NATO

South America has established a military and political bloc to oppose NATO. Proponents of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez are going to be supported by Brazil that adopts a reasonable attitude and plays a major role in the region. Officially, the reason for a new bloc was the recent conflict between Ecuador and Columbia. But the actual aim is to weaken the US influence in the region that has been the area of its vital interest for 200 years.

NATO fighters intercepted two Russian strategic bombers when they were flying near Alaska, on Wednesday, Russian media reported.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)–comprised of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan–began in 2001 as a confidence-building mechanism to resolve border disputes. In recent years, it has risen in stature and scope, making headlines in 2005 when it issued a timeline for U.S. forces to pull out of Uzbekistan.

MITROVICA, Kosovo (Reuters) - NATO troops in Kosovo patrolled the Serb stronghold of north Mitrovica alone on Tuesday after police withdrew following deadly Serb riots.

As tens of thousands of NATO troops battle it out with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan for the seventh year, a handful of soldiers are waging their war armed with little more than slogans, leaflets and loud music. They are the members of the psychological operations, or psyops, teams deployed by Western armies to help sap the will of the enemy and win over the local population without firing a shot.

NATO-led peacekeeping forces (KFOR) started Tuesday a military exercise in Serb-dominated area of northern Kosovo. KFOR peacekeepers were engaged in the two-day exercise at the Gazivoda Lake vicinity, close to Zubin Potok, said Etienne du Fayet, KFOR spokesperson, adding that the international military forces were exercising the deployment of personal and equipment intense areas.

The global proceeds of the Afghan drug trade is in excess of 150 billion dollars a year. There is mounting evidence that this illicit trade is protected by the US military. Historically, starting in the early 1980s, the Afghan drug trade was used to finance CIA covert support of the Islamic brigades. The 2003 war on Afghanistan was launched following the Taliban government's 2000-2001 drug eradication program which led to a collapse in opium production in excess of 90 percent.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Sunday. The United States and many, but not all, European countries recognized it. The Serbian government did not impose an economic blockade on — or take any military action against — Kosovo, although it declared the Albanian leadership of Kosovo traitors to Serbia.

NATO is closely watching China's military expansion, with an attitude of rising concern and wariness. Led by the United States, NATO members are starting to view China as a possible emerging common adversary.

NATO recently became the latest agency, and the first military one, to sign up for the Global Public Health Intelligence Network, an international initiative that monitors media and other open-source material 24/7 for signs of emerging pandemics and other public health disasters.