Three $100 million air base expansions in southern and northern Afghanistan illustrate Pentagon plans to continue building multimillion-dollar facilities in that country to support increased American military operations well into the future.
Despite growing public unhappiness with the Afghan war -- and President Obama's pledge that he will begin withdrawing troops in July 2011 -- many of the installations being built in Afghanistan have extended time horizons. None of the three projects in southern and northern Afghanistan is expected to be completed until the latter half of 2011. All of them are for use by U.S. forces rather than their Afghan counterparts.
Air base expansion plans reflect long-term investment in Afghanistan
Iran begins fueling nuclear reactor — and that's good news
Iran has crossed a new nuclear threshold, but it's one the Obama administration isn't worried about. On Saturday, technicians began loading low-enriched uranium fuel supplied by Russia into Iran's first civilian nuclear reactor, and if all goes smoothly, the Bushehr plant could start producing electricity under United Nations monitoring late this year or early next.
"The International Atomic Energy Agency regularly inspects the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Iran. Iran began moving fuel assemblies to the plant's reactor compartment on 21 August 2010," Ayhan Evrensel, a press officer for the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a statement Saturday. "The agency is taking the appropriate verification measures in line with its established safeguards procedures."
Feds found Pfizer too big to nail, so they looked the other way on massive fraud
When the world's largest pharmaceutical company was found to have engaged in a massive illegal marketing campaign, federal prosecutors decided the company was too big to punish -- so they let it set up a shell corporation to take the blame.
Yet when the government threatened Pfizer with prosecution for off-label marketing fraud, it realized that a conviction would, under federal law, require that Pfizer be excluded from Medicare and Medicaid -- and that this would probably put the company out of business.
Study shakes up scientists' view of San Andreas earthquake risk
Southern California is long overdue for a major earthquake along the San Andreas fault, according to a landmark study of historic seismic activity released Friday.
The study, produced after several years of field studies in the Carrizo Plain area about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, found that earthquakes along the San Andreas fault have occurred far more often than previously believed.
Family, U.S. offer differing versions of deadly Afghan raid
When Ismail Nemati set out from Kabul last week to join his family in nearby Wardak province for the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, friends said, his biggest fear was running into Taliban forces who might question his allegiances.
Before sunrise the next day, Nemati lay bleeding in his family guest room, alongside two of his brothers, all shot dead by U.S. special forces who were on the hunt for a Taliban leader.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange accused of rape
Swedish authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on suspicion of molestation and rape. The warrant was issued late yesterday, said a spokeswoman at Sweden's prosecutors' office in Stockholm.
She said Assange should contact the Swedish police for questioning about the accusations of molestation and rape in two separate cases "so that he can be confronted with the suspicions".
Assange has denied the charges, which were first reported by the Swedish tabloid Expressen, on Wikileaks' Twitter account.
Drugs don't work: Top professor claims five in six new medicines have 'little benefit' to patients
A new study estimates that 85 per cent of new drugs offer few if any new benefits while having the potential to cause serious harm due to toxicity or misuse.
The author of the research delivered a damning attack on 'Big Pharma' at a meeting of sociology experts in the US.
Professor Donald Light described the pharmaceutical industry as a 'market for lemons' - one in which the seller knows much more than the buyer about the product, and takes advantage of this fact.
Secretly forced brain implants: Explosive court case
Few American doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists will break rank or brave the new world of high-tech electronic abuse some of their patients report but evidence mounts that increasing numbers of innocent citizens targeted for U.S. state-sponsored terror are being secretly brain implanted with U.S. RFID chips without their consent for no-touch torture and mind control plus experimentation. One man evidenced this in court; won his case; and now prepares for a continuationin federal court, due to be equally explosive.
RFID is abbreviation for Radio-frequency Identification, a misnomer due to the device functions consisting of far more than ID. It is used for remote technological harassment, torture and even assassination.
Halliburton gets letter of intent for Iraq oil
Halliburton Co. said on Wednesday that it has gotten a letter of intent from Shell Iraq Petroleum Development BV that would make Halliburton the project manager for developing the Majnoon field in southern Iraq.
Halliburton said it wold be working with Nabors Drilling and the Iraq Drilling Company. The contract needs final approval by Iraqi authorities, Halliburton said.
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