Backing Viktor Bout;

 Tussle for the Arctic heats up;

China "cloning" Russian arms;
New investigations committee: back to the NKVD?

 Ahmadinejad Takes Aim at the Expediency Council; The S-300 by Other Means?; An Iranian River Runs Through It

Russia’s deadbeat ex-husbands;
Moscow backs arms dealer Bout

Last week, Iran rolled out the red carpet for an unlikely dignitary. The visitor wasn’t Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the spiritual head of the Hezbollah Shi’ite militia Iran created in Lebanon in the early 1980s and has sustained since. Nor was it Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s newly-reconfirmed prime minister, whom—having failed to supplant in favor of a more pliable politician in recent elections—Tehran is now actively courting. Rather, the head-of-state that garnered Tehran’s most lavish diplomatic reception was none other than Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, who over the past decade has emerged as one of Iran’s most dependable international allies.

Israel and Lebanon clash at the border; Arming the Saudis; Terror title shifts to South Asia; IMU leader Yuldashev dead

Mao Zedong Thought makes a comeback; Beijing cracks down on independent reporting

Iron Dome ready in November; Saudi legal reform takes a step forward; Iran's hand in Iraq highlighted by U.S. general; France "at war" with AQIM; Turkey gives boost to Azeri enclave