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Rice concerned with Russia's military

MOSCOW, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice said she's concerned about Russia's increasing arms sales to Iran, Syria, Venezuela and other U.S. adversaries.

Rice raised the subject directly in talks last weekend with Russian leaders, she told ABC News in an interview from Moscow published Monday.

"The Russians, of course, say that there's nothing illegal about these arms sales," Rice said. "I (told them) not everything that is legal in the narrowest sense is good for the international system."

Russia's arms sales have increased dramatically under Russian President Vladimir Putin along with defense spending, Rice told ABC News.

"I think the rapid growth in Russian military spending definitely bears watching," Rice said, noting she was concerned about Russia once again flying bombers to the edge of U.S. and NATO airspace off Alaska, Britain and Guam, as was common during the Cold War.

Putin shrugs off assassination threat

WIESBADEN, Germany, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said countries should stop "scaring" Iran and resolve a nuclear dispute through negotiations rather than fear.

Putin spoke Monday from Wiesbaden, Germany, after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkle, Itar-Tass reported.

Putin told reporters he planned to go on to Iran despite reports of an assassination plot against him, Interfax reported.

In a reference to the United States and France, Putin urged countries who oppose Iran's nuclear program to stop threatening Iran and to negotiate a settlement as was done with North Korea, Itar-Tass reported.

Putin said he would discuss such negotiations when he met Monday with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "I hope the results will be encouraging," he said.

Putin's attendance at the summit of Caspian Sea nations Tuesday will mark the first visit by a Russian or Soviet leader to Iran since 1943 when Joseph Stalin met with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt in Tehran.

Hu calls for Taiwan ‘peace agreement’

BEIJING, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao, vowing China won't give up its claim on Taiwan, urged the island's leaders to reach a peace deal under the one-China principle.

The Chinese leader, addressing Monday's opening day of the 17th Communist Party Congress, warned about what he described as the stepping of “secessionist activities” by the forces for “Taiwan independence,” Xinhua reported.

“Here we would like to make a solemn appeal,” he said. “On the basis of the one-China principle, let us discuss a formal end to the state of hostility between the two sides, reach a peace agreement, construct a framework for peaceful development of cross-straits relations, and thus usher in a new phase of peaceful development.”

Hu warned his government “will never allow anyone to separate Taiwan from the motherland in any name or by any means.”

New Zealand arrests 17 in terror sweep

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- New Zealand police arrested 17 people on firearms charges Monday in the country's first sweep using powers under the 2002 Terrorism Suppression Act.

The country's TV One News said the raids in Wellington, Rotorua, Palmerston North, Hamilton and Auckland were in response to a threat to the safety of New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, although her office wouldn't comment, the Wellington Dominion-Post reported.

The predawn raids reportedly targeted Maori, environmental and political activists, the newspaper said.

Police Commissioner Howard Broad said there was intelligence that the suspects had been conducting and participating in training camps involving the use of firearms and other weapons such as Molotov cocktails and more serious terror-related charges could be filed against the men and at least one woman detained.

"Based on the information and the activity known to have taken place, I decided it was prudent that action should be taken in the interests of public safety," Broad said.

Broad said the training camps didn't have any apparent international connections, the newspaper said.

Law fuzzy on guards as combatants

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. officials are reviewing whether private security guards in Iraq could be considered unlawful combatants in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

If that proves true, the United States would be treaty-bound to pull the contractors from war zones, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Private contractors legally are allowed to use force to defend themselves but the line between defensive and offensive force is poorly defined, the newspaper said.

"It really is, legally speaking, very convoluted," a senior U.S. Department of Defense official told the Times.

The subject has taken on new urgency as U.S. authorities investigate the Sept. 16 killing of civilians in Iraq by Blackwater security guards.

If lawyers at the departments of State, Defense and Justice deem the guards to be unlawful combatants, the guards' work in war zones would be limited, which would hand the already burdened U.S. military even more work, the Times reported.