The United States has refused to sell Israel planes out of concern that it might be seen as encouraging an Israeli attack on Iran, Channel 10 reported on Wednesday evening.

During his most recent visit to the US earlier this month, Defense Minister Ehud Barak requested that America sell the IAF several Boeing 767 refueling planes. However, the White House refused, as it was not prepared to seem as though it was aiding a potential attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, the report, which could not be confirmed by The Jerusalem Post, stated.

The IAF has a great need of the planes, as the ones currently used by the air force are extremely old.

US refuses to sell planes to Israel, fearing strike on Iran

However Russia's ambassador to NATO played down any future steps, saying the decisions were "of temporary character, of regional character, not global character". A NATO spokeswoman said it had no notification of a Russian move.

"Norway has noted that Russia has decided for the time being to 'freeze' all military cooperation with NATO and allied countries," Norway's Defence Ministry said on its website.

Russia halts military work with NATO

Russia says its response to the further development of a U.S. missile shield in Poland will go beyond diplomacy.

Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the U.S. missile shield plans are clearly aimed at weakening Russia.

The U.S. says the missile defense system is aimed at protecting the U.S. and Europe from future attacks from states like Iran.

The United States and Poland signed a deal Wednesday to place a U.S. missile defense base just 115 miles from Russia's westernmost fringe.

Russia warns of response to US missile shield

Syria sought to revive its security alliance with Russia today, when President Bashar al-Assad arrived in Moscow to clinch a series of military agreements, raising fears that the new Cold War that has erupted in the Caucasus will spill over into the Middle East.

“Our position is that we are ready to co-operate with Russia in any project that can strengthen its security,” the Syrian leader told Russian newspapers at the start of his two-day trip. “I think Russia really has to think of the response it will make when it finds itself closed in a circle.”

Mr al-Assad said that he would be discussing the deployment of Russian missiles on Syrian territory, possibly the Iskander system. Syrians is also interested in buying Russian anti-aircraft and tanks missiles.

In return, Moscow is expected to propose a revival of its Cold War era naval base at the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean. Some Russian reports even suggest that Moscow is deepening the port it to accommodate a fleet of warships. Russia may have similar ambitions for Latakia. Either port would give the Russian Navy its foothold in the Mediterranean for two decades.

Fear of new Mid East 'Cold War' as Syria strengthens military alliance with Russia

Rice dismissed blustery comments from Russian leaders who say Warsaw's hosting of 10 U.S. interceptor missiles just 115 miles from Russia's westernmost frontier opens the country up to attack.

Such comments "border on the bizarre frankly," Rice said, speaking to reporters traveling with her in Warsaw.

Rice signs missile defense deal with Poland

The storm dumped knee-deep water in some streets, downed trees and plunged 58,000 homes and businesses into the dark. A tornado ripped through Brevard County, damaging 51 homes, nine severely. But overall, residents said it wasn't as bad they feared.

  'Boomerang' Fay gains strength over Florida

Russia is considering arming its Baltic fleet with nuclear warheads for the first time since the cold war, senior military sources warned last night.

The move, in response to American plans for a missile defence shield in Europe, would heighten tensions raised by the advance of Russian forces to within 20 miles of Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, yesterday.

Under the Russian plans, nuclear warheads could be supplied to submarines, cruisers and fighter bombers of the Baltic fleet based in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between the European Union countries of Poland and Lithuania. A senior military source in Moscow said the fleet had suffered from underfunding since the collapse of communism. “That will change now,” said the source.

Russia’s new nuclear challenge to Europe

President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that Russian President Dimitri Medvedev wants to send a Russian naval fleet to visit Venezuela.

"Russia has informed us they intend to visit Venezuela, that is, the intention that a Russian fleet should come to the Caribbean," Chavez said on his weekly radio program.

"I told the president (Medvedev), 'If you're coming to the Caribbean, we'll welcome you,'" Chavez said, adding that the Russian naval fleet would pay "a friendly and working" visit to Venezuela.

Russia wants to send naval fleet to Venezuela

Poland and the United States on Thursday signed a deal for Poland to accept a missile interceptor base as part of a system the United States says is aimed at blocking attacks by rogue nations. Moscow, however, feels it is aimed at Russia's missile force.

"Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent," Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying.

He added, in clear reference to the agreement, that Russia's military doctrine sanctions the use of nuclear weapons "against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them." Nogovitsyn that would include elements of strategic deterrence systems, he said, according to Interfax.

Russia: Poland risks attack because of US missiles

The Kremlin's next step in its confrontation with the United States could be the establishment of some sort of military alliance with Cuba and Venezuela. One possibility is the reopening of an electronic surveillance base designed to spy on U.S. communications, similar to "Lourdes," the huge espionage center that operated near Havana until a few years ago, when Putin himself decided to close it. That facility now houses a university center for computer sciences, from which at least 100 advanced students, all members of the Communist Youth, participate in an intense propaganda war waged on the Internet in favor of the Cuban dictatorship and Marxist ideology.

Carlos Alberto Montaner at PostGlobal: A Russian Military Alliance With Cuba or Venezuela?

Chavez, a persistent critic of the United States, said Washington was using its ally Georgia to weaken a resurgent Russia.

"The intention of the United States is to reduce Russia to its minimum expression," said Chavez, who has used higher revenue from Venezuelan oil production to buy weapons worth billions of dollars from Russia in recent years. 

"The Russians did what they had to do, we recognize the courage of President Dmitry Medvedev, we are with Russia," Chavez said on his weekly television show.

Chavez said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had told him by telephone that Georgian troops started the war by attacking Russian peacekeepers in breakaway South Ossetia. Russia responded by moving troops deep into Georgia proper.

Venezuela's Chavez backs Russia in Georgia conflict

Russia's war in Georgia is about more than just punishing Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's pro-American President, whose doomed military incursion into South Ossetia 10 days ago caused the most serious crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

The objectives of Russia's Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, are much bigger: to create a new global order in which the US and Russia are equal partners again. Putin has frequently lamented the demise of the Soviet Union. He has described it as the greatest geo-political catastrophe of the 20th century. For Putin, the 1990s under Boris Yeltsin was a period of national humiliation in which a weakened Russia was forced to accept Western economic help and which saw former members of the Warsaw Pact embrace Nato, the West's military club.

Russia's objectives extend far beyond Georgia; to create a new global order in which the US and Russia are equal partners aga...

Soon after the solar eclipse on August 1st, fighting erupted between Georgian troops and South Ossetian forces. Following a flurry of threats and counter-threats, on August 7th, in a televised address, Mikheil Saakashvili vowed to restore Tbilisi's control over what he called the "criminal regime" in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and reinforce order. Georgia then unleashed a full-scale attack on the capital of South Ossetia , Tskhinvali, which, in turn, predictably provoked a Russian invasion.

KREMLIN ASTROLOGY

The U.S. sent two C-17 military planes to Georgia late Wednesday and early Thursday as part of a Pentagon humanitarian mission.

In a statement Wednesday, President George W. Bush said Washington would "use U.S. aircraft, as well as naval forces" to distribute supplies, and demanded Russia withdraw troops from Georgia.

At a news conference Thursday, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the General Staff, urged the media to press U.S. officials for trustworthy information on the U.S. role in Georgia.

"What is going on there?" he asked. "We, the Russians, are extremely concerned about it."

 Russian military concerned by U.S. cargo flights to Georgia

The military alliance is expected to consider a range of upcoming activities planned with Russia _ from military exercises to ministerial meetings _ and decide case-by-case at the meeting Tuesday whether to go ahead with each activity.

Allied ministers will also discuss support for a planned international monitoring mission in the region and a package of support to help Georgia rebuild infrastructure damaged in its devastating defeat at the hands of the Russian armed forces

US calls emergency meeting for NATO on Russia

On her way to an emergency NATO foreign ministers meeting on the crisis, Rice said the alliance would punish Russia for its invasion of the Georgia and deny its ambitions by rebuilding and fully backing Georgia and other Eastern European democracies.

"We have to deny Russian strategic objectives, which are clearly to undermine Georgia's democracy, to use its military capability to damage and in some cases destroy Georgian infrastructure and to try and weaken the Georgian state," she said.

NATO won't let Russia succeed in Georgia: Rice

The Chinese-made satellite, Simon Bolivar, named after Venezuela's independence hero, is for broadcast and telecommunications purposes and is due to be launched on Nov 2, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.

The satellite would benefit Venezuela's communication systems, particularly TV and the Internet, and help to improve education and healthcare in the nation, Chavez said in his weekly TV and radio programme Alo, Presidente, the state media reported here.

Chinese Ambassador to Venezuela Zhang Tuo was a guest on the programme, during which Chavez thanked China for supporting the project.

The Hindu News Update Service

Iran said on Monday it was ready to help fellow Muslim states launch satellites into orbit after it successfully put a dummy satellite into orbit -- a move that may increase Western suspicions over its atomic ambitions.

Iran said on Sunday it had put the home-grown dummy satellite into orbit on a domestically made rocket for the first time. The long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into space can also be used for launching weapons.

Iran ready to put Muslim countries' satellite in orbit

Ahmadinejad, who is well interested to propagate the philosophy of Mahdaviat, a belief in reappearance of Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Advent) cherished by Shia Muslims, elaborated on the philosophy in the Fourth International Seminar on Mahdaviat Doctrine.

He said that the philosophy of Mahdaviat has focused on virtue of mankind and accomplishment of humanity.

He said that the modern world is in dire need of justice promised by reappearance of Imam Mahdi.

Muslims believe that Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Reappearance) will bring justice to humanity by his advent.

Ahmadinejad prays for advent of Lord of Time

The device looks like a headband and is equipped with sensors that measure brain activity. By shining near-infrared light into the skull and measuring the intensity of light reflected back, oxygen levels corresponding to brain activity can be recorded. The device, originally developed by Drexel’s biomedical engineers to monitor the brain of patients under anesthesia, serves as a controller for the Drexel-developed video game Lazybrains.

Students Develop 'Mind-Control' Interface to Play Video Games Without a Controller

AFTER buttoning up a lab coat, snapping on surgical gloves and spraying them with alcohol, I am deemed sanitary enough to view a robot's control system up close. Without such precautions, any fungal spores on my skin could infect it. "We've had that happen. They just stop working and die off," says Mark Hammond, the system's creator.

This is no ordinary robot control system - a plain old microchip connected to a circuit board. Instead, the controller nestles inside a small pot containing a pink broth of nutrients and antibiotics. Inside that pot, some 300,000 rat neurons have made - and continue to make - connections with each other.

As they do so, the disembodied neurons are communicating, sending electrical signals to one another just as they do in a living creature. We know this because the network of neurons is connected at the base of the pot to 80 electrodes, and the voltages sparked by the neurons are displayed on a computer screen.

Rise of the rat-brained robots

It's called "Operation Sentinel" and it proves just how far the NYPD will go to protect this city from terrorists. The plan involves some high-tech tracking that is coming under fire from some groups.

New York City is going to great lengths to make sure that bomb-toting terrorists can't reach us.

"New York City is something special," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday. "It's not just a very big city in this world. It is, in many senses, the iconic city. It represents Western Democracy.

NYPD's 'Operation Sentinel' To Track EVERYTHING

Across the country, police are using GPS devices to snare thieves, drug dealers, sexual predators and killers, often without a warrant or court order. Privacy advocates said tracking suspects electronically constitutes illegal search and seizure, violating Fourth Amendment rights of protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and is another step toward George Orwell's Big Brother society. Law enforcement officials, when they discuss the issue at all, said GPS is essentially the same as having an officer trail someone, just cheaper and more accurate. Most of the time, as was done in the Foltz case, judges have sided with police.

Police Turn to Secret Weapon: GPS Device

The Big Apple is turning into Big Brother, civil liberties groups have warned in response to a new plan from New York city's police chiefs to photograph every vehicle entering Manhattan and hold the details on a massive database.

New York's police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, has proposed a major extension of security measures around the city designed to prevent a third attack on the World Trade Centre as the rebuilding of Ground Zero gathers pace.

As well as placing cameras at all tunnels and bridges into Manhattan, the 36-page plan, called Operation Sentinel, calls for a security ring to be erected at Ground Zero and for a 50-mile buffer zone around the city within which mobile units would search for nuclear or "dirty" bombs.

The proposals are partly based on the so-called ring of steel erected around the City of London in the wake of IRA bombings in the 1990s. Though the 3,000 cameras that could be mounted as a result of the plans of the New York police pale in comparison with the multitude of cameras in operation on the UK's roads and in public places, the proposals have provoked outrage in the United States, where the concept of video surveillance is relatively unfamiliar.

Civil liberties: Outrage at New York police plan to track vehicles

“Although conflict has many aspects, one that warfighters and policy makers often talk about is the motivation to fight, which undoubtedly has its origins in the brain and is reflected in peripheral neurophysiological processes," quotes Weiss from the report. “So one question would be, ‘How can we disrupt the enemy’s motivation to fight?’ Other questions raised by controlling the mind: ‘How can we make people trust us more?’ ‘What if we could help the brain to remove fear or pain?’ ‘Is there a way to make the enemy obey our commands?’… As cognitive neuroscience and related technologies become more pervasive, using technology for nefarious purposes becomes easier.”

Defense Spooks: Let's Control Enemy Minds

The human brain could become a battlefield in future wars, a new report predicts, including 'pharmacological land mines' and drones directed by mind control

Rapid advances in neuroscience could have a dramatic impact on national security and the way in which future wars are fought, US intelligence officials have been told.

In a report commissioned by the Defense Intelligence Agency, leading scientists were asked to examine how a greater understanding of the brain over the next 20 years is likely to drive the development of new medicines and technologies.

They found several areas in which progress could have a profound impact, including behaviour-altering drugs, scanners that can interpret a person's state of mind and devices capable of boosting senses such as hearing and vision.

On the battlefield, bullets may be replaced with "pharmacological land mines" that release drugs to incapacitate soldiers on contact, while scanners and other electronic devices could be developed to identify suspects from their brain activity and even disrupt their ability to tell lies when questioned, the report says.

Brain will be battlefield of future, warns report

In the face of the questions, FBI officials have decided to make their first detailed public presentation next week on the forensic science tracing the anthrax used in the 2001 attacks to a flask kept in a refrigerator in Ivins's laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Many scientists are awaiting those details because so far, they say, the FBI has failed to make a conclusive case.

Doubts grow on FBI's anthrax evidence

There is alarming evidence accumulated by serious scientific sources that the US Government is about to or already has ‘weaponized’ Avian Flu. If the reports are accurate, this could unleash a new pandemic on the planet that could be more devastating than the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic which killed an estimated 30 million people worldwide before it eventually died out. Pentagon and NIH experiments with remains in frozen state of the 1918 virus are the height of scientific folly. Is the United States about to unleash a new racially selective pandemic through the process of mandatory vaccination with an alleged vaccine "against" Avian Flu?

The Pentagon’s alarming project: Avian Flu Biowar Vaccine

In our ever-growing surveillance society, the average Briton is being recorded 3,000 times a week.

With every telephone call, swipe of a card and click of a mouse, information is being recorded, compiled and stored about Britain's citizens.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has now uncovered just how much personal data is being collected about individuals by the Government, law enforcement agencies and private companies each day.

In one week, the average person living in Britain has 3,254 pieces of personal information stored about him or her, most of which is kept in databases for years and in some cases indefinitely.

 How Big Brother watches your every move

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

Taken together, critics in Congress and elsewhere say, the moves are intended to lock in policies for Bush's successor and to enshrine controversial post-Sept. 11 approaches that some say have fed the greatest expansion of executive authority since the Watergate era.

U.S. May Ease Police Spy Rules