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Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday in which the latter chided Blinken to “stop trying to put up new obstacles to bilateral relations.” The State Department readout of the call, published on Sunday (the call appears to have taken place on Monday Beijing time), does not mention anything that Wang said, instead focusing on Blinken, who allegedly “raised Russia’s war against Ukraine” and the “security situation in Haiti.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the government, through state propaganda outlet Global Times, offered much more specificity, depicting a...

What does it take to defend, fight and survive in an Arctic environment? What do you do if you fall through the ice while wearing 20 kilograms of military gear? Cold Response 2022 is a long-planned exercise bringing together thousands of troops from NATO Allies and partners, testing their ability to work together in cold weather conditions across Norway – on land, in the air and at sea. Over the coming weeks, Allied and partner armed forces will trek across the vast wilderness, conduct live-fire drills, leap into freezing lakes, and much more. It's all about training vital skills, making...

The United States conducted a successful missile defense test that intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile off the coast of Hawaii early Wednesday morning, according to a statement from the US Missile Defense Agency. The Standard Missile-6, built by major US defense contracter Raytheon, intercepted the missile target at sea in its final seconds of flight after being fired from the USS John Paul Jones. The test comes amid heightened tensions between North Korea and the US. Earlier this week, an intermediate-range missile, identified by the North Koreans as a Hwasong-12, was fired over Japan. A US official, however, told CNN...

This the kind of question Mrs Merton might ask. "So, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, what do you see in a 24-year-old, sensationally beautiful gymnast with a penchant for posing semi-naked that you don't see in your lovely, middle-aged, matronly wife Ludmilla?" It is also the kind of question that hardly needs answering for the millions who have tuned in to the YouTube film of Alina Kabaeva performing a decidedly provocative gymnastic routine.

Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers have discovered that routine blood tests can provide an early warning for colorectal cancer. Anemia, a common blood disorder characterized by low hemoglobin levels, has long been associated with those suffering from colorectal cancer. It doesn't happen suddenly, however - and Tel Aviv University researchers say they have found that gradually decreasing hemoglobin levels can actually indicate a potential for colon cancer years in advance. Graduate student Inbal Goldshtein, who works with Dr. Gabriel Chodick and Dr. Varda Shalev of TAU's School of Public Health and Maccabi Healthcare Services' Department of Medical Informatics, says that...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- For seven Marines and a Navy corpsman accused of premeditated murder in the death of an Iraqi man in April, conditions inside the Camp Pendleton brig are improving. The men are no longer shackled, as they were when they were first incarcerated in mid-May. They are no longer forced to take their meals by themselves in their individual, isolation cells, and they now have regular access to the brig's exercise and recreation facility. As they await hearings that will determine whether each moves on to face trial, they are experiencing a daily routine familiar to the brig's...

1/3/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- People around the globe welcomed 2006 with a variety of New Year’s Eve celebrations. High above Iraq, a Reserve C-130 Hercules aircrew headed for Balad Air Base, celebrated in a different way -- flying another mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. With the drone of the aircraft’s four propellers in the background, Senior Master Sgt. Ernie Leyba attached his night vision gear to his flight helmet. It was nearly pitch black on the flight deck, except for the pale green glow of the instrument lights. But it didn’t stop the flight engineer. Since...

If there were an Emmy category for stand-up comedy on C-SPAN, she would be this year's odds-on favorite. Cedric the Entertainer, who had expected to follow the prez for the evening's laughs, knew he was in trouble long before Laura sat down. Her sallies were stingers, with references to her husband as "Mr. Excitement," in bed by 9 o'clock, and to herself and Lynn Cheney and Karen Hughes as "desperate housewives" who sneak out to watch the Chippendales (male strippers) for post-9 o'clock thrills. "I wouldn't even mention it," she said, "except that Ruth Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor saw...

One of the most vexing problems that I have encountered in my experiences with Objectivism, is the fact that many people seem deathly afraid of our viewpoint – EVEN people with whom we should have most in common. They just don't seem to be able to understand it, even if we explain it patiently and calmly. Everything we say gets systematically distorted into something horrible. This used to bother me quite a lot, and still does to some degree. But I have come to a conclusion after a VERY long time thinking about it: When people misunderstand what Objectivism is,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq's U.S. governor, Paul Bremer, has arrived in Washington and is expected to meet soon with top officials at the White House for what is likely to be a decision-making session, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. "When decisions need to be made, Bremer comes. Some decisions need to be made," the official told Reuters. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was no expectation Bremer would be leaving his post. There was no immediate comment from the White House. Bremer's return for what officials called "consultations" comes amid growing frustration in Washington with...

Summary executions become routine in Aceh as Jakarta's generals break their promises By Kathy Marks in Seunade, Aceh 26 May 2003 The handsome young army captain with the elegant moustache lit another cigarette and placed it between his perfect white teeth. "You must understand," he said, languidly blowing a smoke ring into the air. "We want to protect human rights. We don't want to kill the wrong people." Two miles down the road, the village of Seunade has just experienced the Indonesian military's interpretation of protecting human rights. On Friday, three men were gunned down on a bridge as they...

Heavenly bodies stir up routine catastrophes March 18 2003 at 01:30PM By Graeme Addison Legend has it that when two people get together and er... bond, the Earth will move – at least in a metaphorical sense. Likewise, it takes two heavenly bodies, an impactor and a target, to come together with Earth-shattering force to form a crater. There’s nothing dreamlike about this: it happens, frequently, throughout the solar system. Impact catastrophes are routine. Just over two-billion years ago, a chunk of asteroid at least the size of Table Mountain struck the landmass that is now South Africa. It hurtled...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 5 Atlantis to Orbit Credit: NASA Explanation: Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on, nor could any human just a millennium ago. The launch of a rocket bound for space is an event that inspires awe and challenges description. Pictured above, the Space Shuttle Atlantis...

<p>During the 2000 presidential campaign, Al Gore couldn't decide whether he wanted to be seen with President Clinton.</p> <p>Now Gore and Sen. Joe Lieberman are giving us a repeat performance of that tortured "should I or shouldn't I" routine.</p> <p>Like Clinton and Gore, Gore and Lieberman once professed their love for another. But now they're quarreling openly. It's all about "the people versus the powerful," says Gore. No, it's not, Lieberman responds. It's about being fiscally responsible, pro-growth and pro-middle class.</p>