Tell a Tale

Property tycoon Donald Trump, one of America’s most flamboyant and outspoken billionaires, declared Tuesday he was running for the White House, promising to make America great again. “I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country great again,” he said in a speech delivered from Trump Tower on New York’s Fifth Avenue. The 69-year-old is considered a wildcard candidate in an increasingly crowded pool of contenders seeking the presidency in 2016. Denouncing US foreign and economic policy, Trump ridiculed America’s current crop of politicians and vowed to reverse what he called US decline. “Our country is in serious trouble. We don’t have victories anymore,” he said. “When was the last time anyone saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade deal. They kill us. I beat China all the time.” “When did we beat Japan at anything? They send their cars over by the millions and what do we do?” The businessman, whom Forbes va...

President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia will boost its nuclear arsenal by over 40 intercontinental missiles this year, in a move likely to further unnerve the West. “This year the size of our nuclear forces will increase by over 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles that will be able to overcome any, even the most technologically advanced, missile defence systems,” Putin said at the opening of an exhibition of military hardware outside Moscow. The declaration from the Kremlin strongman came as Russia reacted with fury to reports that the US is planning to bulk up its military deployments in Eastern Europe. Tensions between Russia and the West are at their highest since the end of the Cold War over the conflict in Ukraine. Kiev and its allies accuse Moscow of sending in troops and armour to back a separatist conflict in the east of the country but Russia has denied the claims. The New York Times reported at the weekend that the Pentagon was poised ...

Storied American gunmaker Colt, which has roots stretching back centuries, plans to file for bankruptcy protection, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The company, which lost a large US Army contract, is in need of the protection “amid business-execution issues and a heavy debt burden,” the report said, citing unnamed people familiar with the plan. Connecticut-based Colt Defense, which dates back to 17th-century New England, has secured funds to keep its doors open. “The company has secured financing from its existing senior lenders to continue operating while in bankruptcy and expects to remain in business after the restructuring,” the Journal added. The company has a $355-million debt burden it wants to put a dent in with a court-monitored auction of some business, the report said, citing the same sources. Guardian

Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies have reportedly decrypted files of former U.S. National Security Agency contractor and leaker Edward Snowden, and have identified British and U.S. secret agents. MI6, the U.K.’s secret intelligence service, has withdrawn agents from overseas operations in hostile countries, according to a report in the Sunday Times of London, citing U.K. government officials and Western intelligence agencies. The report contains some apparently contradictory information. Although The Sunday Times quoted a U.K. Home Office official saying that Snowden has “blood on his hands,” it also quoted a government source saying that there was no sign that agents have been hurt. Prime Minister David Cameron’s aides, however, confirmed that Snowden’s files are in the hands of Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies, according to the report. “It is the case that Russians and Chinese have information,” according to one top U.K. government source cited by ...

Washington has transferred six inmates from its Guantanamo Bay prison to Oman, the Pentagon said Saturday, as part of a drive by President Barack Obama to close the controversial jail. “The United States is grateful to the government of Oman for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” a statement said. It named the six men as Idris Ahmad Abd Al Qadir Idris, Sharaf Ahmad Muhammad Masud, Jalal Salam Awad Awad, Saad Nasser Moqbil Al Azani, Emad Abdallah Hassan and Muhammad Ali Salem Al Zarnuki. The Omani foreign ministry said all six were Yemeni. They arrived in the sultanate on Saturday for a “temporary stay,” said a ministry statement carried by the official ONA news agency. It did not elaborate on their subsequent travel plans. The transfer means 116 inmates remain at the prison in at a US naval base in southeastern Cuba. Saturday’s announcement marked the second Guantanamo prisoner transfer...

North Korea has accused the United States of targeting it with anthrax and asked the United Nations Security Council to investigate Washington’s “biological warfare schemes” after a live anthrax sample was sent to a US base in South Korea. “The United States not only possesses deadly weapons of mass destruction … but also is attempting to use them in actual warfare against (North Korea),” Pyongyang’s UN Ambassador Ja Song Nam wrote in a letter to the UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which was made public Friday. North Korea “strongly requests the Security Council take up the issue of the shipment of anthrax germs in order to thoroughly investigate the biological warfare schemes of the United States,” Ja said in the letter dated June 4. He also attached a statement from North Korea’s National Defence Commission, which urged the world to consider the anthrax shipment “the gravest challenge to peace and a hideous crime aimed at genocide.” The US mission t...

A strange brew of Democrats and conservative Republicans came together on Friday to defeat Barack Obama in a crippling blow to his international trade agenda. With the Democratic minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, speaking in opposition to the bill and going directly against Obama less than three hours after the president begged his party’s caucus to support it, the vote on trade adjustment assistance (TAA) – which would have provided government aid to workers who had lost their jobs because of free trade agreements – marks not just a major setback for future trade agreements but for Obama’s influence in his own caucus. The failed vote came as part of an effort by liberals to torpedo attempts by the Obama administration to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal. That deal has a much greater chance if Congress grants the president fast-track trade authority – which would mean future trade deals, such as the TPP and the proposed Transatlantic Tr...