Dienna2003

The masks are more than 3,000 years old, made from a mysterious metal, found in an exotic underground ‘temple’ that was sacred to a forgotten culture.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:12:00 +0700

About ten years ago a collector of ancient Indonesian art contacted my husband and me to ask our opinion on a group of masks cast in an odd green metal in his possession. Some of these masks, he said, had been recovered from an underground temple in a remote site called Gua Made, north of the Brantas River in East Java.
I was immediately sceptical, and became steadily more so when the collector announced that ‘the masks are more than 3,000 years old’.

This date was based on thermoluminescence (TL) analysis of a terracotta brick from the ‘underground temple’. Assuming a temporal association between the masks and temple, the collector went on to propose that both could be the product of a lost civilization. Sounding like the plot of a pulp archaeological thriller, it contained the ingredients of a classic mystery: amazing ancient masks made from a mysterious metal, found in an exotic underground ‘temple’ that was sacred to a forgotten culture. All that was missing was publicity.

Not anymore. A recent article by A M Steiner and M Vidale in the pages of the renowned Italian magazine ARCHEO, supports dating the green masks to the early 1st millennium BC. They subscribe to the notion of a lost civilization, observing that the discovery of the masks and their date rewrites the archaeology of Island Southeast Asia, ‘opening a new, unexpected page of the fascinating book of the Eurasian lost past’.

To many authorities on the archaeology of Southeast Asia, this date seems far too early. It was a thousand years later that a great ‘classical’ civilization arose, based on Buddhist ideals. Could these new discoveries really antedate this civilization? Or was there another explanation? These questions came to concern me personally when Italian diplomatic authorities in Indonesia took an interest in the Gua Made masks. This led to the Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient (IsIAO) appointing me to direct an excavation campaign at the site. In July 2007, therefore, in full agreement with all the relevant Indonesian authorities, I began my first field season at Gua Made. (repost from http://www.world-archaeology.com)

Happy New Year 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 3 Jan 2012 23:21:00 +0700

THE WORLD IN 2030 - GLOBAL TRENDS 2030

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 8 Oct 2010 23:39:00 +0700

The world in 2030 will be divided into three areas:

1-A Globalizing area (51.5 % of the population, 74.5% of the world GNI) with a growing middle class.

2-A backward area dominated by Islamism ( 34.5% of world population and only 3.5% of world GNI) with low incomes, economic regression and chaos

3-A declining area (European Union and South America: 14% of the world population and 22% of the world GNI).

According to our analysis, a limited globalization and a containment policy (Against Islamism) will shape the international scene in 2030. You will find here a single picture mapping these results.

LCROSS - Friday morning's excitement

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:29:00 +0700

Friday morning's excitement — blasting a lunar crater with twin 6,000 mile-per-hour impacts — left the LCROSS controller team dead on its feet, says NASA's Grey Hautaluoma. Meanwhile, the science team is frantically looking into observations flowing from telescopes, spacecraft and the LCROSS "shepherd" vehicle, which caught sight of its booster's 7:31 a.m. ET impact crater, before plowing into the Cabeus crater on the moon's South Pole itself, four minutes later.

NASA has selected a final destination for its Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) which will impact the crater Cabeus A on 9 October.

LCROSS will search for water ice by sending i

ts spent upper stage Centaur rocket to impact the permanently shadowed polar crater at the lunar south pole, while the satellite will fly through the plume of debris thrown up by the impact to measure its properties. After the first impa

ct, and just four minutes later, the LCROSS satellite will too meet its fate in the crater, while the Moon-orbiting Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Earth-based telescopes look on in the search for watery signatures. Shrouded in darkness for billions of years, this is the first time that such pristine material will be exposed to sunlight.

LCROSS Project Site
Visit the NASA Mission Site @ http://www.nasa.gov/lcross

Find out where and how to observe the LCROSS impacts on Oct. 9, 2009:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/impact/index.html

Mauna Kea Observatories LCROSS Impact Webcast
Look in as the greatest telescopes on Earth observe the LCROSS impact.
Friday, Oct 9 at 3:30 AM PDT to 6:45 AM PDT
WMV and Flash: http://dln.nasa.gov/dln/content/webcast/
Quicktime: rtsp://a1884.l1857041883.c18570.g.lq.akamaistream.net/D/1884/18570/v0001/reflector:41883
This webcast will also be archived for later viewing.

65 million people actively using Facebook from mobile devices

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 7 Sep 2009 21:13:00 +0700

facebook announced today it has reached a milestone of 65 million people actively using Facebook from mobile devices. According to the company, that is an increase from just 20 million as recent as 8 months ago.

Facebook gets over a third of the number of unique visitors that Google does according to comScore. And it continues to grow. Compete shows the lines between Google and Facebook getting closer together:

"It seems inevitable that, given Facebook's sheer scale (180 million registered users and counting), it would at some point start referring a lot of users to some sites, but the development is surprising," says AdAge's Michael Learmonth. "Web users go to Google to figure out where to go next; they go to Facebook to, well, hang out."

"As we celebrate 65 million, we want you to be able to take Facebook with you wherever you go," says Facebook's Henri Moissinac. "That's why we are continuously making updates to our mobile products and working with some of the biggest names in mobile to make sure that Facebook is available on the latest devices and mobile operating systems."

Moissinac outlines the various options users have for connecting with Facebook from their mobile devices:

- Mobile web sites
- Text messages
- Facebook Mobile for Devices
- Facebook Connect for Mobile Web

Facebook has two mobile web sites: m.facebook.com and x.facebook.com, the latter specifically designed for touch screen phones. Each of these sites has been translated into over 60 languages. Facebook Mobile for Devices means Facebook apps for different phones like the iPhone, and Nokia's N97 and 5800, and various apps for INQ, HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola, Palm, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, the T-Mobile Sidekick, and Windows Mobile devices. Facebook Connect is of course available from a multitude of sites, and Facebook says that starting today, you'll begin seeing Facebook Connect available on some mobile sites and applications, just like on the web.

Russia has been developing missile defense systems since the early 1960s.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:38:00 +0700

MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev for RIA Novosti) - Thirty years ago, on May 15, 1978, a missile defense system was placed on combat duty to protect Moscow as the capital city of the Soviet Union.
Russia has been developing missile defense systems since the early 1960s.
On March 1, 1961, the Soviet Air-Defense Force conducted the first hit-to-kill test when a V-1000 missile interceptor developed by the Fakel (Torch) design bureau under the supervision of Pyotr Grushin, a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, successfully destroyed the warhead of an R-12 inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched from the Kapustin Yar space center in the Volga Region.
Several R-5 medium-range ballistic missiles were destroyed during subsequent tests.
The United States was able to conduct similar tests only 23 years later.
In 1961-1971, Soviet experts developed the experimental A-35 missile-defense system around Moscow. The system became operational in June 1971 and protected the Soviet capital and surrounding industrial areas.

At that time, the United States, which lacked similar systems, was compelled to negotiate with the Soviet Union. In 1972, Moscow and Washington signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty that served as the main element of mutual nuclear parity for several decades.
Under the treaty both sides agreed that each could only have two ABM deployment areas that were heavily regulated and placed so that they could not provide a nationwide ABM defense or become the basis for developing one. Each country thus left unchallenged the penetrating capability of the other's retaliatory missile forces. Both parties agreed to limit the quantitative improvement of their ABM technology.

In 1974, both countries signed a protocol to the treaty which entered into force in 1976 and reduced the number of ABM deployment areas to one, either around either side's national capital area, or as a single ICBM deployment area.
The United States elected not to deploy an ABM system and in 1976 deactivated its ineffective site at Grand Forks, North Dakota, around a Minuteman ICBM launch area.
Although the 1971 Soviet ABM system became obsolete even before it was commissioned, the ABM Treaty allowed Moscow to upgrade it. On May 15, 1978, the more advanced A-35M system was placed on active duty around Moscow.

However, the United States subsequently embarked on an ambitious multiple independent reentry vehicle (MIRV) program which nullified the Soviet system's capabilities.
Russia's A-135 ABM system capable of coping with MIRVed ICBMs was developed and commissioned in 1995 and 1996, respectively. The system hinged on the Don-2N multi-role radar and a command computer inside a truncated tetrahedral pyramid. Silo-based missile interceptors were deployed along the A-108 highway, also known as the Greater Moscow Belt Highway, in the Moscow, Kaluga and Yaroslavl Regions.
The missile-defense system around Moscow had to be constantly upgraded in order to deal with new threats. Unfortunately, federal allocations were not enough to ensure its combat readiness.
The situation became particularly serious in the late 1990s when ABM allocations accounted for just 1% of those made in the 1980s.
Moscow feared that it might lose the scientific and technical ABM potential accumulated since the late 1950s. The situation improved only in recent years. Under the national rearmament program until 2010, approved by former President Vladimir Putin, minimal R&D levels in this sphere will be reinstated.
The Russian rearmament program was adopted in response to new U.S. missile-defense plans stipulating the deployment of space-based attack weapons. Washington may decide to return to the Brilliant Pebbles project, a non-nuclear system of satellite-based, watermelon-sized mini-missiles designed to use a high-velocity kinetic warhead under the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program.

At any rate, Washington rejects all Russian and Chinese initiatives aimed at preventing the militarization of outer space.
It would be appropriate to recall that the Reagan Administration spent $3.4 billion a year on ABM defenses; such allocations totaled over $5 billion under George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton; President George W. Bush persuaded Congress to allocate $8 billion per year.
Many military analysts believe that both sides should agree on specific parameters for assessing the mutual strategic nuclear and missile-defense balance. Increases in one area will require reductions in others. However, Washington will never agree with this fair approach because it runs counter to its military doctrine aimed at ensuring undisputed U.S. military-technical superiority.
Nor should Russia become involved in another ABM race because it cannot afford to develop and deploy a national missile-defense system reliably protecting a huge territory of our country at present or in the foreseeable future.
Instead, Moscow should opt for an asymmetrical response and develop weapons capable of breaching missile defense systems.
Yury Zaitsev is an academic adviser at the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Free Auto Insurance Quote

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:20:00 +0700

Auto insurance risk selection is the process by which vehicle insurers determine whether or not to insure an individual and what insurance premium to charge. Depending on the jurisdiction, the insurance premium can be either mandated by the government or determined by the insurance company in accordance to a framework of regulations set by the government. Often, the insurer will have more freedom to set the price on physical damage coverages than on mandatory liability coverages.
When the premium is not mandated by the government, it is usually derived from the calculations of an actuary based on statistical data. The premium can vary depending on many factors that are believed to have an impact on the expected cost of future claims. Those factors can include the car characteristics, the coverage selected (deductible, limit, covered perils), the profile of the driver (age, gender, driving history) and the usage of the car (commute to work or not, predicted annual distance driven).

Spy Satellite on Out There Contain a Toxic Chemical

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 6 Feb 2008 02:11:00 +0700

Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, who heads of U.S. Northern Command, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the size of the satellite suggests that some number of pieces will not burn up as the orbiting vehicle re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and will hit the ground.

A U.S. official confirmed that the spy satellite is designated by the military as US 193. It was launched in December 2006 but almost immediately lost power and cannot be controlled. It carried a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor but the satellite's central computer failed shortly after launch. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret.

"We're aware that this satellite is out there," Renuart said. "We're aware it is a fairly substantial size. And we know there is at least some percentage that it could land on ground as opposed to in the water."

Renuart added that, "As it looks like it might re-enter into the North American area," then the U.S. military along with the Homeland Security Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will either have to deal with the impact or assist Canadian or Mexican authorities.

Renuart added that there does not as yet appear to be much concern about sensitive technologies on the satellite falling into enemy hands.
"I'm not aware that we have a security issue," he said. "It's really just a big thing falling on the ground that we want to make sure we're prepared for."

The satellite includes some small engines that contain a toxic chemical called hydrazine - which is rocket fuel. But Renuart said they are not large booster engines with substantial amounts of fuel.
In the past 50 years of monitoring space, 17,000 manmade objects have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. (news reff.)

US commander: No hostile act from Iran observed in Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 6 Feb 2008 01:27:00 +0700

The US commander in Iraqi central province of Diyala has said he witnessed no hostile act from Iranian side in the region during the past 10 months, a French weekly reported on Monday.
The Paris-based magazine, Le Point, quoted Colonel Ronald Ward as saying that during his ten-month stay in the Iraqi province he had witnessed no preparation of the US military forces for carrying out a border operation.
Despite the US media reports, the American troops have not been preparing to carry out any military operation along border areas in this central province, the US colonel stressed.
Meanwhile, US intelligence official in Diyala has strongly rejected any relationship between Iran and the terrorist group of Al-Qaeda.
Brigadier-General Scott Pettinger said what he saw in that province was completely contradictory to what being claimed by Washington against Iran.
Pettinger said that no Iranian agent has ever been arrested in Diyala.
He also said no cases of transferring money or weapon from Iran to Iraq has ever been witnessed in the region. taken from http://www2.irna.ir

Russia Delivering S-300 System to Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 3 Feb 2008 00:58:00 +0700

The issue was first raised in December last year when Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said that Iran and Russia had agreed to deliver an unspecified number of advanced S-300 air defense complexes to the Islamic Republic under a previously signed contract.
The advanced version of the S-300 missile system, called S-300PMU1 (SA-20 Gargoyle), has a range of over 150 kilometers (about 100 miles) and can intercept ballistic missiles and aircraft at low and high altitudes, making this system an effective tool for warding off possible air strikes on Iran.
U.S. authorities have repeatedly called on Russia to stop arms deliveries to countries whose political regimes Washington disapproves of, including Iran.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in October last year that Russia would not take into consideration attempts to impose arms deal restrictions "based on unilateral and politicized assessments". He said deliveries of Russian weapons were aimed exclusively at increasing the defense capability of the countries receiving them, and at maintaining their stability.
Moscow supplied Iran with 29 Tor-M1 air defense missile systems in late January under a $700-million contract signed in late 2005. Russia has also trained Iranian Tor-M1 specialists, including radar operators and crew commanders.
"However, the sides [Iran and Russia] are continuing work to study the possibility of delivering these [S-300] systems to Iran," Mehdi Safari said in an interview with the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).
read more ...

Russia deliver 82 metric tons of fuel to Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:54:00 +0700

Sergei Kiriyenko, the director general of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, earlier said Russia will complete fuel supplies to the Bushehr NPP in February.
"In February we will complete the supplies, and actual work with the fuel at the plant will start in July-August," he said.
The first delivery to the plant, being built by Russian contractor Atomstroyexport, came on December 16, 2007 following months of project delays that Moscow attributed to payment arrears, but which Iran blamed on pressure from Western nations.
Under a bilateral intergovernmental contract, Russia is set to deliver a total of 82 metric tons of fuel divided into eight batches. Deliveries are monitored by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
United States President George W. Bush, who has led international calls for sanctions against Iran over its refusal to freeze its nuclear program, said last month that he supported the start of Russia's enriched uranium deliveries to the Islamic Republic, and that Tehran no longer has any excuse to develop its own enrichment capabilities. read more ...

security alliance on South Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:55:00 +0700

U.S. Promise to "Provide Nuclear Umbrella" to South Korea under Fire Pyongyang, January 19 (KCNA) -- The promise given by the United States to "provide a nuclear umbrella and military assistance" to south Korea is a product of its adventurous scenario to invade the DPRK. Rodong Sinmun Saturday observes this in a signed article. Referring to the "joint statement" released at the recent south Korea-U.S. "annual security consultative meeting" held in Seoul, the article goes on: The U.S. promised to return the "right to command the wartime operations" to south Korea till 2012. It is concerned over the fact that the above-said action may weaken its military domination and influence on south Korea. This "promise" was prompted by the U.S. intention to bind the south Korean forces more tightly to the "security alliance" under the pretext of "offering the nuclear umbrella and military assistance" while going ahead with its moves for the "strategic flexibility" of the U.S. forces in south Korea as planned. There is another point that merits attention. The adoption of the historical October 4 declaration created an environment favorable for the development of the inter-Korean relations, peace and prosperity. In case the relations of military confidence are established between the north and the south ... read more

Russia as US target

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:42:00 +0700

The United States wants to place a radar station in the Czech Republic and intercepter missiles in Poland, saying the components would defend European allies against a possible Iranian strike.
Gorbachev, 76, whose policies of glasnost and perestroika - openness and restructuring - helped end communism in the Soviet Union and its satellites, criticized the high level of military spending by the United States.
"Does America intend to fight the rest of the world, does America need to build a new empire? They will not succeed," Gorbachev said at the close of a meeting of the World Political Forum, a group he founded in 2003 that includes many former high-ranking politicians.

Gorbachev, who won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, said negotiations with Iran needed to continue with the involvement of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, to ensure Iran did not produce nuclear weapons.
Gorbachev said he hoped the United States would not attack Iran during the remainder of the term of U.S. President George W. Bush.
"There still one year that President Bush has on his hands. Let's hope that he will not take the risk... of military action against Iran," Gorbachev said, adding that such an attack "at the very least" could provoke increased terrorist attacks, an energy crisis and "even result in a big war."
Asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin, Gorbachev said that, while he initially had doubts about Putin being able to lead Russia, he now supported him.
"Putin is a very capable person, a wise person, a man of strong character, of few words but with good management skills," Gorbachev said. "Now he is more than just a manager, he has become a credible political leader."
Gorbachev added that he supported the Russian president because Putin's policies were consistent with his own social-democratic positions,
"Putin is pursuing policies that benefit the majority of the Russian people," Gorbachev said.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Wednesday that he viewed a U.S. plan to deploy a missile defense shield in Central Europe as targeting Russia, not Iran.
"(On Tuesday) Milos Zeman, the former Czech prime minister, said, ‘What kind of Iran threat do you see? This is a system that is being created against Russia,'" Gorbachev said. "I don't think Zeman is alone in seeing this. We see this as well as he sees it."

Russia delivered Deadly Missile to Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:30:00 +0700

Russia has agreed to sell an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Iran's defense minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday, a report likely to irritate the United States.

S-300 missiles are longer-ranging than the TOR-M1 surface-to-air missiles which Russia, in a deal criticised by the West, earlier this year said it had delivered to the Islamic Republic under a $1 billion contract.

Iran is under U.N. sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive atomic work that Western powers suspect it wants to master so that it can build nuclear bombs, but they do not ban conventional weapons sales to the country.

"The S-300 system, under a contract signed in the past with Russia, will be delivered to Iran," Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar told Fars News Agency, without giving details.
"The timing of the delivery ... will be announced later," he said. The ISNA news agency carried a similar report.

The United States and Israel - Tehran's arch foes - have said Iran could use the TOR-M1 system to attack its neighbours. Russia says it is a short-range system and purely defensive.

Najjar said last month Iran would never launch an attack against another country but warned that anybody trying to invade Iran would "face a crushing response."

Under Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian arms firms have aggressively pushed sales abroad as the Kremlin seeks to reassert its role as a global power in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Russian arms exports were worth a record $7 billion this year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday. "Since 2000 our arms exports have nearly doubled and in 2006 we hit the record sum of $6.5 billion. This year we have a good chance of passing the seven-billion-dollar mark," RIA Novosti quoted Ivanov as saying.

Russia's drive to boost arms exports have raised tensions with the U.S., which last year imposed sanctions on Russia's state arms trader Rosoboronexport for cooperating with Iran, a move Moscow has called illegal. read more ...

How to protect U.S. satellites

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:22:00 +0700

The Air Force says it can currently detect a missile launch anywhere in the world, but it cannot track satellites all the way up into orbit in real time. "It's one thing to bear witness to what is going on in that environment," says Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, director of space and nuclear operations for the Air Force. "It's another thing to be immediately able to attribute what happened to someone. We've got a ways to go to have that kind of clarity as quickly as we need it."

Some of the U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq's troubled Anbar province most likely wondered why the Air Force was sending a space weapons expert to help them fight Sunni insurgents. But U.S. forces there had a tough problem. Traditional artillery was too inaccurate for urban hotbeds like Fallujah, and insurgents took cover when they heard attack aircraft overhead.

The Army offered what seemed like a good solution—the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, a mobile battery that fires precision missiles from miles away. The powerful new weapon, however, came with a serious glitch—the launcher sometimes relied on outdated coordinates from GPS satellites, which could send rockets hundreds of yards off target. Maj. Toby Doran, the space expert, helped find creative ways to prevent the error, and the launcher was put into action.

That's just one small example of how integral satellites have become to even the most basic daily operations of today's U.S. military, not to mention the broader U.S. economy. But any sense that this crucial sophisticated technology is out of the reach of potential enemies because it flies hundreds, even thousands, of miles above Earth disappeared early this year.

On January 11, China blew up one of its own aging weather satellites with a rocket launched from a space center in Sichuan province.

Russia trains Iranians on air defence system

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 04:14:00 +0700

Moscow, Dec 26, IRNA
Russian Air Force Commander Nikolai Ferolov said a group of Iranian experts took training courses on Russian air defence system " Tour. M1" in the current year.
The commander told reporters here Wednesday that Iranian officers took a training course for a period of several months in Air Defence Academy located in Smolensk city.
The Russian general added, "Upon sale agreement for" Tour. M1" system, tens of the Iranian officers took the training courses in the year 2006 in "Ourenburg Air Defence Center" in Russia.
Iran bought 29 air defence system " Tour. M1" for 700 million dollars from Russia last year. read more ...

To weaken Russia's nuclear deterrent potential

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 04:01:00 +0700

MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti) -

Moscow regards U.S. plans to deploy missile defense bases in Central Europe as an attempt to weaken Russia's nuclear deterrent, the official Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.
"If a radar [in the Czech Republic] along with missiles in Poland are deployed, this will be a military operation ...to weaken Russia's nuclear deterrent potential," Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement.
"We will have no other option but to take measures to make up for this new factor in our strategic balance of forces with the United States."
Kamynin cited a recent newspaper interview by Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who said it would be logical for the U.S. radar to monitor Russian territory.
"Such statements by Czech leaders .... read more ...

Does Russia want to be a superpower dominating the modern world ?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 18:23:00 +0700

MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti) --

"The Soviet Union wanted to be a leader in the global communist revolution. This was a big mistake. We would not like to repeat these mistakes in the future. We don't want to command anyone, we don't want to be a superpower that dominates and imposes solutions," Vladimir Putin told Time magazine December 12.

"But we want to have sufficient forces to defend ourselves, defend our interests and even build such good relations with our neighbors and main partners so that these partners become interested in the development and growth of the Russian Federation," he said.

Russian authorities have repeatedly criticized the U.S. for its desire to establish a 'unipolar' world instead of the bipolar world of Cold War times and the antagonism between the former Soviet Union and the West.

In return, some Western political scientists have accused Russian authorities of striving to return to a Cold War model and impose their policies on neighboring countries.

To describe the current complicated relationship between Russia and the West, including U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe, Iran's nuclear program and Russia's role in former Soviet republics, the foreign press have even invented a new term "cool war."

The U.S. plans to deploy a radar in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland, purportedly to counter a missile threat from Iran and other "rogue" states. Moscow has opposed the plans, saying the European shield would destroy the strategic balance of forces and threaten Russia's national interests.

Western states led by the U.S. suspect Iran of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program but Iran has insisted it needs nuclear power for electricity generation.

Putin said enhancing Russia's role in the world is a difficult task that can be fulfilled only if Russian society consolidates and if Russia's economic capabilities grow.

Russia does not want to be a superpower dominating the modern world or imposing its opinion on others, but hopes to develop its capabilities enough to protect its interests, the Russian president (Vladimir Putin) has said.

"This will be our task for the mid-term and long-term prospect. If we resolve it, a worthy place in the world is guaranteed for Russia," the Russian president said.

Speaking about Russia's recent past, Putin said he would hardly have had the courage to transfer from the old Soviet system to a new democratic Russia, like Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev did.

"Both he [Yeltsin] and Gorbachev still did what I would have probably failed to do. They made a step toward the destruction of a system the Russian people had been unable to bear any longer. I am not sure I would have had the courage to do so," he said.

"Gorbachev made the first step, and Yeltsin completed this transfer, I believe, a historical transfer, very important for Russia and the Russian people," Putin said, adding that it was the two former leaders that gave Russia its freedom then. more detail click here ...

HOT NEWS :

- Russian commander says strategic bomber patrols to continue

- Russian military to adopt Topol-M MIRV missile soon

Which is building the Bushehr plant for Iran ?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 17:35:00 +0700

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) ---

Iran's first nuclear power plant will be operational within three months, providing electricity to Iran's national power grid by the summer, according to Iranian Energy Minister Parviz Fattah.

Russia, which is building the Bushehr plant for Iran, started delivering nuclear fuel to the facility a week ago as part of a compromise effort to alleviate concerns over Iran's nuclear intentions while supporting Iran's right to a nuclear energy program.

Fattah told reporters Saturday that the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which was previously expected to be completed last September, will become operational on March 21, 2008, according to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).

The plant will deliver 500 megawatts of electricity to the power grid by summer and 1,000 megawatts by March 2009, IRIB reported.
Atomstroiexport, Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, completed the first stage of nuclear fuel deliveries a week ago, the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency said.

The United States, several European nations, and Israel suspect Tehran has been trying to acquire nuclear weapons, but Iran denies its nuclear program is for anything but peaceful purposes. A recent U.S. intelligence summary concluded that, contrary to earlier suspicions, Iran halted its nuclear weapons development in 2003.

Atomstroiexport, the Russian monopoly, is building the $1 billion Bushehr plant under the control of the

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency. The Russian foreign ministry and nuclear officials said .... read more ...

- About Bushehr.
- About Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

When Russia delivered nuclear fuel for an Iranian power plant

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:00:00 +0700

WASHINGTON —

The United States lost a years-long battle when Russia delivered nuclear fuel on Monday for an Iranian power plant that is at the center of an international dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. Iran, for its part, rejected the idea that the delivery might mean it no longer needed to do its own uranium enrichment to make fuel, citing work on a second power plant.

In announcing that it has delivered the first fuel shipment to the power plant at Bushehr in southern Iran, Russian officials said that the fuel would be under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency while it is in Iran, and that the Iranian government had given guarantees that the fuel would be only be used for ...... read more ...

Tehran Times -

MOSCOW/TEHRAN - Russia has delivered its first shipment of nuclear fuel to a reactor it is helping to build at Bushehr as Iran’s atomic chief said the plant will be connected to power grid after March 2008.
Iran and Russia reached agreement last week on a schedule to finish building the plant after years of delays. The Russian company building the Bushehr plant, Atomstroiexport, said the delivery of the enriched uranium fuel began on Sunday. Atomstroiexport said the containers of fuel had been inspected and sealed before delivery by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency ....... read more ...

Iran had a secret military weapons program

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:30:00 +0700

President Bush on Tuesday called on Iran to explain why it had a secretive nuclear weapons program, and warned that any such efforts must not be allowed to flourish "for the sake of world peace."
"Iran is dangerous," Bush said after an Oval Office meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. "We believe Iran had a secret military weapons program, and Iran must explain to the world why they had a program."
Bush's comments came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that it was "a step forward" that U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Tehran stopped developing its nuclear weapons program four years ago.
Ahmadinejad told reporters that an "entirely different" situation between the United States and Iran could be created if more steps like the intelligence report followed.
"We consider this measure by the U.S. government a positive step. It is a step forward," Ahmadinejad said.. read more ...

TEHRAN, Dec. 11--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran welcomes the outlines of a recent report by the US National Intelligence Estimate and considers it a step forward. Speaking in a press conference on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad noted that Iran’s positive attitude toward NIE does not mean that the report is perfect. Asked by CNN’s correspondent whether Iran is ready to take part in face-to-face talks and without any preconditions with the US, Ahmadinejad responded that as everyone knows, problems between Iran and the US are not limited to the nuclear issue or the anti-Iran resolutions. “We have a long list of problems and we should be looking for their solutions,“ he said.The president pointed out that during his visit to the US last year, he expressed his readiness to take part in talks with American officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting held in New York. “And this proposal is still on the table,“ he said.In response to another American reporter, Ahmadinejad said in his opinion the world’s political landscape is rapidly changing and the world, particularly the Middle East, is not prepared for new military invasions.“Countries responsible for the military invasion of other countries do not have the capacity for new military conflicts,“ he said. Noting that using the military option will deteriorate the prevailing conditions, the president emphasized the negative consequences of military conflicts for the invaders themselves. Commenting on anti-Iran resolutions issued by the United Nations Security Council, Ahmadinejad pointed out that the West has problems with the two resolutions issued by the Security Council and they have to solve it themselves. Asked by the BBC correspondent about the possibility of peace between Iran, the US and the UK before the end of his presidential tenure, the chief executive said Iran does not have any problem with the UK. read more ...

American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 4 Dec 2007 05:49:00 +0700

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.

The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to reshape the final year of the Bush administration, which has made halting Iran’s nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy.

The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely keeping its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies “do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”

Iran is continuing to produce enriched uranium, a program that the Tehran government has said is designed for civilian purposes. The new estimate says that enrichment program could still provide Iran with enough raw material to produce a nuclear weapon sometime by the middle of next decade, a timetable essentially unchanged from previous estimates.

But the new estimate declares with “high confidence” that a military-run Iranian program intended to transform that raw material into a nuclear weapon has been shut down since 2003, and also says with high confidence that the halt “was directed primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure.”

The estimate does not say when American intelligence agencies learned that the weapons program had been halted, but a statement issued by Donald Kerr, the principal director of national intelligence, said the document was being made public “since our understanding of Iran’s capabilities has changed.”

Rather than painting Iran as a rogue, irrational nation determined to join the club of nations with the bomb, the estimate states Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.” The administration called new attention to the threat posed by Iran earlier this year when President Bush had suggested in October that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to “World War III” and Vice President Dick Cheney promised “serious consequences” if the government in Tehran did not abandon its nuclear program.

Yet at the same time officials were airing these dire warnings about the Iranian threat, analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency were secretly concluding that Iran’s nuclear weapons work halted years ago and that international pressure on the Islamic regime in Tehran was working.

Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, portrayed the assessment as “directly challenging some of this administration’s alarming rhetoric about the threat posed by Iran.” He said he hoped the administration “appropriately adjusts its rhetoric and policy,” and called for a “a diplomatic surge necessary to effectively address the challenges posed by Iran.” read more ...

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