Jim Mannion
Editor and Reporter , Agence France-Presse (AFP)
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/ 16 January 2008

Drug traffickers shift to semi-submersibles

Drug traffickers have shifted to semi-submersible craft and other smaller, harder-to-detect boats to elude surveillance, causing a sharp drop in cocaine seizures last year, United States officials said on Monday. Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the message was ”loud and clear”.

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/ 12 October 2007

Russia threatens to leave missile treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened on Friday in talks with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to abandon a key nuclear-missile treaty, while also telling Washington to freeze plans for a European anti-missile shield. The Kremlin leader said the Cold War-era INF treaty limiting Russian and US short- and medium-range missiles was outmoded.

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/ 31 March 2006

US to test 700-tonne explosive

The United States military plans to detonate a 700-tonne explosive charge in a test called ”Divine Strake” that could send a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas. ”I don’t want to sound glib here but it is the first time in Nevada that you’ll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons,” said James Tegnelia, head of the Defence Threat Reduction Agency.