MOSCOW, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- The building of the new Nord Stream gas pipeline means Russia is likely to play more pipeline politics with its former Soviet bloc neighbors, experts say.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A defeat for the United States and its NATO allies in Afghanistan is no longer inconceivable, according to the commanding U.S. general. Hearts and minds now have priority over killing Taliban insurgents. Lost in the new casualty calculus are the 3,000 killed in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon eight years ago.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Last Sunday Barack Obama's national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, made the television morning talk show rounds. Perhaps the most provocative question fired at him was why he was playing a far less visible -- and critics would add even an invisible -- role than his more famous predecessors such as Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Jones' answer was simple and direct as befitting a former commandant of the Marine Corps and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The visits last week to the Middle East by national security adviser James L. Jones and special envoy George Mitchell raise the question of the Obama administration's aims and expectations in bringing a greater measure of peace and stability to a conflict that so far has defied solution. Is the White House after any measure of success, however small, so as to declare victory? Or is the administration prepared to roll the dice in favor of a cosmic settlement despite the risks of failure?

WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) -- Sometimes wars go exactly the way the governments or political movements that launch them expect. But more often than not, they don't. The secret to success in launching a war is to be able to wrap it up fast and to know when to stop. Those were techniques that the United States was not able to apply in either Afghanistan or Iraq.

NEW YORK, April 27 (UPI) -- The American approach toward counter-terrorism in Afghanistan and diplomatic ties with Iran is based on a comprehensive strategy, Zbigniew Brzezinski said.

UPI Almanac for Saturday, March 28, 2009.

WASHINGTON, March 5 (UPI) -- Iran's nuclear program isn't just a U.S. problem and will require more than a U.S. solution, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Thursday.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Barack Obama took office Tuesday as the 44th president of the United States with an inspiring inaugural speech in which he warned the American people to "put away childish things." But Wall Street was unimpressed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling below 8,000 in its largest Inauguration Day drop in history.