Concerns over America’s lack of rare earth minerals production has prompted Congress’ research arm to raise the question: Is the United States’ national security and economic well-being vulnerable to supply disruptions, particularly from China?

In an attempt to prey on anti-immigration sentiments, Libya’s dictator, Muammar Qaddafi, has offered to stop illegal immigration from Africa to Europe—for $6.3 billion a year. In an address made in Rome, Italy, Qaddafi warned of Europe becoming too “black” for its taste as a result of the growing number of Africans seeking to relocate north of the Mediterranean.

Illegal logging and deforestation have compounded the flooding disaster in Pakistan, where heavier than normal rains during the monsoon have wreaked havoc on large areas of the country. Experts blame Pakistan’s “timber mafia” for stripping hillsides of trees and vegetation that would have helped absorb some of the rainfall. Instead, harvested logs were left to pile up in narrow valleys and subsequently were washed downstream, turning already swollen rivers into battering rams that smashed into bridges and buildings. The toll of the destruction so far is 8,000 schools partially or completely destroyed, 54 villages swept away, 1,600 dead and six million homeless.

As the United States downsizes its commitment in Iraq, it leaves behind billions of dollars in wasted reconstruction efforts, such as the $40 million spent to partially build a prison north of Baghdad that sits abandoned.

In an effort to bolster their plan to secede and form their own country, officials in southern Sudan want to bring home 1.5 million refugees living in the northern part of the country and Egypt so they can vote in an independence referendum scheduled for January. Although a majority of present-day Sudan’s population is black, the nation has always been ruled by its Arab minority. Southern Sudan is overwhelmingly black and, whereas the North is primarily Muslim, in the South, most of the population are Christians or followers of traditional religions.

In order to fulfill his promise to the American people that all U.S. combat units would be withdrawn from Iraq by August 31 of this year, President Barack Obama’s Department of Defense has simply altered the designation of brigades from “combat” to “advise and assist.” In truth, nearly 50,000 combat soldiers will remain in the country, having been regrouped into

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan wants all foreign private security contractors out of his country by January 2011…but there’s a loophole.

Journalist Isa Saharkhiz of Iran is suing Nokia and Siemens in U.S. federal court claiming the European companies facilitated his capture and torture at the hands of the Iranian government. Saharkhiz, a one-time reporter for the Islamic Republic News Agency and founding member of the Society for the Defense of Freedom of the Press, was thrown into prison and subjected to abuse, he says, which included serving 80 days in solitary confinement and having his ribs broken.

Polls show that a majority of Americans would like to see the bulk of U.S. troops leave Afghanistan within the next two years, but military leaders are not as enthusiastic about ending the war. President Barack Obama has said that he wants to begin withdrawing troops in July 2011. However, General David Petraeus, the current commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, began a media blitz to continue the war beyond that date by appearing last Sunday on “Meet the Press.”