Interesting News You May Have Missed

Democrat Challenger for Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Next Big Thing Definitely following in Arnold's footsteps. Valuev is boxing's tallest and heaviest champion ever and, although a hero of Russia, has a German promoter, Wilfried Sauerland. Now known as the Beast from the East (promoter Don King wants to call him King Kong when he defends his U.S. title). Valuev reads Tolstoy and writes poetry to his wife. Like Arnold, Valuev has had a bit of controversy in his past:
I saw a huge man holding a small man with his left hand by the back of his jacket collar. The head of the small man was all hidden inside the jacket, while the big man was hitting him on the head, quickly and viciously," said Alexander Legoshin, 58.

Nikolay Valuev:
Height: 7-0
Weight: 323 lbs.
Reach: 85 in.

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Idle Threat?
China opposes IRAN sanctions. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Russia’s offer to enrich Iranian uranium in Russia should be considered less complicated.

A day earlier, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Robert Zoellick had warned China it would be “extremely dangerous” for its Middle East oil supplies to allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. He advised China to steer in a different direction.

Payvand's Iran News ...
There are many among us who argue against US-Iran negotiations and normal diplomatic relations, which they think would help the regime to stay in power longer, further abuse human rights, and continue to forestall democratic change. They must be reminded that absence of the US from Iran in the last 26 years has not helped their cause; and that no country has ever become democratic in the absence of normal diplomatic relations with the US.

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Schwarzenegger has never granted clemency to a condemned inmate.

Former Whitewater independent counsel (currently dean of Pepperdine University law school) Kenneth Starr asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday to spare the life of a death row inmate Michael Morales, who has apologized repeatedly for the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in 1981. Morales, 46, is scheduled to be executed Feb. 21.

Molten Eagle: Lawyer Ken Starr's star just went down.

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Al-Qaeda Counterfeit Passport Ring Busted (Colombia, S.A.)
Colombia dismantled a false passport ring linked to al-Qaida militants, the acting attorney general said Thursday after authorities led dozens of simultaneous raids across five cities.
The gang allegedly supplied an unknown number of citizens from Pakistan, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and other countries with false passports and Colombian nationality without them ever stepping foot in the country, the attorney general's office said in a written statement. The counterfeited passports were then used to facilitate their entry into the United States and Europe. Nineteen people were arrested in Thursday's raids, carried out in collaboration with U.S. authorities, the attorney general's office said.

Authorities first suspected the existence of a criminal gang in 2002, when three Iraqi citizens were captured entering Colombia on false Israeli passports, the attorney general's statement said.

Molten Eagle: The NSA's controversial telephone eavesdropping allegedly began in 2002, too.

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Vladimir Putin last September said that Russia was developing new strategic high-precision systems that can alter course and height during flight. The purpose behind such capabilities is to make a warhead a more elusive target for anti-missile systems such as the U.S. Star Wars program. The Washington Times had reported Nov. 21st that U.S. officials confirmed a vehicle that “can change course and range."

Now, Russia's Sevmash plant will commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Russian submarine fleet by laying the keel of the third strategic submarine of the new Borey-class, Interfax reported. The new submarine’s name will reportedly be Vladimir Monomach and is constructed to carry the new solid-propellant, 10-warhead maneuverable Bulava missiles.