By Peter Zeihan STRATFOR often discusses how Russia is on a bit of a roll. The United States distraction in the Middle East has offered Russia a golden opportunity to re-establish its spheres of influence in the region, steadily expanding the Russian zone of control into a shape that is eerily reminiscent of the old Soviet Union. Since 2005, when this process began, Russia has clearly reasserted itself as the dominant power in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine, and has intimidated places like Georgia and Turkmenistan into a sort of silent acquiescence. But we have not spent … Continue reading One fight Russia can’t afford

US objects to China-Pakistan nuclear deal. Hypocritical? The Obama administration objects to China selling nuclear reactors to Pakistan, which has never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But the US sealed a similar deal with India. // <![CDATA[ var pgallerycarousel_itemList = [ {"url_sm":"\/var\/ezflow_site\/storage\/images\/media\/images\/0616-pakistan_missile_test.jpg\/8143927-1-eng-US\/0616-PAKISTAN_MISSILE_TEST.jpg_full_380.jpg","url_lg":"\/var\/ezflow_site\/storage\/images\/media\/images\/0616-pakistan_missile_test.jpg\/8143927-1-eng-US\/0616-PAKISTAN_MISSILE_TEST.jpg_full_600.jpg","caption":"A Pakistan-made Ghaznavi missile is launched at an undisclosed location in Pakistan on May 8. That day, Pakistan successfully test-fired two ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the military said. The US is criticizing a China-Pakistan civilian nuclear deal because Pakistan is not a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.","credit":"Pakistan Inter Services Public Relations\/AP","related":""} ]; // remove quote … Continue reading US Hypocritical?

Nasa breakthroughs: the space agency’s most thrilling discoveries and pictures Nasa scientists have provided some of the most inspiring, eye-catching and terrifying headlines of recent years. Here is a selection of the agency’s remarkable announcements. telegraph.co.uk An image of a solar flare released by Nasa Photo: NASA/REUTERS Nasa warns solar flares from ‘huge space storm’ will cause devastation Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation “space storm”, Nasa has warned. Nasa discovers evidence ‘of alien life’ on Saturn’s moon Titan Evidence … Continue reading Nasa breakthroughs?

COMMENT: How I wonder what we are —Fauzia Yazdani The chief minister of Punjab failed on all counts as he did not visit the families of the deceased, meet with community representatives and condemn the role of organisations that flourish in Punjab to obliterate Ahmedis from the face of the earth President Asif Ali Zardari, on June 3, 2010, signed two recently ratified international conventions, adding Pakistan to the list of countries that have ratified all conventions related to good governance, sustainable development and human rights. The two conventions are: the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and … Continue reading I wonder what we are?

dawn.com Pakistan to psych test bin Laden hunter Gary Brooks Faulkner is pictured in this January 17, 2006 booking photo by the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office in Port Collins, Colorado released to Reuters on June 15, 2010. – Reuters PESHAWAR: Pakistani agents plan to conduct psychological tests on an American construction worker arrested on suspicion of wanting to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden, an investigator said Wednesday. Gary Brooks Faulkner was detained Monday in the remote mountains of Chitral, once a rumoured hiding place of bin Laden, near Afghanistan’s Nuristan province, armed with a pistol, dagger, sword and … Continue reading Gary Brooks Faulkner goes to Pakistan to find Osama!

60ft statue of Christ goes up in flames after being struck by lightning By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 7:16 PM on 15th June 2010 Comments (50) Add to My Stories A giant statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised beside a highway has been struck by lightning in a thunderstorm and burned to the ground, police said. The 60ft-tall ‘King of Kings’ statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati. The sculpture, which is 40 ft wide at … Continue reading God is an Art Critic!

Women must be leaders in faith A woman led Muslim prayers in Oxford last week. Her actions and those of others like her, across faiths, deserve our support Shaista Gohir guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 June 2010 13.30 BST Article history So far, it seems only Muslim women from abroad dare lead men in Friday prayers in the UK. A Canadian, Raheel Raza, became the second Muslim woman to do so at the Muslim Educational Centre in Oxford last week. An African-American convert, Amina Wadud, was the first Muslim woman to lead mixed prayers at the same centre in 2008. It’s not … Continue reading Female Imams?

Al-Muhajiroun morons re-emerge under new name Posted on June 11, 2010 by inayatscorner It appears that the publicity hungry idiots from al-Muhajiroun are about to re-emerge under the name of ‘Muslims Against Crusades’. Today’s edition of the Barking & Dagenham Post says that a group calling itself MAC are to hold a protest demonstration on 15 June at the very same time as the returning Royal Anglian Regiment march in Barking. Just 15 months ago, less than twenty al-Muhajiroun followers turned up at a similar soldiers’ returning march in Luton and held up some offensive placards. Within minutes, the images were beamed around the country … Continue reading Omar Bakris Boyfriends to Dance on June 15th?

By John Feffer The future is no longer in plastics, as the businessman in the 1967 film The Graduate insisted. Rather, the future is in China. If a multinational corporation doesn’t shoehorn China into its business plan, it courts the ridicule of its peers and the outrage of its shareholders. The language of choice for ambitious undergraduates is Mandarin. Apocalyptic futurologists are fixated on an eventual global war between China and the United States. China even occupies valuable real estate in the imaginations of our fabulists. Much of the action of Neal Stephenson’s novel The Diamond Age, for example, takes … Continue reading Turkey: Stealth superpower and Leading nation of the Muslim World?