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Israel’s strategy of isolation and targeted assassinations can be expected to continue against Hezbollah and Hamas after Israel was widely attributed as being responsible for the car-bomb assassination of Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Imad Mughniyah on February 13th in Damascus.

NEW YORK February 13, 2008 (International Herald Tribune) - While the world frets about a possible U.S. recession, global inflation has quietly climbed to historic levels, confronting policy makers with tough choices that could end up hurting the euro and lifting Asian currencies.

February 12, 2008 (Al Jazeera) - Russia and China have proposed a new treaty to ban the use of weapons in space amid concerns of growing anti-satellite missile rivalry.

February 9, 2008 (Press TV) - OPEC Secretary General tells the Middle East Economic Digest that the organization could trade in euros instead of dollars within a decade.

Threats to American economic dominance and the USD continue to grow as oil producing regions talk about, and act on, abandoning USD denominated oil sales and currency pegs. Iran’s announced February 27 oil bourse launch could mark the end of the American empire as we have known it for the last 60 years.

February 5, 2008 (News.com.au) - It has been described as the world's largest rubbish dump, or the Pacific plastic soup, and it is starting to alarm scientists.

WASHINGTON January 29, 2008 (Christopher Rugaber, AP) - World economic growth will slow significantly in 2008 but the U.S., whose housing downturn is rattling global financial markets, will avoid recession, the International Monetary Fund forecast Tuesday.

Following a series of Israeli air, tank and bulldozer attacks, on January 17 Israel locked down the Gaza strip, preventing people and supplies from entering or exiting the region surrounded by towering walls. Israel stated that they acted in response to ongoing Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli border communities but a broader strategy of division and confinement appears to be at play.

January 14, 2008 (Atul Prakash, Reuters) - Gold surged to a historic high above $910 an ounce, as investors rushed to buy the metal on further weakness in the dollar and expectations of a sharp cut in U.S. interest rates.