Kyrgyzstan is entertaining (or not) US officials who have come to haggle over the Kyrgyz ultimatum—pay more for the use of Manas Air Base or get out. Agence France Presse news service reports that American negotiators were to arrive earlier this week to discuss the proposed hundred-fold increase in rent, which Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev told his fellow citizens via national radio is not a matter for “haggling as though we were in a bazaar.”
Facing competition from fast-growing startups, Lockheed Martin is speeding up production of an “affordable, scalable” hypersonic glide body, dubbed the Next Generation Glide Body, the firm said in a June 24 release.