Russia says it will keep 7,600 troops in Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia after withdrawing from the rest of the country.

On Monday, Russia agreed to withdraw its troops from positions within Georgia, taken up during the recent conflict, by mid-October.
But President Dmitry Medvedev ordered that military bases be maintained in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russia also says it has established formal diplomatic ties with them.
The move followed a decision - condemned by the US and EU but defined as "irrevocable" by Moscow - to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said troops were expected to remain in the two regions "for the foreseeable future".
"Russian troops will remain on the territory of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on request of their leaders in parliament," Mr Lavrov said from Moscow.
"They will be there a long time. This is absolutely necessary, so as not to allow a repeat of armed actions," he added.
Mr Lavrov said that both regions should also be able to participate in talks on Georgia scheduled for next month in Geneva with "fully fledged" places.
Russia is expected to sign formal agreements on troop deployment in South Ossetia and Abkhazia over the coming days.
International observers
Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that some 3,800 men would be positioned in each breakaway region.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had already indicated that Moscow intended to maintain a military presence in the regions, but Mr Serdyukov's statement provides the first specific breakdown of troop numbers.
On Monday, Mr Medvedev pledged to withdraw troops from the rest of Georgia on condition that the EU would deploy at least 200 observers, along with 220 other international monitors to ensure the security of the two breakaway regions.
Under the deal, Russia will pull out within 10 days of the deployment of EU monitors.
Russian troops are present in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as in so-called buffer zones around these regions and near the strategic port city of Poti.
Fighting between Russia and Georgia began on 7 August after the Georgian military tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force.
Russian forces launched a counter-attack and the conflict ended with the ejection of Georgian troops from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Also on Tuesday, South Ossetia's Prosecutor General Taimuraz Khugayev said that investigations had confirmed that more than 500 people had been killed during Georgia's attack last month, according to Russian news agency, Interfax.
Russia initially suggested more than 1,500 people had died in the conflict. Independent observers say they have been unable to confirm such high figures.

[From BBC]

US President George W Bush is set to announce plans to withdraw about 8,000 troops from Iraq by February and to send additional forces to Afghanistan.

Mr Bush will say in a speech on Tuesday that the improving security situation in Iraq will allow a "quiet surge" of troops in Afghanistan in coming months.
A Marine battalion due to go to Iraq in November will be sent to Afghanistan, followed by an army combat brigade.
There are currently 146,000 US troops in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan.
Any long-term decision about their future deployment will be left to Mr Bush's successor, who will take office in January.
'Degree of durability'
The BBC's Jonathan Beale says the continued decline in violence in Iraq since last year's US troop "surge" has given President Bush a chance to ease the growing strain on his country's military.
Acting on the advice of his generals, Mr Bush will announce on Tuesday that a Marine battalion, comprising about 1,000 troops, scheduled to leave Anbar province in November will return home as planned without being replaced.
An army brigade of between 3,500 and 4,000 troops will also leave in February, accompanied by about 3,400 support forces, he will say.
"While the progress in Iraq is still fragile and reversible, Gen [David] Petraeus and Ambassador [Ryan] Crocker report that there now appears to be a 'degree of durability' to the gains we have made," Mr Bush will say in a speech at the National Defense University, according to the White House.
"And if the progress in Iraq continues to hold, Gen Petraeus and our military leaders believe additional reductions will be possible in the first half of 2009."
Our correspondent says the withdrawals announced on Tuesday will mark the start of a slow and limited draw-down based on what Mr Bush calls "return on success". However, it will still leave the bulk of US forces behind in Iraq.
Last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said that although timetable for the withdrawal of the remaining troops did not exist, he had tentatively agreed with the US military to end the presence of foreign combat troops by 2011.
The Iraqi government is currently negotiating a security agreement on the future of US forces in Iraq before a UN mandate expires.
Afghanistan 'fragile'
In his speech on Tuesday, Mr Bush will also signal that the US will make modest increases in the strength of its forces in Afghanistan to combat the growing threat posed by the Taleban.

"For all the good work we have done in that country, it is clear we must do even more," he will say.
"Unlike Iraq, it has few natural resources and has an underdeveloped infrastructure. Its democratic institutions are fragile."
"And its enemies are some of the most hardened terrorists and extremists in the world. With their brutal attacks, the Taleban and the terrorists have made some progress in shaking the confidence of the Afghan people."
In November, a Marine battalion that was scheduled to deploy to Iraq will instead go to Afghanistan. It will be followed in January by an army combat brigade.
The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief said last month that violence in Afghanistan had reached its worst level since 2001, when US-led forces overthrew the Taleban, with more than 260 civilians killed in July.
Afghanistan's government said the bloodshed was connected to peace deals Pakistan's government had sought with Islamist militants in the north-western tribal areas along the border.

[From BBC]

Russia has pledged to remove its forces from Georgian land - excluding Abkhazia and South Ossetia - within a month.

Russia has pledged to remove its forces from Georgian land - excluding Abkhazia and South Ossetia - within a month, French President Nicolas Sarkozy says.
Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev, who met Mr Sarkozy in Moscow, said the pullout would happen once 200 EU monitors had been deployed in South Ossetia.
Mr Medvedev also said he would need assurances that Georgia would not use force again.
And Russia also agreed to remove a key checkpoint from Georgian territory.
In the same briefing, Mr Medvedev said there would be international talks on the area's security on 15 October.
The two leaders took part in more than three hours of talks, which also involved the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and the European Commission head, Jose Manuel Barroso.
Mr Sarkozy was pressing Russia to meet the terms of the ceasefire agreement and withdraw its troops from Georgia.
Russia says the deal allows it to keep peacekeepers in several buffer zones around two breakaway Georgian regions which it has recognised as independent.
Russian troops entered Georgia after responding with force to Georgian attempts to recapture South Ossetia last month.

[From BBC]

US takes over key mortgage firms

US President George Bush says mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been taken over because they posed "an unacceptable risk" to the economy.
The two companies account for nearly half of the outstanding mortgages in the US, and have lost billions of dollars during the US housing crash.
The most recent figures show about 9% of US homeowners were behind on their payments or faced repossession.
The federal takeover is one of the largest bail-outs in US history.
It was announced on Sunday by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
"Putting these companies on sound financial footing, and reforming their business practices, is critical to the health of our financial system," President Bush said.
"The actions taken today are temporary, and will support housing finance in the near term."
'Comprehensive action'
As part of the changes, the management of the two companies will be replaced while the firms will be given access to extra funding to support their business going forward.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the government was intervening in the wider interests of the financial system and of taxpayers since the financial position of the two firms was fast deteriorating.
He added that the two firms' debt levels posed a "systemic risk" to financial stability and that, without action, the situation would get worse.
"We examined all options available and determined this comprehensive and complementary set of actions best met the objectives of market stability, mortgage availability and taxpayer protection," he said.
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so large and interwoven in our financial system that a failure of either of them would create great turmoil in financial markets here and around the globe."
The move is intended to keep the two companies afloat, amid fears that either could go bankrupt as borrowers default on their home loans.
The two firms will be administered by the Federal Housing Finance Agency until their long-term future is decided.
The Congressional Budget Office has said such a move could cost up to $25bn but Mr Paulson said there was no reason why taxpayers should have to directly foot the bill.
Funding guarantee
Together, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae own or guarantee about $5.3 trillion (£3 trillion) of mortgages.
But they have made a combined loss of about $14bn in the past year and officials were worried that they would no longer be able to continue functioning if such losses continued.
The Treasury's funding guarantees to the two firms - which will include it buying up high-risk mortgage backed securities used to fund the mortgage market - will last until the end of 2009.
During that period, neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac will be able to make any payments to their shareholders.
But Mr Paulson warned that the move was only a short-term "stabilisation" exercise.
He said it would be up to Congress to agree proposals to reform the two firms and address their "pervasive weaknesses".
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said he "strongly endorsed" the proposals to ensure the two firms remained financially sound.
"These necessary steps will help to strengthen the US housing market and promote stability in our financial markets," he said.
Banks around the world are highly exposed to the two companies and therefore, given the febrile state of markets across the world, it had become dangerous for doubts to persist about whether they were viable and would be able to keep up the payments on their massive liabilities, says the BBC's business editor Robert Peston.
A rescue plan passed by Congress in July gave the US government the authority to offer unlimited liquidity to the two companies, and to buy their shares, in order to keep them afloat.

[From BBC]

Hurricane Ike menaces Cuba, Hanna sloshes into U.S.

Hurricane Ike menaced Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico as a potentially ferocious storm while Tropical Storm Hanna began a rain-swept march up the U.S. Atlantic coast after barreling ashore on Saturday in the Carolinas.

The densely populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale area in south Florida was not out of the line of fire from Ike, a powerful Category 3 hurricane, and visitors were ordered to flee the vulnerable Florida Keys island chain from Saturday.

Computer models, however, indicated Ike was increasingly likely to target Cuba as a devastating Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, presenting a severe threat to the crumbling colonial buildings of Havana.
Hurricane Ike is visible east-northeast of Grand Turk Island in a satellite image taken September 5, 2008. REUTERS/NOAA/HandoutView Larger Image View Larger Image

Hurricane Ike is visible east-northeast of Grand Turk Island in a satellite image taken September 5, 2008. REUTERS/NOAA/Handout

The storm might then curve into the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of this week's Hurricane Gustav, plowing toward an area that produces a quarter of domestic U.S. oil, and slamming ashore near New Orleans, which was swamped and traumatized by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

The deeper Ike goes into Cuba, the weaker it will be once it re-emerges over the Gulf of Mexico early next week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

"Later on, conditions appear rather conducive for strengthening over the Gulf of Mexico," the Miami-based agency added.

Hanna, meanwhile, did not reach hurricane strength before sloshing ashore between North and South Carolina overnight.

It was forecast to move rapidly northeast along the East Coast over the weekend, bringing heavy rains and a risk of flash flooding to the mid-Atlantic states and southern New England. More than 3 inches of rain had already fallen in South Carolina.

North Carolina emergency management officials said they had no early reports of fatalities or major damage.

"We have reports of between 9,000 and 12,000 homes without power in the east," spokesman Mark Van Sciver said. "There is also some localized flooding."

More than 1,500 people were in 45 hurricane shelters along the coast and North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency.

From Georgia to New Jersey, beach communities were under evacuation orders, campgrounds were shut and storm alerts were issued.

Hanna was about 40 miles east-southeast of Raleigh, North Carolina, by early morning and racing toward the northeast at 22 miles per hour (35 km per hour). Its winds had dipped to near 50 miles per hour (80 km per hour).

IKE A SERIOUS THREAT

Ike was far more threatening than Hanna as it charted a course that would take it through the Turks and Caicos islands and southeastern Bahamas toward eastern Cuba, where it was projected by the hurricane center to pummel a long stretch of coastline.

Once in the Gulf of Mexico it might find deep warm water to allow it to grow bigger and stronger, although Hurricane Gustav may have stirred up colder water from the depths before crashing into Louisiana on Monday.

By 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), Ike was located around 210 miles

east of Grand Turk Island and moving toward the west-southwest at 16 mph (26 kph), the hurricane center said.

Its top winds of 115 mph (185 kph) made it a weak Category 3 hurricane. Category 3 and higher storms are known as "major" hurricanes and cause the most damage. Katrina was a Category 3 when it struck near New Orleans on August 29, 2005, swamping the city and killing 1,500 people on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Ike's winds were projected to peak at 132 mph (213 kph) just before landfall in Cuba in 48 hours.

South Florida, where up to 1.3 million people could be forced to evacuate, was preparing for Ike. Visitors were ordered to evacuate the Florida Keys on Saturday and residents were ordered out beginning on Sunday. Officials in Miami urged residents not to be complacent.

Storm alerts were issued for the Turks and Caicos islands, the Bahamas, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and would likely be issued for eastern Cuba later on Saturday, the hurricane center said.

The alerts in Haiti included the city of Gonaives, where at least 495 people died this week when it was flooded by up to 16 feet of muddy water after Hanna dumped torrential rain on the island of Hispaniola, a police commissioner said. In total, Hanna killed 529 people in Haiti.

The Bahamian government sent soldiers and emergency supplies to Mayaguana and San Salvador, southern islands left short of food and water by an overdue mail boat.

"If we have heavy flooding and lose power, we could be in an uncomfortable situation," said chief councilor Earnel Brown of the island of Mayaguana.

Tropical Storm Josephine, meanwhile, dissipated far out in the Atlantic, knocking out the weakest of three storms that followed Gustav's rampage through the Caribbean to Louisiana.

Rice in Libya for historic visit

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has arrived in Libya to meet its leader Muammar Gaddafi in a visit US officials are hailing as "historic".
She is the first US secretary of state to visit Libya since 1953.
Before arriving, she pointed out the "suffering" caused by Libya's long stand-off with the West.
The visit could be overshadowed by Libya's failure so far to honour a deal offering compensation to families of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Libya was on the US state department list of sponsors of terrorism until 2003, when it abandoned weapons of mass destruction and renounced terrorism.
Ms Rice said her visit showed that the US did not have permanent enemies.
"It demonstrates that when countries are prepared to make strategic changes in direction, the United States is prepared to respond," she told reporters on the way to Tripoli.
Earlier, she acknowledged that it was "a historic moment" but "it is one that has come after a lot of difficulty, the suffering of many people that will never be forgotten or assuaged".
The BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli says that six years ago, such a visit would have seemed far-fetched, but diplomacy and political will have overcome the obstacles.
'Way forward'
Earlier this month, Libya agreed to pay compensation to families of the victims of the Lockerbie aircraft bombing, for which it formally accepted responsibility in 2003.
The deal includes compensation for Libyan victims of the United States' retaliatory bombing raid over Libya in 1986.
Ms Rice's visit was partly intended to be a reward for successful completion of the deal, but Libya has not yet transferred the promised hundreds of millions of dollars into a humanitarian account.
The US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Welch, told Reuters that he was optimistic the transfer would happen soon but that Ms Rice would press Libya on this issue.
A trade and investment agreement may also be signed and the two countries have been negotiating a military memorandum to co-operate on fighting terrorism.
Col Gaddafi has stopped short of referring to America as a friend, but in a televised speech this week he said improved relations were a way for both countries to leave each other alone.
Our correspondent says that although the visit is largely symbolic diplomacy, many in Libya hope that US-Libyan relations will only improve in the long-run.
Ms Rice's trip will also include visits to Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

[From BBC]

McCain vows to fight to change US

John McCain has accepted the Republican Party's candidacy for the White House in a speech to cheering supporters at the party's national convention.

He vowed to bring change to government, restore the people's trust in the party and to fight for a better nation.

Praising his running mate Sarah Palin, he said she was the right person to help him bring change to Washington.

The Arizona senator said he respected Democratic rival Barack Obama and would seek a bipartisan approach to politics.

Presenting himself once again as a maverick, he pledged to fight corruption, whether Democratic or Republican, and make sure that he worked for the good of the American people.

"Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming," Mr McCain told the crowds in St Paul, Minnesota.

In a criticism of his own party, he said he would "fight to restore the pride and principles" of the party, damaged after some Republicans gave in to "the temptations of corruption".

"We're going to recover the people's trust by standing up again for the values Americans admire," he said. "The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics."

Mr McCain then turned to attacking the Democrats over taxes and spending, saying they would seek to raise taxes whereas he would keep them low and cut them where possible.

Going into some policy specifics, he pledged create new jobs, improve education and to reduce a "dangerous dependence on foreign oil" by producing more energy at home, including by drilling new offshore oil wells.

Mr McCain promised to take a bipartisan approach to resolving the nation's problems, saying: "Again and again, I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed.

"That's how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again.

"I have that record and the scars to prove it. Barack Obama does not."

After speaking of the five years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and how that experience had inspired his love of his country, he called on his fellow Americans to fight with him to make it a better one.

"Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We're Americans and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history."

The almost hour-long speech, which ended in the traditional shower of confetti and red, white and blue balloons, brought to a close the party's four-day event.

'Tested and true'

The BBC's Adam Brookes in St Paul says Mr McCain's speech was measured and entirely lacking in the sarcasm and vitriol which have been levelled at Mr Obama over the past couple of nights.

He said he hated war and would use all America's tools - diplomatic, military and economic - to build what he called a stable and enduring peace, as well as shaking up Washington and including Democrats and independents in a McCain administration.

It was all a rather different tone to the Republican politics of the past eight years, and to many of the other speakers at this Republican convention, our correspondent says.

There was very little of President George W Bush in this speech, our correspondent adds, as Mr McCain tries to show that he is his own man and can signify a break with the Bush years.

Mr McCain's wife, Cindy, in her speech praised her husband's family values, strength of character, war service and leadership.

"If Americans want straight talk and the plain truth, they should take a good close look at John McCain... a man tested and true, who's never wavered in his devotion to our country," she said, after arriving on stage flanked by their seven children.

Her speech followed the convention's formal nomination of Mrs Palin - the Republican Party's first female vice-presidential candidate.

Mrs Palin becomes only the second woman, the first being Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, to run for the US vice-presidency.

'Integrity and courage'

Speaking ahead of Mr McCain's address, senior Republicans praised his courage and leadership.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, at one point hotly tipped to be Mr McCain's running mate choice, described the Arizona senator's life as "a testimony to service, duty, courage and common sense".

"In this time, we don't need a president who can just read a poll or momentarily thrill a crowd. We don't need rhetoric or empty promises," he said.

"We need a president who has the integrity and courage to make the tough choices so America will be stronger and safer."

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham hailed Mr McCain's determination to back the Bush administration's "surge" strategy in Iraq despite the political risks.

He introduced a video presenting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a "maverick" moose-hunter from Alaska who was joining "the original maverick" Mr McCain to bring change to Washington politics.

In a well-received speech on Wednesday, Mrs Palin praised Mr McCain and attacked Mr Obama as having talked of change, but done nothing of substance.

President George W Bush has also strongly endorsed John McCain as the best man to succeed him in the White House.

[From BBC]

McCain to offer vision of change

Mr McCain is to take the stage to formally accept his party's candidacy for November's presidential election.
He will pledge to reach out to anyone "to get this country moving again", according to advance speech excerpts.
His running mate, Sarah Palin, has been formally nominated as the party's first female vice-presidential candidate.
She becomes only the second woman, the first being Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, to run for the US vice-presidency.
She mixed praise for Mr McCain with stinging attacks against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in a speech on Wednesday night that energised the convention.
Mr McCain, in his speech, will promise change and a bipartisan approach to governing that overcomes the "constant partisan rancour" that prevents politicians resolving problems.
"Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming," he will say.
"Again and again, I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That's how I will govern as president."
He will continue: "I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not."
The much-anticipated speech, scheduled for 2030 (0230 GMT), will bring to a close the party's four-day event.
Vindicated
In a rousing address which delighted the convention, Mrs Palin attacked Mr Obama as having talked of change, but done nothing of substance.
She accused him of being more interested in high flown speech-making than acting for real Americans, while she would challenge the status quo and work for the common good.
The BBC's Jonathan Beale, in Minnesota, says John McCain now has to switch the focus from Sarah Palin to himself - although she may have helped to do that as Mr McCain and the party believe they have now been vindicated in their selection of the Alaskan governor.
Our correspondent says Mr McCain will have to underline his policy proposals and flesh out what he would do differently from a Bush administration.
John McCain acknowledged as much when discussing his speech in an interview on US television earlier on Wednesday.
"The important thing right now is to tell Americans why I can restore our economy, get them affordable and available health care, a decent education, get these jobs back... and keep our nation secure," he told ABC News.
He also said he would refrain from much direct criticism of Mr Obama, despite some harsh put-downs from his rival when addressing his own party convention in Denver last week.
With memories of Mr Obama's well-received address before 80,000 people at Invesco Field still fresh, Mr McCain will face inevitable comparisons.
Mr McCain has never been considered a great speaker, said one of his closest aides, Mark Salter, who added that his goal for Mr McCain was simply a smooth delivery.
President George W Bush has already strongly endorsed John McCain as the best man to succeed him in the White House.

[From BBC]

Cheney Backs NATO Membership for Georgia

One day after the United States proposed $1 billion in humanitarian and economic assistance to help rebuild Georgia after its war with Russia, Vice President Dick Cheney flew here to reaffirm Washington’s support for this country’s eventual NATO membership and to issue a powerful condemnation of Moscow.
Standing alongside President Mikheil Saakashvili at a joint news conference, Mr. Cheney declared: “After your nation won its freedom in the Rose Revolution, America came to the aid of this courageous young democracy. We are doing so again, as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory, and an illegitimate, unilateral attempt to change your country’s borders by force that has been universally condemned by the free world.”
He said he had assured the Georgian leader that he “can count on continued support and assistance from the United States.”
“I assured the president as well of my country’s strong commitment to Georgia’s territorial integrity. Georgia has that right, just as it has the right to build stronger ties to friends in Europe and across the Atlantic.”
“Russia’s actions have cast grave doubts on Russia’s intentions and on its reliability as an international partner, not just in Georgia, but across this region and indeed throughout the international system,” Mr. Cheney said.
“Georgia will be in our alliance. NATO is a defensive alliance. It is a threat to no one.”
His words of support for Mr. Saakashvili placed him on a direct collision course with Russia’s leaders who have labeled the Georgian president a “political corpse” and who have made clear that they see Georgia’s membership of NATO as intolerable.
Mr. Cheney’s remarks about Georgia’s territorial integrity also contradicted Russia’s recognition of the independence of two areas of the country -_ South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The vice president was speaking on the second leg of a tour of the region which he began in Azerbaijan Wednesday. He planned to fly later Thursday to Ukraine.
After a one-hour meeting — 30 minutes longer than planned — Mr. Cheney and Mr. Saakashvili visited the military section of Tbilisi’s international airport where they met with American airmen unloading a shipment of blankets that arrived earlier in the day from Italy on an American C-130 military transport plane. ‘’Appreciate everything you’re doing for us,” Mr. Cheney said in sight of an aircraft construction factory bombed by the Russians in the first days of the war last month. Earlier, Mr. Cheney described his visit to the region as a demonstration that the United States had “a deep and abiding interest” in keeping Georgia and other neighboring states free from a new era of Russian domination.
The combination of new American aid and Mr. Cheney’s high-profile visit to a region the Russians call “the near abroad” is sure to inflame tensions further. Russia’s leaders have openly accused the United States of having provoked last month’s conflict by providing Georgia with weapons and training for its armed forces, while encouraging its aspirations to join NATO.
The aid package proposed Wednesday in Washington, which requires approval from Congress, significantly expands assistance to a country that has become ardently pro-American in recent years, though at the cost of the worst relations between the United States and Russia since the collapse of communism.
The aid would dwarf the $63 million the United States provided to Georgia last year, roughly a third of it for training its soldiers, police officers and border guards. Excluding Iraq, the infusion would make Georgia one of the largest recipients of American foreign aid after Israel and Egypt. The United States has provided about $1.8 billion over all in the 17 years since Georgia gained independence from the collapsing Soviet Union.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appearing in Washington, said that $570 million of the aid would be made available this year, while the rest would depend on approval by a new administration and a new Congress. It does not include any military aid, she and other administration officials said.
The initial money, President George W. Bush said in a statement, would be used to feed and shelter tens of thousands of Georgians displaced during the fighting that began on the night of Aug. 7 when Georgia tried to establish control over a breakaway region, South Ossetia, only to be driven back by Russian forces. Mr. Bush also pledged to support its transition to a democratic market economy.
“Georgia has a strong economic foundation and leaders with an impressive record of reform,” Mr. Bush said in his statement. “Our additional economic assistance will help the people of Georgia recover from the assault on their country and continue to build a prosperous and competitive economy.”
President Dmitri A. Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin have already complained that humanitarian supplies delivered by the American Navy and Air Force were a disguise for delivering new weapons, accusations that administration officials have dismissed as baseless.
The American military has so far delivered $30 million in emergency aid, including 1,200 tons of food and relief supplies like tents, delivered by 61 Air Force jets and two Navy ships plying the Black Sea. Mr. Bush also ordered federal agencies to expand trading opportunities between the United States and Georgia and to provide maritime insurance for ships docking in Georgia.
“The free world cannot allow the destiny of a small independent country to be determined by the aggression of a larger neighbor,” Ms. Rice said in Washington.
Still, there seemed to be little pressure the United States and European countries could exert to persuade Russia to back down in its confrontation with Mr. Saakashvili’s government. Many administration officials worry that overthrowing Mr. Saakashvili’s government is Russia’s unwavering intention.
While the administration has made its political, diplomatic and economic support for Georgia abundantly clear, however, it has yet to settle on what steps, if any, it will take to punish Russia. It has failed to do so even as American and European officials vehemently protest that Russia continues to violate a French-brokered agreement to end the fighting and withdraw Russian troops from Georgian territory.

[From nytimes]

U.S. Troops Crossed Border, Pakistan Says

Helicopters carried U.S. and Afghan commandos many miles into Pakistan on Wednesday to stage the first U.S. ground attack against a Taliban target inside the country, Pakistani officials said. At least 20 local people died in the raid, according to the officials.
Pakistan filed a formal protest with the U.S. government, which had no comment on what appeared to be a new escalation of U.S. pressure on Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan's mountainous border regions.
As the Taliban insurgency escalates in Afghanistan, U.S. officials have increasingly turned their attention to those havens. Pakistan has committed to securing the borders, but has been beset with rising violence, both in the frontier region and in its cities.
In another example of eroding security, the limousine of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani was ambushed Wednesday in the capital, Islamabad. Two bullets struck the side window of his black Mercedes-Benz as it sped toward an airport. Gillani was not in the vehicle at the time.
U.S. forces based in Afghanistan have periodically conducted air and artillery strikes against insurgents across the border in Pakistani territory, and new hot-pursuit rules provide some room for American troops to maneuver during battle. But the arrival of U.S. helicopters in the village of Musa Nika, deep in undisputed Pakistani territory, would constitute a new tactic.
Mohammed Sadiq, a spokesman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, condemned a "gross violation of Pakistan's territory" and "a grave provocation." In a written statement, he said his office lodged a formal complaint with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
"Such actions are counterproductive and certainly do not help our joint efforts to fight terrorism," Sadiq said. "On the contrary, they undermine the very basis of cooperation and may fuel the fire of hatred and violence that we are trying to extinguish."
U.S. military officials in Afghanistan, at the Central Command in Tampa and at the Pentagon maintained a wall of silence, saying they had no comment on the Pakistani reports. Lou Fintor, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Islamabad, also declined to comment.
Pakistani sources gave varying accounts, including on the number of troops and helicopters involved, and on whether U.S. troops were among those who left the helicopters and conducted a ground operation in the village. There were also differing versions of how far inside Pakistan the helicopters flew, because the border's location is disputed. By one count, the target village lay about 20 miles from the border.
According to Pakistani military sources, the raid began about 3 a.m. Wednesday when two or possibly three U.S. Army helicopters carrying American and Afghan troops landed in Musa Nika village in the Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan.
The raid was apparently in response to a rocket that fighters fired at a convoy inside Afghanistan, according to one senior Pakistani official. "By the time they got there," the official said, "the guy with the rocket had moved."
According to another Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give out information, several of the troops left the helicopters and launched an assault on three houses.

[From washingtonpost]

Palin Disclosures Raise Questions on Vetting

A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin.Although the McCain campaign said that Mr. McCain had known about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he asked her mother to join him on the ticket and that he did not consider it disqualifying, top aides were vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of the pregnancy, and from whom.While there was no sign that her formal nomination this week was in jeopardy, the questions swirling around Ms. Palin on the first day of the Republican National Convention, already disrupted by Hurricane Gustav, brought anxiety to Republicans who worried that Democrats would use the selection of Ms. Palin to question Mr. McCain’s judgment and his ability to make crucial decisions.At the least, Republicans close to the campaign said it was increasingly apparent that Ms. Palin had been selected as Mr. McCain’s running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described.Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.Perhaps more important, several Republicans said, Mr. McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory.With time running out — and as Mr. McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable — he turned to Ms. Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later. Advisers to Mr. Pawlenty and another of the finalists on Mr. McCain’s list described an intensive vetting process for those candidates that lasted one to two months.“They didn’t seriously consider her until four or five days from the time she was picked, before she was asked, maybe the Thursday or Friday before,” said a Republican close to the campaign. “This was really kind of rushed at the end, because John didn’t get what he wanted. He wanted to do Joe or Ridge.”In the final stages, two Republicans familiar with the process said, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, emerged as a key advocate for Ms. Palin.Mr. McCain’s advisers said repeatedly on Monday that Ms. Palin was “thoroughly vetted,” a process that would have included a review of all financial and legal records as well as a criminal background check. A McCain aide said the campaign was well aware of the ethics investigation and had looked into it.“It was obviously something that anybody Googling Sarah Palin knew was in the news and there was a very thorough vetting done on that and also on the daughter,” the aide said.People familiar with the process said Ms. Palin had responded to a standard form with more than 70 questions. Although The Washington Post quoted advisers to Mr. McCain on Sunday as saying Ms. Palin had been subjected to an F.B.I. background check, an F.B.I. official said Monday the bureau did not vet potential candidates and had not known of her selection until it was made public.

[From nytimes]

EU warns Russia against isolation

The European Union threatened Monday to postpone talks with Russia but stopped short of imposing sanctions following the conflict with Georgia.


Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has issued another warning to the West over Georgia.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the EU will have to re-examine its partnership with Russia if Moscow does not respect a cease-fire agreement.

"We are convinced that it is in Russia's own interests not to isolate itself from Europe," a meeting of EU leaders concluded.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the six-moth rotating EU presidency, says he will visit Moscow next week to see Russian leaders.

"We will be asking Russia to ensure the full and scrupulous respect of the (cease-fire) plan," he said. "The EU would welcome a real partnership with Russia that is in the interests of all, but it takes two to tango. You have to be two to have a partnership.

"Therefore this crisis means that we have to re-examine our relationship with Russia."

EU leaders met Monday in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss how to react to Russia's recognition of the breakaway Georgia regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.

Georgian troops attacked pro-Russian separatists in South Ossetia on August 7, triggering the Russian response. Each side offered conflicting figures on how many people died in the fighting.

Russia has also not fully withdrawn its troops from Georgia after sending its troops across the border for what it called peacekeeping operations and what Georgia called an invasion. What do you think about the crisis?

Russia on Monday accused "foreign navy ships" of delivering weapons to Georgia as the European Union met to discuss possible sanctions against Moscow.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said the West would be making a mistake of "historic scope" if it continued to support Georgia.

"If the United States and its allies ultimately opt for the Saakashvili regime, which has not taken any lessons from the recent events regarding South Ossetia ... they will make a mistake of an historic scope," the news agency Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying.

He said Russia would continue taking measures against the Saakashvili administration "to ensure that this regime will never commit evil again."

Meanwhile, Andrey Nesterenko, Lavrov's spokesman, said an aid delivery had included a shipment of arms which could be used against South Ossetia.

"This is why we suggested that it might be good to consider the possibility of imposing embargo on arms shipment to Georgia so that the stability we all talk about could have [an] even more serious foundation and so that Georgia does not become a barrel with gunpowder that can explode this entire region at any point," Nesterenko said.

He did not name a specific country in his allegation. However, U.S. ships carried aid to the republic -- an ally -- after last month's conflict between Georgia and Russia.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that member nations were preparing to send hundreds of civilian monitors to Georgia to verify whether Russian forces were complying with a cease-fire agreement, The Associated Press reported.

He said the observers would be deployed initially across areas controlled by Georgian forces.

"We would like to have the ... mission deployed soon," Solana said, adding he hoped EU nations approve the plan in the coming weeks.

Russia has remained defiant despite a wave of diplomatic pressure from the West, President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rejecting criticism of the country's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.


Meanwhile, a human rights group said Georgia had admitted dropping cluster bombs in its military offensive to assert control over South Ossetia, The Associated Press reported.

Human Rights Watch said it had received an official letter from Georgia's Defense Ministry that acknowledged use of the M85 cluster munition near the Roki tunnel that connects South Ossetia with Russia.

Teen daughter of Republican VP pick is pregnant!

John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, dealt with two startling disclosures Monday. She announced that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant and plans to keep the baby. And Palin has hired a lawyer as Alaska investigates the firing of her public safety commissioner.


Bristol Palin, second from right, holds infant brother Trig at Friday's announcement of their mother's candidacy.

Palin hired a lawyer three weeks ago to act on her behalf as state legislators investigate whether she may have abused her power in firing the state public safety commisioner for refusing to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper, CNN confirmed.

A report of findings of a legislative inquiry that began several weeks ago is expected to be released just days before Election Day.

Palin also revealed that her daughter Bristol is pregnant and will marry the baby's father.

John McCain was aware of Bristol Palin's pregnancy before he chose her mother for his running mate, a top adviser to the Republican presidential candidate said.

The adviser, Doug Holtz-Eakin, said Monday that Palin "was completely vetted by the campaign" before she was chosen.

"Sen. McCain knew this and felt in no way did it disqualify her from being vice president," said an aide who asked not to be named. "Families have difficulties sometimes and lucky for her she has a supportive family."

The McCain aide emphasized that Bristol decided to keep the baby, a decision "supported by her parents."

Senior McCain advisers said Palin told McCain about her daughter's pregnancy in one of their "private conversations" last week before he officially asked her to run with her.

"She was very upfront about it," one aide insisted.

Asked how the unmarried teenager's pregnancy would be received by the American people, another senior McCain adviser, Steve Schmidt, replied, "I don't know; I'm not a psychic."

Delegates to the Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, said the disclosure of Bristol's pregnancy would not hurt the Republican ticket and may make Palin "a real person like all the rest of us."

"I have a 17-year-old daughter, and they start making choices without us," said Annette Ratliff, a delegate from Texas. "I appreciate the choice she is making to have the baby, but it just makes her a real person. It happens every day in America."

"I think, if anything, it shows the Republican Party is a real American party," said Rex Teter, another Texas delegate. "Every family has to deal with children, and sometimes children make decisions that parents wish they would not have been made, and things happen. But I think children are a blessing from God."

Sen. Barack Obama said firmly that the news should not have any bearing on the campaign for president.

"Let me be as clear as possible," Obama said. "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president."

Bristol Palin, a senior in high school, is about five months along, according to the aide who asked not to be named.

The aide said the Palins and the McCain campaign decided to reveal the information now because of Internet rumors that Sarah Palin's 4-month-old baby, who has Down syndrome, was actually Bristol's.

"In the course of correcting that, we needed to get the truth out," the McCain aide said. iReport.com: Share your thoughts

Sarah and her husband, Todd Palin, issued a statement saying they are "proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents."

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," they said in a statement issued by McCain's campaign.

They also asked the media to respect their daughter's privacy, a request echoed by McCain adviser Schmidt.

"The one thing that all the candidates agree on is this: Leave the kids alone. Leave the kids alone. This is an election about the future of the country," he said.

McCain unveiled Sarah Palin, a 44-year-old first-term Alaska governor and former small-town mayor, as his running mate Friday. The choice was a surprise to many. Watch analysts discuss the choice »

Palin said when running for governor in 2006 that she would support funding for abstinence-only education in schools, according to Eagle Forum Alaska, a conservative group that sent a questionnaire asking gubernatorial candidates their views on a range of issues.


Tony Perkins, president of the influential conservative Family Research Council, on Monday issued a statement supporting the Palin family.

"Fortunately, Bristol is following her mother and father's example of choosing life in the midst of a difficult situation. We are committed to praying for Bristol and her husband-to-be and the entire Palin family as they walk through a very private matter in the eyes of the public," Perkins said in a written statement.

As of August 31, 88 deaths (including 12 children) have been attributed to Hurricane Gustav Cyclone in the Caribbean.

Hurricane Gustav Cyclone is the seventh tropical cyclone, third Hurricane Gustav Cyclone and second major Hurricane Gustav Cyclone of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Gustav Cyclone season. It formed on the morning of August 25, 2008 about 260 miles (420 km) southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and rapidly strengthened into a tropical hurricane that afternoon and into a Hurricane Gustav Cyclone early on August 26. Later that day it made landfall near the Haitian town of Jacmel. As of August 31, 88 deaths (including 12 children) have been attributed to Hurricane Gustav Cyclone in the Caribbean.[1][2]

On September 1 at 9:30 a.m CDT (1430 UTC) the center of Hurricane Gustav Cyclone made landfall in the United States along the Louisiana coast near Cocodrie as a Category 2 Hurricane Gustav Cyclone, dropping to a Category 1 Hurricane Gustav Cyclone four hours later.[3]

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Gustav Cyclone may trigger insurance claims as high as $10 billion, according to firms that specialize in catastrophes, making it potentially the fourth- highest total among hurricanes that hit the U.S.

The Hurricane Gustav Cyclone weakened as it headed for shore, keeping insured losses on land to between $3 billion to $7 billion and oil-drilling damage at about $1 billion to $3 billion, according to estimates from Newark, California-based Risk Management Solutions Inc. That's ``significantly smaller'' than Katrina's record $41.1 billion in 2005, Robert Muir-Wood, head of research for RMS, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

Hurricane Gustav Cyclone is the first test since 2005 of the insurance industry's efforts to reduce losses in catastrophe-prone regions. Allstate Corp. and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the two largest U.S. home insurers, were among Forces that stopped taking on new policyholders in several states along the Gulf and East coasts in the months following the damage caused by Hurricane Gustav Cyclones Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

``They've skirted a big one,'' Muir-Wood said. ``There will be fairly significant losses, I would say, but actually it's not going to be nearly the level of destruction we saw in 2005.''

Hurricane Gustav Cyclone weakened to a Category 2 hurricane by the time it reached land at about 10 a.m. local time in Louisiana southwest of New Orleans, which was evacuated in advance of the hurricane. Hurricane Gustav Cyclone's winds were close to 110 miles (177 kilometers) an hour as it came ashore and slowed to about 80 miles an hour as of 4 p.m.

Expensive hurricanes

Tom Larson, a senior vice president with Eqecat Inc., a risk modeling-firm in Oakland, California, said insured losses may be $6 billion to $10 billion, primarily in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Larson's data didn't include offshore damage.

Even at the low end of the RMS estimate, Hurricane Gustav Cyclone would rank among the 10 most-costly U.S. Hurricane Gustav Cyclones. If the hurricane reaches the top of the Eqecat estimates, it will surpass all U.S. Hurricane Gustav Cyclones for damage on land except for Katrina, Wilma and Andrew. The latter cost $15.5 billion when it struck Florida and Louisiana in 1992, according to Insurance Services Office Inc. in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Hurricane Gustav Cyclone may have caused $1 billion to $2 billion in insured damage offshore, said Steve Smith, an atmospheric physicist with Carvill Group, a reinsurance brokerage.

``The area it hit has a good population of rigs,'' Smith said. ``It wasn't too bad for the Gulf oil field.''

Hurricane Gustav Cyclone Dolly, the first Gulf of Mexico Hurricane Gustav Cyclone of the season, cost insurers less than $750 million when it struck southern Texas in July, RMS estimated.

Oil Drilling

Insurers of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have joined Forces selling property coverage on land in attempts to limit losses. American International Group Inc., Zurich Financial Services Group AG and Liberty Mutual Group Inc. were among insurers that raised prices fivefold and capped how much they'll insure after Katrina and Rita caused record offshore claims estimated at $8 billion in 2005.

``We tend to remember and fight the last war,'' said Steve Maloney, a risk management consultant for Stamford, Connecticut- based Towers Perrin. ``People went into this one rightfully worried that this might become another Katrina. Thankfully, there will be far less disruption than the last time.''

Katrina became the most expensive disaster in U.S. history when it came ashore three years ago. Until now, no major hurricanes had made landfall in the U.S. since Wilma capped the hurricane season later that year by causing an $10.3 billion in insured losses.

Typical Damage

Data on insured losses may understate actual costs because the figures don't include damage to uninsured property or destruction caused by actions excluded from some policies, such as flooding.

Category 2 winds like those of Hurricane Gustav Cyclone can damage roofs, doors and windows, according to the National Hurricane Gustav Cyclone Center. Mobile homes, poorly constructed signs and piers may be vulnerable, and small boats in unprotected anchorages can break their moorings, the center said. There may also be ``considerable damage to shrubbery and trees with some trees blown down,'' according to the agency.

Forecasters will next turn their attention to Hurricane Gustav Cyclone Hanna, which strengthened into the season's fourth Hurricane Gustav Cyclone in the Atlantic, the Hurricane Gustav Cyclone center said. Hanna became a Category 1 hurricane with winds at 75 mph, and was moving west-southwest at 5 mph near the southeastern Bahamas as of 1 p.m. in Miami.

The agency was estimating the hurricane may make landfall on the Georgia-South Carolina border on Sept. 5.

``When we get to Friday, you're going to see a monster of a Hurricane Gustav Cyclone,'' said Joe Bastardi, a meteorologist with private forecaster AccuWeather.com, on Bloomberg Television.

A third system, Ike, reached tropical hurricane status with winds of 50 miles an hour in the Atlantic today.

Washington Gun Ownership to Go Through One Man

Residents here who buy a gun to keep legally at home, now that the Supreme Court has overturned the city’s ban on handguns, will find that a bureaucratic maze leads them to an unmarked door on Good Hope Road Southeast where Charles W. Sykes Jr. does business.

Mr. Sykes does not sell guns, but on Tuesday he is expected to become the only federally licensed dealer in Washington to serve as the transfer agent for the carefully controlled transactions that will put guns in the hands of district residents.

There are no gun stores here, and a resident who buys a gun elsewhere must have the weapon shipped to a licensed dealer in the district. Mr. Sykes’s permit will allow him to receive the weapon and, for a transaction fee of $125, he will ensure that the requisite paperwork is prepared for approval by federal and district officials before handing over the weapon to its new owner.

Mr. Sykes has been handling this kind of transaction since 1994 for security firms, police officers and the like. His enterprise, CS Exchange Limited and located in the southeast Washington neighborhood of Anacostia, is not listed in the telephone book, and he does not advertise. But his name is commonly known in local gun circles, and he can be found on the Internet.

Mr. Sykes said his firearms work was a sideline — he would not name his full-time employer — and he had no thoughts of selling guns.

“I don’t know of any firearms dealer in the greater metropolitan area that hasn’t been broken into,” he said. “I don’t want the headache of having to secure a stockpile of weapons.”

There may be a few other holders of federal firearms licenses in the city, but according to the police, he will soon be the only one to offer this service.

There was a surge of people contacting him after the Supreme Court’s ruling, but Mr. Sykes said some people had lost interest upon learning how long it was taking him to receive the necessary approval. As of Tuesday, however, if all goes according to plan, a resident of the District of Columbia who purchases a gun should expect to receive the weapon within three weeks of purchase.

Mr. Sykes relocated his business in February; the new location was certified by the federal firearms agency in July. He applied for an annual license from the District Police Department, and that is the license he should receive Tuesday, said Traci Hughes, a police spokeswoman.

At that point, prospective new gun owners will for the first time be able to obtain weapons from out of state and have them duly licensed in the district.

Mr. Sykes said that so far only about 10 district residents had approached him for the transfer of newly purchased weapons. Still, there are indications that business may pick up eventually.

Dale Metta, the manager of Atlantic Guns in nearby Silver Spring, Md., said he had received “lots of interest from D.C. residents, but the problem has been that Mr. Sykes was not yet ready for business.”

Mr. Metta said in the weeks after the Supreme Court’s ruling he received at least 10 visits a day from Washington residents interested in buying a gun.

Also, the District Police Department has provided 412 firearms applications to the public, Ms. Hughes said.

Mr. Sykes, meanwhile, is counseling patience. “You’ve waited for 33 years,” he said. “What is another month or two?”

US judge makes potential landmark ruling for online copyright

A US judge has thrown out a copyright infringement case against Veoh Networks Inc, an Internet video start-up with high-profile Hollywood backers, ruling that video-sharing companies are not solely responsible for policing piracy that may take place on their sites.

The California court dismissed a copyright infringement suit by adult entertainment company Io Group Inc against Veoh and granted summary judgement to the defendants. The complaint argued Veoh had not done enough to stop site users of its site from uploading unauthorized clips of 10 Io adult sex films.

Judge Howard Lloyd of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found that Veoh worked actively to protect copyright owners and so qualified for "safe harbor" protections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

"The DMCA was intended to facilitate the growth of electronic commerce, not squelch it," the judge said in siding with Veoh.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) limits liability for Internet service providers that act quickly to block access to pirated online materials, once the copyright holder notifies a Web site of specific acts of infringement.

The ruling draws a line between Napster, the music-sharing service that enabled a wave of music piracy early this decade, and the new crop of video-sharing services that take steps to protect against piracy of copyrighted materials.

Io had argued that Veoh should be required to prescreen videos to prevent copyright infringement. "The court finds no reasonable juror could conclude that a comprehensive review of every file would be feasible," the judge wrote.

The court rejected a technical argument used in many Internet copyright cases in which Io claimed Veoh infringed its copyrights by automatically converting user-submitted videos into easy-to-watch Flash videos, a process called transcoding.

But Lloyd stressed that he does not intend his decision to open the flood gates to Internet video piracy.

"The decision rendered here is confined to the particular combination of facts in this case and is not intended to push the bounds of the safe harbor so wide that less than scrupulous service providers may claim its protection," Lloyd wrote.

Among other issues with Io's lawsuit, the judge noted that Io had filed a lawsuit against Veoh instead of first providing the video company with notification of infringement.

Veoh had decided to bar all adult sexual content from its site and taken down the infringing Io videos before the suit was filed, Lloyd noted.

"We are very happy that the judge in this case recognized our compliance with the DMCA and our efforts to respect copyrights," Veoh spokesman Gaude Lydia Paez said.

The Io-Veoh case featured similar arguments to those used in two high-profile cases against Google Inc unit YouTube, the world's most popular video-sharing site.

Viacom Inc filed a $1 billion lawsuit in 2007 against YouTube calling it a site for "massive intentional copyright infringement" that had enabled hundreds of thousands of Viacom video clips to be pirated. A second suit filed against YouTube by English soccer's Premier League and more than a dozen sports, entertainment and media plaintiffs is running in parallel in a New York federal court.

YouTube Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine hailed the Veoh ruling in a statement, saying that: "It is great to see the court confirm that the DMCA protects services like YouTube that follow the law and respect copyrights."

Veoh ranked last week as the 17th most visited U.S. multimedia entertainment site according to Web measurement firm Hitwise Inc.

Financial backers include former Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Michael Eisner, former Viacom and MTV Networks Chief Executive Tom Freston, former Viacom Entertainment Group Chief Executive Jonathan Dolgen and investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Now Home Secretary warns credit crunch will send crime and violence soaring!

Crime, violence, illegal working and even terrorist numbers will surge because of the economic downturn.

This is the chilling verdict of a dynamite draft letter from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to Gordon Brown, leaked to the Daily Mail.

It predicts sharp rises in burglary and violence - but less funding to put police on the streets to meet the tide of lawlessness.

The 12-page document also warns that support for the far Right will increase as unemployment bites, meaning minority groups such as Muslims will be more likely to suffer racism, pushing them towards radicalisation and even terrorism.


The leak will infuriate the Prime Minister, who is hoping to launch his economic rescue plan this month.


The Government has been insisting it is well placed to weather the economic storm, and that the public should not panic.

But in an interview at the weekend, Chancellor Alistair Darling warned the current economic conditions are 'arguably the worst they've been in 60 years', and will get worse.

Now opponents say the mask has slipped even further with the revelations by Miss Smith's Home Office of what the terrible consequences will be for ordinary families.


It has even set up an 'economic conditions' unit to help ministers cope.

The letter says: 'We can expect additional pressures on acquisitive crime, police finances (and officer numbers), citizen attitudes to migration, and pressure on our fee income.'