China has beamed a ground-based laser at U.S. spy satellites over its territory, a U.S. agency said, in an action that exposed the potential vulnerability of space systems that provide crucial data to American troops and consumers around the world.  

The United States Army and Marines are finishing work on a new counterinsurgency doctrine that draws on the hard-learned lessons from Iraq and makes the welfare and protection of civilians a bedrock element of military strategy.

The international forecaster editor Bob Chapman writes: This past Saturday in Venezuela, it was announced that a sniper with a long-range rifle and a motorcycle to escape was captured … his target was President Hugo Chavez Frias.