Free Republic

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will take control of cement plants and offices belonging to Mexico's Cemex as of midnight on Monday after failing to reach an agreement in nationalization talks, the government said. < > The government said it paid $552 million for an 85 percent stake in Switzerland's Holcim's local unit and $267 million for 89 percent of the shares in France's Lafarge's local unit. "Lafarge is working to protect as best as it can the interests of its shareholders and of its staff on the ground," a spokeswoman for Lafarge said earlier in the day, declining any further...