ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States slapped financial sanctions on Thursday on a Greek businessman it says secretly operated a shipping network on behalf of the Iranian government to get around international sanctions on the country's sale of oil. "Today, we are lifting the veil on an intricate Iranian scheme that was designed to evade international oil sanctions," U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said in a statement. The sanctions cited Dimitris Cambis and a number of front companies for buying tankers on behalf of the National Iranian Tanker Company, barred U.S. citizens from doing business with them and froze any of their assets under U.S. jurisdiction. Cambis was identified in a Reuters report last month that said Iran was using old tankers to ship oil to China. Reuters reported that Cambis had bought eight tankers last year, which were then used to transport Iranian crude. Cambis denied trading wit

By Daniel Trotta NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, a study released on Thursday said. The war has killed at least 134,000 Iraqi civilians and may have contributed to the deaths of as many as four times that number, according to the Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. When security forces, insurgents, journalists and humanitarian workers were included, the war's death toll rose to an estimated 176,000 to 189,000, the study said. The report, the work of about 30 academics and experts, was published in advance of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003. It was also an update of a 2011 report the Watson Institute produced ahead of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks that assessed the cost in dolla

S. Sabawoon/EPA Afghan security officials inspect the scene of a suicide bomb attack outside the Afghan Defense Ministry Saturday. Hamid Karzai suggested the Taliban and U.S. colluded over the attack in order to persuade people that foreign forces had to stay in the country. By Jamieson Lesko and Ian Johnston, NBC News KABUL — The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has warned that President Hamid Karzai is putting the lives of Western troops in danger with his anti-American rhetoric. A leaked, confidential memo sent by General Joseph Dunford to officers in Afghanistan said recent comments by Karzai could be "a catalyst for some to lash out against our forces." Dunford said Karzai’s "inflammatory speech" about the controversial Bagram Prison could prompt members of Afghan government forces to stage insider attacks on American troops and other Western allies. And he warned that the Afghan president himself "may also issue orders that put our forces at risk.

By David Chance, Reuters SEOUL -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live artillery drill close to a disputed sea border with South Korea, state news agency KCNA reported on Thursday, in the latest sign of increased tensions between the two Koreas. KCNA did not specify when the drill took place. The border is seen as the most likely site of any clash between the North, which has stepped up military preparations in response to being sanctioned for its February nuclear test, and South Korea. North Korea has threatened a nuclear strike against the United States in response to new United Nations sanctions and to strike back at South Korea and the United States during military drills that the two allies are holding. Kim praised the artillery units on two islands after watching them hit targets, in what KCNA described as the "biggest hot spots in the southwestern sector of the front," in practice for striking at two South Korean islands. KCNA via Reuters

Chinese ghost towns are widely considered to be symptomatic of its property bubble. But some, like Yale professor and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, Stephen Roach, have argued that these cities will become "thriving metropolitan areas" as China continues to urbanize. In a new report titled Demystifying China's "Ghost Towns," Bank of America 's Ting Lu explains why all the chatter on ghost cities is overblown and says while there are smaller bubbles, it is inaccurate to characterize China's entire property sector as a giant bubble. Lu writes that there are a few ghost towns because of "failures in city planning and irrational over-building," but they are not as prevalent as media reports would have us believe. If there were, he said, the media would be able to find a lot more ghost towns than they have. "Favorite “ghost towns” covered in media have been invariably from the following short list: Ordos in Inner Mongolia prov

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's parliament formally elected heir-in-waiting Xi Jinping as the country's new president on Thursday, completing the country's second orderly political succession since the Communist Party took power in 1949. The largely rubber-stamp National People's Congress chose Xi in a tightly scripted ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing, putting the final seal of approval on a generational transition of power. Xi was appointed party and military chief - where real power lies - in November. The 59-year-old was also elected head of the Central Military Commission, the parallel government post to the party's top military position which he already holds, ensuring that he has full power over the party, state and armed forces. There was virtually no opposition among the carefully selected legislators to Xi becoming president. Xi drew just one no vote and three abstentions from the almost 3,000 delegates. Xi bowed deeply and shook hand

Islamabad, Mar. 13 (ANI): In a major development, China has offered a 500 million dollar loan to Pakistan for the controversial Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, which was launched despite strong objections from the United States. Pakistan had earlier planned to generate the billion dollars through the tax and Iran will be putting in 500 million dollars, reports The Express Tribune. This development comes days after Pakistan handed over to China control of its key Gwadar port in Balochistan. Islamabad and Tehran had formally launched the project on Monday in an elaborate groundbreaking ceremony held at the Pakistan-Iran border. Petroleum ministry officials confirmed that Pakistan is in the middle of procuring compressors and pipelines from a Chinese company and Iranian company Tadbir will do the construction. The 1,600-kilometre pipeline, projected to cost a whopping $1.5 billion would enable the export of 21.5 million cubic meters of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan daily. The countr

When the BBC discovered evidence of a massacre at a village just outside the central Syrian city of Homs in January, those on both sides of the conflict blamed each other for the atrocity. What really happened? After news spread of a massacre in the village of Haswiya in central Syria on 15 January 2013, two accounts of what happened emerged. Syrian security forces who escorted the BBC team to the site of the killings insisted the 100 deaths were the work of the al-Nusra Front - Islamist militants fighting alongside the rebels. However, activists said pro-government gangs, known as Shabiha, were to blame. Since then, the BBC has been trying to piece together the two narratives. Was this sectarian bloodletting by the state-sponsored militia or was it an attack by militants on a village that was supporting the government? Security forces view: The case against the Islamists According to the Syrian security forces, the victims were killed by militant Islamist group the al-Nusra Front