By The Associated Press – 22 hours ago
As of Saturday, March 8, 2008, at least 3,974 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,237 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is the same as the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST.
The British military has reported 175 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqgQCcv26kB1dkgZRZNHmbn_1J8gD8V9K1QO0
US Deaths in Afghanistan, Region
By The Associated Press – 3 days ago
As of Wednesday, March 5, 2008, at least 415 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures March 1 at 10 a.m. EST.
Of those, the military reports 283 were killed by hostile action.
Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 63 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, two were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen.
There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g3dO01zk6vBUdavNiW-Zfe-SJuvQD8V7MGPO4
Would seem as though Chavez is capable of stabilizing a region, both militarily and economically. The scenario with Columbia in cooperation with other South American countries was well done, exceptionally well done and reflects cooperation in issues of sovereignty little expected a few years ago. Congratulations.
Venezuela Reopening Embassy in Colombia
By IAN JAMES – 36 minutes ago
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela said Sunday that it was restoring full diplomatic ties with Colombia that were broken off in a regional crisis sparked by a cross-border Colombian attack on a leftist rebel camp in Ecuador.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said it was reopening its embassy in Colombia and will allow back Colombian diplomats it expelled last week. It cited an easing of tensions at a summit in the Dominican Republic on Friday, where President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa shook hands with Colombia's U.S.-backed leader, Alvaro Uribe, after a tense debate.
Venezuela described the reconciliation as a "victory for peace and sovereignty."
Chavez ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed and sent troops to the border with Colombia after Uribe's government carried out a March 1 strike in Ecuador that killed 25 people including Raul Reyes, a spokesman and top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Venezuela also said it was expelling Colombia's ambassador and all diplomatic personnel.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i3-gy-m2ViT4af14BjcC-rOHaWrgD8VA74I00
Venezuela detains one of US government's most-wanted drug trafficking suspects
2008-03-10 00:25:44 -
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - One of the U.S. government's most-wanted drug trafficking suspects has been captured in Venezuela, state television reported Sunday.
The United States has offered a reward of up to US$5 million (€3.2 million) for the arrest of Hermagoras Gonzalez Polanco, and Venezuela's state television channel confirmed his capture.
Lawyer Freddy Ferrer told the private TV channel Globovision that Gonzalez is innocent and criticized his «illegal and illegitimate detention» Saturday by a counter-drug squad at a ranch in western Venezuela.
U.S. authorities accuse Gonzalez of leading a drug ring known as the Guajira cartel and being behind the smuggling of many tons of cocaine to the U.S. in the past decade.
http://www.pr-inside.com/venezuela-detains-one-of-us-government-s-r477013.htm
RIA Novosti
Putin's Russia - Bold, Communist and reassured in its continued existance as the only major world power capable of regional and global stability, regardless its questionable means at times.
Releasing it's dissendents, post election.
Interesting.
Congratulations.
There is a good chance Russia would have fallen under the influence and pressure of Western capitalism losing its ability to guarantee the world's nations their sovereignty if 'the oil greed' of Russia's oligarchs was allowed to dominate its domestic policies. No matter those that hate the reality, Putin saved Russia. There is no doubt in my mind. He did it well and in the ONLY way possible.
Russia to recognize Kosovo only if Serbia agrees - Putin
19:26
08/ 03/ 2008
NOVO-OGARYOVO, March 8 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin said Saturday Russia could recognize Kosovo's independence only in line with international law, and if Serbia agrees to that.
Asked at a press conference after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel whether Russia could later recognize Kosovo's independence, Putin said: "This variant exists, but it lies in the framework of international law."
He said it could happen "with consent of all parties, in this case, Serbia." "Should such a compromise be found, we will agree with it," the outgoing Russian leader said.
Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on February 17. So far over 25 states, including the United States, Australia, Japan and major European countries, have formally recognized the Republic of Kosovo.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080308/100983311.html
Russia's Putin says Khodorkovsky pardon possible
19:50
08/ 03/ 2008
NOVO-OGARYOVO, March 8 (RIA Novosti) - Outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin did not rule out Saturday that jailed ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky could be pardoned by president-elect Dmitry Medvedev.
When asked by a German journalist at a press conference after his meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel whether Khodorkovsky could be pardoned under Medvedev, Putin said: "In line with the law, this procedure is in the competence of the head of state," he said.
Khodorkovsky, the founder of what was once Russia's largest oil producer, is serving an eight-year term for fraud and tax evasion in Siberia. New embezzlement charges have been brought against him recently.
The former Yukos CEO has repeatedly maintained his innocence, saying the case against him is political.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080308/100985090.html
Russia downplays Tu-142 flight over U.S. aircraft carrier
13:14
06/ 03/ 2008
MOSCOW, March 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Navy is surprised by the commotion raised in Western media over the flight of a Russian military plane in the vicinity of a U.S. aircraft carrier, the Navy spokesman said on Thursday.
Western media earlier cited U.S. officials as saying that a Russian bomber came within three to five nautical miles and flew 2,000 feet (610 meters) above the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier off the Korean coast. A similar incident occurred less than a month ago.
"Some Western media reports that called the flight of the Tu-142 plane in the vicinity of the American aircraft carrier 'an incident' are surprising," Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said.
Tu-142 Bear-F is the maritime reconnaissance/strike version of the Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber, designed mainly for anti-submarine warfare (ASW).
Dygalo said the plane, assigned to Russia's Pacific Fleet, was on a routine patrol flight over the Sea of Japan, conducted in strict compliance with international regulations on the use of airspace over neutral waters.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080306/100809284.html
Russian-U.S. venture signs new Proton-M launch deal
13:25
03/ 03/ 2008
MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russian-American joint venture International Launch Services (ILS) has signed a contract to launch two U.S. commercial satellites, the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center said on Monday.
ILS, owned by the Khrunichev Center, RSC Energia, and U.S. firm Space Transport Inc. provides spacecraft launch services on board Proton-M carrier rockets. The company received $1.5 billion in new launch orders in 2007.
"The contract is for the launch of two satellites for the SIRIUS Satellite Radio constellation," a Khrunichev spokesman said.
One of the satellites, the SIRIUS FM-6, is currently under construction at Space Systems/Loral, a U.S. company, and is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2010.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080303/100485920.html
Israel agrees ceasefire with Palestinian gunmen in Gaza - website
18:16
09/ 03/ 2008
TEL AVIV, March 9 (RIA Novosti) - Israel and armed Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip have reached a ceasefire agreement, an Israeli website said on Sunday, referring to sources in the Palestinian enclave.
The agreement on the ceasefire came into effect this weekend, during which only one rocket was fired at Israel's southern towns, Ynet said.
In turn, Israel suspended army raids and air strikes on Gaza, which have claimed the lives of more than 120 Palestinians since late February, the website said.
"Throughout the weekend, and for the first time in many weeks, not a single army aircraft has been sighted over Gaza," Ynet quoted a Palestinian source as saying.
Meanwhile, representatives of armed Palestinian groupings in the Gaza Strip on Sunday confirmed the media reports that they were holding ceasefire talks with Israel.
However, representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad called as premature the reports that specific ceasefire accords had been reached.
Israel earlier said missile strikes and raids against militants in Gaza were carried out in an effort to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel's southern cities and towns.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080309/101008434.html
Palestinian gunman kills 8. Video
A Palestinian gunman opened fire in a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem killing at least eight people, emergency services said. (24 sec./0.93Mb, shows: 1584)
http://en.rian.ru/video/20080307/100892631.html
Liquidity stays strong in Russian banks despite global pressures
16:10
24/ 01/ 2008
DAVOS, January 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's finance minister said on Thursday that the country's banks are not suffering from low liquidity, and should be able to cope with any upcoming upsets on world markets.
"The liquidity problem on the markets has been settled... The interbank credit rate last year averaged at 4.5%, and in January (2008) it was already at 2%. We believe that there are currently no problems," Alexei Kudrin told foreign policymakers and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
However the finance chief, who is also a deputy prime minister, said that Russian banks could suffer from a liquidity crunch if the global economic problems sparked by the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown are aggravated in the near future.
"We expect certain problems [with Russian banks' liquidity], if the international crisis events are exacerbated, but on the whole I think we are prepared for this situation, and can cope with it," Kudrin said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080124/97667835.html
Iran and Iraq
Official: Iraq, China Nearing Oil Deal
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN – 1 hour ago
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq and China are close to re-signing a $1.2 billion oil deal that was called off after the 2003 U.S. invasion, an Iraqi Oil Ministry official said Thursday.
Iraq sits on more than 115 billion barrels of oil, the world's third-largest reserves, but violence and sabotage have crippled efforts to use the resource to fund the country's reconstruction.
As security improves, Iraq is trying to bring in foreign companies to help increase crude output from the current 2.5 million barrels a day to 3 million barrels a day by the end of 2008, and 4.5 million barrels a day by the end of 2013.
Saddam Hussein's government signed a deal with the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. to develop the billion-barrel al-Ahdab oil field, despite U.N. sanctions that barred direct dealings with Iraq's oil industry.
Beijing was waiting for the sanctions to end when the U.S. invasion overthrew Saddam. The two countries restarted talks in October 2006.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCEc0mC6H4Q10upv7IrAkPWLnUwgD8V80RIG0
Iran team leaves without US talks on Iraq
7 hours ago
BAGHDAD, March 6, 2008 (AFP) — An Iranian delegation left Baghdad for home on Thursday without holding talks with officials from archfoe the United States on the security situation in Iraq, an Iranian official said.
"The delegation has left Baghdad because the Americans refused to conduct any negotiations," the official close to Tehran's negotiators told AFP.
Delegation head Reza Amiri Moghaddam had been quoted by the Iranian media as saying a new round of talks would be held on Thursday in Baghdad, but both US and Iraqi officials denied any such dialogue had been scheduled.
"The government of Iraq was busy with the visit of the Iranian president and there was no time to fix the date for the talks. There were no talks fixed for today," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP.
US embassy spokesman Philip Reeker also said there were "no trilateral talks today."
Iran and the United States held three rounds of talks about Iraq last year despite mounting tensions over the Iranian nuclear programme. The two foes have had no diplomatic relations since 1980.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iTdbeYfeLR4OTQEVnXCKcesTpgrA
US/Iraqi Raid Kills 11 in Northern Iraq
3 hours ago
BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 11 suspected insurgents and detained 44 others in raids targeting al-Qaida in central and northern Iraq, the U.S. military said Thursday. Three Iraqi troops were killed in one of the operations.
The Tal Afar Special Weapons and Tactics team, made up of U.S. forces and Iraqi SWAT teams, on Sunday targeted a cell responsible for assassinations and bombing attacks in the Tal Afar area in Iraq's Ninevah province, the military said in a statement.
During the raid, several fighters opened fire on the Iraqi and U.S. troops, killing the three Iraqi soldiers and wounding three others.
The U.S.-Iraqi team killed nine suspected insurgents. Three Iraqi civilians were wounded and treated at the scene and eight suspected cell members were detained for questioning, including two who were wounded and evacuated to a military hospital for treatment, the military said.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gfaT2USoEuuC588S8QJwwncVp2jQD8V7VF680
March 5, 2008, 8:56PM
Turks launch air, artillery strikes on Kurds in Iraq
By ASSO AHMED and ALEXANDRA ZAVIS
Los Angeles Times
SULAYMANIYA, IRAQ — Turkey unleashed air and artillery strikes against Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq on Wednesday, officials here said, five days after the Turks completed a major ground offensive in the mountainous border region.
Turkey declared at the time that it had achieved its goal of denying the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a free hand to attack its territory from sanctuaries in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. But U.S. and Turkish military analysts were skeptical that the operation would have more than a temporary effect.
On Wednesday, Turkish warplanes crossed about 15 miles inside Iraq to bomb targets in the Dashti Barzji area, north of the city of Dahuk, said Capt. Mohammed Ali, a member of the Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq.
Artillery strikes were reported around Amadiya in the same area, he said.
The attacks took place in sparsely populated region and caused no civilian casualties, Ali said.
Ahmed Denis, a PKK spokesman, confirmed that the attack occurred and that the group has a presence in the area, but said he had received no reports of damage or casualties.
Turkey did not immediately confirm Wednesday's attacks.
Domestic critics had accused Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan of bowing to pressure from the U.S. to wrap up the ground offensive as quickly as possible, charges denied by the Turkish government.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5596256.html
State: UN Mandate in Iraq Not Needed
By ANNE FLAHERTY – 17 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The administration can keep troops in Iraq into next year even after the current U.N. mandate governing operations there expires and without Congress' permission, a senior State Department official told a Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday.
In a letter to Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., David Satterfield said military operations can continue "beyond the end of this year under the laws passed by Congress and the president's authority as commander in chief."
Satterfield's statement reaffirms the administration's position that it does not need international or congressional approval to conduct military operations around the world, particularly when going after terrorists. Democrats counter that the president's assertion is in violation of the Constitution and hurts the U.S. image abroad.
"It's ludicrous to think that we have entry into any country because there's an individual there that we don't like," Ackerman said in an interview.
Particularly if the U.N. mandate expires, "I think the world would see our place in Iraq as totally illegitimate at that point," he said.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hcWJu9bbzrJZ7uNHjvMn0BuTGqHQD8V7J69O0
Mass grave with 100 bodies discovered north of Baghdad, Iraq
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, March 8th 2008, 1:27 PM
BAGHDAD - A mass grave containing about 100 bodies was discovered just north of Baghdad Saturday in an a part of Diyala province that for years has seen intense fighting between Sunni al-Qaida in Iraq extremists and Shiites.
The grisly discovery came as Iraq's Sunni parliament speaker called on Iraqi Shiites and Kurds to work together with the minority he represents to deal with the challenges faced by the country — including an election law that would help reconcile Iraq's often warring sects and splinter groups.
The grave, near Khalis — about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad — is still being investigated, but the military said the skeletal remains appear to have been in the grave for a long time.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/03/08/2008-03-08_mass_grave_with_100_bodies_discovered_no.html
Bush vetoes torture ban; interrogation methods 'valuable tool' in war on terror
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, March 8th 2008, 12:10 PM
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.
"The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it," Bush said. The bill provides guidelines for intelligence activities for the year and includes the interrogation requirement. It passed the House in December and the Senate last month.
"This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe," the president said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/03/08/2008-03-08_bush_vetoes_torture_ban_interrogation_me.html
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