Rearming the world: With much less fanfare than the early days of the Cold War, the world is entering a new arms race, and with it, a dangerous new web of military relationships. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks international armed forces spending, between 1997 and 2006 global military expenditures jumped by nearly 40 percent. Driven mainly by anxiety over oil and natural resources, countries are building their arsenals of conventional weapons at a rate not seen in decades, beefing up their armies and navies, and forging potential new alliances that could divide up the world in unpredictable ways. [Boston Globe]
Poland’s Jewish community flourishes: Nearly 70 years after the Holocaust, Poland’s Jewish community is flourishing again with Poles rediscovering their roots and synagogues filling with new members. The number of Jews is 30,000 - up from about 5,000 only a few years ago, Jewish cultural association Beit Warszawa estimates. Tomorrow, Prince Charles will open a Jewish centre in Krakow aimed at providing cultural support to the expanding population in a city which was once the capital for Poland’s pre-war 3.5 million Jews. [Telegraph]
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