Russia and U.S. Work Together in War on Drugs in Afghanistan

For almost a decade, Russia has stayed on the sidelines of the war in Afghanistan, in part because of its bad memories of the 1980s, when the Afghan mujahedin, with the help of Stinger missiles provided by the U.S., handed the Red Army a humiliating defeat. As Russia’s NATO envoy Dmitri Rogozin put it this week in a stroke of understatement, “We’ve been to Afghanistan, and we didn’t really like it over there.” But on Friday, Oct.

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After Bin Laden, Should Europe Brace for Revenge?

The dramatic announcement of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s May 1 death came too late for most Europeans to hear about it in real time. But by the earliest hours of Monday morning, both regular citizens and the officials in Europe tasked with protecting them from terror strikes were in full debate about how Bin Laden’s killing might change the activity and determination of jihadists plotting to strike around the globe

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Twitterers Tweet Reactions to Obama’s Nobel Prize

“Never seen Twitter so united in sarcasm as over the Nobel announcement.” With that tweet — which at a mere 59 characters is terse even by Twitter’s Procrustean standards — Alex Evans aka @alexevansuk, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, sums up the prevailing sentiment on the microblogging website.

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Israel may build more settlements before weighing housing freeze

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to approve building hundreds of new settlements in the West Bank before considering a freeze on construction in the area, a senior Israeli government official said Friday. The move comes as Israel and the United States have been increasingly at odds over President Obama’s insistence that Israel’s government freeze all settlement activity as a necessary step toward advancing negotiations with Palestinians.

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Man arrested in connection with gun used to kill NFL star

The Tennessee man accused of selling the gun used to kill former NFL quarterback Steve McNair is in custody facing a federal charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, authorities said Friday. “This is another example of what can happen with a gun when a felon is selling it on the street with little to no interest other than just selling it for 100 bucks,” said Nashville, Tennessee, Police Chief Ronal Serpas. Authorities said federal agents traced the gun used in the Fourth of July murder-suicide to Household Pawn in Nashville, which sold it in January 2002.

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