Russia Conducts Test of New ICBM Designed to Defeat U.S. Defenses. Russia military parade / AP. Nicaragua gives Chinese firm contract to build alternative to Panama Canal. Nicaragua has awarded a Chinese company a 100-year concession to build an alternative to the Panama Canal, in a step that looks set to have profound geopolitical ramifications.
The president of the country's national assembly, Rene Nuñez, announced the $40bn (£26bn) project, which will reinforce Beijing's growing influence on global trade and weaken US dominance over the key shipping route between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The name of the company and other details have yet to be released, but the opposition congressman Luis Callejas said the government planned to grant a 100-year lease to the Chinese operator. China encircles U.S. by sailing warships in American waters, arming neighbors. China has been quietly taking steps to encircle the United States by arming western hemisphere states, seeking closer military, economic, and diplomatic ties to U.S. neighbors, and sailing warships into U.S. maritime zones.
The strategy is a Chinese version of what Beijing has charged is a U.S. strategy designed to encircle and “contain” China. It is also directed at countering the Obama administration’s new strategy called the pivot to Asia. The pivot calls for closer economic, diplomatic, and military ties to Asian states that are increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment throughout that region.
“The Chinese are deftly parrying our ‘Pivot to the Pacific’ with their own elegant countermoves,” said John Tkacik, a former State Department Asia hand. SEE ALSO: Obama urged to ‘punch’ China. U.S. military to step up presence in Jordan in light of Syria strife. In this photo provided by the anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center, Syrian men help survivors out of a building in Aleppo after it was bombed, allegedly by a Syrian regime warplane on Saturday, February 8.
The United Nations estimates more than 100,000 people have been killed since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011. Click through to see the most compelling images taken during the conflict, which is now a civil war: Syrians gather at a site hit by barrel bombs, allegedly dropped by a regime helicopter on the opposition-controlled Mesekin Hananu district of Aleppo on February 8. Civilians wave national flags as they take part in a rally in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, in a handout photo released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency on February 8. A man stands next to debris in the road following a reported airstrike by Syrian government forces in the northern city of Aleppo on February 8.
A man walks amid debris and dust on January 31. Carney On Jay-Z And Beyonce's Cuba Trip: "The White House Has Nothing To Do With It" Posted on April 11, 2013 DONOVAN SLACK, POLITICO: I just want to return to Beyonce and Jay-Z.
Jay-Z released a rap today, I know the other day you said that Treasury was the one that cleared their trip, he suggested that he got White House permission – that he personally spoke with the president. Obama's Soviet Mistake. By Xavier Lerma Putin in 2009 outlined his strategy for economic success.
Alas, poor Obama did the opposite but nevertheless was re-elected. Bye, bye Miss American Pie. The Communists have won in America with Obama but failed miserably in Russia with Zyuganov who only received 17% of the vote. Vladimir Putin was re-elected as President keeping the NWO order out of Russia while America continues to repeat the Soviet mistake. After Obama was elected in his first term as president the then Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January of 2009. How Far Can North Korea's Missiles Actually Reach? Rand Paul: “Foreign aid goes from poor people in rich countries, to rich people in poor countries” U.S. reducing rhetoric that feeds North Korean belligerence.
FIRST ON CNN: Communications intercepts suggest possibility of North Korea missile launchNorth Korea moves up to two missiles to its East coast, U.S. official saysState Department focuses on diplomacy in discussing North KoreaNorth Korea issues more threats, but said to lack missile technology to strike U.S. mainland Are you from South or North Korea?
US Navy shifts destroyer in wake of North Korea missile threats. Most people in Seoul, South Korea think North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is bluffing, but the question is "why?
" Russian foreign minister won’t return Kerry’s call. Secretary of State John Kerry called all the foreign ministers of countries that deal with North Korea following Monday's nuclear test and all but one of them picked up the phone -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Kerry made his first remarks about the new nuclear test, which the North Koreans warned the State Department about in advance. "With respect to the DPRK, President Obama made it crystal clear last night and previously in all comments, as have other countries, that North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program are a threat now to the United States of America, because of what they are pursuing specifically, as well as to global security and peace," Kerry said.
The now-defunct six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program included the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, and Russia. But Russia's leaders are the only members of that group with whom Kerry hasn't spoken this week. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.