidente iraní durante la conferencia de prensa con la que cerró su visita de dos días a Bagdad. En referencia a los 160.000 soldados estadounidenses desplegados en Irak, dijo que "sólo han traído destrucción" y que el coste de las operaciones militares hubiera podido financiar el desarrollo del país. "Su presencia es una humillación para los...
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El Consejo de Seguridad refuerza las sanciones contra Teherán
2008-03-04 04:43:00
El Consejo de Seguridad de Naciones Unidas adoptó ayer, por una amplia mayoría, una nueva resolución exigiendo a Irán que suspenda su programa nuclear y activando el régimen de sanciones. Para ello, se imponen nuevas restricciones al comercio de bienes civiles y militares con la República Islámica, y se pide que se vigilen las actividades financieras de dos bancos. Las entidades sospechosas son el Bank Melli y el Bank Saderat. Además, se contempla la congelación de activos de una docena de compañías y otra docena de individuos vinculados al programa atómico y de misiles balísticos. Los países deberán informar a la ONU sobre los viajes que realicen a su territorio las personas en la lista. Y se amplía la prohibición de viajes.La resolución también pide que se haga un "ejercicio de vigilancia" al firmar nuevos acuerdos comerciales con Irán, y autoriza a que se realicen inspecciones a las mercancías de doble uso (civil y militar) que tengan como origen o destino es...
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El tándem Putin-Medvédev toma las riendas de Rusia
2008-03-04 04:37:00
Vladímir Putin y Dmitri Medvédev comenzaron ayer a entrenarse en tándem como presidente saliente y presidente entrante y abordaron la tarea de reformar la estructura del Gobierno a fin de tenerla a punto para el relevo en el Kremlin el próximo mayo.Los datos de la comisión electoral central, basados en el 99,75% de los votos emitidos, indicaban que Medvédev había obtenido el 70,24%, casi 52,2 millones de votos, lo que supone un porcentaje ligeramente inferior al logrado por Putin en 2004 (71,31%), pero una cantidad superior de votos, ya que el actual jefe del Estado se quedó en 49,5 millones. A diferencia de comicios anteriores, las misiones de observadores occidentales fueron escasas. La delegación de la Asamblea Parlamentaria del Consejo de Europa (APCE), formada por 22 personas, dio luz verde a los resultados al afirmar que "reflejan la voluntad del electorado, cuyo potencial democrático, por desgracia, no fue explotado". La misión concluyó que las elecciones tenían ...
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Towards a new 'Suez crisis'
2008-02-03 04:55:00
The economic problems in the United States have drawn attention away from the continuing efforts of certain members of the George W Bush administration to provoke a military confrontation with Iran. Yet these two themes, economic vulnerability and warlike intent, may be woven together in the near future in a way that parallels an earlier crisis in the Middle East. Just over 50 years ago, Britain, France and Israel decided, for their different reasons, that the Arab nationalism personified by president Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt posed a threat to peace in the Middle East. When Nasser nationalized the Suez canal in the summer of 1956, he seemed to have played into the hands of his enemies. Britain and France believed they had an excuse for military action against Egypt which might be acceptable to the wider international community. Keeping their plans a secret from the United States, Britain, France and Israel prepared to attack Egypt. When this assault took place, it was militarily ...
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UAE Set to Launch Nuclear Program
2008-01-28 03:39:00
The United Arab Emirates is set to launch a nuclear programme, becoming the first Arab state to go ahead with announced ambitions to develop nuclear power.Flush with petrodollars, the government in Abu Dhabi is preparing a policy document that will soon be sent for comment to world powers, including the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog.Six Arab Gulf states, including the UAE, last year asked the IAEA to study the feasibility of a joint nuclear programme in a move seen as a political response to Iran’s nuclear activities...Several Arab states outside the Gulf have also expressed interest in nuclear power over the past year but the UAE is expecting to be the first to forge ahead with its plans.Financial Times
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Iran's Foreign Minister questions UN resolution
2008-01-28 02:50:00
Manouchehr Mottaki has urged major world powers to exercise restraint over a new UN resolution aimed at tightening sanctions against Iran. The Iranian foreign minister said the timing of the request that the UN Security Council consider a new draft resolution was "strange". Mr Mottaki was speaking to the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He said the push for the new resolution looked like an exercise in influencing public opinion. It would have been more logical, he said, to wait for the new report on Iran's nuclear activities due soon from the International Atomic Energy Agency - the UN's nuclear watchdog - before taking action. 'Show patience'Mr Mottaki refused to be drawn on what Iran would do if tighter UN sanctions were imposed. But in the meantime, he said, he was urging Security Council members to show patience. "Our recommendation is to keep their patience, to continue support for Iran and IAEA, to wait for completion of this process and then we can sit together ...
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Silvio Berlusconi grasps at return to power
2008-01-28 02:41:00
The perma-tanned tycoon, Silvio Berlusconi , has launched a record fifth bid for the Italian premiership by pledging that his centre-right coalition will cut taxes and stop public prosecutors using telephone taps in corruption inquiries. Berlusconi, 71, and his followers celebrated in typically flamboyant style, with champagne and car horns hooting through the streets of Rome last week, when Romano Prodi’s government, the 61st since the war, fell after less than two years in office. Prodi’s coalition collapsed after losing a confidence vote in the Senate, the upper house. His centrist ally, Clemente Mastella, the justice minister, had pulled out of the coalition after he and his wife were linked to a corruption case. Berlusconi will meet Giorgio Napolitano, the president of Italy, as part of a series of talks between the head of state and political leaders to resolve the crisis. Berlusconi said he will call for early elections which he wants by mid-April. He said one of the first...
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