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By Ekaterina Yevstigneyeva   March 20, 2009 "Pravda.Ru" — - The United States is the largest borrower in the world. The US national debt has already exceeded the level of 11 trillion dollars as of the beginning of 2009 and continues to grow like an avalanche . Experts say that the USA has only two ways to solve the problem: to either declare default or trigger off a war . According to experts' estimates, the probability of default on US treasury bonds is very high at the moment. The rumors are not new at all. Moreover, experts say that the USA has already started to work on an opportunity to refuse from the dollar in order to avoid debt payments. Dmitry Abzalov, an expert with the Center for Russia 's Political Conjuncture, said that governments currently take on the debts of corporations. " The corporate debts crisis thus becomes the crisis of governmental debts. The US debt in the beginning of 2009 amounted to $10.6 trillion. Taking into consideration the curre...

    By NAYYAR AFAQ Wednesday, 18 March 2009.     ISLAMABAD, Pakistan--On one hand, terrorism and extremism is getting their roots deep in society, while on the other, the country is suffering a worst form of financial meltdown. On one side, armed forces and intelligence agencies are getting maligned through international campaign, and on the other, an environment is getting set that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are not in safe hands. This time when nation needs to be united to face and defeat the challenges, there is a cat and mouse game in play among the political parties and a vast majority is considering Lawyers' Movement as the only solution to the problems of Pakistan. The time when a Long March and sit in (Dharna) for indefinite period was announced by the lawyers' leaderships, and when a worst form of law and order crisis was setting up on roads, embarrassing Pakistan in the international community, government of Pakistan surrendered to the demands of ...

Contrary to media hype, both Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif have been cut down to size. Zardari has been snubbed, and Nawaz can't use the judge card anymore. The military effectively ended politicians from exploiting the problem for political gain. Aitzaz is busy trying to return to his party by – believe it or not – hijacking the reinstatement of the judge in favor of PPPP. The two, Zardari and Nawaz, still have to account for shamelessly leading Pakistan to civil war. One blocked Pakistan's exports by impounding all cargo containers and the other had no problem if his activists snatched and torched cars and public property as long as it served 'public interest.' Then there's the role of Balochistan, a positive note in concluding this report.   ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—True to our report on March 15, the Pakistani military intervened quietly to clean up the mess in a way that did not tip the balance in favor of any one of the warring politicians. President Zardari was snu...

Let's not pat ourselves on the back too much. The celebration and the sighs of relief must not eclipse a worrisome development: The massive, embarrassing and unprecedented failure of political leadership in Pakistan over the past couple of weeks. That failure was no small event. The original sin of disturbing the Pakistani political process is born by the United States and Britain. The attempts at political manipulation by both countries as far back as 2006 have destabilized Pakistan. Their latest intervention was designed to protect their interests. Let's celebrate the moment. But let's also take our politicians to task for their failed leadership. And let's keep an eye on the next crisis. It is coming. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—This is the first time that Pakistan's military joined middle class Pakistanis in forcing change on the country's closed club of elite politicians. This may not have been intentional. The recent failures by the political elite and the positiv...

Russian news agencies say a top defense official has confirmed that Russia has signed a contract to sell S-300 air-defense missiles to Iran but that none of the weapons have been delivered. Russian officials have consistently denied claims that it already has provided some of the powerful missiles to Iran and had not clarified whether a contract existed. The state-run ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies and the independent Interfax quoted an unnamed top official in the Federal Military-Technical Cooperation Service as saying Wednesday the contract had been signed two years ago. Service spokesman Andrei Tarabrin told The Associated Press he could not immediately comment. Supplying the S-300s to Iran would markedly change the military balance in the Middle East.   Last update - 12:26 18/03/2009 By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, Mar 16 (IPS) - Advanced reports on the Barack Obama administration's strategy to "peel off" a majority of insurgent commanders from the " hard core" of Taliban suggest that it will be presented as a political route to victory in Afghanistan that would not require U.S. and NATO troops to win militarily. But experts warn that the strategy is unlikely to work. And by appearing to provide a political route to victory, the strategy is luring the administration into a renewed commitment to war in Afghanistan and diverting it away from a deal with the Taliban leadership aimed at keeping al Qaeda from having a presence there. News reports this past week have raised the possibility of negotiations by Afghan, Saudi and Pakistani officials with the Taliban leadership that could result in an agreement not to allow an al Qaeda presence on Afghan territory in return for U.S. and NATO withdrawal and assurances that they will not intervene in the country as long ...

Fed Decided Payouts Couldn't Be Stopped A tidal wave of public outrage over bonus payments swamped American International Group yesterday. Hired guards stood watch outside the suburban Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products, the division whose exotic derivatives brought the insurance giant to the brink of collapse last year. Inside, death threats and angry letters flooded e-mail inboxes. Irate callers lit up the phone lines. Senior managers submitted their resignations. Some employees didn't show up at all. "It's a mob effect," one senior executive said . "It's putting people's lives in danger." Politicians and the public spent yesterday demanding that AIG rescind payouts that they said rewarded recklessness and greed at a company being bailed out with $170 billion in taxpayer funds. But company officials contend that the uproar is scaring away the very employees who understand AIG Financial Products' complex trades and who are t...