Chile
Chile has requested an estimated $665 million in arms and radar systems from the United States. Chile has had longstanding political and economic ties with the United States. As the country’s strongest trade partner, the United States has boosted bilateral trade ties by 154 percent in the last three years. The contracts will include Sentinel Radar systems, HMMWV-based Avenger fires units and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, as well as 100 AIM 120C-7 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles. Should the sale be completed, Chile will join Brazil as the only nations in South America to own such medium-range air-to-air missiles, capable of destroying planes up to 60 miles away.

Russia
* Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces will begin operating a second regiment armed with Topol-M mobile missile systems by the end of the year. The single-warhead Topol-M is an advanced version of the silo-based and mobile Topol-based inter-continental missile. It is the mainstay of the ground-based component of Russia’s nuclear triad. “We will complete the rearmament of the second missile regiment in the Teikovo division with mobile Topol-M systems,” Lt. Gen. Andrei Shvaichenko was quoted as saying in Russia media after a news conference. News of the second regiment’s deployment comes amid the Kremlin’s designs to draft a new military doctrine by the end of the year. Reports suggest the new doctrine authorizes the country’s armed forces to use nuclear weapons not only in retaliation to conventional attacks but even in pre-emptive strikes against small regional foes, including neighboring Georgia.

* At least eight people have been killed at a Russian ammunition depot, 10 days after explosions tore through the same site, the defence ministry says. The explosion happened at the Arsenal 31 depot on the outskirts of Ulyanovsk, 900km (550 miles) south-east of Moscow. The dead were reportedly all members of a bomb disposal unit, who were loading live ammunition onto a lorry. The previous explosions and fires killed two soldiers as they attempted to decommission weapons.

Philippines
At least 21 people were murdered in the lawless southern Philippines on Monday in a shocking massacre that the military and relatives of the victims said was likely linked to a political rivalry. Local journalists and supporters of a local politician in Maguindanao province were among those murdered, with some of them beheaded and mutilated, the military and relatives said.

Israel and Gaza
Israeli fighter jets attacked what the country said were “terrorist sites” in Gaza in retribution for an earlier attack, the military said Sunday. The Israel Air Force hit two weapons-manufacturing facilities in northern and central Gaza and a smuggling tunnel in the Rafah border area, Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. Gaza shares the Rafah border with Egypt.

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
Kazakh Foreign Ministry verifies that Uzbekistan has unilaterally closed its border with Kazakhstan, as swine flu continues to spread in both countries. “We confirm that the border is closed,” Erzhan Ashikbayev, Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman, told journalists on Monday, noting that “It’s not our initiative. We don’t have information on the motives for this decision.” He added that the border is currently open to citizens of each nation returning home. Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry could not be reached for comment.