Japan has mapped out a plan to defend a chain of its southernmost islands in the East China Sea against invasion and rising security concerns about China, a press report said Sunday. The plan calls for the dispatch of 55,000 troops as well as warplanes, destroyers and submarines from Japan's main islands in the event of an attack on Okinawa and other remote islands, Kyodo news agency reported.

WalMart is 19th among the 100 most powerful economies in the world--only 49 of which are now countries.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has decided to acquire offensive and defensive weapons in 2005 as part of an effort to repel any US or Israel attack on Syria. Western intelligence sources said Assad plans to order at least $2 billion worth of Russian or Soviet-origin equipment during his meeting with President Vladimir Putin later this month. The sources said the Assad regime has assessed that US forces based in Iraq would launch a major attack on Syria in 2005.

Foreign forces including the US Navy can continue tsunami relief operations in Indonesia beyond a March 26 deadline, the government said on Sunday as the disaster's overall death toll topped 168,000 -iafrica

Will the war on terror last forever, or can the terrorists be beaten decisively, and beaten sooner rather than later?(This article is referenced by Hersh in his New Yorker article below) -John Arquilla/San Francisco Chronicle

George W. Bush’s reëlection was not his only victory last fall.The President and his national-security advisers have consolidated control over the military and intelligence communities’ strategic analyses and covert operations to a degree unmatched since the rise of the post-Second World War national-security state.The President has signed a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia.The President’s decision enables Rumsfeld to run the operations off the books—free from legal restrictions imposed on the C.I.A -Seymour Hersh/The New Yorker

Saddam Hussein's legal team claimed yesterday it has witnesses willing to testify that the fallen dictator's regime was not responsible for gassing thousands of Kurds in the northern Iraqi town of Halabja in 1988.

Former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, who was Rice's mentor and first brought her into government during the administration of George H.W. Bush, said Rice, who is expected to be easily confirmed, may face a tough transition from being an inside player. "When you are simply making policy in the abstract, you have to be concerned with how others see it, but you are not actually in the job of going out and rustling up support," he said. "That's a different way of approaching people. You have to get them to like something they are not very disposed to like." -Washington Post

Yet the image of the corpse wrapped in polythene, his right eye bandaged, his nose broken and his mouth open as if gasping for his last breath, signifies that darker practices than sadistic games have taken place inside American-run jails in Iraq.It is part of growing evidence that some detainees have been tortured and beaten to death by American forces -London Times

As the Bush administration drops hints about withdrawing troops from Iraq as early as this year, the Pentagon is building a permanent military communications system that suggests American soldiers will be in Iraq for the foreseeable future.Other Pentagon officials familiar with the project told the Sun that its scope, which plans to eventually connect American bases in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and even Afghanistan, indicates a commitment to a long-term presence in the region, including Iraq -NY Sun

Long ago, in a world far, far away, the pre-9/11 era of 1996, Donald Rumsfeld turned up late in Bob Dole's failing presidential campaign as a spokesman.Rumsfeld appeared on ''Meet the Press'' and showed himself to be a man of no opinions.As I wrote at the time, it is always interesting to watch the spectacle of power brokers claiming they know nothing about a number of subjects, or have no opinion on controversial issues.Such people, of course, are near the center of power only because they have knowledge and opinions, but they are often called on to publicly claim the opposite.Alberto Gonzales was the latest example of this enduring tradition of the well-placed not knowing anything -William O'Rourke/Chicago Sun Times

Thirty-two Chinese immigrants were found inside two cargo containers aboard a ship arriving from Hong Kong, authorities said. They were discovered Saturday night when a crane operator at the Port of Los Angeles saw three men climbing out of a container, said Lt. Titus Smith of the Los Angeles Port Police.

THREE former executives in America face decades in jail if found guilty in two separate trials starting this week in courts next door to each other -London Times

The U.S. military rejected a 1994 proposal to develop an "aphrodisiac" to spur homosexual activity among enemy troops but is hard at work on other less-than-lethal weapons, defense officials said Sunday

Croatia's President Stipe Mesic, who is credited for moving this ex-Yugoslav country closer to the West, overwhelmingly won a second term on Sunday

Say you're expecting to rely on a modest retirement fund. Along comes a hotshot stockbroker promising that if he can handle your money, he'll guarantee you 15 or 40 percent less of a payout than you would have gotten in the first place. It sounds absurd--but that's the essence of George W. Bush's Social Security "reform." For all of Bush's hype about diverting a portion of the Social Security payroll tax into individual retirement accounts, his proposal is simply a smokescreen for a cut in benefits.

President Bush said the public's decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath.

The Bush Administration has not yet offered details of its plan for Social Security, but it's expected to follow the contours of a proposal spelled out by a 2001 commission on Social Security: a combination of scaled-back guaranteed benefits and private investment accounts. This controversial proposal would divert a portion of your payroll taxes to a private account, to invest as you choose -TIME

The Israeli government has reportedly ordered the army to resume assassinating Palestinian militants in Gaza after three days of violence which have left six Israelis and eight Palestinians dead.

President Bush says the U.S. military will pull out of Iraq "as quickly as possible," but he is not endorsing Secretary of State Colin Powell's statement that troops could begin returning home this year