A day after President Barack Obama publicly endorsed India's claim to a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley poured cold water on any expectation of New Delhi's elevation anytime soon. "It is inconceivable that you could contemplate U.N. Security Council reform without considering a country like India," Crowley said Tuesday. "But we have to recognize ... this is a process that has been going on for some time, and it ...

The military policeman tightly clasps his weapon. His eyes, though wearied by an obvious lack of sleep, still dart around intently. Standing guard on the edge of Karachi's Mehran naval base, he and others have been positioned to maintain a firm security cordon. With a mere tilt of his gun, he quickly dissuades anyone tempted to draw nearer to the base. But as even the policeman concedes, this new vigilance has come too late. For the previous 17 ...

So, what exactly is NATO's purpose? That question hangs like a cloud of existential angst over the Atlantic Alliance's 60th birthday celebration this weekend. The festivities, which will span the Franco-German border, are suffused with the symbolism of a Cold War that brought NATO into being but whose end left the Alliance with no clear mission or identity. Hence the title of this anniversary summit: "NATO in 2020: What Lies Ahead?" Today's ...

Damascus, it seems, does not care for Barack Obama's advice. In a much anticipated policy speech on Thursday, May 19, the U.S. President urged Syria's President Bashar Assad to take steps toward political transition or else "get out of the way." Said Obama: "The Syrian government must stop shooting demonstrators and allow peaceful protests." It wasn't as if no one was listening. That evening, people in Damascus sat in shops and cafs drinking mint tea and smoking ...

South Lebanon Sunday witnessed its deadliest day since the month-long Israel-Hizballah 2006 war when 10 Palestinian demonstrators were reported shot dead and another 112 wounded as Israeli troops opened fire on protests along the border fence. The casualties came as a massive crowd of Palestinians gathered at Maroun er Ras, a small hilltop village overlooking the border with Israel, to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, or Catastrophe, when the state of Israel was established. By Sunday night, the militant Lebanese Shi'ite group ...

The death of Osama bin Laden comes at a time when al-Qaeda in Iraq has been shifting strategies in an effort to recoup from years of setbacks. A source within the security department of the Iraqi government tells TIME that according to Baghdad's intelligence work, "Al-Qaeda is setting up new plans in Iraq — changes in their leadership and locations, moving them from south to north, from one city to another. That makes us more worried that ...

Stepping up the attackSometimes it seems that success fathers its own problems. In its campaign to hook smuggled drugs, the Reagan Administration has claimed some impressive catches: since establishing a regional interdiction center in South Florida in March 1982, it says that cocaine and marijuana seizures there are up 54% and 23% respectively, drug arrests have risen by 27%, and the street value of intercepted dope amounts to around $5 billion. Smugglers, however, have risen to the challenge by trafficking in smaller, harder-to-detect loads and by moving ...

In a secure vault in the U.S. Army's super-secret Intelligence and Security Command in northern Virginia, Colonel Mike Tanksley sketches the barest outlines of the new Armageddons. These are only "What ifs?" he insists, so there cannot really be details. Yet his war scenario resounds with almost biblical force. The next time a tyrant out of some modern Babylon threatens an American ally the U.S. doesn't immediately send legions of soldiers or fleets of warships. Instead Washington visits ...

Fed up with the delays, cattle seating, security lines and inferior food associated with air travel? Then join the growing number of holidaymakers getting around by rail. Luxury trains offer golden-age-of-travel perks for prices that don't rise with every lurch in the price of oil. They've been jazzed up with wi-fi and DVD players and offer a more intimate connection with a destination. "Trains go right through the center of communities rather than being 30,000 feet in ...

It's possible that the Navy Seal team that killed Osama bin Laden on May 1 carried communication equipment made by L-3 Communications. It's also possible that if you were a U.S. airline passenger that Sunday, you passed through the L-3 ProVision Millimeter Wave Checkpoint Screening System--the controversial body scanner being installed in airports across the country. L-3 was in the security business before 9/11. But the New York City--based company is one of many to benefit from the rising demand ...