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POPS Day One Obama faces a Cold War threat and a warning from Israel Gordon Brown became one of the first world leaders to congratulate Obama in a ten-minute telephone call last night. Aides said they discussed Obama's plans for a phased withdrawal from Iraq and his commitment to boost forces in Afghanistan. Speaking from the South Lawn of the White House, President Bush said he would be meeting Mr Obama next week and is making 'unprecedented efforts' to make a smooth transition during his final 74 days in office. As if the instant foreign policy tests were not enough, Mr Obama was also facing more economic problems with the Dow Jones Index dropping for a second successive day. Wall Street greeted his election win by plunging nearly 500 points on Wednesday and it was down again by 274 points in afternoon trading.
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POPSDozens killed in US attack on Afghan wedding party What the hell is going on with our military? The U.S. does not have a reputation for murdering civilians. And yet lately many civilians have lost their lives at our hands. Are we becoming careless? In this age of advanced technology why are we not able to be more precise in selecting our targets instead of just killing everyone and hoping to get the right one. Are we being played by erroneously intelligence for the purpose of making us look like murderous fools? This trend is very disturbing.
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POPSThe Psychology of Denial in the Age of Consumerism A four-year analysis of the world's ecosystems sponsored by the Worldwatch Institute found that over-consumption has pushed 15 out of 24 ecosystems essential to human life "beyond their sustainable limits". Our insatiable desire for more is moving the planet toward a state of collapse that may be "abrupt and potentially irreversible".
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POPSIt Looks Like Heaven but Feels Like Hell So why not a whisper of military intervention to bring democracy and peace to this ravaged nation where millions have died as the world grew fat? Probably because Africa does not exist.
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POPSUseless violence kills the innocent again in Pakistan. But why? This story is not that unusual but it struck me as a good example of how the innocent get killed so needlessly. The Mohmand Rifles were unsure of who had fired on them so they started shelling the suspected area and wind up killing a 10 year old girl and injuring 3 others. Why? What did that accomplish for them?
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POPSUS airstrike kills 9 Afghan soldiers at checkpoint n the last month, uniformed Afghan police officers have twice opened fire on U.S. troops, killing two soldiers. The police officers were killed by U.S. soldiers returning fire, but the incidents raised fears that insurgents have infiltrated Afghanistan's security forces as a cover to launch attacks. In the country's southern Uruzgan province, a two-day battle that ended early Wednesday killed 35 Taliban fighters and three Afghan police, said Juma Gul Himat, Uruzgan's provincial police chief.
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POPSFlashback to 3/31/04:Falluja (cont.)In the Oval Office the killings were taken as "a challenge to America's resolve," according to the Los Angeles Times. President Bush issued a statement through his spokesperson. "We will not be intimidated," he said. "We will finish the job." Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt vowed, "We will be back in Falluja.... We will hunt down the criminals.... It's going to be deliberate. It will be precise, and it will be overwhelming." Within days of the ambush, US forces laid siege to Falluja, beginning what would be one of the most brutal and sustained US operations of the occupation.
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POPSKandahar rocked by suicide blasts The US-led coalition said its forces had killed more than 10 insurgents in an operation in the eastern province of Khost on Saturday. Afghanistan has seen rising levels of violence in recent months. There are about 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, most of them serving under Nato's command.
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POPSPakistan's PM Gilani's motorcade attacked. "The prime minister was coming back from Lahore. The firing took place on the Islamabad highway. At this point, we believe the firing was from a small hill on the roadside." A statement issued by the prime minister's office said: "Of the multiple sniper shots fired on the prime minister's vehicle, two hit the window on the driver's side. "However, because of the robust and comprehensive security measures, the prime minister and all the members of his motorcade remained unharmed."
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POPSRussia restricting travel in Georgia French Ambassador Eric Fournier was reportedly stopped on the morning of August 21 near Gori for three hours as he tried to return to Tbilisi from a village further west. Matyas Eorsi, an envoy from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, was initially refused entry to Gori on August 20, before the decision was reversed. In a blow to local sensitivities, the governor of Shida Kartli, Lasha Vardzelashvili, was detained for two hours by Russian forces after trying to secure a humanitarian aid convoy’s passage through a Russian checkpoint.
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POPSRussian Offensive in Georgia Jeopardizes Ties With U.S.
Condoleezza Rice rushed to the former Soviet republic with a new cease-fire plan offering concessions to Moscow. The new document would allow Russian peacekeepers who were in the disputed South Ossetia region before the fighting broke out a week ago to stay, and they would now be permitted to patrol in a strip up to six miles outside the area, the officials said. "The United States spent 45 years working very hard to avoid a military confrontation with Russia. I see no reason to change that approach today," Gates said at the Pentagon. Standing alongside, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. James Cartwright, said it appeared Russia was "generally complying" with the truce. But then Georgian leaders said a convoy of more than 100 Russian tanks and other vehicles had moved from the western city of Zugdidi deeper into their nation before stopping. Cartwright had said Russian forces appeared to be forming up in Georgia in preparation for withdrawal.
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POPS'Where Was God?' - Refugees Ask the family found a military convoy that helped get them to the convent, which has provided food and medicine to refugees. Thirty tons of supplies have poured into the convent from the Russian Orthodox Church alone. "We are working around the clock," Mother Nonna said. "We drowned in the flood of refugees." Recently washed children's clothing is strewn across the railings outside the convent, which functioned as a summer camp for the Communist youth group during the Soviet era and now includes a special rehabilitation center for children who survived the 2004 terrorist siege of a school in nearby Beslan. Dzara Kumeritova, an assistant at the convent, said that the refugees from South Ossetia all arrived terrified, most of the children too scared to eat for the first day or two. "Somebody slammed the door and the crowd shivered," she said. The article continues... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26206516/
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POPSGeorgia Says Russians Bombing, Looting Gori "The border has been along this river for 1,000 years," separatist official Ruslan Kishmaria told AP on Wednesday. He said Georgia would have to accept the new border and taunted the departed Georgian forces by saying they had received "American training in running away." An APTN television crew in Gori saw some Russian armored vehicles Wednesday morning near a military base there. Puffs of smoke in the air indicated some military action. An AP photographer saw several Russian troops and two armored vehicles on the northern outskirts of the city. His driver went further up the road and ran into Russian military volunteers, who warned that Russian forces would soon shell Gori. Georgia insisted its troops were driven from Abkhazia by Russian forces. At first, Russia said separatists — not Russian forces — had done the job. But the claim rang hollow — an AP reporter saw 135 Russian military vehicles heading toward the gorge Tuesday and Russia is the military patron for the separa
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POPSTerrorists' Assignment: Protect Barack Obama The Israeli Defense Forces, working with U.S. security coordinators, will protect the main West Bank highway Obama's convoy will use to approach Ramallah. Security for Obama will be largely turned over to the Palestinians once he enters Ramallah, although security plans are being heavily coordinated with the U.S.
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POPSEquipment or Troops? Pick One In other words, we either get troops or equipment. We don't get both. At a time when we are fighting a global war on terror on multiple fronts, with the bulk of our military tied up in Iraq, we are looking at possible troop cuts. The military is scrambling to re-equip because the Pentagon failed to plan for the long and expensive war in Iraq, said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs the House panel that oversees military spending. That failure, Murtha said, makes the Pentagon's plan to add 92,000 new soldiers and Marines unrealistic. Although new troops would help reduce repeated, lengthy deployments, there are other more pressing demands, Murtha said
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