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The “end of history” is over and Europe is experiencing a “transatlantic crisis”, says Ursula von der Leyen, former Angela Merkel acolyte turned European Commission supremo. “Another, new European Union” is needed to shape the “new world order” emerging out of power struggles between the United States, China, and Russia the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen told a German newspaper. Speaking to Die Zeit, the top Eurocrat expressed her interpretation of events that “The West as we knew it no longer exists”, stating that beyond the old understanding of what countries were Western and which not,...

Ever since the late 1960s when Vera Rubin and Kent Ford discovered that galaxies don't behave the way they should, scientists have been looking for the mysterious substance behind that behavior. That theoretical stuff is called dark matter, and while it's invisible to telescopes, it has mass, which means it can show its might through the force of gravity. Of course, that's all theoretical. Some might even say it's a little too convenient, as if scientists just came up with a magical substance that makes the math work. What makes us so sure that dark matter is even a thing?...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2006 – The United States now has a rudimentary missile defense system in place, a senior defense official told the Senate's strategic forces subcommittee here April 4. "The United States today has all the pieces in place needed to intercept an incoming long-range ballistic missile: ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California; a network of ground-, sea- and space-based sensors; a command-and-control network; and, most importantly, trained servicemen and women ready to operate the system, Peter C.W. Flory, assistant defense secretary for international security policy, said in prepared testimony. The system is still aimed primarily at development and...

On the way to freedom, Niger's slaves stuck in limbo 7,000 slaves in Niger were set to be freed last Saturday - until the government denied slavery even existed there. By Mike Pflanz and Georgina Cranston, Contributors to The Christian Science Monitor Thu Mar 10, 9:33 AM ET NAIROBI, KENYA, AND TILLABERI, NIGER - More than 7,000 slaves owned by Arissal Ag Amdague, a Tuareg tribal chief, were due to be released at a desert ceremony last Saturday in the village of In Atès, 175 miles northwest of Niger's capital, Niamey. A new law that came into effect last year...