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They say the Cold War is over, but Russia and the U.S. remain the leading supplier of weapons to countries around the world and are the two biggest military powers. Lately, tensions have been pretty high, too. The U.S. supplies much of NATO and Middle Eastern allies like Turkey, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. Russia supplies many BRIC nations, as well as Iran, much of Southeast Asia, and North Africa.

In 2011 Barack Obama led from behind a NATO coalition bent on removing Moammar Gaddafi from power in Libya. The removal and death of Gaddafi was, Obama put it, a warning to "iron fisted" rulers everywhere. Syria, Iran and North Korea excepted, of course. Over at Foreign Policy this was hailed as a huge success. "Leading from behind" is an important element of this doctrine. It is no insult to lead but let others feel they too are architects of a plan, to lead without making others feel you are bullying, to lead but do so in a way in...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Foreign holdings of U.S. debt rose in March as China ramped up its purchases and displaced Japan as the leading owner of U.S. Treasury securities. The Treasury Department says overseas ownership of U.S. debt rose 2.1 percent in March to $6.18 trillion. That is below January's record of $6.22 trillion. China added $37.3 billion ... bringing its stockpile to $1.26 trillion... ahead of Japan, which added just $2.5 billion...to $1.23 trillion. ... The U.S. deficit topped $1 trillion from 2009 through 2012. Foreign governments...account for two-thirds of the foreign holdings...rose 1 percent from the previous month to...

China Retakes Top Spot as the Biggest Foreign Owner of U.S. Debt By IAN TALLEY It was a short-lived domination. After just a month of being the top holder of U.S. Treasury debt, Japan has once again been pushed into the No.2 slot as China bulked up on Uncle Sam’s bonds and notes. As we noted last month – and several times before that – Treasury’s data is a rough guesstimate. That makes it hard for analysts sifting through the obscure sheaves of digital data to glean anything but rough trends. It also makes it difficult to draw precise conclusions....

Russia has deployed hundreds of troops for drills in Central Asia with its ex-Soviet allies in a show of force as anxiety grows over a surge in fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan. Around 2,500 personnel from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) are taking part in joint exercises due to run to Wednesday in Tajikistan. The move is seen as re-enforcing Moscow's role as the main guarantor of the fragile region's security after US troops leave Afghanistan. The Russian deployment of about 500 troops for the drills started last week, bolstered by soldiers from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus....

They’re Nigeria’s unlikely saviors – most being white, in their 50s and 60s and combat veterans of the former South African apartheid regime. But, tainted resumes notwithstanding, they’ve been getting the job done in northern Nigeria, hitting the Islamist terror group Boko Haram hard enough to send the jihadists into retreat, liberating dozens of villages and freeing hundreds of women and girls held as slaves and “bush wives” during a six-year-long reign of terror, reported London Telegraph. Boko Haram recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. In recent years, Boko Haram has slaughtered entire...

In this video from South Africa, we see the clear utility of an alarm system and or a dog.   Neither were available in this case, and it was only luck or God that aided the armed residents.  The cats were useless. Link to video With today's technology, audio would be an easy addition.  The residents are armed with revolvers, likely five shot revolvers, because the frame appears fairly small.   It is something to consider that there were three invaders, and the woman fired two shots, without any obvious hits.  Clearly, more firepower is called for. I believe that it...

It may seem improbable to consider that St. John of the Cross, the Spanish Civil War, and JRR Tolkien have anything in common. However, all three share one important connection: the South African poet Roy Campbell, and therein lies a tale of intrigue, bravery and faith. This remarkable narrative is set against the upheaval of the Spanish Civil War of the 1930’s. There was much unrest in Spain leading up to the elections of February 1936, as ordinary Spaniards from various factions sought to oust the Republican junta. This tension evolved into full-blown riots that swept through the entire...

Within the next 18 months Denel will have a clear idea of whether it will restart Rooivalk production as it talks to possible partner nations/clients and engages with the Department of Defence. Both the South African and foreign militaries have expressed interest in restarting production. Riaz Saloojee, Denel Group CEO pointed out to defenceWeb that defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is on record saying that the Rooivalk needs to be re-established as a strategic sovereign capability for use in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Saloojee told defenceWeb that Denel is establishing a roadmap for the Rooivalk which will...

Intimacy is the key to your breaking through in your days ahead . So persevere as Daniel and Gabriel for I will send My angels of My Presence as Michael (AS GOD) as you spend time in mine . . . DANIEL 10:12-21 12 Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael,...

PRESIDENTS Jacob Zuma of South Africa and Botswana’s Ian Khama angrily clashed with their Zimbabwean counterpart, President Robert Mugabe over xenophobia in South Africa, with the two demanding that instead of blaming their neighbour, Zimbabwe and other Sadc states must fix their broken economies to curb the rising tide of immigration. Hazel Ndebele/Elias Mambo While Sadc leaders met for an extraordinary summit in Harare on Wednesday to discuss an industrialisation strategy and roadmap, the major highlight of the meeting was the recent xenophobic violence and killings in South Africa which raised a storm of debate and anger across the region....

A STREET vendor from Mozambique, Emmanuel Sithole, lay begging for his life in a gutter as four men beat him and stabbed him in the heart with a long knife. Images of his murder have shaken South Africa, already reeling from a wave of attacks on foreigners, mostly poor migrants from the rest of Africa. Soldiers were deployed on April 21st to Alexandra, a Johannesburg township, and other flashpoints to quell the violence, though only after seven people had been killed. Thousands of fearful foreigners, many from Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, have sought refuge in makeshift camps. Others have returned...

The establishment GOP-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), recently touted by the White House as the “most progressive trade agreement in history,” is also a “Trojan horse” to advance Obama’s “unrestricted immigration” agenda, according to political insiders and critics who have studied the secretive scheming. With the Big Government wing of the Republican Party currently plotting to empower the Obama administration with fast-track Trade Promotion Authority to make it easier to impose the TPP and other radical agreements on the American people, opponents are warning that the White House immigration agenda may become all but impossible to stop. Critics say Congress must...

It began after the Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini, told his followers last month that foreigners in South Africa should pack up and leave. President Jacob Zuma’s eldest son, Edward, chimed in that foreigners were “taking over the country” in a “ticking time bomb.” Then last week, violent attacks on immigrant shopkeepers in Durban townships exploded and have continued since. Dozens of immigrants in Johannesburg and other cities shuttered their shops Wednesday as anonymous cellphone text messages warned that Zulu people were coming to kill immigrants in neighborhoods with large migrant populations. One message read: “Wednesday, Zulu people are coming to...

An 86-year-old nun was reportedly gang-raped before being murdered in her bedroom at a South African missionary. Gertrud Tiefenbacher's hands had been tied with a typewriter cord and a towel placed over a face, say local police. Her body was found by other nuns at the Sacred Heart Missionary in Ixopo, a small town 85 miles south-west of Durban. Police in KwaZulu-Natal are waiting for the results of forensic tests to confirm that Sister Gertrud was sexually assaulted. They say she was suffocated but they are unsure how many men attacked her. A small sum of money - thought to...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - It always begins out of sight, usually under the cover of darkness. This is the nature of South Africa's dirty little secret. Ugly, xenophobic violence that kills in ways that are hard to imagine. Just as mobs sharpening their machetes in front of a cordon of police officers ready to open fire became a defining image of the government-sponsored violence in the days of apartheid, so too has it become a defining image of the new South Africa. During apartheid, black supporters of the Inkhata Freedom Front attacked African National Congress supporters in violence that we...

A woman was left covered in blood after she was injured in the latest violent anti-immigrant protests in South Africa. So far six people are believed to have been killed in the violent protests which started two weeks ago in Durban, a key port on South Africa's Indian Ocean coast, spreading to Johannesburg. In the latest show of violence around 200 protesters, shouting that they wanted immigrants to leave the country, pelted passing vehicles and the police with rocks.

Total Absorption and Breakthrough I am drawing you deeper into My Spirit then ever before for I AM your Wellspring of Life and so now as I call and you answer I will feed you from The Tree of Life great and mighty things. First you will delve into and devour My very Virtue for without this nothing exists so you must come into and completely walk in My Worthiness for "HOLY" is My Name "Yeah" even the angels cry out unrelentingly My Truth . Second I will cause you to drink in My love and this door opens to...

President Barack Obama says Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will visit Washington this summer, nearly two years after she canceled a similar trip to protest U.S. spy programs. Her visit is set for June 30. Rousseff canceled a state visit to the U.S. in the fall of 2013 to protest an American spy program that targeted Brazil's government and citizens.

Johannesburg (AFP) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe walked away from a group of journalists in South Africa commenting "I don't want to see a white man", television footage showed Friday. Mugabe was visiting Soweto, heartland of the anti-apartheid struggle, on Thursday on the final day of his state visit to South Africa when he approached a group of reporters.